Toward a comprehensive view of the skills involved in word reading in Grades 4, 6, and 8

Research to date has proposed four main variables involved in reading development: phonological awareness, naming speed, orthographic knowledge, and morphological awareness. Although each of these variables has been examined in the context of one or two of the other variables, this study examines all four factors together to assess their unique contribution to reading. A sample of children in Grades 4, 6, and 8 (ages 10, 12, and 14 years) completed a battery of tests that included at least one measure of each of the four variables and two measures of reading accuracy. Phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and morphological awareness each contributed uniquely to real word and pseudoword reading beyond the other variables, whereas naming speed did not survive these stringent controls. The results support the sustained importance of these three skills in reading by older readers.     

Environmental influences on reading‐related outcomes: an adoption study

Evidence from intervention studies, quantitative genetic and molecular genetic studies suggests that genetic, and to a lesser extent, shared environmental influences are important to the development of reading and related cognitive skills. The Northeast‐Northwest Collaborative Adoption Projects (N2CAP) is a sample of 241 adoptive families, containing 354 children and their adoptive parents. Negative parent outcome × child age interactions significantly predicted child outcomes, suggesting that shared environmental influences related to parent–offspring resemblance, although modest, are most salient in younger children. Additional analyses suggested that identified measures of the family environment largely accounted for these parent–offspring correlations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reviews: Books, Theater, and Painting

JUNG AND THE POSTMODERN: THE INTERPRETATION OF REALITIES. By Christopher Hauke. 304 pp. London & Philadelphia: Routledge, 2000. THE FASHIONING OF ANGELS: PARTNERSHIP AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE. By Stephen and Robin Larsen. pp. Chrysalis Books, 2000, $19.95. CHILDREN IN THERAPY: USING THE FAMILY AS A RESOURCE. Edited by C. Everett Bailey. 529 pp. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. $45.00. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND COPING: THEORY, RESEARCH, PRACTICE. By Kenneth I. Pargament. New York: Guilford Press, 1997. $50.00. SOUL WILDERNESS: A DESERT SPIRITUALITY. By Kerry Walters. 153pp. New York/Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 2001. $12.95. SOUL MAKING: THE DESERT WAY OF SPIRITUALITY. By Alan Jones. 215 pp. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1985. $16.00. Theater: Words of Albert Schweitzer and the Music of Bach. Painting: Vermeer and the Delft School     

TRAINED,GENERALIZED, AND COLLATERAL BEHAVIOR CHANGES OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN RECEIVING GROSS-MOTOR SKILLS TRAINING

Three preschool children participated in a behavioral training program to improve their gross-motor skills. Ten target behaviors were measured in the training setting to assess direct effects of the program. Generalization probes for two gross-motor behaviors, one fine-motor skill, and two social behaviors were conducted in other settings. Results indicated that the training program improved the gross-motor skills trained and that improvements sometimes generalized to other settings. Contrary to suggestions in educational literature, the gross-motor training program did not produce changes in fine-motor skills or social behaviors. Implications for educators and for the development of the technology of generalization are outlined.     

Coping Strategies,Substance Use,Sexual Activity,and HIV Sexual Risks in a Sample of Gay Male STD Patients1

The relationships of coping strategies with levels of substance use and sexual activity, and with HIV sexual risks, are examined in a sample of gay male STD clinic patients (n = 416). Previous research has suggested that use of problem-focused coping strategies should be negatively related to levels of substance use, levels of sexual activity, and HIV sexual risks; use of emotion-focused coping strategies should be positively related to these outcomes. It is argued that substance use and sexual activity clearly fit within a coping perspective, but that the HIV sexual risks/coping relationship is less clear. In multivariate analysis, the problem-focused strategy of advice seeking is negatively related to the number of types of drugs used and to the number of sexual partners; the problem-focused strategy of support seeking is negatively related to the number of days using drugs; and the use of emotion-focused strategies is positively related to the number of types of drugs used. Problem-focused coping strategies are less directly related to engaging in HIV sexual risks when measures of substance use and of sexual activity are included in the prediction; emotion-focused coping strategies are more stably related to HIV risk. Indirect effects of coping on HIV risk are also identified through the effects of coping on the number of types of drugs used, number of sex partners, and number of times having sex. It is proposed that the relationships between coping and levels of substance use and sexual activity reflect the use of these activities as ways of relieving strain, but that relationships between coping and HIV sexual risks involve less clearly understood direct and indirect relationships.     

IMPLICATIONS OF BEHAVIORAL PHARMACOLOGY RESEARCH FOR APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSES: JEAB'S SPECIAL ISSUE CELEBRATING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF JOSEPH V. BRADY (MARCH 1994)

We review four articles from JEAB's March 1994 issue celebrating the contributions of Joseph V. Brady. These articles have implications for studying private events and for studying multiple operants. We suggest that regularly including self-reports about private events in behavioral pharmacological research has resulted in an accumulated knowledge that has facilitated examination of interesting relations among self-reports, environmental factors, and other observable behaviors. Methodological lessons that behavioral pharmacologists have learned regarding the study of multiple operants are also relayed. We provide examples of how these lessons could be useful to applied behavior analysts studying nonpharmacological issues.     

The use of expectancy theory in the explanation of turnover in ROTC

A questionnaire was administered to 142 mate students who were enrolled in ROTC and 18 male students who had dropped out of ROTC. Several months later seven of the above 142 subjects dropped out of ROTC. A ratio expectancy theory model was developed from the questionnaire as an operational definition of motivation to remain in ROTC. The results indicated that the 25 dropouts had a significantly lower (p < .001) score on this motivational measure than the 135 subjects who were still enrolled in ROTC, and also that these latter subjects were as strongly attracted to a civilian job as they were to an Army job. The implications of these findings relative to the ability of the Army to attract career officers were discussed.     

Effects of Responding or Not Responding to Hecklers on Audience Agreement with a Speaker

The hypothesis that responding to hecklers would produce more agreement with a speaker than not responding, stemmed from commodity theory (Brock, 1968). One hundred twenty-one introductory speech students participated in what they were told was a "speech workshop" (not a psychology experiment). Two types of responding to live hecklers were used: In one, the speaker responded in a calm, relevant manner; in the other, she responded in an upset, irrelevant manner. In a third condition, the speaker did not respond to the heckles. There were two additional conditions: One in which the speaker responded to interruptions, and a further control in which there were neither heckles nor interruptions. In these five conditions, the speaker either argued for or against the audience's position. Regardless of whether or not the speaker's position agreed with the audience's, upset-irrelevant responding decreased the speaker's persuasiveness over making no response, while calm-relevant responding tended to enhance persuasiveness. Finally, in agreement with all other empirical studies, it was clearly shown that heckling, whether responded to or not, did not improve the speaker's effectiveness.