Self‐Efficacy Assessment and Generalization in Physical Education Courses1

Physical education courses can have effects that generalize past their immediate task as measured by increases in domain‐specific self‐efficacy. It was predicted that competitive combative courses like boxing would be more likely to have skills generalize to other domains than noncontact courses like swimming. A Physical Education Self‐Efficacy Scale was created that focused on 2 different domains of self‐efficacy: 1 specific to the course (physicality), and 1 in a disparate domain (leadership initiative). Students were given the scale before and after the 2 different courses. Results indicate that there were small but significant increases in both subscales for students enrolled in boxing, but not for students enrolled in swimming. Physicality self‐efficacy also correlated strongly with performance. Implications and mechanisms for generalization of self‐efficacy to neighboring domains are discussed.     

A note on testing for homogeneity among effect sizes sharing a common control group

L. V. Hedges and I. Olkin (1985) presented a statistic to test for homogeneity among correlated effect sizes and L. J. Gleser and I. Olkin (1994) presented a large-sample approximation to the covariance matrix of the correlated effect sizes. This article presents a more exact expression for this covariance matrix, assuming normally distributed data but not large samples, for the situation where effect sizes are correlated because a single control group was compared with more than one treatment group. After the correlation between effect sizes has been estimated, the standard Q statistic for correlated effect sizes can be used to test for homogeneity. This method is illustrated using results from schizophrenia research.     

Common processes may contribute to extinction and habituation

Psychologists routinely attribute the characteristics of conditioned behavior to complicated cognitive processes. For example, many of the characteristics of behavior undergoing extinction have been attributed to retrieval from memory. The authors argue that these characteristics may result from the simpler process of habituation. In particular, conditioned responding may decrease during extinction partially because habituation occurs to the stimuli that control responding when those stimuli are presented repeatedly or for a prolonged time (e.g., the experimental context, the conditioned stimulus in classical conditioning). This idea is parsimonious, has face validity, and evokes only processes that are well established by other evidence. In addition, behavior undergoing extinction shows 12 of the fundamental properties of behavior undergoing habituation. However, this model probably cannot provide a complete theory of extinction. It provides no obvious explanation for some of the other characteristics of extinguished behavior.     

Direct estimates of processing delays in the attentional blink

 When two targets (T1 and T2) are presented in rapid succession, identification of T2 is often impaired (attentional blink: AB). The two-stage model accounts for the AB deficit by assuming that: (a) T2 is delayed in Stage 1 while Stage 2 is busy processing T1, and (b) T2 is vulnerable to masking while delayed. We report converging evidence for the model by evaluating these assumptions independently of the AB deficit itself. The results show that: (a) response times for T2 identification decreased as the lag between T1 and T2 was increased; (b) response times for T2 decreased across lags only if T1 was masked; and (c) accuracy of T2 identification increased as the stimulus-onset asynchrony between T2 and the trailing mask was increased. Received: 4 February 1999 / Accepted: 26 July 1999     

Experience-dependent changes in dendritic arbor and spine density in neocortex vary qualitatively with age and sex

Male and female Long-Evans hooded rats were placed in the complex environments for 3 months either at weaning (22 days), in young adulthood (120 days), or in senescence (24 months). The dendritic morphology of both the apical and basilar fields of layer III pyramidal cells was analyzed in both parietal and visual cortex. There were two novel results. First, although spine density was increased significantly with complex-housing in adulthood, it was decreased significantly by the same housing during development. Second, dendritic length was increased in both parietal and occipital cortex at all ages in males and was increased in adult females as well, but juvenile females showed no change in dendritic length in the occipital cortex and only a small effect on the apical field in parietal cortex. Thus, there are qualitative differences in the changes in spine density at different ages and the dendritic changes in response to complex versus isolated housing vary with sex, and in females, the changes vary with age as well. These results may explain some of the apparent inconsistencies in reports of spine and dendrite changes in the literature.     

