CLASSWIDE PEER TUTORING: AN INTEGRATION STRATEGY TO IMPROVE READING SKILLS AND PROMOTE PEER INTERACTIONS AMONG STUDENTS WITH AUTISM AND GENERAL EDUCATION PEERS

A multiple baseline design across subjects with a reversal was used to examine the effects of classwide peer tutoring relative to traditional reading instruction on reading skills and social interaction time for 3 high-functioning students with autism and their typical peers in integrated, general education classrooms. Traditional reading instruction consisted largely of teacher-led instruction with individual student participation and seat work. Classwide peer tutoring consisted of 25 to 30 min of well-specified instruction in which tutor—learner pairs worked together on a classwide basis on reading fluency and comprehension skills. All students participated in 15- to 20-min unstructured free-time activities immediately following reading instruction. Results of reading assessments demonstrated that classwide peer tutoring increased reading fluency and correct responses to reading comprehension questions for students with autism and their peers. The procedure further increased the total duration of free-time social interactions for students with autism and typical peers, with individual variation in performance.     

Practice and Persuasive Frame: Effects on Beliefs,Intention, and Performance of a Cancer Self-Examination1

Many behaviors are performed less frequently than intended because they require knowledge and skill to overcome behavioral barriers. This experiment tested effects of two factors, direct experience and message frame, that were hypothesized to affect men's intention to perform the testicle self-exam for cancer (TSE) and their actual exam performance, in part by affecting their knowledge and beliefs about overcoming TSE performance barriers. Men's experience performing the TSE on a life-like model and the frame (negative, positive, or neutral) of the recommendation promoting the exam were manipulated factorially. Consistent with prediction, men who practiced (vs. did not practice) the self-exam: (a) endorsed stronger beliefs about behavior-specific knowledge (e.g., ability to imagine a lump), (b) held more positive intention, and (c) translated that intention more consistently into self-reported action, in part because their behavior-specific knowledge increased their tendency to act on their intention. Consistent with action phase theory (Gollwitzer, 1990), intention related more strongly to behavior-specific beliefs than to general, long-term beliefs, and more strongly than attitude related to behavior-specific beliefs. These findings have practical and theoretical implications for promoting healthful and other intended behaviors.     

REDUCING ESCAPE BEHAVIOR AND INCREASING TASK COMPLETION WITH FUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION TRAINING,EXTINCTION AND RESPONSE CHAINING

The effects of functional communication training, extinction, and response chaining on 3 subjects' escape-maintained aberrant behavior were evaluated using a multielement design. Functional communication training consisted of teaching subjects a verbal response that was functionally equivalent to their aberrant behavior. Subjects initially were allowed to escape from a task contingent on the trained verbal response. In subsequent treatment phases, escape was contingent on the trained verbal response plus the completion of the specified number of steps in the task (response chaining). The number of steps was increased until a subject completed the task to obtain a break. Results showed that the treatment reduced rates of aberrant behavior and that the chaining procedure was effective in decreasing the availability of escape.     

Biased attention in childhood Anxiety disorders: A preliminary study

This study provides preliminary tests of two hypotheses: (1) Anxiety-disordered children show an attentional bias toward emotionally threatening stimuli, and (2) normal controls show an attentional bias away from emotionally threatening stimuli. Twelve children, 9 to 14 years of age, with primary diagnoses of anxiety disorder were compared with 12 normal controls matched for age, gender, vocabulary level, and reading ability. Subjects completed a reaction time task that measured visual attention toward threatening versus neutral words. The anxious group showed the predicted attentional bias toward threat words. However, controls did not show the predicted bias away from threat words. These results are the first showing that biased attentional processing occurs among clinically anxious children. The potential role of such an attentional bias in childhood anxiety disorders and future direction for research are discussed.This research was supported by a Seed Grant and a Small Grant to the first author from The Ohio State University. Portions of this paper were presented at the 27th Annual Convention of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Atlanta, November 1993. Thanks are extended to the participants and all those who helped with the project.     

