EFFECTS OF DIRECT,INTERMITTENT, AND VICARIOUS REINFORCEMENT PROCEDURES ON THE DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF INSTRUCTION-FOLLOWING BEHAVIORS IN A GROUP OF YOUNG CHILDREN1

A group of young children (mean age: 2.5 yr) were instructed to follow different requests by a teacher in a day-care setting. Experiment I verified that mean group instruction following was low (10%) despite the opportunity for “observational learning”, i.e., the group of 12 children could watch a nonreinforced adult comply with the teacher's request. In Experiment II, when positive consequences were provided contingent on the adult model's behavior, mean group instruction following was relatively unaffected (14%). When direct reinforcement was given to four peer models, each for several sessions, the individual performances of three of the four peer models was elevated (from 50% to 80%); however, the mean performance of the remaining nonreinforced children (N = 7) was only moderately affected (21%). When reinforcement contingencies were again changed, so that each group member was provided direct, but intermittent reinforcement, mean group performance increased substantially to levels of over 70%. Once instruction following was high, presentation of reinforcement only to one peer model sufficed to maintain performance whereas earlier, this same vicarious reinforcement procedure had failed to establish group compliance. The maintenance of instruction-following behavior when reinforcement was applied solely to one child was interpreted mainly in terms of a high resistance to extinction following a history of intermittent reinforcement rather than a “vicarious”- or “self”-reinforcement mechanism. Finally, removal and re-introduction of group intermittent reinforcement, respectively, lowered performance (to levels of 40%) and elevated (to levels of 65%) the group's performance.     

Why are there eccentricity effects in visual search? Visual and attentional hypotheses

In standard visual search experiments, observers search for a target item among distracting items. The locations of target items are generally random within the display and ignored as a factor in data analysis. Previous work has shown that targets presented near fixation are, in fact, found more efficiently than are targets presented at more peripheral locations. This paper proposes that the primary cause of this “eccentricity effect” (Carrasco, Evert, Chang, & Katz, 1995) is an attentional bias that allocates attention preferentially to central items. The first four experiments dealt with the possibility that visual, and not attentional, factors underlie the eccentricity effect. They showed that the eccentricity effect cannot be accounted for by the peripheral reduction in visual sensitivity, peripheral crowding, or cortical magnification. Experiment 5 tested the attention allocation model and also showed that RT X set size effects can be independent of eccentricity effects. Experiment 6 showed that the effective set size in a search task depends, in part, on the eccentricity of the target because observers search from fixation outward.     

Anxiety and sensitivity to eye gaze in emotional faces

This paper reports three studies in which stronger orienting to perceived eye gaze direction was revealed when observers viewed faces showing fearful or angry, compared with happy or neutral, emotional expressions. Gaze-related spatial cueing effects to laterally presented fearful faces and centrally presented angry faces were also modulated by the anxiety level of participants, with high- but not low-state anxious individuals revealing enhanced shifts of attention. In contrast, both high- and low-state anxious individuals demonstrated enhanced orienting to averted gaze when viewing laterally presented angry faces. These results provide novel evidence for the rapid integration of facial expression and gaze direction information, and for the regulation of gaze-cued attention by both the emotion conveyed in the perceived face and the degree of anxiety experienced by the observer.     

The Cognitive Development Society Best Authored Book Award

At the third biennial meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, held in San Diego, California, in October 2005, the Society was pleased to announce the winner of the first Best Authored Book Award. The volume selected for the award was Susan Gelman's The Essential Child: Origins of Essentialism in Everyday Thought (2003, Oxford University Press). The Best Authored Book Award was initiated by the third President of the Society, Susan Goldin-Meadow (2003-2005). The Essential Child is the first recipient of the award. It was selected from among 10 nominations of volumes published in 2002 or 2003; the other nominees are listed below. The volumes were considered by committee members Patricia Bauer (Chair), Judy DeLoache, Jean Mandler, Nora Newcombe, and Steve Reznick. Congratulations Susan Gelman, on receipt of the first Cognitive Development Society Best Authored Book Award.     

COMPREHENSION INSTRUCTION IN A READING CLINIC: COMPARISON OF CLINIC AND CLASSROOM PRACTICES

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine middle school students’ (grades 4 to 8) metacognitive knowledge about science reading, science text, and science reading strategies. The 52 subjects were selected from 532 students who completed a survey instrument designed to determine students’ knowledge about science reading, science text, and science reading strategies. The stratified randomly sampled students were interviewed using five structured protocols. The protocol items were based on 21 strategic characteristics of successful readers of science text and three domains of metacognitive knowledge: declarative, procedural, and conditional. Quantitative analyses reveal surface level metacognitive knowledge about 20 of 21 strategies explored and similar levels of knowledge across the three metacognitive domains. A qualitative analysis indicates that average middle school students’ metacognitive knowledge of science reading, science text, and science reading strategies is similar to that of younger and poorer readers of narrative text.     

The influence of external stimulation on airflow detection by children with asthma

Abstract

The relevance and significance of the concept of a ‘competition of cues’ for the understanding of symptom perception in childhood asthma was investigated during detection of externally applied resistive loads on breathing. The concept predicts that subjects would respond less frequently and less accurately during external stimulation. The sample consisted of 36 children with and 36 without asthma, aged 7-18 years. Detection of airflow was measured in a neutral and in an external stimulation condition. The children breathed through a facemask and responded to changes in airflow by pressing a button. The stimulus presented and withdrawn was analogous to a decrease in lung function (Forced Expiratory Volume in one second) of 39%. Accuracy of detection of airflow was defined as correct minus false positive responses to load stimuli.

The results showed that children with and without asthma responded significantly less frequently during external stimulation than in the neutral condition. However, the accuracy of detection among non-asthmatics was not affected by external stimulation. Children with asthma responded significantly more accurately during external stimulation. The results are discussed in the light of children's accuracy to perceive actual airways obstruction.     

The Effects of Warnings and Speeding on Scale Scores and Convergent Validity of Conscientiousness

We examined the effects of warnings and speeding on scale scores and convergent validity of a measure of Conscientiousness in a faking context (N = 329). A completely crossed 2 × 2 experimental design was used in which instructions (no warning or a warning) and speeding (with or without a time limit) were manipulated. No statistically significant effects on scale scores or convergent validity were evidenced for speeding. Warning participants did decrease Conscientiousness scores by almost 1 standard deviation (d = .91). Warnings also moderated the relationship between self- and observer-ratings of Conscientiousness such that the relationship between self- and observer-ratings was statistically significant and positive in the warned conditions (r _partial = .29, p < .01, n = 136), but this same relationship was statistically nonsignificant (r _partial = ?.14, p > .05, n = 148) in the unwarned conditions.