The influence of walking speed and prior practice on locomotor distance estimation

In an attempt to reconcile discrepant findings in the literature (Elliott, 1986; Thomson, 1983), walking speed, prior practice, and walking delay were manipulated to determine if they had an impact on locomotor distance estimation. Contrary to suggestions by Thomson (1986), walking variability in the direction of locomotion depended only on a subject' initial distance from the targets.     

The Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior: History,Current Status,and Future Directions

The Psychological Record - These papers were presented at a symposium held at the 93rd annual convention of the American Psychological Association, August, 1985, Los Angeles, CA. The papers, in...     

Perceptual organization of acoustic stimuli by budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus): I. Pure tones

A new combination of operant conditioning and psychophysical scaling procedures was used to study auditory perception in a small bird. In a same-different discrimination task, budgerigars learned to discriminate among pure tones that varied along one or more acoustic dimensions. Response latencies were used to generate a matrix of interstimulus similarities. Multidimensional scaling procedures were used to arrange these acoustic stimuli in a multidimensional space that supposedly reflects the bird's perceptual organization. For tones that varied in intensity, duration, and frequency simultaneously, budgerigars were much more sensitive to frequency changes. From a set of tones that varied only in intensity, it was possible to calculate the growth of loudness with intensity for the budgerigar. For tones that varied only in frequency, budgerigars showed evidence of an "acoustic fovea" for frequency change in the spectral region of 2-4 kHz. Budgerigars and humans also differed in their perceptual grouping of tone sequences that rise, fall, or remain constant in pitch. Surprisingly, budgerigars were much less responsive to pitch contour than were humans.     

A PROBLEM-SOLVING APPROACH TO SOCIAL SKILLS TRAINING IN EMPLOYMENT SETTINGS WITH MENTALLY RETARDED YOUTH

The present study examined two approaches to teaching social behaviors to 3 developmentally disabled youths in work contexts. In one approach, a problem-solving procedure was learned and transferred to different materials. Conversational probes monitored interactions between disabled employees and their co-workers and customers. A multiple baseline design demonstrated that the training produced generalization and maintenance of the targeted social behaviors to the work settings. A second approach based on a role-playing intervention produced no substantial generalization in the work setting. A social validation questionnaire administered to co-workers supported the efficacy of the problem-solving training procedure. The efficacy of social problem-solving training was discussed in terms of sufficient exemplars, common stimuli, and self-mediations.     

AIDS and intimate relationships: Adolescents’ knowledge and attitudes

The knowledge level about HIV/AIDS among American adolescents aged 16 to 19 has been assessed on several occasions, showing that in recent years their knowledge base has improved. The knowledge bases of British adolescents and of adolescents younger than 16 have been largely ignored. In attempting to assess the likely impact on present or future behaviors of increasing adolescents’ knowledge base about AIDS it is important to also know something of adolescents’ attitudes to intimate relationships and to sex within those relationships. Previous studies have not linked these two aspects. In this study two hundred London schoolchildren aged 14 and 15 years completed a questionnaire tapping both their knowledge about HIV infection and its transmission and their attitudes to intimate relationships. Their answers revealed that they had absorbed the simple media messages about AIDS, that it kills and that use of a condom during sex offers protection. However they were less well informed on detailed aspects of prevention, although, worryingly, they believed that they knew all that they needed to about preventive measures. The majority had attitudes to intimate relationships that were compatible with the message of restricting their number of sexual partners; however, a significant minority did not. The latter were more likely to deny the risk associated with promiscuity. It is suggested that school-based AIDS education programs should help individuals to develop new attitudes to intimate relationships that are compatible with risk avoidance.