Academic Processing Speed Mediates the Influence of Both Externalizing Behavior and Language Skills on the Academic Skills of Students with Emotional Disturbance

The results from previous research suggest that there is a relatively small (albeit statistically significant) relationship between the externalizing behavior and academic skills of students with emotional disturbance (ED). Researchers have also found that the majority of these students have language deficits that hinder their academic performance. The purposes of this study were to investigate the mediating role of academic processing speed (i.e., academic fluency) on the relationship between: (a) The externalizing behavior and academic skills of K-12 students with ED; and (b) language skills and academic skills of students with ED. Results indicate that academic processing speed mediated the influence of both language skills and externalizing behavior on academic skills of this population. The findings, limitations, and implications were discussed.     

In defence of the concept of ‘spiritual education’: a reply to Roger Marples

In a paper published in Volume 11, no. 2, of this journal, Roger Marples argued that the term ‘spiritual education’ is at most superfluous and at worst entirely meaningless. He suggested that the use of the term is unhelpful and will continue to be so unless and until we can identify some body of spiritual knowledge and understanding, linked to experience, which is distinct from, and in some sense ‘beyond’, those of moral, aesthetic and other forms of experience.

This paper critique's Marples's thesis. It examines his ploy of admitting only certain forms of knowledge and understanding, and of privileging certain languages, when determining the rules of engagement with the concept of ‘the spiritual’. It is further argued that to require some empirical evidence in the form of personal experience before the words ‘spiritual’ and ‘spiritual education’ can be meaningful is fundamentally misguided. In conclusion, it is suggested that a willingness to embrace the spiritual as concept, experience and awareness is essential to the education of the child as a whole person.     

The social phobia and social interaction anxiety scales: An exploration of the dimensions of social anxiety and sex differences in structure and relations with pathology

This study sought to provide information on the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) of Mattick and Clarke (1989) with respect to factor structure, relations with psychopathology, and sex differences. A sample of 200 university students completed the SPS and SIAS and various measures of anxiety symptoms and depression. The results from the factor analyses for the sample as a whole suggest the presence of three factors corresponding to scrutiny fears, social interaction anxiety, and a general level of discomfort in social interactions. The results for men replicated this structure. For women, the three-factor solution demonstrated a blurring between the types of anxiety-provoking situations, and a general discomfort in situations involving differences in social power. In general, the discomfort factor was not correlated with measures of pathology, raising the possibility that uneasiness in these situations represents a process that is not part of social anxiety. The distinction between scrutiny fears and social interaction anxiety was also supported by the pattern of partial correlations that suggests that the presence of scrutiny fears is a stronger predictor of psychopathology than is social interaction anxiety, especially for men.     

Use of HyperCard to create pages on the World-Wide Web

A variety of commercial and shareware programs are now available to assist in creating HTML pages for a World-Wide Web (WWW) site. However, users with some knowledge of HTML coding and a simple programming language, such as the HyperTalk language in HyperCard, can create custom tools that will simplify the task of creating and maintaining multiple-page WWW sites. This paper presents examples of two such tools and describes the basic steps they use to create HTML documents.     

Millisecond timing on the IBM PC/XT/AT and PS/2: A review of the options and corrections for the Graves and Bradley algorithm

Eleven methods of obtaining millisecond timing on the IBM microcomputer family are briefly reviewed. In our view, the approach recommended by Smith and Puckett (1984) has the fewest limitations, but it must be modified to prevent rare, yet unacceptable, errors. The modified algorithm has been presented for Turbo Pascal, C, and in the present paper, for BASIC and QuickBASIC.     

Measuring the quality of residential care

Administrative personnel require objective, reliable and valid information in order to monitor the effects of allocating resources to different components of the service that they are providing. The initial problem is to define and measure the dependent variable—the ‘quality of care’ —against which the effects of changing various independent variables can be evaluated. The paper describes an attempt to use the operant conditioning model as a basis for constructing such a measure of the quality of care provided in residential settings for severely mentally handicapped people. The rationale for adopting this model is described, against a background of other studies in which the same problem has been addressed. The hypothesis, the tasks generated, and the methodological problems encountered, are outlined and discussed.

A subsequent paper will present the results obtained when using the method to measure the quality of care, so defined, in two residential units for severely mentally handicapped children.     

A chamber for separating visual and physical prey access from predators

A chamber is described that provides automated separation of various phases of depredation dynamics. Two solenoid actuated doors control visual and physical access to prey items. A lever operandum is programmable to require differential response outputs by the predator. Search lever responses open one door and allow detection which may then be followed by pursuit lever responses and ultimate access for capture. The chamber is suitable for such medium sized predators as foxes and coyotes.     

THE RIGHT TO EFFECTIVE BEHAVIORAL TREATMENT

We propose that individuals who are recipients or potential recipients of treatment designed to change their behavior have the right to a therapeutic environment, services whose overriding goal is personal welfare, treatment by a competent behavior analyst, programs that teach functional skills, behavioral assessment and ongoing evaluation, and the most effective treatment procedures available.