Nature, Nurture, and Individual Differences in Early Understanding of Mind

The ability to understand other minds is a dramatic development that enables children to adapt to their social worlds. In this first genetic analysis of the phenomenon, using 119 same-sex 3-year-old twin pairs, evidence for substantial genetic influence was found. Intraclass correlations for identical and fraternal twins were .66 and .32, respectively; the maximum-likelihoodmodel-fitting estimate of heritability was 67%. Bivariate model-fitting analyses showed that most (66%) of this genetic influence on understanding of mind was independent of verbal ability. Environmental influences on understanding of mind were attributed to child-specific factors,rather than those shared by children in the same family.     

IDENTIFICATION AND VALIDATION OF CRITICAL CONVERSATIONAL SOCIAL SKILLS

In this study, we used a four-step social validation process to identify and validate critical skill components that constitute high school students' conversational behavior. The four steps were nominating target behaviors, establishing a normative range of performance, manipulating simulations of behavioral dimensions, and comparing ratings of judges to levels of performance on those behavioral dimensions. Multiple measures, both quantitative and qualitative, suggested that the rate and percentage of time initiating and responding verbally, the percentage of time attending, and the percentage of time not engaging in distracting motor behavior related to favorable ratings by a wide variety of 60 judges. Findings are discussed in relation to the utility of the multistep social validation process and the identification of critical social skill components as targets of interventions.     

Exploitation, autonomy, and the case for organ sales

A recent argument in favor of a free market in human organs claims that such a market enhances personal autonomy. I argue here that such a market would, on the contrary, actually compromise the autonomy of those most likely to sell their organs, namely, the least well off members of society. A Marxian-inspired notion of exploitation is deployed to show how, and in what sense, this is the case.     

The Body's Response to Processing Emotional Trauma: Linking Verbal Text with Autonomic Activity

ABSTRACT When individuals talk or think about upsetting experiences, different coping and defensive processes are invoked from one minute to the next. Further, some coping strategies are thought to be more effortful and to be associated with greater biological activity than others. The present research sought to identify how the expression of emotions and the use of different psychological defenses were reflected in momentary changes in autonomic nervous system activity while subjects wrote about emotional topics. A new methodology is introduced that links the production of natural written language with autonomic activity on a word-by-word or phrase-by-phrase basis. Using this technique with a sample of 24 subjects who wrote about traumatic experiences, it was found that certain text dimensions are highly related to skin conductance level (SCL) but not heart rate. In general, subjects' SCLs increased when expressing negative emotions and when using denial and the passive voice. SCLs were more likely to drop when subjects used positive emotion words and self-references and at the conclusion of sentences or thought units. Implications for this methodology for understanding psychological defense and physical health are discussed.     

Effects of self-monitoring and subsequent fading of external prompts on the on-task behavior and task productivity of elementary students with moderate mental retardation

This study investigated the effectiveness of self-monitoring on the on-task behavior and vocational production rates of 5 elementary students with moderate mental retardation during biweekly pre-vocational workshop sessions. They were taught to use a recording form to monitor their behavior and were cued to monitor by audiotaped tones. A multiple-baseline design across tasks was used to demonstrate a functional relationship between self-monitoring and both on-task behavior and task productivity. Once this relationship was demonstrated, the monitoring form and audiotape were withdrawn through fading procedures. Results indicated that (a) self-monitoring increased both on-task behavior and vocational task production rates, (b) performance gains maintained while cues and monitoring forms were withdrawn, and (c) gains maintained over several weeks in the absence of prompts (i.e., forms and tones).     

Introduction to the self-management series: II

Journal of Behavioral Education -     

Interpreting inclusion: A contribution to the study of the child's cognitive and linguistic development

Six experiments are reported which examine the young child's ability to compare included and nonincluded sets. Results indicate that with certain forms of task presentation most 3- to 5-year-old children can compare part with whole. Further, errors which occur in inclusion tasks are similar to errors which occur in tasks involving comparison of nonincluded sets. Thus young children can solve inclusion problems, and their customary failure to do so does not arise because the problem requires comparison of a whole with an included part. Employing a distinction between intended tasks (those which the adult wishes the child to complete) and received tasks (those which the child, in fact, completes) the studies indicate how linguistic and perceptual aspects of the presented information may interact with the child's assumptions about the nature of the task to be completed.     

Fluorescent lighting: A purported source of hyperactive behavior

Seven first-grade children with conduct disorders and/or hyperactivity attended full-day sessions at a laboratory school classroom. During an 8- week period, the classroom lighting conditions alternated at the end of each week. During oddnumbered weeks, the classroom was illuminated by a standard coolwhite fluorescent system. On even-numbered weeks, illumination was a daylightsimulating fluorescent system of equal footcandles with controls for purported soft X rays and radio frequency (RF). There were no effects of lighting conditions on hyperactive behavior as assessed by (a) independent observations of task orientation or (b) ratings of activity level. A Critical Flicker Fusion (CFF) measure, a reported indicator of visual-sensory fatigue, indicated that the daylight-simulating condition was associated with a decreasing CFF across weeks.This research was a joint endeavor initiated by Alan Rosenbaum and directed by Dr. Daniel O'Leary. Dr. Philip Hughes and Mr. Frank LaGuisa and their associates at the General Electric Lighting Development Section consulted with us in all phases regarding lighting and electromagnetic radiation. We are very grateful to Dr. Susan O'Leary, director, and Marlene Schneider, head teacher, of the University Laboratory School, where this study was conducted. Special thanks go to Mark Durand, Ruth Shepard, and Michael Mignone, who contributed to variousphases of this study. The observers were Wilma Meyers and Frank Tucci. This research was supported in part by General Electric and in part by the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Detailed technical information concerning the lighting and measurement is available in a full text from the authors.