A comparison of prompting methods to teach sight words to students with autism spectrum disorder

Time delay procedures are one of the most commonly used and effective strategies for teaching sight words to learners with disabilities. However, less is known about whether they are differentially effective and efficient with learners. This study compared the effectiveness and efficiency of progressive time delay and simultaneous prompting on sight word acquisition among three learners with autism spectrum disorder using an adapted alternating treatments design across word sets. For two participants, both procedures led to skill acquisition with no clear differences in efficiency. For the remaining participant, neither procedure was effective; therefore, the reading task was changed to a receptive one, and a stimulus fading intervention package was implemented.     

Habituation and novelty detection fNIRS brain responses in 5‐ and 8‐month‐old infants: The Gambia and UK

The first 1,000 days of life are a critical window of vulnerability to exposure to socioeconomic and health challenges (i.e. poverty/undernutrition). The Brain Imaging for Global Health (BRIGHT) project has been established to deliver longitudinal measures of brain development from 0 to 24 months in UK and Gambian infants and to assess the impact of early adversity. Here results from the Habituation‐Novelty Detection (HaND) functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) task at 5 and 8 months are presented (N = 62 UK; N = 115 Gambia). In the UK cohort distinct patterns of habituation and recovery of response to novelty are seen, becoming more robust from 5 to 8 months of age. In The Gambia, an attenuated habituation response is evident: a larger number of trials are required before the response sufficiently suppresses relative to the response during the first presented trials. Furthermore, recovery of response to novelty is not evident at 5 or 8 months of age. As this longitudinal study continues in The Gambia, the parallel collection of socioeconomic, caregiving, health and nutrition data will allow us to stratify how individual trajectories of habituation and recovery of response to novelty associate with different risk factors and adaptive mechanisms in greater depth. Given the increasing interest in the use of neuroimaging methods within global neurocognitive developmental studies, this study provides a novel cross‐culturally appropriate paradigm for the study of brain responses associated with attention and learning mechanisms across early development.     

Three‐factor structure and psychometric properties of Witte's Risk Behaviour Diagnosis Scale: A French version adapted to diabetes

The aim of this study was to verify the psychometric properties and the factorial structure of Witte's Risk Behaviour Diagnosis (RBD). This article shows the results of a French version of the RBD adapted to diabetes screening. An exploratory factor analysis was carried out in order to understand the number of underlying factors, a confirmatory factor analysis was performed and the four‐factor model proposed by the author and alternative models were compared. The concurrent validity was tested by a correlational analysis with the Perceived Fear Emotions Scale. The results confirmed a stable factor structure for the 12‐item version, with three factors reflecting total efficacy, severity of and susceptibility to threat. The value of having a psychometrically valid instrument to assess the impact of fear appeal‐based campaigns is linked to the current lack of a comprehensive assessment tool and the importance of preventing health risk behaviours.     

Personal values and immigrant group appraisal as predictors of voluntary contact with immigrants among majority students in Israel

What predicts whether young people will establish contacts with immigrants? Students are at a pivotal point in which the campus environment can enable substantial contact with immigrants, and where world views and behavioural patterns are formed which can follow through their adult lives. Through a value‐attitude‐behavior paradigm we examine a conceptual model in which appraisal of an immigrant group as a threat and/or benefit to the host society mediates the relationship between personal values and contact. Findings among 252 students in Israel showed that (1) threat/benefit appraisal of immigrants predicted voluntary contact; (2) personal values of self‐direction and hedonism directly predicted voluntary contact; and (3) Threat/benefit appraisal mediated the relationship between self‐direction and power and contact. Results suggest that increasing awareness of benefits of immigrants can promote positive inter‐group relations.     

On Different Sides: Investigating the Persuasive Effects of Anger Expression in Political News Messages

Anger expression is increasingly prevalent in political news messages. However, the persuasive effects of expressing anger in a political context have received scant attention from researchers. We conducted two experiments to investigate the hypothesis that anger expression is detrimental to persuasion because it runs counter to well‐established social norms for the polite expression of opinions. We created political news messages including a persuasive appeal by a politician that was supported either with an expression of anger or with an expression of nonemotional disagreement. The results of Experiment 1 (N = 120) showed that anger messages were perceived as less appropriate than control messages, and that politicians expressing anger were perceived as less likable and less competent than politicians who disagreed in nonemotional terms. In Experiment 2 (N = 1,005), the negative effects of anger expression on perceived likability and competence were replicated. Also in line with Experiment 1, anger messages were perceived as less appropriate, but this time only for those with negative a priori attitudes toward the advocated position. In contrast, those with positive a priori positions toward the advocated position perceived anger messages as more appropriate than the control messages.     

