The evolution of policy arguments in teachers' negotiations

Argument is a critical component in policy deliberations. In this study, negotiation is viewed as a type of policy deliberation, one characterized by attack and defense of proposals, interdependence between disputants, and mixed motives of cooperation and competition. Argument in negotiation, then, functions as a reason-giving activity to enact policy. Employing a category system based on rhetorical stasis, the researchers examine whether bargainers specialize in their use of argument types and whether this specialization remains consistent throughout a teacher-school board negotiation and whether it differs for the type of settlement of agenda items. Results of the study suggest that bargainers specialize in argument types at different times during the bargaining. In the early stages of negotiation, teachers center on harm and workability arguments to prepare their case and justify the merits of their proposals, but in the latter phases of bargaining they switch to arguments on implementation to reaffirm their demands and to prioritize issues. Board members, in the early stages, rely on disadvantage, workability, and implementation arguments to establish resistance points and to refute appeals for change, but in the latter stages of negotiation they employ harm-inherency and disadvantage arguments to weigh the costs of concessions and to rationalize the settlement. This study, then, supports the existence of phase variation in bargaining and argues for a developmental approach in deciphering how negotiators who hold antithetical positions reach mutually satisfactory settlements.     

Memory strategies in absolute identification of “circular” pitch

Shepard (1964) has devised a sequence of synthesized tones that appear to constitute a “circular” pitch dimension; each tone in the sequence appears to be higher in pitch than the preceding one, and yet the first tone also seems higher than the last. Two series of such stimuli (a six-alternative and an eight-alternative set) were used to investigate memory processes in absolute identification performance when end stimuli are unavailable as possible anchors. Clear evidence was obtained for short-term anchoring strategies in this task, but none was obtained for the stable retention of those stimuli corresponding to the ends of the response continuum. The results are examined in the light of Eriksen and Hake’s (1957) subjective-standard hypothesis.     

The prediction of “shows” and “no-shows” to a crisis center

The relationship between measures of worker effectiveness in a therapeutic telephone intervention and whether a caller shows for a scheduled appointment can be used to assess the variables that contribute to "successful" telephone counseling. This study replicated the findings of a previous investigation in showing that the motivation of a caller in response to the question of a referral was positively correlated with "showing" for the appointment. Futher, the identification of a specific problem related negatively to the caller's response to the referral. However, the concreteness of the phone worker was not correlated with whither the scheduled appointment was kept by the caller.     

An automated system for primate instruction for behavioral neurophysiology

This paper describes a flexible hardware/software system developed for use with a PDP-8I computer for conducting research in behavioral neurophysiology. A real time monitor was designed to facilitate development, debugging, and modification of programs to run experiments. It relieves the programmer of the burden of dealing with hardware dependent functions such as interrupt handling and input/output. In addition, it provides the user with a large library of callable routines to perform functions commonly needed for conducting experiments. The monitor is modular in design and could be expanded or modified for use with many configurations of the PDP-8 family of computers.     

Signaled Delay of Reinforcement: Effects of Postconditioning Manipulation of Context Associative Strength on Instrumental Performance

Two experiments examined the influence of postconditioning treatments of contextual cues on instrumental responding acquired with a signaled delay of reinforcement schedule. In Experiment 1, mere exposure to the conditioning context after instrumental training resulted in an attenuated response rate during an extinction test. In the second experiment, responding was decreased by exposure to the contextual cues or sessions in which signaled noncontingent reinforcements occurred. The greatest response decrement, however, occurred following unsignaled noncontingent food presentations. The results are discussed with respect to the different roles of contextual cues on operant responding.     

Women's reactions to hypothetical male sexual touch as a function of initiator attractiveness and level of coercion

This study investigated women's reactions to hypothetical male sexual advances and how these reactions are influenced by the physical attractiveness of the initiator. The 144 mostly Caucasian female participants were given vignettes asking them to imagine themselves as the recipients of an uninvited sexually coercive advance from a casual male acquaintance. The acquaintance was described as either attractive or unattractive, and the level of sexual coercion was low, medium, or high. Participants evaluated the situation in terms of how negatively or positively it would affect them, how socially acceptable it would be, and how much it would flatter them. The results indicate that for women, as has previously been shown for men, the attractiveness level of the opposite gender perpetrator redefines how the sexual advances are perceived. In addition, the results support earlier findings that women view sexual advances which use low levels of sexual coercion less negatively than those employing higher levels.     

Language learning impairment: Integrating research and remediation

Timing cues present in the acoustic waveform of speech provide critical information for the recognition and segmentation of the ongoing speech signal. Research has demonstrated that deficient temporal perception rates, that have been shown to specifically disrupt acoustic processing of speech, are related to specific language-based learning impairments (LLI). Temporal processing deficits correlate highly with the phonological discrimination and processing deficits of these children. Electrophysiological single cell mapping studies of sensory cortex in brains of primates have shown that neural circuitry can be remapped after specific, temporally cohesive training regimens, demonstrating the dynamic plasticity of the brain. Recently, we combined these two lines of research in a series of studies that addressed whether the temporal processing deficits seen in LLIs can be significantly modified through adaptive training aimed at reducing temporal integration thresholds. Simultaneously, we developed a computer algorithm that expanded and enhanced the brief, rapidly changing acoustic segments within ongoing speech and used this to provide intensive speech and language training exercises to these children. Results to date from two independent laboratory experiments, as well as a large national clinical efficacy trial, demonstrate that dramatic improvements in temporal integration thresholds, together with speech and language comprehension abilities of LLI children, results from training with these new computer-based training procedures.     

Self-Efficacy to Use Condoms in Unmarried Latino Adults

Measures of self-efficacy to use condoms can clarify the barriers to condom use Latinos encounter. A 20-item scale, that differed slightly for men and women, and was based on extensive elicitation interviews, was used in a random digit dial household survey of 1,600 unmarried Latino adults in 10 states with large Latino populations. Self-efficacy was related to condom use for both men and women. Factor analyses revealed five correlated factors: Regular Partner, Impulse Control, Partner Resistance, STD Thoughts, and Condom Discussion. Both men and women reported lowest self-efficacy for impulse control and using condoms with a regular partner. Less-educated men and women had lower self-efficacy to discuss condoms, to manage partner resistance, to use condoms with a regular partner, and to control impulses, but there were few other demographic differences in self-efficacy. The scale can be helpful in the design and evaluation of HIV prevention.     

Effect of physical attractiveness on opposite- and same-sex evaluations

After reading an essay attributed to a college freshman, male and female college students evaluated both the essay's quality and the writer's ability. By means of a photograph, the subjects knew writer's sex and physical attractiveness (high, medium, or low). The essays also varied in “objective” quality (high, medium, or low). Significant main effects for essay quality were found in all dependent measures and a sigrdficant main effect for physical attractiveness was found for Composite Essay Quality. Analysis of significant three-way interac-tions between physical attractiveness, sex-of-subject, and sex-of-writer for the Composite Essay Quality and Writer's Overall Ability revealed that individuals of high and medium physical attractiveness were evaluated differently by members of the opposite sex or same sex. That is, highly attractive individuals received the highest evaluations from members of the opposite sex, while individuals of medium physical attractiveness received the highest evaluations from members of the same sex. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of physical attractiveness to relationships between members of the same and opposite sex.