Operant behavior and the galvanic skin potential under DRL schedule

Motor and galvanic skin potential (GSP) activity were investigated during the conditioning, extinction, and reconditioning of motor responses under a differential reinforcement of low rate (DRL) schedule of reinforcement. Interresponse time (IRT) distributions for motor responses during conditioning and reconditioning gradually stabilized at a peak just beyond the minimal IRT required for reinforcement. Few unreinforced motor responses and "bursts" of motor responses were observed during conditioning and reconditioning. Relative to conditioning and reconditioning, extinction effected larger IRTs and smaller GSP amplitudes. GSP amplitudes were greater for unreinforced than for reinforced motor responses during conditioning and reconditioning. However, GSP amplitudes associated with the unreinforced extinction responses were smaller than either the reinforced or unreinforced responses during conditioning and reconditioning.     

The use of self-efficacy scaling in training student clinicians: Implications for working with stutterers

A scaling technique developed by Bandura for determining an individual's personal performance expectations (self efficacy) was applied to student clinicians working with stutterers. The self-efficacy scores of clinicians conducting treatment increased significantly while the scores of clinicians without treatment experience showed no significant change. As the student clinicians gained clinical experience there appeared to be a corresponding reduction in fear and avoidance of the treatment situation. Clinician fear concerning stuttering treatment appeared to have little relation to performance in treatment as rated by supervisors. The results indicate that self-efficacy scaling may be used to indicate clinician avoidance of working with stuttering clients.     

Familial sinistrality, sex, and laterality differences in naming and Lexical Decision Latencies of right-handers

Sixty-four subjects, divided into four groups of 16 according to sex and familial sinistrality (FS), were given a lateralized Object-Naming Latency Task (ONLT) and a Lexical Decision Latency Task (LDLT). Both tasks showed RVF superiorities. On the ONLT a sex × FS × visual field interaction was obtained, with FS− females and FS+ males showing comparably smaller RVF superiorities than FS+ females and FS− males. On the LDLT an FS by Stimulus Type (word-nonword) interaction was found, FS− subjects being more RVF superior for nonword trials and FS+ subjects more RVF superior for word trials. If one compared only FS− males and females, as some studies have done, greater RVF superiorities obtained for males than females on both the ONLT and word trials of the LDLT. However, FS+ subjects showed the opposite pattern. The data support neither the simple model of FS nor sex influence on language laterality. Data aslso suggest that a history of maternal versus paternal left-handedness may affect lateralization differently in the sexes.     

Factor-derived categories of chronic aphasia

A large sample of patients with aphasia (N = 118), unselected for etiology, were administered the Porch Index of Communicative Ability more than 6 months after the onset of aphasia. Factor analysis of PICA subtest scores identified five factors which accounted for 83.9% of the total variance. The factors were labeled speaking, writing, comprehension, gesturing, and copying. Cluster analyses of the factor scores yielded five patient categories which differed in the pattern of impairment on the language factors as well as in overall severity of aphasia. A subgroup of the parent sample consisting of 52 patients with localized left-hemisphere CVA had cluster analyses repeated after having first been studied as part of the larger sample. The factor-derived categories for the subgroup were similar to those of the entire group. Discriminant functions of the PICA raw scores of the 52-patient subsample correctly classified all of the patients. When discriminant functions were based upon the factor scores of the 118-patient parent sample, 80.7% of the 52 patients were correctly classified into the five categories.     

Right-hemisphere superiority for discriminating memorized from nonmemorized faces: Affective imagery, sex, and perceived emotionality effects

Sixty-four subjects, divided into four groups according to sex and type of memorization instruction, were given a manual RT task requiring discrimination of two memorized from two nonmemorized faces. Two types of memorization were employed, one emphasizing highly negative affective imagery about the faces being memorized (extreme sadness), the other relatively neutral imagery (feeling composed). Females in the affective imagery group were predicted to show left-visual-field superiority (LVFS), while females employing neutral imagery were not. Males were predicted to show LVFS regardless of imagery type because of their presumed strong right-hemispheric dominance for visual-spatial functions. Predictions were accurate for females; neither group of males showed significant LVFS. Post-experimental semantic differential ratings of the emotionality of the memorized faces showed that LVFS existed for faces rated as emotional, but not for faces rated as nonemotional. This effect was common to the sexes. Results indicate that right-hemispheric memory storage of faces can be induced in females through affective imagery and in both sexes via idiosyncratically perceived emotionality in the face stimuli. This effect of affectivity cannot be attributed to visual-spatial dominannce of the right hemisphere.     

