A note on monotone polygons fitted to bivariate data

The monotone regression function of Kruskal and the rank image function of Guttman and Lingoes were fitted to bivariate normal samples and their statistical properties contrasted.This paper was written while the author was a Visiting Professor in the Department of Psychology, University College, London.     

Response latency of gerbils and hamsters to nuts flavoured with bitter-tasting substances

The unconditioned reactions of Mongolian gerbils to peanuts rolled in sucrose octa-acetate (SOA) or denatomium benzoate (Bitrex) were studied in Experiment 1. Although SOA evokes as high a bitterness rating among humans as quinine salts, the gerbils' latency to ingest a nut flavoured with the former was similar to that to an unflavoured nut. Their oral latency to a nut that was flavoured with Bitrex was longer than to either an unflavoured one or one flavoured with SOA. However, the fact that they ingested a nut flavoured with the “most bitter substance known to man” within 70 sec after contact is surprising. Experiment 2 dealt with the effects of a peanut that was either unflavoured or flavoured with SOA or quinine and then paired with a LiCl injection. The oral latency of these gerbils to a nut conveying such flavours was assessed for six days after this conditioning. A nut flavoured with quinine acquired aversive properties but not ones that were flavoured with SOA or were unflavoured. Similar results were observed in Experiment 3, when hamsters were tested under comparable conditions. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed.     

Reaction times and dyslexia

Five groups of children, including two groups of dyslexics (aged 15 and 11 years), were tested on simple reaction, selective choice reaction, and lexical decision tasks. In simple reactions to a pure tone, the dyslexic children responded as quickly as their chronological age controls and significantly faster than their reading age controls. In selective choice reactions to pure tones, the dyslexic children were significantly impaired compared with their chronological age controls and no faster than their reading age controls. This speed impairment obtained even though a selective choice reaction task has only one positive response. In “by-item” analyses of lexical decisions to spoken words, the dyslexic children were significantly impaired compared even with their reading age controls. The pattern of results suggests that at least two factors contribute to slowness of dyslexic children: a general deficit reflected in slower stimulus classification speed and a linguistic deficit reflected in slower lexical access speed.     

Correction to: Religiosity and Health-Related Quality of Life: A Cross-Sectional Study on Filipino Christian Hemodialysis Patients

Journal of Religion and Health - The authors regret that the following error occurred in the original publication of the article. The corrected text has been presented with this erratum. In the...     

Tactile Prompting and Weekly Performance Feedback for Increasing Teachers’ Behavior-Specific Praise

The school-based consultation literature includes a variety of empirically supported procedures for increasing teachers’ implementation of classroom management strategies. However, teachers may respond differently to empirically supported consultation procedures. This study used a multiple baseline design across three elementary teachers to test the effects of a tactile prompting and weekly performance feedback consultation procedure for increasing teachers’ behavior-specific praise. Additionally, this study included data for teachers’ rate of reprimands and their classrooms’ appropriately engaged behavior and disruptive behavior. Results indicated that tactile prompting and weekly performance feedback increased behavior-specific praise for all three teachers. However, a functional relation between tactile prompting and weekly performance feedback and changes in teachers’ reprimands and their classrooms’ appropriately engaged and disruptive behavior was not established. Implications for applied practice, and limitations and directions for future research are discussed.     

Dyadic social behaviour in the hamster: Evidence for contextual mediation

Dyadic social interactions among 34 adult male golden hamsters reared in either standard wire cages (Experiment 1) or cages with sandy substrates (Experiment 2) were observed for 15 min on consecutive days in two neutral arenas with either a bare Plexiglas or a sandy substrate. The tests showed that in the arena with the sandy substrate the hamsters spent less time engaged in agonistic encounters, initiated fewer agonistic encounters of all kinds and engaged in fewer agonistic encounters of a potentially physically damaging nature (i.e. violent encounters) than they did in the arena with the Plexiglas substrate. These effects were the same in animals reared under either condition. This finding argues against the behavioural effects being due to the novelty of a sand substrate to laboratory-reared hamsters. Consequently, the social behaviour of hamsters in laboratory settings is highly labile across various contexts. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the behavioural effects of contextual variables if general behavioural principles are to be derived from laboratory indices of social behaviour in hamsters, and possibly a number of other species.