Imagined spatial transformation of one's body

This study examined two related phenomena: (a) the judgment of whether a human body part belongs to the left or right half of the body and (b) the imagined spatial transformation of one's body. In three experiments, observers made left-right judgments of a part of a body whose orientation differed from their own by a rotation about one of 13 axes. To do so, they imagined themselves passing to the orientation of the stimulus. Time for (a) left-right judgments and (b) accompanying imagined spatial transformations depended on the extent of the orientation difference (OD) between the observer and stimulus. More important, time for phenomena (a) and (b) depended strongly, and in the same way, on the direction of OD. Further results showed that the rate of imagined spatial transformations can vary strongly for different axes and directions of rotation about an axis. These and other results (e.g., Parsons, 1987a) suggest that temporal and kinematic properties of imagined spatial transformations are more object-specific than could be previously assumed.     

Perceptual selectivity and information processing by fast and slow learners in paired-associate learning

Utilizing a design requiring perceptual rather than verbal discrimination in a compound-stimulus, P-A learning task, two hypotheses related to individual differences in perceptual selection of a functional stimulus cue and the processing of information were explored. The hypothesis that fast learners (determined by pretest) would “process” more information than slow learners in P-A learning was supported. Slow learners consistently ignored the random shape to which instructions specifically directed them and selected instead the context color as the functional cue. A second hypothesis that negative transfer due to proactive inhibition would be greater for slow learners was also supported.     

EXPANDING THE IMPACT OF BEHAVIORAL STAFF MANAGEMENT: A LARGE-SCALE,LONG-TERM APPLICATION IN SCHOOLS SERVING SEVERELY HANDICAPPED STUDENTS

Experimental evaluations of behavioral staff management procedures usually have been limited to relatively small-scale demonstration studies. We evaluated a large-scale, long-term application of a staff management program designed to improve the functional utility of educational services for severely handicapped persons. The intervention, involving a brief in-service program followed by supervisory prompts and feedback, was implemented by three principals in four schools involving 21 classrooms. Implementation of the management procedures was consistently accompanied by increases in student involvement in functional educational tasks in each classroom. Further, the improved services continued throughout a 2-year follow-up period. Staff responses to a questionnaire indicated a high degree of staff acceptance of the management program. Results are discussed in terms of expanding the use of behavioral supervisory procedures from experimental demonstrations to actual adoption by existing human service agencies.     

Virtual reality goes to war: a brief review of the future of military behavioral healthcare

Numerous reports indicate that the incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in returning OEF/OIF military personnel is creating a significant healthcare challenge. These findings have served to motivate research on how to better develop and disseminate evidence-based treatments for PTSD. Virtual Reality delivered exposure therapy for PTSD has been previously used with reports of positive outcomes. This article details how virtual reality applications are being designed and implemented across various points in the military deployment cycle to prevent, identify and treat combat-related PTSD in OIF/OEF Service Members and Veterans. The summarized projects in these areas have been developed at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, a U.S. Army University Affiliated Research Center, and this paper will detail efforts to use virtual reality to deliver exposure therapy, assess PTSD and cognitive function and provide stress resilience training prior to deployment.     

A Comparison of Phonological Awareness Skills in Early French Immersion and English Children

This 2-year study examined the effects of early second language exposure on phonological awareness skills. Syllable, onset-rime and phoneme awareness skills of 72 anglophone children attending English or French immersion programs in primary and grade 1 were investigated. Three-way mixed ANOVAS revealed the following effects and interactions. In terms of grade effect, grade 1 students performed significantly better than primary students on phoneme and onset-rime tasks. A stimulus language effect was observed for the three levels of phonological awareness. All children performed better on English tasks than on French ones. Interaction effects of stimulus language by program were revealed for phoneme as well as syllable tasks. Posthoc analyses revealed that French students performed better on English phoneme and syllable tasks than on French, while English students performed better than French immersion students on French syllable tasks. Correlational analyses revealed significant relationships between reading and phoneme and onset-rime phonological awareness tasks regardless of program of instruction (English, French immersion) or language of reading test (English, French). Syllable awareness was only significantly correlated with the French non-word reading task for the French immersion students.     

Precurrent self-prompting operants in children: "Remembering"

In Experiment I, one of three forms of collateral behavior was trained: Differential collateral behavior specific in form to one of two discriminative stimuli; Common collateral behavior of a single form regardless of the stimulus; or Nondifferential collateral behavior of either form regardless of the stimulus. Children were next given a short-delay matching-to-sample task in which the discriminative stimuli served as samples, and the children's previously trained collateral behavior terminated the delay and presented the comparison stimuli. Subjects engaging in sample-specific collateral behavior immediately acquired matching. Subjects engaging in sample-nonspecific collateral behavior failed to acquire matching or did so gradually. In Experiment II the minimal delay in the matching task was varied in a mixed sequence, first with collateral behavior required, and then with collateral behavior prohibited. When emitting collateral behavior Common and Nondifferential subjects showed delay-related decrements in matching while Differential subjects did not. When not emitting collateral behavior all subjects showed delay-related decrements in matching. Common and Nondifferential subjects matched more accurately when prohibited from emitting collateral behavior. Differential subjects matched more accurately when emitting collateral behavior. The results accord with Skinner's (1953, 1968) analysis of precurrent operants.