USING REINFORCEMENT AND CUEING TO INCREASE HEALTHY SNACK FOOD CHOICES IN PRESCHOOLERS

We examined the effects of behavioral procedures to modify the food choices of preschoolers during a snack period at school (training setting) and at home (generalization setting). In the first experiment, we evaluated the usefulness of nutrition training and a generalization programming strategy of cueing to improve healthy snacking; in the second experiment we investigated the effect of nutrition training alone. In addition, three cases are presented that illustrate individualized procedures to facilitate generalization of healthy snacking to home. Results indicated that children's healthy snack choices increased in the preschool training setting, that generalization to home was achieved only when procedures to program it were implemented, and that the best results were found when the generalization procedures were tailored to the individual child.     

Spatial attention in vision

Summary Human observers can selectively allocate processing resources to different areas of the visual field within a single fixation. This spatial attention system may affect either the quality of information extraction or the decisions and responses based on this information. This paper reviews evidence from behavioral, single-unit, and event-related potential paradigms; the evidence suggests a relatively early locus of spatial attention.This research was supported by the U. S. Army Research Office under contract DAAG 29-83-K-0049. Portions of this paper were presented to the Conference on Attention and Action, Bielefeld, West Germany, in July 1985     

Book reviews

With Faith and Fury. Delos McKown. New York: Promethius Books, 1985. pp 440. $16.95

The Sacred in a Secular Age. Phillip E. Hammond, Editor. University of California Press, 379 pages (p/b) $8.95 (£8.50)     

The electronic chalkboard

The present paper describes “the electronic chalkboard” (TEC), a teaching innovation made possible by the recent development, under a FIPSE grant to CONDUIT, of specialized instructional software. The instructional power of TEC casts the computer in the role of catalyst in the student-teacher dyad and leads to the emergence of the more powerful student-computer-teacher triad. Relevant educational principles and CAI techniques that should ensure the intelligent use of TEC are discussed.     

Tonal frequency shifts and gaps in acoustic stimulation as reflex-modifying events

When a relatively weak signal, such as a mild tone, precedes an intense reflex-eliciting stimulus by an appropriate interval (about 100 msec), the amplitude of the elicited reaction is often reduced. It was found that in student volunteers a brief gap in a steady pure tone that occurred 150 msec prior to a mild tap to the glabella (the flat region between the eyebrows) could inhibit the eyeblink elicited by the tap. It was also found that a shift in tonal frequency across a gap in a tone was more inhibitory than a gap with no frequency shift, but it was no more inhibitory than the onset of the short second tone alone. The final study determined the minimum amount of frequency shift required to produce an additional inhibitory effect above that of a gap alone. The findings are discussed in terms of various aspects of sensory processing.     

Political Waffling: Its Effects on the Evaluations of Observers1

Politicians sometimes shift the stances that they take on issues. An experiment investigated the effect of such a shift upon observers' perceptions of and feelings about an ostensible candidate for public office. The target issue (private ownership of handguns) was chosen as being relatively emotional for some subjects and unemotional for others. Subjects were also selected (independently) as being either pro or con on the issue. The position taken by the stimulus person (who, in contrast to previous research, was identified as a candidate for office) was portrayed as initially being either similar or dissimilar to that of the subject. An assessment of the candidate's position 6 months later indicated either no change or a reversal of the initial position. Subjects' evaluations of the candidate on a variety of dimensions yielded a consistent pattern. The combination of initial agreement and final agreement was viewed more favorably than any other combination. Taken together, the data suggest two conclusions. First, there was no support in this context for the notion that a shift from disagreement to agreement would be especially valued (i.e., there was no “gain” effect). Second, in the realm of politics, people value consistent agreement with their own position—but they do not reward consistency per se.     

Active-interactional cotherapy

In the literature on cotherapy, little attention has been focused on maximizing the effectiveness of two therapists working in tandem with families and couples. While cotherapists may at times share their ideas and feelings with their clients, and after the therapeutic session exchange views between themselves, generally little interaction occurs between them during the session. In this paper, a case is presented for more active interactions between cotherapists during the session, in order to expedite and facilitate change and growth in their clients. Anecdotal examples are provided to illustrate the approach.     

An apparatus for apparent conditioning ofOctopus cyaneus Gray

An ann-out-of-water response was conditioned as an operant inOctopus cyaneus Gray. The response was limited to a vertical tube, 2.54 em i.d, Photoresistive sensors, illuminated with modulated light arranged around the tube above the waterline, detect the presence of an opaque object in the tube. The signal from this response detector is amplified and used to initiate a commercial motor-driven universal feeder according to the reinforcement schedule maintained by the logic control circuit. A sample cumulative record for perfonnance on a CRF schedule is given.