Comparing Brief and Extended Wait-Time During Small Group Instruction for Children with Challenging Behavior

This preliminary study compared brief (1 s) and extended (4 s) wait-time on response opportunities, academic responses, accuracy, and disruptive behavior of two children with challenging behavior during small group instruction. Brief wait-time increased children’s response opportunities, academic responses, and accuracy in comparison to extended wait-time. Though variable, brief wait-time also decreased children’s disruptive behavior. Findings differ from previous research, which found performance improvements with extended wait-time for children with moderate to profound cognitive disabilities. Limitations of the study and future research suggestions are discussed.     

Priming meritocracy and the psychological justification of inequality

The belief that status in society is based on merit is a central feature of the American Dream. This belief system justifies status inequalities by locating the cause of status differences in the individual talents and efforts of group members. We hypothesized that activating meritocratic beliefs increases the extent to which individuals psychologically justify status inequalities, even when those inequalities are disadvantageous to the self. Specifically, we hypothesized that priming meritocracy prompts individuals to engage in system-justifying psychological responses when they experience threat either at the personal or group level. Across two studies, priming meritocracy led members of a low status group to justify both personal and group disadvantage by decreasing perceptions of discrimination (Studies 1 and 2) and increasing the extent to which they stereotyped themselves and their group in status-justifying ways (Study 2).     

The state of research and practice in augmentative and alternative communication for children with developmental/intellectual disabilities

Augmentative and alternative communication is a compilation of methods and technology designed to supplement spoken communication for people with limited speech or language skills, including children with developmental and intellectual disabilities. The field of AAC has evolved rapidly within the last 10 years, due to a combination of empirical advances from research as well as rapid changes in technology. This article reviews some of the most significant aspects of this growth as it relates to children with developmental disabilities. Major issues within the field, the evidence base available to practitioners and researchers, and promising areas of future growth are identified.     

Internalization of the thin ideal among low-income ethnic minority adolescent girls

Internalization of the thin ideal has been thought to occur disproportionately among Caucasian, upper-class girls and women. The current research challenges this view by assessing thin-ideal internalization among low-income ethnic minority girls (N = 48). This research identifies differences between low-income ethnic minority adolescent girls who highly internalize the thin ideal (HI) and those who have lower internalization of thinness (LI). Results indicate that HI and LI groups do not differ based on ethnicity or weight categorization. Body satisfaction, competence, and perceived sociocultural pressure were analyzed as individual differences between HI versus LI participants. Those in the LI group have higher athletic competence and body satisfaction ratings for weight compared to the HI group. By identifying differences in thin-ideal internalization in this understudied population, factors that may protect someone from endorsing the thin ideal may be discovered.     

A Critical Analysis of the Social Advocacy Movement in Counseling

The authors present (a) an overview of the recent literature on social advocacy, (b) results of a deconstructive analysis of the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of this movement, (c) a critical analysis of its role and function in the profession, and (d) a call to the profession. The deconstructive analysis revealed 2 major driving forces and 5 related trends; the critical analysis revealed 9 key areas of consideration. Implications and recommendations are presented.     

Responding to Negative Internal Experience: Relationships Between Acceptance and Change-Based Approaches and Psychological Adjustment

The authors examined the relationships between change-based and acceptance-based strategies for responding to negative internal experience (thoughts and emotions) and levels of psychological symptoms and well-being. A large sample of undergraduate students completed measures of their general frequency of experiencing negative affect and intrusive thoughts, their typical ways of responding when these experiences occur, and their levels of psychological symptoms and well-being. Correlational analyses showed that most of the identified ways of responding to negative internal experiences were significantly related to psychological symptoms and well-being, even after accounting for the general frequency of experiencing unwanted thoughts and emotions. Regression analyses suggested that change-based ways of responding add little or no incremental variance over acceptance-based strategies in accounting for lower symptom levels and greater well-being.     

Single and double alternation learning in rats: The role of set size and correction

In many experiments, rats have evidenced extreme difficulty mastering alternation patterns. In three experiments, we explored rats’ ability to learn double alternation patterns and possible reasons behind their past difficulties with such patterns. In Experiment 1, rats learned single and double alternation patterns. In the second and third experiment, we explored the role of correction and interference from stimulus set size on rats’ learning of double alternation patterns. Our results showed that rats easily learned both single and double alternation patterns and that stimulus set size had no noticeable effect on learning double alternation patterns. Findings additionally evidenced that correction played an important role in rats’ learning double alternation patterns.     

Emotion Regulation in Youth with Emotional Disorders: Implications for a Unified Treatment Approach

Given the relationship between internalizing disorders and deficits in emotion regulation in youth, the emotion science literature has suggested several avenues for increasing the efficacy of interventions for youth presenting with anxiety and depression. These possibilities include the identification and addition of emotion-regulation skills to existing treatment packages and broadening the scope of those emotions addressed in cognitive-behavioral treatments. Current emotion-focused interventions designed to meet one or both of these goals are discussed, and the developmental influences relevant to the selection of emotion-focused treatment goals are explored using the framework of a modal model of emotion regulation. These various lines of evidence are woven together to support the utility of a novel emotion-focused, cognitive-behavioral intervention, the Unified Protocol for the Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Youth, a transdiagnostic treatment protocol that aims to treat the range of emotional disorders (i.e., anxiety and depression) simultaneously. Avenues for future directions in treatment outcome and assessment of emotion regulation are also discussed.     

Measuring the difference limen for identification of order of onset for complex auditory stimuli

The approximately 20-msec perceptual threshold for identifying order of onset for components of auditory stimuli has been considered both as a possible factor contributing to the perception of voicing contrasts in speech and as no more than a methodological artifact. In the present research, we investigate the identification of the temporal order of onset of spectral components in terms of the first of a sequence of thresholds for complex stimuli (modeled after consonant-vowel [CV] syllables) that vary in degree of onset. The results provide clear evidence that the difference limen (DL) for discriminating differences in onset time follows predictions based on a fixed perceptual threshold or limit at relatively short onset differences. Furthermore, the DL seems to be a function of context coding of stimulus information, with both the DL and absolute threshold probably reflecting limits on the effective perception and coding of the short-term stimulus spectrum.