PREVENTING SCHOOL VANDALISM AND IMPROVING DISCIPLINE: A THREE-YEAR STUDY

Vandalism is a major problem facing educators and taxpayers alike. The present investigation analyzed how vandalism costs and student disruption were related to the implementation of a training and consultation package designed to increase the reinforcing ambience of the school. A positive environment, it was posited, would displace previous events that may have set the occasion for vandalism, with cues to promote productive school performance. Eighteen elementary and junior high schools were involved over a 3-year period. Using a delayed treatment control design, treatment was delivered following either 4 or 13 months of baseline. During treatment, teams of school personnel attended training workshops in behavioral strategies for reducing vandalism and disruption by students in school. Each team also met regularly on its campus to plan and implement programs on a schoolwide basis. To demonstrate that reinforcing procedures were actually implemented and accompanied by change in student performance, these variables were periodically probed throughout the study. Project staff also provided consultation. Vandalism costs decreased significantly (p < .05) more in treatment than control schools, with an average reduction of 78.5% for all project schools. Rates of praise delivered by project teachers and other randomly selected teachers in the school increased significantly (p < .05), and rates of off-task behavior by students decreased significantly (p < .05) following treatment. The staff development model used in this study appeared to be both feasible and economical.     

My many mistakes with microcomputers (or four years of fun trying to get my computer to run)

This paper presents examples of mistakes committed in the process of developing an inexpensive computer laboratory for problem solving research and a larger mulituser cognitive psychology laboratory at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Major mistakes include failure to adequately plan whether the system will work, failure to check for compatibility among components, failure to develop adequate software, and failure to anticipate maintenance problems.     

Effects of shadowing on prose comprehension and problem solving

In two experiments, subjects listened to a text about radar while either shadowing or not shadowing the passage. Results of Experiment 1 produced a pattern in which both groups performed at similar levels on retention of single facts, the nonshadowers excelled on transfer of the presented information to novel problem solving, and shadowers excelled on verbatim recognition of words. In Experiment 2, there was a pattern in which both groups performed at similar levels for recall of specific information, the nonshadowers excelled on recall of conceptual principles, and shadowers excelled on recall of modifying details. Implications for transfer-appropriate processing and the cognitive capacity hypothesis were examined.     

Perception of the form of stimulus increment as a method in assessment of the psychophysical relationship

Among numerous procedures for determination of the psychophysical relation, one approach has seldom been applied. Essential in this method is to present a set of stimuli whose intensity increases in fixed time following different forms. The objective stimulus increment, which the subjects perceive as linear growth directly, represents the inverse psychophysical relation. In this paper the method was tested in the fields of click frequency and sound pressure. This procedure was named "Perception of the Form of Stimulus Increment in Time". In comparison to other psychophysical approaches, this one has several advantages. The principal ones are the following: (1) In assessing the psychophysical relation it is not necessary to try to measure the perceptual magnitude; and (2) the psychophysical relation is directly determined by its dynamic pattern. In this paper modifications to the method are reported which facilitate the subject's task and avoid some differences in subjects' individual approaches to the task. The modified procedure leads to results satisfactory independent of the influence of the factors irrelevant to the psychophysical relationship.     

Spider-Phobic Children Do Not React with Differential Skin Conductance Responses to Masked Phobic Stimuli

In the present study, spider-phobic children (N = 22) were exposed to subliminal presentations of spiders, snakes, and mushrooms, while skin conductance responses (SCRs) were measured. In addition, pre- and post-treatment symptom severity data were obtained. As a group, spider-phobic children did not react with differential SCRs to masked phobic pictures. In addition, no convincing evidence was found to suggest that individual variation in differential SCRs to phobic stimuli is linked to pre-treatment symptom severity or therapy outcome. These findings cast doubts on the idea that phobics' phenomenal experience of their fear as irrational and uncontrollable is a result of pre-attentive physiological fear activation.     

The revised version of the screen for child anxiety related emotional disorders (scared-r): Further evidence for its reliability and validity

Abstract The revised version of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED-R) is a self-report questionnaire that intends to measure symptoms of childhood anxiety disorders as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). The current article presents three studies which examined in more detail the reliability and validity of the SCARED-R. Study 1 (N=101) demonstrated that the SCARED-R possesses satisfactory test-retest stability. Study 2 (N=71) shows that the child-parent agreement of the SCARED-R is rather low. Study 3 (N=88) provides support for the concurrent validity of the SCARED-R. More specifically, SCARED-R scores were correlated in a meaningful way with scores on the Children's Anxiety Scale, a questionnaire that also measures DSM-defined childhood anxiety symptoms.     

Interaction between stimuli with different taste qualities evaluated by reaction time

The influence of adaptation to taste stimuli of 1 quality on tastants with other qualities was investigated by comparing the reaction time (RT) to a test solution after adapting-solution flow with the RT to the same test solution after water flow. Adapting solutions were strong concentrations of NaCl, HCl, QHCl, and sucrose; test solutions were the same compounds but in lower concentrations. Adaptation to sucrose significantly shortened RT to NaCl and HCl, and to a lesser degree to QHCl. A similar cross-enhancement was found in sucrose when other compounds served as adapting solutions, In all other taste combinations, only a cross-adaptation effect was observed. Results are discussed in relation to some adaptation phenomena, water taste data, and magnitude-estimation data.     

Developmental epidemiologically based preventive trials: Baseline modeling of early target behaviors and depressive symptoms

Describes a conceptual framework for identifying and targeting developmental antecedents in early childhood that have been shown in previous work to predict delinquency and violent behavior, heavy drug use, depression, and other psychiatric symptoms and possibly disorders in late adolescence and into adulthood. Criteria are described that guided choices of targets for two epidemiologically based, randomized preventive trials carried out in 19 elementary schools in the eastern half of Baltimore, involving more than 2,400 first-grade children over the course of first and second grades. Baseline models derived from the first of two cohorts show the evolving patterns of concurrence among the target antecedents. The central role of concentration problems emerged. From Fall to Spring in first grade, concentration problems led to shy and aggressive behavior and poor achievement in both genders and to depressive symptoms among girls. There was evidence for reciprocal relationships in girls. For example, depressive symptoms led to poor achievement in both girls and boys, whereas poor achievement led to depressive symptoms in girls but not boys, at least over the first-grade year. These results provide important epidemiological data relevant to the developmental paths leading to the problem outcomes and suggest preventive trials.     

Generation of internally restricted random-dot patterns

The probability of a successful draw of a dot position within a random dot pattern is considered for the special case where a minimal city block distance is imposed separating any two dots within the random pattern. An analytical solution is derived and is tested against Monte Carlo simulations. The agreement is considered to be good, except at extremely low probabilities of a successful draw. An alternative method, based upon the utilization of successively coarser grids, is also given. Formulas are also provided for circular and for diamond-shaped separation regions.