The Social Adjustment of Newcomers in Secondary School

Each year, a large number of children change residence and school. This paper examines the social experience of being a newcomer at secondary school, with special reference to the process of adjustment. It is based on a detailed longitudinal case study of 45 newcomers. Each was followed for 12 months, with the main source of data being seven in-depth interviews with each student, backed up by unscheduled interviews, school reports, teacher and peer-group comments and observations. Because the data show extensive similarity in newcomers' experiences-all must deal with a different curriculum, new teachers and the social world of other students-it is possible to construct a general three-stage map of the process of adjustment. This map has important implications for the guidance and counselling of such students.     

Invention and discovery among the sciences: a P-technique factor analysis

This paper explores how discoveries and inventions in nine scientific disciplines cluster over time in Western culture. The transhistorical sample consisted of 12,761 major scientific contributions tabulated into 44 time-units (full, half, and quarter centuries) extending from 800 B.C. to 1900 A.D. A factor analysis was executed on the correlations among the nine measures after partialing out third-order polynomial time trends. Three orthogonal factors appeared: concrete (chemistry, physics, and biology), abstract (astronomy and mathematics), and applied (technology, geography, and geology) clusters. Medicine loaded moderately on the concrete and abstract clusters. Three types of explanations were discussed-personological, interpersonal, and sociocultural-with suggestions for how they might be tested.     

Attention decrement,temporal variation,and the primacy effect in impression formation

Three experiments which tested the attention decrement explanation of the primacy effect in impression formation are reported. A memory-crowding interpretation of attention decrement would predict a decrease in primacy as the interval between traits is increased. Mild support was obtained in Experiment I but not in II or III. Overall. the magnitude of the primacy effect was independent of intertrait temporal variation. Decrement in attention is the most attractive theoretical explanation for the commonly obtained primacy effect. However, the results of the present series of studies suggest that this explanation is not tenable and that other theoretical mechanisms will be required to account for primacy effects.     

The generalization of newly acquired behaviors by parents and child across three different settings

The generalization of newly learned behaviors to different settings on the part of an autistic child and his parents was investigated by means of a multiple baseline design. Contingency management techniques were taught to the parents while they interacted with their child in a training apartment equipped with observation facilities. In order to assess whether the parents generalized the use of these techniques, data were gathered at their own home. Data were also gathered in the child's school in order to ascertain whether changes brought about in the child's behavior in the training apartment generalized to the school situation. It was concluded that the child's behavior was responsive to the contingencies of each particular environment. Generalization did not occur until the contingencies and stimulus cues were specifically designed to promote a change in behavior in each setting.     

Establishment and decay of orientation-contingent aftereffects of color

We have used a null method to measure the orientation-contingent aftereffects of color first described by McCollough. After alternately inspecting, for example, a green horizontal line grating and a magenta vertical line grating, the Os report that in achromatic test gratings the horizontal lines appear pinkish and the vertical lines appear greenish. We have used a special color-mixing projector to add variable amounts of green and magenta light to the test gratings until they appear matched and nearly achromatic. The colorimetric purity needed to achieve this null setting is a quantitative measure of the strength of the colored aftereffect. Following inspections of the colored patterns ranging from 15 sec to 150 min, six Os showed aftereffects lasting from a few minutes to 7 or more days. The indices of colorimetric purity increase with inspection time and decline with time after inspection. The decay function is not quite linear either on semilog or on log-log coordinates. The rate of decay is mainly dependent on the magnitude of the effect built up during inspection. We conclude that the buildup and decay of these aftereffects show some of the time characteristics usually associated with central adaptability rather than sensory adaptation.     

Comparison of stimulus control and reinforcement control effects on imitative behavior

An attempt was made to evaluate reinforcement and stimulus control of imitative and non-imitative behavior. The imitative response required the subject to duplicate the experimenter's response by matching blocks that varied in color. The factor designed to evaluate stimulus control was fading, a procedure that systematically varies the differences between the imitative and non-imitative stimuli. The topography and duration of the non-imitative stimuli were faded in. The factors designed to evaluate reinforcement control were differential reinforcement of non-imitative behavior and time out from positive reinforcement. The results showed stimulus control of non-imitation to be more important than reinforcement control, and that reinforcing events were not sufficient to control non-imitation; while the arrangement of stimulus events was sufficient to control non-imitation. These results were related to studies providing evidence for the processes of discrimination and generalization.     

Imagery,rehearsal, and the compatibility of input-output tasks

Two experiments tested the proposition that recall in an imagery task would be facilitated when the processes instigated during original input and during a rehearsal interval were similar to (compatible with) processes assumed to be initiated by two retrieval formats. In both experiments the subjects listened to tape-recorded messages which described the placements of numbers in an imaginary mental matrix. Experiment 1 used four modes of presenting the original information about the placement of the numbers. Two of the input modes were expected to foster the use of imagery: listening to the tape-recorded messages (L), and listening while shadowing (vocalizing) the messages (LV). The other modes of presentation were expected to encourage verbalized rather than imaginal encoding: listening plus silent reading (LR), and listening plus reading aloud (LRV). Two types of recall tasks were used, one which emphasized imaginal coding (matrix recall) and one which emphasized verbal coding (direction recall). Recall was highest when the input and output tasks were assumed to involve similar types of processing. Thus, Groups L and LV showed higher recall than Groups LR and LRV on the matrix task, but the converse was true for the direction task. In addition, rotation of the information yielded different characteristics for the input-output conditions. Experiment 2 introduced rehearsal instructions. Visualizing rehearsal was more beneficial to matrix recall than verbalizing rehearsal or no explicit rehearsal instructions, and verbalizing rehearsal aided direction recall more than visualizing rehearsal. Various models were discussed.