Within-session rates of responding when reinforcer magnitude is changed within the session

In the present experiment, the authors investigated the idea that within-session changes in operant response rates occur because subjects sensitize and then habituate to the reinforcer. If that is true, then altering an aspect of the reinforcer within the session should alter the observed within-session responding. The authors tested that idea by having rats press a lever for 2 food-pellet reinforcers delivered by a variable-interval 120-s schedule during 60-min baseline sessions. In treatment conditions, the magnitude of the reinforcer was halved (1 pellet) or doubled (4 pellets) 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 min into the session. That magnitude of reinforcement then remained in effect for the rest of the session. Altering reinforcer magnitude altered the rates of responding within the session in a fashion consistent with the habituation explanation, that is, response rates increased, relative to baseline, when the magnitude of reinforcement was increased. They decreased when the magnitude was decreased. Those results were seemingly inconsistent with the competing idea that within-session decreases in responding rates are produced by satiation.     

Comparison of naturalistic and arbitrary discriminative stimuli during schedule thinning following functional communication training

We replicated and extended research on incorporating naturalistic discriminative stimuli into schedule thinning following functional communication training with three boys with autism spectrum disorder who engaged in severe behavior. Comparing naturalistic to arbitrary discriminative stimuli, two participants demonstrated differentiated communication in fewer sessions when arbitrary stimuli were used, while the third participant mastered the discriminations in a comparable number of sessions. Although previous research has demonstrated success in rapidly thinning the schedule with arbitrary stimuli, we extended this line of research by evaluating the extent to which differentiated communication would maintain during rapid schedule thinning in both naturalistic and arbitrary conditions. Two participants' communication remained differentiated, and in both conditions, during rapid schedule thinning. However, neither discrimination maintained for the third participant. Results are discussed in terms of the existing literature and directions for future research.     

Treatment of Comorbid Pica and Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Case Study

This case report describes the assessment and treatment of a treatment-naïve 36-year-old Hispanic/Latina female with comorbid pica and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and iron-deficiency anemia. At the onset of treatment, the client consumed chalkboard chalk and vermiculite from potting soil approximately three times per week and presented with moderate-severity GAD. Assessment and treatment occurred over 24 weekly outpatient individual sessions. Treatment was delivered in concert with medical intervention to address anemia. A cognitive-behavioral case formulation was developed from multiple assessment sources. A process-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention approach was used to target GAD and pica simultaneously, which included psychoeducation, self-monitoring, arousal reduction skills, cognitive training (reappraisal, distancing), and behavior modification/stimulus control techniques. Barriers to treatment and their solutions are discussed. At the end of treatment, the client demonstrated increased insight and understanding of her worry symptoms and pica behavior, acquired cognitive skills and arousal reduction strategies for managing GAD, and reported less than one episode of pica per week. The identified assessment and treatment approach is worthy of future investigation to inform empirically based treatment development efforts, especially for pica.     

Pushing Back the Boundaries of Doubt

Studies in Philosophy and Education -     

Secondary attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder following perinatal and childhood stroke: impact on cognitive and academic outcomes

This cross-sectional retrospective clinical research study examines a large group of children followed within a pediatric stroke program and a developmental attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) clinic at the Hospital for Sick Children, between May 2004 and June 2016. All children with a history of stroke who participated in a neuropsychological assessment between the ages of 4 and 18 years were considered for inclusion. From a sample of 275 participants with a history of stroke, 36 children (13.1%) received a diagnosis of secondary ADHD. Children with secondary ADHD were younger at the time of stroke and more likely to be identified as having a presumed perinatal stroke and persistent seizures than children without secondary ADHD diagnoses. There were no differences in pattern of lesion, size, or laterality between children who developed secondary ADHD and those who did not. Children with secondary ADHD had the lowest scores across all cognitive and academic measures compared to children with stroke-only and developmental ADHD. Findings highlight the added risk of receiving a diagnosis of secondary ADHD following pediatric stroke. Implications for future research and directed intervention are discussed.