Hidden profiles and the consensualization of social stereotypes: how information distribution affects stereotype content and sharedness

We examined the impact of the distribution of information regarding social groups on the formation of shared stereotypes within triads in two studies. Three‐person groups discussed which of three groups (A, B, and C) was the most able and the most sociable. In Study 1, some of the information about these three groups was available to all group members (shared) whereas the remainder was distributed among group members (unique). Based on the total profile, there was more evidence of group A being sociable and of group B being able than of A being able and B sociable. In Study 1 (n = 58), sampling was manipulated as ‘representative’ (information in line with the overall differences was shared) or ‘unrepresentative’ (only information contradicting these differences was shared). In a third condition, all items of information were shared. Emerging stereotypes were directly influenced by sampling of information independently of the discussion. As well as this, the discussion consensualized initial stereotypes. In Study 2 (n = 52), sampling was always unrepresentative and we manipulated the labels associated with the target groups in such a way that the stereotype associated with the label was either inconsistent or consistent with the overall differences between the target groups. In the inconsistent condition, participants were more likely to discuss information that violated stereotypical expectations, and to be less influenced by sampling as a result of discussion. Altogether, these findings suggest that information sampling directly affects the consensualization of social stereotypes. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ministerial Formation in a Multi–Faith Society

This article reports on the findings of a study carried out with ordinands and faculty in English theological Colleges and Courses (programs). The project aimed to discover (a) how and to what extent students are trained to work in Britain’s multi–faith society, and (b) how are ordinands thinking theologically about issues of religious diversity. This article highlights the examples of good practice that emerged from the study and considers what makes for good learning about multi–faith issues for ordinands training for the ministry.     

Motivational influence on the quality of memories: recall of general autobiographical memories related to desired attributes

This article concerns recall of general autobiographical memories in motivated self‐perception. General memories, comprising abstraction of repeated or similar behaviours, have more impact on how one defines oneself than do specific memories. In a study, participants were first induced to believe that either extraversion or introversion leads to success. In the recall task that followed, introversion‐success participants recalled more general memories related to introversion than did extraversion‐success participants. In contrast, extraversion‐success participants recalled more general extraverted memories than did introversion‐success participants. Thus, to preserve a positive self‐image as characterized by desirable attributes, recall may be directed towards generation of general memories related to the attributes. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Location of a missing object and detection of its absence by infants: Contribution of an eye‐tracking system to the understanding of infants' strategies

Previous research has demonstrated infants' capacity to discriminate between situations in which all the objects successively hidden behind a screen are present, or not, after the removal of the screen. Two types of interpretation have been proposed: counting capacity or object memorization capacity. In the usual paradigm, the missing object in the impossible event is usually the last object which is placed behind the screen. Following this, a third interpretation can be offered: infants' exploration is first directed to this object's location, and its presence or absence is noticed. Two experiments using Wynn's (Nature 1992; 358 :749) paradigm were performed to test the third hypothesis. The first experiment involved four objects (teddy bears) placed in four squares. Infants looked longer at the impossible event (3 objects, the last one missing) than at the possible event (4 objects) when the impossible event was presented first. No difference in looking duration was observed for the opposite order. In the second experiment, the four objects were disposed in a line and an eye‐tracking system was used. No difference in the number of looks was observed between the impossible event (3 objects, the second one missing) and the possible event (4 objects). Therefore, it appears that at least in this complex situation (4 objects used instead of 2 usually), the location of the missing object is a key factor for event discrimination. Eye‐tracking also indicated in the second experiment that infants looked less at the second location during an impossible event (object missing) than during the possible event (object present), indicating that the impossibility of the event was not a determining factor for looking durations. Altogether, the data indicate the potential usefulness of eye‐tracking analysis in this type of situation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.