Recognition models of alphanumeric characters

Several methods to study the recognition and similarity of alphanumeric characters are briefly discussed and evaluated. In particular, the application of the choice-model (Luce, 1959, 1963) to recognition of letters is criticized. A feature analytic model for recognition of alphanumeric characters based on Tversky’s (1977) features of similarity is proposed and tested. It is argued that the proposed model: (a) is parsimonious in that it utilizes a relatively small number of parameters, (b) is psychologically more meaningful compared with other approaches in that it is attempting to study underlying processes rather than just reveal a similarity structure, (c) yields predictions that have a high level of fit with the observed data. Possible implications from the use of the model for future research are briefly discussed.     

EVALUATION OF A PARENT-TRAINING MANUAL FOR REDUCING CHILDREN'S FEAR OF THE DARK

We evaluated the effectiveness of a manual to teach parents how to help their children overcome fear of the dark. The primary components of the package included desensitization, reinforcement, and verbal self-control statements. Six fearful children ages 3–11 and their parents participated. A multiple-baseline design across three pairs of matched subjects was used. Outcome measures consisted of the level of nighttime illumination voluntarily set by the child on a rheostat installed in the bedroom and the child's subjective rating of his or her fear level during the night. The data indicated that all children were sleeping all night with the rheostat set at criterion level or lower within 2 weeks after initiation of treatment, without any report of fear. Follow-up measures at 3, 6, and 12 months showed that all children maintained or improved on the reduced fear behaviors achieved during the treatment.     

“I mell a kunk!”-evidence that children have more complex representations of word pronunciations which they simplify

A case study is reported in which a child (3 years; 4 months old) who produced, forms such as mell and kunk (for smell and skunk, respectively) was asked to choose between his own forms and correct forms in a comprehension task. The results demonstrate that the child understood the correct forms to be the correct forms, suggesting that the child had greater competence than performance in regard to these phonological forms.     

Control of selective echolalia via the instatement of a general alternative response

Treatment for echolalic responding has been limited to the training of a small number of correct responses and limited stimulus verbalizations by the experimenter, leaving the possibility that the introduction of novel stimuli could result in the reoccurrence of echolalia. In the present study an 11-year-old severely retarded male's echolalic responding to questions that he could not answer correctly was controlled by instating a general alternative response, “I don't know.” The subject continued to respond correctly to questions that he could answer. indicating that the general alternative response had been appropriately discriminated. A Baseline. Treatment. DRO. Treatment design indicated that the subject's echolalic responding, as well as the appropriate use of the general alternative response, was under experimental control. Generalization of the experimental results to the subject's regular day-care setting was accomplished by having the staff verbally punish all echolalic responses and then restate the question to the subject until a non-echolalic answer had been emitted. Implications of these findings and suggestions for combining previous treatment procedures for echolalia with the general alternative response procedure were offered.     

Children's use of the wh question modal auxiliary placement rule

Three studies assessed children's knowledge of the wh question modal auxiliary placement rule by asking the children to imitate (and in Study 3 judge the correctness of) grammatical and ungrammatical model wh questions. The results suggest that children learn to apply this rule to questions beginning with one or two wh words, then to questions beginning with another wh word, and so on, rather than to all relevant question types simultaneously, indicating that the acquisition of this syntactic rule is initially relatively specific. However, the results also demonstrate that children overgeneralize the wh question modal auxiliary placement rule to how come questions, indicating that during the course of development this initially specific rule becomes generally productive. The theoretical implications of this specific-to-general developmental pattern are discussed.     

Influence of contractibility on the acquisition ofBe: Substantial,meager, or unknown?

Data from longitudinal and cross-sectional samples are reported in regard to Brown's (1973) hypothesis that uncontractiblebe is an earlier acquisition than contractiblebe. It is concluded that this may not be so and that the discrepancy in the literature between Brown's findings and those of the Villiers and de Villiers (1973) is probably due to sampling variables. Problems with scoring speech samples in regard to the distinction between contractiblebe and uncontractiblebe are also discussed, as are the implications of these problems.This article is based on a part of the author's Ph.D. dissertation done at the University of Minnesota under the guidance of Michael Maratsos.     

Review of John D. Caputo: <Emphasis Type="Italic">On Religion</Emphasis>

This is a review of John Caputo’s recent Routledge book on religion. Caputo’s central idea is captured by the phrase ‘religion without religion’, by which he means a religious stance or attitude that is not circumscribed by allegiance to any specific creed.