Commentary on “Can a good philosophical contribution be made just by asking a question?”

This paper explains some of the reasoning behind “Can a Good Philosophical Contribution Be Made Just by Asking a Question?,” a paper which consists solely in its title and which is published in the same issue of the journal as the present paper. The method for explaining that reasoning consists in making available a lightly edited version of a letter the authors sent to the editors when submitting the title-only paper. The editors permitted publication of that paper on the condition that the authors also separately publish a version of that letter; the present paper aims to fulfil that condition.     

CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL AND DROPOUT MDTA TRAINEES1

A study was designed to compare several variables of Manpower Development Training Act (MDTA) clients who dropped out of the program with those of clients who completed the program. A random sample of application cards was drawn for individuals enrolled in MDTA adult classes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Trainees who completed the program were more likely to be married, older, characterized by a more stable employment history prior to entering the program, and slightly more educated than were program dropouts. Clients who completed the program versus those who did not were not significantly different on the following variables: (1) sex; (2) counseling versus no counseling; (3) race; and (4) client reported physical disability.     

Testing significance of differences between two chi-squares

This paper presents a way to test the difference between twoX ²'s. The test requires evaluating the difference with respect to theT _m (x) Bessel function. Included is a table of the 5 percent and 1 percent points for the Bessel function with degrees of freedom up to 100.This investigation was supported by National Science Foundation Grant Number GE 9846.     

Two types of short-term visual storage

Seven-letter words were flashed repetitively at various durations above and below the recognition threshold for single flashes. One form of a short-term storage effect was studied by measuring the interstimulus interval between flashes at which S reported that the stimulus became phenomenally discontinuous in time. Storage times reached a maximum of about 300 msec in this task. A second form of storage effect was measured by decreasing the interstimulus interval until S could correctly recognize a repeated stimulus whose duration was below the single-flash recognition threshold; this effect extended to 900 msec in some cases. Each of these effects was reliably obtained for both rare and frequent words. Both forms of storage were increased by providing a dark rather than a lighted adapting field between presentations of the test stimulus. Implications for Information processing of brief displays are discussed.     

Internal consistency and reliability of alternate short forms of the college women's assertion sample: Clinical and research implications

Assertive behavior is most often assessed with self-report or role-play measures. The latter modality is preferred because it provides for the sampling of the structure of behavior and for the consideration of the situational context. MacDonald (1978) has developed such an assessment device but it is limited by the length of time for administration and scoring. Two studies were conducted to reconstruct reliable alternate short forms. The first study describes the selection of items and demonstrates the internal consistency of the alternate forms. The second study demonstrates the alternate form and retest reliability and provides normative statistics. We conclude that reliable alternate short forms have been constructed to be used in research in clinical applications.This research was supported by the Marie Wilson Howells Fund.Alternate short forms of the CWAS may be obtained from the first author.     

Behavioral knowledge among direct care staff in an inpatient psychiatric setting

Despite demonstrations of the utility and cost effectiveness of behavioral programming, such techniques are not commonly employed in psychiatric inpatient settings. Several explanations for this have been proposed, including inadequate levels of training and competence in behavioral programming among prevalent treatment staff. This study employed a multiple choice inventory to assess behavioral knowledge among subjects representing several direct care disciplines commonly found in inpatient psychiatric settings. The results support assertions of relatively low levels of behavioral knowledge among disciplines that are most prevalent in such settings. The implications of these results for initiatives to enhance behavioral knowledge and skills are discussed.     

ASSESSING FOOD PREFERENCES AMONG PERSONS WITH PROFOUND MENTAL RETARDATION: PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES TO MAKE CHOICES

Increased attention has been directed recently to assisting persons with severe handicaps to express preferences concerning events in their lives. We evaluated a program for assessing choice-making skills to provide opportunities for persons with profound mental retardation to express food and drink preferences. In Experiment 1, the assessment procedure involving repeated, paired-item presentations resulted in active choice making and the identification of preferences for all 5 participants. Results also indicated that caregiver opinion was not predictive of participant food and drink preferences. A survey of service providers supported the importance of meal-related choices in this population. In Experiment 2, the practicality of the assessment procedure was supported by demonstrating that (a) routine caregivers could apply the procedure with appropriate supervision to provide choice opportunities, and (b) results of the procedure were predictive of participant choices when a less structured and more normal opportunity to express a preference was provided during regular mealtimes. Results are discussed in terms of extending the developing technology of preference and reinforcer identification to other important areas for persons with severe disabilities.     

EFFECTS OF CHOSEN VERSUS ASSIGNED JOBS ON THE WORK PERFORMANCE OF PERSONS WITH SEVERE HANDICAPS

We evaluated the effects of several choice-related variables on the work performance of adults with severe handicaps. After assessing client work preferences, three choice-related situations were presented: (a) providing clients with the opportunity to choose a work task, (b) assigning a preferred task, and (c) assigning a nonpreferred task. Results indicated that clients attended to work tasks almost twice as much when they chose their tasks and when assigned to work on preferred tasks versus when assigned to work on nonpreferred tasks. Results are discussed regarding the need to assess systematically the effects of choice-related variables.     

Relationship between academic placement and perception of abuse of the voice

Informal polling of public school speech-language pathologists indicated that special education teachers referred more children for disorders of voice than did regular classroom educators. This study evaluated the effect of academic placement (regular or special education settings) upon children's and their teachers' ratings of abuse of the voice. Analysis showed the two groups of teachers' criteria for judging abusive vocal behaviors differed while the children's ratings from each setting did not differ. The special educators appeared to perceive their students' vocal behavior as more abusive possibly due to environmental constraints, training or the social affective interactions of their students.     

Pediatric Psychology: Child Psychological Health in the Next Century

The future of pediatric psychology is reviewed and placed in brief historical context in relation to children's psychological health care. Contemporary trends affecting the delivery of psychological services, research, and clinical training are highlighted, with suggestions for future development. Pediatric psychology is a child-based, developmentally-focused multidisciplinary practice directed toward psychosocial and neuropsychological issues of health and illness in children and youth. Pediatric psychologists need to develop strong professional identities as health care psychologists combined with a collegial and collaborative arrangement with physicians to ensure the future growth and development of pediatric psychology in the next century as a major vehicle to promote children's health care.