Self-regulation of stimulation for ADD-H children during reading and vigilance task performance

The present study examines the hypothesis that motor responses added into rote tasks would modulate the sensation-seeking activity and impulsive errors of hyperactive (ADD-H) children. To this purpose 22 ADD-H and 25 comparison children were administered two repetitive tasks (word decoding and an auditory vigilance task) under both an active response and a passive response condition. Findings were that the impulsive errors, talking/noise-making, and activity of ADD-H children was normalized (i.e., did not differ from comparison children) only in the high stimulation active response conditions. Behavioral improvements for ADD-H children were documented in both tasks in the active condition, but performance gains were found only in the vigilance task. The findings supported predictions derived from the optimal stimulation theory that the excessive activity and attraction to novel stimuli of ADD-H children can be channeled into appropriate instrumental motor and attention responses.We thank Anne Dwyer for her help with data collection, and Phyllis Kikendall, Sylvia Kottler, Joe Boggs, and Cheryl Wieczorek for their assistance at various stages of this project. We are also most grateful to Martha Eger and to the teachers, Sally Schnieder and Denise Oliver, of West Central Joint Special Services, to Pat Welch of the Catholic Social Services, and to the teachers of St. Ann's School and St. Philip Neri School for their cooperation with this research.     

Improving fairness in coverage decisions: performance expectations for quality improvement

Patients and physicians often perceive the current health care system to be unfair, in part because of the ways in which coverage decisions appear to be made. To address this problem the Ethical Force Program, a collaborative effort to create quality improvement tools for ethics in health care, has developed five content areas specifying ethical criteria for fair health care benefits design and administration. Each content area includes concrete recommendations and measurable expectations for performance improvement, which can be used by those organizations involved in the design and administration of health benefits packages, such as purchasers, health plans, benefits consultants, and practitioner groups.     

The effect of track position on absenteeism

Absenteeism is one of the major problems facing America's schools. Absenteeism disrupts the learning environment, is related to lower levels of achievement, and is associated with problems of crime and delinquency. While previous research has identified many of the determinants of absenteeism, the role of a student's position in the tracking structure within a school has not been explored. The purpose of this paper is to explore this relationship. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression results reveal that students who are in the lower tracks within the tracking structure in a school are more likely to be absent than other students and that Black and female students in low tracks are more adversely affected by the low-track environment that non-Black and male students. These results suggest that track position must be taken into consideration when dealing with the problem of absenteeism. The author would like to thank Maureen Hallinan for the use of her data set and for her comments and suggestions on previous drafts. The author would also like to thank Richard Williams and Kathryn Schiller for their comments and suggestions.     

Rethinking women's ways of knowing: Gender commonalities and intersections with postformal thought

Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule (1986) identified five ways of knowing in women: silent, received, subjective, procedural, and constructed. This study examined the extent to which they were used by both women and men and their intersection with postformal, relativistic thought (Sinnott, 1989b). As listed, the ways of knowing fall along a continuum of increasingly complex thought; hence, overlap between constructed knowing and relativistic thought was expected. Thirty female and 30 male university students (aged 27 to 43 years) completed a structured interview about ways of knowing, solved two hypothetical everyday problems, and completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Age predicted neither ways of knowing nor relativistic thought; increasing education was predictive of relativistic thought but not constructed knowing. Neither women nor men relied on received knowing; women used subjective knowing more than men did, while the opposite was true for procedural knowing. While there were no gender differences in relativistic thought or constructed knowing, femininity was associated positively with both. Finally, procedural knowing decreased while constructed knowing increased with increasing evidence of relativistic thought.     

Stress,coping, and resources in mothers of adults with developmental disabilities

This study examined the relationship of various stressors, coping resources, and coping strategies on the level of stress reported by 147 mothers of adults with delayed development. A sense of mastery and the mother's health as well as financial well-being were significantly negatively related to stress. Coping behaviours of reframing of the problem and acquisition of social support were also significantly negatively related to stress. Implications of the results of this study for service providers are discussed.     

Escalating schedules of incentives increase physical activity with no differences between deposit and no-deposit groups: A systematic replication

Physical inactivity has increasingly affected public health in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic as it is associated with chronic diseases such as arthritis, cancer, and heart disease. Contingency management has been shown to increase physical activity. Therefore, the present study sought to evaluate the effects of an escalating schedule of monetary reinforcement with a reset contingency on physical activity, as compared between 2 counterbalanced groups in which a monetary deposit of $25 was either required (deposit group) or not (no-deposit group). Twenty-five adults wore Fitbit accelerometers to monitor step counts. An ABA reversal design was used; in the 2 baseline phases, no programmed contingencies were in place for step counts. During intervention, step goals were set using a modified 70^th percentile schedule with a 7-day window: Reaching the first goal would result in $0.25, and incentives increased by $0.25 for each subsequent day in which the goal was met. Failure to reach a goal resulted in a reset of the monetary incentive value to $0.25. Ten out of 12 participants from the deposit group were determined to be responders to intervention, whereas 8 out of 13 participants from the no-deposit group were determined to be responders to intervention. Overall, there were no significant differences between the groups' step counts. However, the deposit group's intervention was cheaper to implement, which suggests that deposit contracts are a viable modification for physical activity interventions.