Contingency contracting with disadvantaged youths: Improving classroom performance

This study evaluated the effects of a student-teacher contracting procedure on adolescent students' academic productivity. Participants were 13 youths enrolled in a vocational training program for disadvantaged youth and their classroom teacher. During the baseline conditions students were paid contingent on attendance alone, the system operating in the program prior to this research. During contracting conditions students were paid contingent on contract fulfillment of academic productivity goals set by mutual agreement between the student and teacher. Contracting and contingent pay procedures were developed with, and implemented by, the classroom teacher. A reversal experimental design showed that student's productivity more than doubled during contracting conditions as compared with their productivity during baseline.     

USING INTERMITTENT REINFORCEMENT TO PROGRAM MAINTENANCE OF VERBAL/NONVERBAL CORRESPONDENCE

We investigated the effects of an intermittent reinforcement procedure on maintenance of verbal/nonverbal correspondence with nutritious snack choices in a day-care setting. Nutritious snack choices were first established using correspondence training procedures in a multiple baseline across three children. Withdrawal of the procedures with one subject led to loss of appropriate responding, suggesting the need for a maintenance strategy. The intermittent reinforcement procedure was implemented in a multiple baseline across subjects. Nutritious snack choices were observed consistently during the intermittent reinforcement condition and the subsequent extinction condition.     

Publication rates of male and female academic clinical psychologists in California

Compared here was the publication rate of men and women surveyed by mail (480 academic clinical psychologists in California) regarding number of publications, self-perception of their role of researcher versus teacher, variables related to research opportunity (grants, time spent in research), and type of institution in which they are employed. The men had 1.6 as many publications per year as did the women, and the semipartial correlation was -.21 for sex in the last step of a multiple regression and accounted for an additional 4% of the variance. Thus, the men published more, even when ostensible opportunities were controlled. For this sample variables of sex and self-perception of role of researcher versus teacher were more highly correlated with number of publications than were the research opportunity variables of grants, time spent in research, and type of academic institution of employment.     

An implicit technology of generalization

Traditionally, discrimination has been understood as an active process, and a technology of its procedures has been developed and practiced extensively. Generalization, by contrast, has been considered the natural result of failing to practice a discrimination technology adequately, and thus has remained a passive concept almost devoid of a technology. But, generalization is equally deserving of an active conceptualization and technology. This review summarizes the structure of the generalization literature and its implicit embryonic technology, categorizing studies designed to assess or program generalization according to nine general headings: Train and Hope; Sequential Modification; Introduce to Natural Maintaining Contingencies; Train Sufficient Exemplars; Train Loosely; Use Indiscriminable Contingencies; Program Common Stimuli; Mediate Generalization; and Train "To Generalize".     

An optimal period for setting sustained variability levels

In two experiments, we investigated how explicit reinforcement of highly variable behavior at different points in training affected performance after the requirement was eliminated. Two versions of a computer game, differing in the number of possible solution paths, were used. In each, an optimal period of training for producing sustained high variability was found. Exposure to a high lag requirement shortly after acquisition sustained variability. Rewarding variability at other times did not have a sustained effect. The implications for learning and problem solving are discussed.