Reactions to stigmatized others: Response amplification vs sympathy

Four experiments examined the conditions under which responses to handicapped persons are characterized by sympathy or response amplification. The first two experiments tested the hypothesis that contact with a handicapped person would lead to amplified positive and negative responses in comparison to contact with a nonhandicapped person. The results indicated that mere contact was not sufficient to elicit response amplification. Instead, contact led to more positive evaluations of the handicapped than of the nonhandicapped other, regardless of whether she behaved in a positive or negative manner—a “sympathy” effect. The third and fourth experiments indicated that amplified positive and negative responses to the handicapped will occur when the behavior of a handicapped person is highly relevant to the evaluator. A two-stage model of responses to stigmatized others is proposed to account for these results.     

Alternatives in the pursuit of the predictability and consistency of persons: Stable data that yield unstable interpretations

After a review of the historical roots of current issues in personality psychology, useful sources for prediction are summarized and some current convergences in the search for coherence are identified. The value of people as expert assessors is reiterated and the stability, consistency, and predictability of behavior are distinguished as multiple issues. In the pursuit of consistency in social behavior, two major routes emerge. One route aggregates data across situations and response modes, thereby reducing the variance from those sources, and identifies the resulting stable individual differences. The second route assesses consistency from situation to situation, searches for its psychological bases, and focuses on the discriminativeness of behavior as well as its coherence. Each route serves different purposes and has value for those different goals; neither one preempts the other. Years of research on the consistency of social behavior from situation to situation have yielded stable results that sometimes are used to reach opposite interpretations. But these puzzling differences reflect the two contrasting routes and goals in the search for consistency, not instabilities in the data nor a neglect of psychometric principles. Theory-guided predictions within particular empirical contexts are needed now to explore more deeply when and how either discriminative or more generalized patterns of coherence occur, and to illuminate their psychological bases with increasing precision.     

A teacher-training program to enhance mainstreamed, handicapped pupils'' self-concepts

This study assessed the effectiveness of the Utah State University Self-Concept Protocol Modules in changing teacher behaviors presumed to be related to pupil self-concept. This research focused on teachers and handicapped pupils in mainstreamed intermediate grade classrooms. The modules cover specific teacher behaviors including ways of expressing anger, listening skills and nonjudgemental messages, praising and giving instructions, and ways of fostering positive self-perception statements by pupils. The experimental group contained 15 teachers; 18 teachers were in the control group. Seven hundred and fifteen pupils (251 of which were in the experimental group) from the classrooms of the participating teachers were included. Observational data were collected on the teacher behaviors. The intermediate form of the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale was administered before and after teachers were trained. Analyses of covariance (with prescores as the covariates) in which the experimental treatment was the independent variable and the postscores for the teacher behaviors were the dependent variables revealed a significant difference between the experimental and control group teachers. The experimental group had more favorable postscores than the control group on four of the teacher behaviors. For children's self-concept postscores, a significant treatment X pupil classification interaction was found indicating that experimental group handicapped pupils scored significantly higher (p<.05) than the control group handicapped pupils. Enhancement was not obtained for either the nonhandicapped nonminority or minority group pupils.     

Representation-saving effects of prior knowledge in memory for simple technical prose

Prior knowledge of the content of a passage should reduce the effort required to encode the passage and facilitate its recall. This paper presents such effects of prior knowledge upon comprehension and memory of simple technical prose. The basic procedure was to collect ratings of the amount of prior knowledge for individual passage sentences and individual subjects, and then to determine whether these familiarity ratings predicted study time and recall. In order to validate the rating method, and also to obtain data on prior knowledge of individual facts, subjects also completed an objective test of prior knowledge of the passage facts. Three different encoding-task conditions were used: a self-paced study task, a forced-pace study task, and an incidental-learning task. A cued-recall test followed each condition. In the self-paced task, readers studied unfamiliar material longer than familiar material, but recalled at the same level regardless of familiarity. In contrast, familiarity did predict recall in the forced-pace and incidental tasks. This task specificity is explained in terms of the subjects’ encoding strategies. The basic effect of prior knowledge can be explained not only by the elaboration principle, but also by a representation-saving principle, which is presented in a simulation model that can account for the effects of familiarity on study time.