Aesthetic preference and DSM-IIIR personality disorders

This report tested whether those individuals with a cluster B DSM-IIIR personality disorder (narcissistic, borderline, antisocial or histrionic) had higher scores for aesthetic preference for visually complex drawings using the Barron-Welch Art Scale. In a sample of 141 patients and controls, the 56 subjects who met the criteria for one of the cluster B personality disorder diagnoses displayed higher Barron-Welch Art Scale Scores. A multiple regression analysis showed that narcissistic and borderline personality disorder contributed positively, while dependent personality disorder, negatively to preference for complexity. The findings support the notion that aesthetic choices and values reflected through the dimension of openness to experience may contribute to the behavioral manifestations of the personality disorders.     

The role of fairness orientation and supervisor attributions in absence disciplinary decisions

The present study investigated the role of the work value of fairness and attributions regarding the causes of absence in supervisor disciplinary decisions. It was hypothesized that supervisors who valued fairness, and those who made internal attributions regarding the cause of a particular absence incident, render more severe disciplinary decisions than supervisors who value fairness less, and who make external attributions. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that the degree to which supervisors valued fairness moderates the relationship between external attributions and the severity of disciplinary decisions. Using a policy capturing approach, results were consistent with predictions. Implications of the results for research and practice are discussed.     

Prediction of mood and risk appraisals from trait measures: Two studies of simulated driving

Two contrasting hypotheses concerning the relationship between personality and mood are distinguished. First, broad traits may relate to emotional temperament, and so predict mood across situations. Second, the interactionist approach to personality implies that narrow, context specific traits may sometimes be the most powerful predictors of mood within situations. This article reports correlations between mood and broad and narrow trait measures, the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI; Eysenck and Eysenck, 1964) and the Driving Behaviour Inventory (DBI; Gulian, Matthews, Glendon, Davies and Debney, 1989), within the context of vehicle driving. Mood was measured with the UWIST Mood Adjective Checklist (UMACL; Matthews, Jones and Chamberlain, 1990), in two samples before and after a simulated drive. One sample (N = 73) performed a ‘passive’ drive, in which little interaction with other traffic was required. The second sample (N = 93) performed an ‘active’ driving task, in which subjects had to decide when to overtake other vehicles. Results showed that the DBI traits were more strongly related to mood than EPI traits, particularly following the active drive. The DBI Dislike of Driving scale was the strongest single predictor of post-drive mood. Prior to the drive, subjects also rated accident risk, driving skill, and judgement, for themselves and for a ‘peer’ driver of similar age and sex. Analysis of these data in the combined sample (N = 166) showed that the DBI was the more consistent predictor of self-ratings of risk and driving competence, although some relationships between ratings and the EPI were found. Again, the DBI Dislike of Driving scale was the strongest single predictor of self-ratings. Drivers scoring high on this scale seem immune to drivers' general bias towards rating themselves as safer and more competent than their peers. It is concluded that narrow traits are more predictive than broad traits within the driving context. Data are consistent with the transactional model of driver stress, which proposes that dislike of driving is derived from negative secondary appraisals.     

PREVENTION OF DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS IN SCHOOLCHILDREN:

Abstract— After teaching cognitive and social-problem-solving techniques designed to prevent depressive symptoms, we followed 69 fifth- and sixth-grade children at risk for depression for 2 years. We compared these children with 49 children in a matched no-treatment control group The prevention group re- ported fewer depressive symptoms through the 2-year follow-up, and moderate to severe symptoms were reduced by half. Surprisingly, the effects of the prevention program grew larger after the program was over. We suggest that psychological immunization against depression can occur by leaching cognitive and social skills to children as they enter puberty     

Five points and a lament about Range and Cotton's "Reports of assent and permission in research with children: illustrations and suggestions

This comment responds to an article by Range and Cotton (1995) on reporting of parental permission and child assent procedures in published articles for 4 psychology journals. Issue is taken with the assumptions, methodology, interpretations, and implications of listing researchers in the Range and Cotton article. There is no evidence researchers failed in their ethical obligations or that children were put at risk. Reporting permission/assent in publications is not an ethical requirement. Listing researchers as "failing" to do something not part of an ethical code is lamentable. Too many unfortunate implications and problems can be derived from Range and Cotton's analysis and conclusions.     

Brain dynamics,psychophysiological uncertainty and behavioral learning

The present paper takes a first step toward the integration of recent findings on brain dynamics and learning into established fields of psychophysiological science. Leading-edge studies of brain dynamics have shown that the brain manifests an inherent variability and that, when new stimuli (i.e., “problems”) are presented to the organism, brain chaos increases.