Stereotypes as Source-Monitoring Cues: On the Interaction Between Episodic and Semantic Memory

This research examined the use of stereotypic expectancies as source cues for biographical memories. Participants were more likely to misattribute stereotypical than counterstereotypical behaviors to a target person. However, this was true only when the original source of the behaviors was difficult to assess (there was source confusion) and recollective processes were impaired. Thus, when recollection of episodic details is disrupted, perceivers may still rely on semantic knowledge to interpret memories. These results demonstrate that stereotype use is efficient not only during the encoding of social information, but also during its retrieval. However, there are also significant costs associated with using stereotypes as source cues. Implications of these findings for social perception and eyewitness testimony are discussed.     

DEVELOPING GENERALIZED BEHAVIOR-MODIFICATION SKILLS IN HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS WORKING WITH RETARDED CHILDREN1

Seven high-school trainees each conducted training sessions with two profoundly retarded children. Each trainee was asked to teach one child to follow the instruction “Bring ball” and the other child to follow the instructions “Sit down” and “Come here”. During baseline sessions, before the trainees had been instructed in behavior-modification techniques, no trainee successfully taught either child to follow the instructions. After differing numbers of baseline sessions, trainees were exposed to training procedures designed to teach them to teach one child to follow the instruction “Bring ball”. The training procedures consisted of videotaped modelling, rehearsal, and corrective feedback and praise. Following the training procedures, four of the seven trainees successfully taught their child to follow the instruction “Bring ball”. Further, all trainees were able to teach their other children to follow the instructions “Sit down” and “Come here”, even though they had received no modelling, rehearsal, or feedback on how to teach the children to follow these instructions. The ability of the trainees to teach new behaviors to different children indicates the development of generalized skills in behavior modification.     

Increasing community independence for adolescents with spina bifida

This project sought to determine if a community-based habilitation program focusing on normalization and individual goal setting was effective in enhancing levels of independence in teenagers with spina bifida (myelomeningocele). The results of our formal and informal evaluation suggest that the program was effective. Using the goal-attainment scale for formal evaluation, the program averaged a score of 50.8, which reflects slightly better than expected outcomes. The greatest strength in the program was support and socialization among the teenagers. In addition, recommendations for practitioners in programming for teenagers are provided.     

Some factors controlling preference between fixed-ratio and variable-ratio schedules of reinforcement

A multiple schedule of food reinforcement for key-pecking was arranged which consisted of nine fixed-ratios, each of which operated in the presence of a different stimulus. Pigeons could complete a given fixed-ratio within the multiple schedule or, by pecking a second key, could switch from the fixed-ratio schedule to a variable-ratio schedule consisting of the same nine ratios. Stable switching behavior was established which did not maximize simple probability or rate of reinforcement. Instead, the subjects showed a stable preference for the variable-ratio schedule of food reinforcement. Increasing the number of responses required to switch, and removing the occasions on which reinforcement was delivered after a single response in the variable schedule, decreased the number of switches to the variable schedule. Periods of delay interposed between a completed switch and the availability of reinforcement after one response in the variable schedule also decreased switching to the variable schedule, particularly at long delay intervals.