A method for the delivery of reinforcement during exercise

The purpose of this study was to develop an automated system for positively or negatively reinforcing subjects while they exercised on an electronically braked bicycle ergometer. The circuitry used to interface the subject’s pedal speed responses with the delivery of auditory reinforcement is presented, as well as a study designed to test the utility of the system. Twenty 18- to 25-year-old male subjects exercised on an electronically braked ergometer at a constant workload of 50 W for three 5-min blocks. During the first 5 min, subjects pedaled at their preferred rate, and during the next two 5-min blocks, they pedaled faster or slower than their baseline pedal speed to turn on a comedy tape for positive reinforcement, or turn off 90 dB of white noise for negative reinforcement. Circuits that interfaced the subject’s pedal response with the delivery of reinforcement are discussed in detail. Both positive and negative reinforcement increased the targeted pedaling rates, with no differences as a function of targeting increased or decreased pedal speed. This system could be used with various reinforcers, such as video and other audio equipment to increase exercise behavior.     

MULTIPLE PEER USE OF PIVOTAL RESPONSE TRAINING TO INCREASE SOCIAL BEHAVIORS OF CLASSMATES WITH AUTISM: RESULTS FROM TRAINED AND UNTRAINED PEERS

Two children with autism and 8 typical peers participated in a study designed to replicate an earlier finding of successful social-skills intervention for children with autism using peer-implemented pivotal response training (PRT) and to assess the effects of using multiple peer trainers on generalization of treatment effects. During training, peers were taught PRT strategies using didactic instruction, modeling, role playing, and feedback. After treatment, children with autism engaged in increased levels of social behavior.     

The effect of transgressor's and victim's sex on children's punish-help judgments

The present investigation, expanding upon a study by Miller and McCann, sought to determine whether children's reactions to the perpetrators and victims of antisocial behavior are influenced by the sex of the individuals involved. Third- and fifth-grade children were asked their opinions of a series of stories in which one child (boy or girl) was described as having intentionally harmed another child (boy or girl). The results indicate that the relative importance that children attribute to punishing transgressors and helping victims is mediated by the sex composition of the transgressor-victim dyad.     

The biological function of Pavlovian conditioning: Learned inhibition of aggressive behavior in territorial fish

Following Pavlovian discrimination training, stimuli predicting the appearance of a territory intruder (an excitatory conditional stimulus, CS+) or the absence of that event (an inhibitory conditional stimulus, CS−) were presented to pairs of territorial male fish immediately before their first aggressive interaction. Pairmates that both received excitatory stimuli prior to the confrontation were significantly more aggressive than a control group which received the same training but which received neither a CS+ nor a CS− in the test. Pairmates in which both received a CS− were significantly less aggressive than the control group. In these three groups, no differences in aggression were observed between the individual members of a single pair. Two additional groups were composed of pairs whose members received different stimuli prior to the test. Although no differences were found between pairmates in the group in which one member received a pretest CS− while the other member received no stimulus presentation, large differences in aggressive behavior were obtained when one fish received a CS+ and its pairmate received a CS−. We discuss the behavioral ecology of terriorial behavior in fish and attempt to show the potential importance of these results in this naturalistic context. In addition, we discuss the implications of an ecological approach for causal analyses of inhibitory learning.     

The relationship of role-play assessment of children's social skills to multiple measures of social competence

The present investigation evaluated the relationship of role-play performance of children's social skills with multiple measures of social competence. Thirty-eight psychiatric inpatient children (ages 7–13 yrs) completed measures to assess role-play performance, knowledge of social skills, self-efficacy and self-reported social behavior in diverse situations. Overt social interaction was directly but unobtrusively assessed in the hospital as well. Multiple measures of social skills were also completed by hospital staff, parents and teachers. The results indicated that role-play performance correlated significantly with child knowledge and self-efficacy but not with overt social behavior or self-reported social behavior in diverse situations. Role-play performance generally did not correlate with measures completed by staff, parents and teachers. Yet measures completed by these informants did converge and also were useful in delineating diagnostic groups of children whose social behavior would be expected to be problematic. The implications of the results for the use of role-play tests to evaluate social skills and to discriminate clinical populations are discussed.     

Unilateral versus bilateral presentation methods in the reaction time paradigm

The use of bilateral presentation in lateralized tachistoscopic reaction time (RT) tasks has been precluded by problems of how to instruct the subject to respond to the left visual field (LVF) or right visual field (RVF) stimulus and by the necessity of fixation control with bilateral presentation. Schmuller and Goodman, 1979 and Schmuller and Goodman, 1980, Brain and Language, 11, 12–18) offered a method, applied to date only in recognition accuracy studies, which can overcome these problems. They used an “arrowhead pointer” at fixation. This instructs the subject as to which stimulus to report first and also controls fixation. We adapted the method to the RT paradigm by having subjects report only the stimulus indicated and applied it in a bilateral presentation version of the Object Naming Latency Task (W. F. McKeever & T. L. Jackson, 1979, Brain and Language, 7, 175–190). Fifty subjects received the unilateral task and 50 received the bilateral task. The bilateral task yielded right visual field superiority in 98% of the subjects and the magnitude of the superiority was over three times as large as in the unilateral task. Different sex × familial sinistrality × VHF interactions obtained on the tasks. Combining the advantages of reaction time and bilateral presentation methods may substantially increase the resolving power of lateralized tachistoscopic tasks.     

MINORITY WOMEN IN ACADEMIA Access and Barriers to Professional Participation

The experiences that women, especially minority-status women (African, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American), have in educational advancement in psychology is limited. This limited power was examined in two ways: (a) by reviewing the inclusion of minority women within academic psychology at undergraduate, graduate, job entry, and senior level positions within the profession and (b) by reviewing economic and social-psychological processes that unjustly serve as barriers to women.     

Attributions for the Success and Failure of Female Managers: A Replication and Extension

This study attempted to extend earlier work on the relationship between attitudes toward women in management and attributions for the success and failure of female managers. One hundred and ten employees of a large state human services agency responded to a survey measuring their attitudes toward women in management and their attributions for either the success or failure of a hypothetical female manager. Results for males were highly supportive of earlier findings, with attitudes toward women in management significantly related to attributions for success but not for failure. Females showed an opposite pattern of results, with attitudes toward women in management significantly related to attributions for failure but not for success. It is suggested that these differences in attitude-attribution relationships may be the result of males expecting failure from female managers while females expect success.     

THE EFFECTS OF A CHILD'S SELF-EVALUATION PROGRAM ON COMPLIANCE WITH PARENTAL INSTRUCTIONS IN THE HOME

A self-evaluation program was implemented with a kindergarten-aged boy in the home to increase compliance with parent instructions and decrease inappropriate verbal behavior. The self-evaluation package included the child's assessing the appropriateness of his behavior in 5-min intervals, receiving chips for positive self-evaluations, and exchanging chips for a reward following experimental sessions. In a reversal design, analyses were conducted of the effectiveness of the self-evaluation program, the requisite conditions for effective child behavior change with a self-evaluation approach, and the parent's efficiency in using the self-evaluation package. The self-evaluation procedures typically resulted in increased compliant behavior and decreased inappropriate behavior, although the effects generally weakened with time. Behavioral gains were greater and better maintained when the self-evaluation procedures were preceded by a phase of external evaluation via the mother than by baseline, suggesting that self-evaluation procedures may serve more to maintain the effects of external evaluation rather than to induce their own changes. The parent generally was efficient in implementing the procedures. Research and clinical implications for using self-evaluation procedures in a home setting are discussed.