FUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION TRAINING TO REDUCE CHALLENGING BEHAVIOR: MAINTENANCE AND APPLICATION IN NEW SETTINGS

We evaluated the initial effectiveness, maintenance, and transferability of the results of functional communication training as an intervention for the challenging behaviors exhibited by 3 students. Assessment indicated that escape from academic demands was involved in the maintenance of the challenging behaviors. Social attention was also implicated as controlling the behavior of 1 student. The intervention involved teaching alternative assistance-seeking and attention-getting phrases to the students in an effort to replace challenging behavior with these verbal equivalents. Multiple baseline data collected across the 3 students indicated that not only did the intervention substantially reduce challenging behavior but also that these results transferred across new tasks, environments, and teachers, and were generally maintained from 18 to 24 months following the introduction of functional communication training. These results are discussed in light of recent efforts to develop effective interventions for severe challenging behavior and to understand the processes underlying transfer and maintenance of intervention effects.     

Time course of word identification and semantic integration in spoken language

The minimum duration signal necessary to identify a set of spoken words was established by the gating technique; most words could be identified before their acoustic offset. Gated words were used as congruous and incongruous sentence completions, and isolation points established in the gating experiment were compared with the time course of semantic integration evident in event-related brain potentials. Differential N400 responses to contextually appropriate and inappropriate words were observed about 200 ms before the isolation point. Semantic processing was evident before the acoustic signal was sufficient to identify the words uniquely. Results indicate that semantic integration can begin to operate with only partial, incomplete information about word identity. Influences of semantic constraint, word frequency, and rate of presentation are described.     

Milestones in the development of infant numeracy

This article deals with the development of numeracy among young children of the four to seven year age group. The research investigation described had two aims: to see how early numeracy develops in children of different ages; and to see whether there are fixed points which might serve as milestones in the development of infant numeracy. The results of this investigation involving 96 children indicate a strong development of numeracy skills during this period. With reference to the literature, it is also shown that certain items of a test previously developed for this purpose may be taken as core items that do indeed represent milestones in the development of infant numeracy.     

Confirmation Theory and Indispensability

In this paper I examine Quine's indispensability argument, with particular emphasis on what is meant by 'indispensable'. I show that confirmation theory plays a crucial role in answering this question and that once indispensability is understood in this light, Quine's argument is seen to be a serious stumbling block for any scientific realist wishing to maintain an anti-realist position with regard to mathematical entities.     

The cognitive moderation of daily stress in early adolescence

Utilized daily diary data to investigate age differences in the moderation of stressful daily events. Data from 243 fifth- to ninth-grade boys and girls, collected over a period of 1 week, were used to examine the moderation effect that expectation and past experience have upon affective response to daily stressors and uplifts. Responses indicate that across a variety of contexts expected daily events are less upsetting than unexpected events for both children and young adolescents. However, among the older students in the sample expectation of chronic negative events appears to exacerbate, rather than alleviate, their upsetting quality. These findings are discussed in terms of the increase in stress associated with early adolescence and the possibility that the chronic stress experienced during this period diminishes the utility of anticipatory coping.