The nature of behavioral assessment: A commentary

This special issue of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis provides the reader with a sample of current work in behavioral assessment. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of behavioral assessment and to place the other articles in context of this developing area.     

Report on blind subjects' tactile and auditory recognition for environmental stimuli.

In two related experiments on recognition-on touch and audition-accuracy rates were obtained from congenitally blind subjects and compared with those for normally sighted subjects. In Exp. 1, 5 blind subjects inspected, i.e., handled, 150 common objects and were tested after a delay of 7 days. In Exp. 2, 9 blind subjects listened to 194 naturalistic sounds and were also tested after a 7-day delay. Accuracy of tactile recognition for the blind was 89.4% while it was 87.9% for the normally sighted. Sound recognition by blind subjects was 76.6% and for the normally sighted it was 78.4%. Neither difference was statistically significant.     

Comparability of the WISC and WISC-R with bright elementary school students

The 50 subjects had met initial screening criteria for eligibility in a special program for the intellectually gifted. These 50, enrolled in grades 3 through 5 in Broward County, Florida, public schools, were next given the WISC and WISC-R, in a counterbalanced order: half were administered the WISC first; the other half was administered the WISC-R first. The test-retest interval was approximately 9 months. Higher mean IQ scores were obtained by the total group on the WISC as compared to WISC-R. However, the results showed that when the WISC-R was administered first, subsequent student WISC performance was significantly higher on all scales. No significant performance increase was obtained on the WISC-R when the WISC was administered initially. The results indicated that the WISC-R had a facilitative effect on the WISC, and that this effect did not appear when the order of administration was WISC-WISC-R. Quite conceivably, several differences in the instructions for administration of the WISC and the WISC-R enhanced the practice effect of initial WISC-R experience as opposed to initial WISC experience.     

A new technique for investigating the feeling of knowing

Previous investigations of the feeling of knowing (FOK) have relied on absolute FOK judgements rather than on relative FOK judgments. This has resulted in a confounding of (1) the subject's metamemorial knowledge of nonrecalled items with (2) the subject's know/don't-know threshold. The new technique replaces the absolute FOK judgments with relative FOK judgments in which the subject generates (via paired comparisons) a FOK rank order of nonrecalled items in terms of the predicted likelihood of recognition. This new technique eliminates the aforementioned confounding, provides a richer data base, and yields separate estimates of FOK validity and FOK reliability.     

The spatial attributes of stimulus frequency and their role in monaural localization of sound in the horizontal plane

Listeners, whose right ears were blocked, located low-intensity sounds originating from loudspeakers placed 15 deg apart along the horizontal plane on the side of the open, or functioning, ear. In Experiment 1, the stimuli consisted of noise bursts, 1.0 kHz wide and centered at 4.0 through 14.0 kHz in steps of .5 kHz. We found that the apparent location of the noise bursts was governed by their frequency composition. Specifically, as the center frequency was increased from 4.0 to about 8.0 kHz, the sound appeared to move away from the frontal sector and toward the side. This migration pattern of the apparent sound source was observed again when the center frequency was increased from 8.0 to about 12.0 kHz. Then, with center frequencies of 13.0 and 14.0 kHz, the sound appeared once more in front. We referred to this relation between frequency composition and apparent location in terms of spatial referent maps. In Experiment 2, we showed that localization was more proficient if the frequency content of the stimulus served to connect adjacent spatial referent maps rather than falling within a single map. By these means, we have further elucidated the spectral cues utilized in monaural localization of sound in the horizontal plane.     

Memory for sequences of stimuli and responses

Two experiments sought to determine if pigeons could discriminate and remember recent sequences of stimuli and responses. A variant of Konorski's short-term memory procedure involving successive presentation of sample and test stimuli was used. The samples were stimulus-response pairs of the form, (S-R)₁–(S-R)₂. Differential test responding disclosed memory of the two-item samples, with birds showing earlier and greater control by the second item than the first (Experiment 1). When the retention interval separating the second item of the sample sequence from the test stimulus was lenghtened from .5 to 2.0 or 4.0 sec, a systematic loss of stimulus control resulted; however, when varied over the same temporal range, the interval between the two items of the sample sequence had a much smaller effect, or none at all (Experiment 2). These results support an account of response-sequence differentiation that stresses short-term memory of organized behavior patterns.     

Methodological problems in the use of participant observers

A multiple baseline design across observed students and teachers was used to investigate the relationship between observations by participant observers and changes in the behavior of those observed ("observee" reactivity) and the observers (observer-mediator reactivity). Two teachers recorded consecutively the appropriate student verbalizations of four students and two teachers recorded the inappropriate student verbalizations of four students. Independent observers simultaneously recorded student verbalizations (appropriate and inappropriate) as well as teacher behaviors (positive, negative, and instruction) throughout all phases of the study. The results substantiated the prediction of "observee" reactivity and observer-mediator reactivity in one of four classrooms. The results of the present study suggest that in some instances, observations by participant observers may result in changes in the behavior of those being observed ("observee" reactivity) and/or the observers (observer-mediator reactivity).     

Studies toward a model of laterality effects for picture and word naming

Experiments requiring the naming of bilaterally presented nouns, picturable nouns, consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) nonwords, and line drawings are reported. In order to eliminate order of report strategies and facilitate comparison across experiments, the stimulus to be reported first was cued by underlining at presentation of each trial. Large right visual hemifield (RVF) superiorities were found to arise from both first and second reports for naming nouns and CVC nonwords. Drawings and picturable nouns, however, produced only a small RVF superiority arising entirely from subjects' second reports. It is proposed that hemispheric laterality effects for naming visually presented stimuli can arise from three principal sources, and the application of this model to existing studies is outlined.     

Age and sex differences in the development of children's occupational reasoning

The purpose of this study was an investigation of age and sex differences in the thinking processes that underlie children's occupational choices and their perception of adult roles. Subjects were 48 nursery school children (24 3-year-olds and 24 4-year-olds) and 48 third graders, all middle class, evenly divided by sex. Subjects were interviewed, using a modified form of Van Den Daele's Ego Ideal interview, on what they wanted to be when they grew up, their reasons for their choices, and their knowledge of means and ends regarding their choices. They were also asked what they would want to be if they were of the opposite sex. Tape-recorded responses were evaluated according to Van Den Daele's Ego Ideal levels. Analyses of variance indicated significant (p < .0001) changes of level with age. Sex differences were less pronounced and inconsistent. The range of occupations tended to increase with age, and both boys and girls expressed a broader range of choices for themselves than they did for the opposite sex. The study demonstrates that the process of vocational development is related to cognitive development; children's choices and reasoning reflect their changing modes of understanding the world.