Direct versus indirect response-reinforcer relationships in teaching autistic children

One possibility suggested by the literature for maximizing the efficiency of behavior modification procedures concerns the relationship between target behaviors and their reinforcers. Therefore, in this experiment three severely autistic children were taught a total of six new target behaviors (in a multiple baseline design) employing two different response-reinforcer relationships: (1) those where the target behaviors were a direct part of the response chain required to procure a reinforcer (e.g., opening the lid of a container to obtain a food reward inside the container); and (2) those where the target behavior was an indirect part of the chain leading to the reinforcer (e.g., the therapist handing the child a food reward after the child had opened the lid of an empty container). In all cases, the results showed rapid acquisition only when the target behavior was a direct part of the chain leading to the reinforcer. The results are discussed in terms of several possible conceptualizations concerning efficient reinforcement contingencies, and in terms of their implications for teaching autistic children.This investigation was supported by U.S. Public Health Service Research Grants MH 28210 and MH 28231, and by U.S. Office of Education Research Grant G007802084 from the Bureau for the Education of the Handicapped. Portions of the results described in this article were discussed in a presentation at the 13th Annual AABT Convention in San Francisco, 1979. The authors are particularly grateful to Andrew Egel, Roberta Elman, Janis Costello, and Karen Britten, for their helpful comments, and to Jody Fisher and Gina Richman, for their assitance in the data collection.     

Visual and auditory selective attention and reflection-impulsivity in normal and learning-disabled boys at two age levels

Selective attention to visual and auditory stimuli and reflection-impulsivity were studied in normal and learning-disabled 8- and 12-year-old boys. Multivariate analyses, followed by univariate and paired-comparison tests, indicated that the normal children increased in selective attention efficiency with age to both visual and auditory stimuli. Learning-disabled children increased in selective attention efficiency with age to auditory, but not to visual, stimuli. Both groups increased with age in reflection as measured by Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF). The 8-year-old learning-disabled children were more impulsive than the 8-year-old normals on MFF error scores, but not on MFF latency scores. No difference occurred between the 12-year-old learning-disabled and normal children on either MFF error or MFF latency scores. Correlations between the selective attention scores and MFF error and latency scores were not significant.This research was supported in part by BEH grant G007507227. The authors are indebted to Eleanor McCandless for her assistance in securing the learning-disabled subjects and to James McLeskey and Michael Popkin for their assistance in collecting and analyzing data.     

Mimicry versus imitative modeling: Facilitating sentence production in the speech of the retarded

Two methods of language instruction administered to mentally retarded subjects at the two-word stage of language development were investigated. Subjects of the mimicry training group imitated Agent-Action-Object (AAO) constructions immediately after presentation, while subjects of the imitative modeling group first heard the AAO presentation and later produced the AAO construction in response to a verb question. Imitative modeling subjects achieved as many correct AAO responses during training and more correct responses on a generalization task and in a free play setting. They also displayed more novel response behavior (selective imitations) and spontaneously corrected productions. The results support the use of modeling procedures for inducing language production in the retarded.     

Language acquisition context and language organization in bilinguals

A distinction between compound and coordinate bilingualism has been employed to conceptualize linguistic organization in bilinguals. Compound bilinguals are those who acquired their languages in a joint context and therefore are presumed to store linguistic information interdependently. Coordinates include those who acquired their languages in separate contexts and therefore are presumed to maintain independent linguistic stores. To study the usefulness of this distinction, Spanish-English and English-Spanish, compound, and coordinate bilinguals were asked to give intra-and interlingual free and restricted word associations to equivalent English and Spanish stimuli for which the responses of monolingual speakers were not equivalent. As predicted, compound bilinguals gave significantly more equivalent responses and responded significantly faster than did coordinates. However, since these differences were only modest in size, they cannot be interpreted as supporting the usefulness of the compound-coordinate distinction. None of the predictions regarding the effect of proficiency on performance were supported. Differences as a function of native language, type of association task, and association conditions were obtained and are discussed.This research was supported by USPHS Grant HD 01368 to Dr. Klaus Riegel, University of Michigan, and was included as one portion of a doctoral dissertation submitted by the author to the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies at the University of Michigan.     

A further evaluation of the limitation of wholistic visualization

In a previous study on the limitation of wholistic visualization, Beech (1976) found that when using a between subjects design, the limitation was an inverted-U function as presentation rate was varied. In the present study a within subject design was employed and it was found that as before, the limitation in visualization increased across the 0.5 to 3.0 sec/object presentation rates, but in contrast to Beech (1976), the limitation remained at an asymptote of 6.6 objects at the slower rates. This result excludes the hypothesis of image decay which was proposed previously. In the second experiment, the speed of visualizing each successively described object was monitored up to the point of the limitation. This showed that subjects took progressively longer to visualize as the array size increased. Furthermore, faster latencies for the first objects were related to subjects visualizing more objects both at the level of individual subjects and in terms of mean performance. Finally it was found that subjects who visualized more objects also remembered more objects on a recall test suggesting that visualization may aid recall.     

Predictors of turnover of female factory workers

This study examines predictors of turnover of female factory workers in a multivariate framework. Findings indicate that organizational, job, and personal characteristics are equally important in explaining turnover. Variables significantly related to turnover were tenure, cycle time, peer leadership, communication flow, training time, family income, and satisfaction with pay. The AID technique was demonstrated as a means of identifying interaction effects.