A COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION OF REINFORCER IDENTIFICATION PROCESSES FOR PERSONS WITH PROFOUND MULTIPLE HANDICAPS

We evaluated comprehensively a preference assessment for identifying reinforcers for persons with profound multiple handicaps. Four experiments were conducted involving 18 individuals. Results of Experiment 1 replicated previous findings in that the assessment identified student preferences for respective stimuli, and caregiver opinion of preferences did not coincide with the systematic assessment. Results of Experiment 2 indicated highly preferred stimuli were likely to function as reinforcers in training programs, whereas stimuli not highly preferred did not function as reinforcers. Results of Experiment 3 suggested the 12 stimuli used in the assessment represented a comprehensive stimulus set for identifying preferences, although the utility of the set sometimes could be enhanced by caregiver opinion. Results of Experiment 4 indicated the assessment identified preferences likely to be maintained over time. Overall, results are discussed in terms of identifying limits and alternatives to a behavioral teaching technology when applied to persons with profound multiple handicaps.     

Community,liberty and the practice of teaching

Does the cultivation of liberty undermine communities of practice? The answer depends significantly on what is meant by the cultivation of liberty and on what is meant by a community of practice. On the question of community, the work of Rawls and Sandel serves as a starting point. I examine three conceptions — the instrumental, the sentimental and the constitutive — and attempt to illustrate them with examples of communities of practice. I argue that Sandel's criterion for distinguishing between the sentimental and constitutive conceptions of community does not do the work required of it. On the question of liberty undermining community, I argue that if liberty is taken as license then it is a threat both to communities and to practices, whereas if it is taken as independence then it threatens neither. Two conceptions of independence can be distinguished. One, which is central to liberal political theory, does not presuppose an account of the good; the other, which I argue is central to the flourishing of a community of practice, does. It presupposes that account of the good which is implicit in the end or telos of the practice concerned.     

The effect of sleep-loss on processing information in the functional visual field

Two experiments are reported on the effects of sleepstate on performance in a same/different matching task, where two visual signals are presented under visual angles of either 10°, 45°, or 100°. The first study showed a stronger effect of sleep-loss at a more wide display. The effect consists of two parts: one is interpreted as due to the initiation and execution of the shift of gaze from the one to the other signal, and the other to the requirement of integrating successively perceived signals. These interpretations were tested in the second study. It was found that a more pronounced effect of sleep loss occurred when two signals are successively presented, but not when the signals are simultaneously viewed, while preceded by a shift of gaze. The implications of the data are discussed.     

Detection of a deficit in visual discrimination of pattern following lesions of anterior cortex: role of type of motivation.

6 albino rats were trained under appetitive motivation to perform diametrically opposed visual discriminations of pattern via opposite eyes. Small lesions were subsequently placed unilaterally in anterior neocortex. Following a period of post-surgical recovery, subjects were re-trained on the diammetrically opposed discriminations in alternating 10-trial blocks. Every subject made more post-surgical errors on the discrimination mediated by the eye contralateral to the lesion. Since albino rats have virtually complete decussation of the visual system, this indicates selective impairment in mediation of performance of pattern discrimination in the part of the lesioned hemispheres. Thus, findings previously obtained in studies involving aversive motivation are general to appetitively motivated tasks.     

Is future self-relevance necessary to increase saving for retirement? A replication study

Insufficient saving for retirement is one consequence of excessive discounting of the future but attempts to mitigate it often involve costly or time-intensive personalized interventions. Marques, Mariano, Lima, and Abrams, by contrast, found that using a generic Future Time Perspective questionnaire to increase future “self-relevance” was an effective method to increase money allocation to retirement when the salience of future aging was also higher. Originally conducted in Portugal, the present study aimed to replicate Marques et al’s findings in the UK context. In the present study (n = 219), participants were shown a website advertising a financial product. The results support Marques and colleagues’ assertion that, alone, a website priming future aging was insufficient to increase retirement savings in a money allocation task. However, in contrast to Marques et al’s original findings, we find no evidence that future self-relevance moderates the effect such that priming future aging becomes effective when individuals have higher future self-relevance. Instead, we find that aging primes are ineffective at increasing retirement saving regardless of whether individuals are high or low in future self-relevance. Possible explanations for this discrepancy in findings, including methodological and cultural differences, are explored as well as directions for future research.