Haptic estimates of discordant visual—haptic size vary developmentally

In two size-conflict experiments, children viewed various squares through a reducing (1/2) lens while manually grasping them through a hand-concealing cloth. Then, using either vision or touch, they selected a match from a set of comparison squares. Forty 6-, 9-, and 12-year-olds participated in Experiment 1. Vision dominated the visual estimates of all three age groups; however, for the haptic estimates, the dominant modality varied developmentally: Vision dominated the 6-year-olds’ haptic estimates, whereas neither modality dominated the 9-year-olds’ haptic estimates, and touch dominated the 12-ear-olds’ haptic estimates. In Experiment 2, 24 six-year-olds were tested, as in Experiment 1; however, half of them were shown the size-distorting effects of the lens just prior to testing. Although this reduced the visual dominance of their haptic estimates, the effect was weak and short-lived. The haptic dominance seen in the data of the 12-year-olds was conspicuously absent.     

Integrity in Pastoral Counseling

This essay suggests that pastoral counseling involves a spiritual and emotional quest for wholeness. The personal quest of the pastoral counselor has a parallel impact upon the quest of those who seek his or her counsel. The essay presents the view that faith must be established in the life of the pastoral counselor in at least four areas: in community, in the use of one's spiritual gifts, in the love of mercy and the doing of justice, and in communion with God.     

SCHEDULE EFFECTS OF NONCONTINGENT REINFORCEMENT ON ATTENTION-MAINTAINED DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR IN IDENTICAL QUADRUPLETS

Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR), a response-independent schedule for the delivery of reinforcement, has been found to be effective in reducing behavior when the reinforcer delivered is responsible for behavioral maintenance. In this study, dense and lean schedules of response-independent attention were compared to determine whether it is necessary to begin with a dense schedule before fading to a lean schedule, or whether treatment would be as effective using a lean schedule at the outset. The subjects were 5-year-old identical quadruplets diagnosed with mental retardation and pervasive developmental disorder who displayed destructive behavior that was maintained by social attention. NCR was selected partially because it is not very labor intensive and could be implemented by a single mother simultaneously with all 4 children. Using a combination multielement and multiple baseline design, it was found that (a) a dense schedule of response-independent reinforcement (i.e., fixed-time 10 s) resulted in immediate and dramatic reductions in destructive behavior with no evidence of an extinction burst, and (b) an equivalent reduction in destructive behavior was achieved with a lean schedule of response-independent reinforcement (fixed-time 5 min) only after a systematic fading procedure was implemented. The findings suggest that the effectiveness of NCR may be dependent on the use of a dense schedule initially, and that systematic fading can increase the effectiveness of a lean schedule.     

An MS-DOS-compatible data logger for recording subjects’ self-ratings

Some research designs require subjects to make ratings of their own internal cognitive or affective states or the behavior of other subjects. An ideal device for this purpose should allow for electronic data storage and be easy to use for research subjects. The communication box (Markman & Poltrock, 1982) has been popular for this purpose but consists of dated technology. Other data-logging devices are too complicated for subjects’ use. This paper describes an electronic data logger which uses readily available hardware. A dual-tone multiple-frequency (DTMF) telephone keypad encoder is used to generate unique tones that are stored on the audio track of a videotape or on an audio tape. A DTMF receiver decoder IC is used to decode the audio signals. The decoded signals can be read on a light-emitting diode display or entered directly into a personal computer file via an RS-232 serial interface.     

Imaginative role-playing,need for achievement,and perceived outcome in relation to occupational status

Forty-four male and 44 female subjects, divided on the basis of their need for achievement scores, responded to three short verbal cues in which the central character was either male or female. The three cues (store clerk, social worker, and author) were chosen in order to maximize status differences and to minimize masculinity-femininity differences. In responding to each cue, subjects had to imagine themselves in each role. subjects rated each character on semantic differential scales to provide impressions of personality. Ratings were found to be a function of sex of the subject and need for achievement level, as well as status of the occupation. However, no significant effects were associated with the sex of the role.     

The perception and metaperception of architectural designs communicated by video-computer imaging

Summary Non-architects answered multiple-choice questions about depth, size, shape, texture, and conformation in exterior building scenes presented by manual rendering or video-computer techniques including a single viewpoint, multiple viewpoints, and animation. They also rated (a) confidence in their answers, (b) overall judgments of clarity, and (c) overall impressions of realism. The viewing time needed for judgments was also measured. Presentation technique did not affect the viewing time, but it did affect perceptual accuracy and ratings of confidence, clarity, and realism. Animation yielded higher ratings in all categories. It also produced the highest accuracy for depth perception, but the lowest accuracy for size and texture perception. The low accuracy for size and texture was exacerbated by high confidence in the wrong answers. Multiple viewpoints caused neither false confidence nor reduced accuracy in any category, and yielded the highest accuracy in two categories: size and texture. The combined effects on perception and metaperception (knowlege about one's own perceptual processes) suggest that animation creates the best overall impression and is the best for conveying depth information. However, multiple viewpoints are better than animation for conveying size and texture information. These results are discussed with respect to theories of perceptual representation.     

The structure and reliability of the teacher temperament questionnaire

The Teacher Temperament Questionnaire is a recently developed instrument designed for personality assessment with preschool and early school children. The present study employed a sample of 116 in order to study the reliability and structure of the TTQ. A principal-components analysis yielded four well-defined components, which were labeled Compliance, Extraversion, Interpersonal Affect, and Environmental Sensitivity. These results did not support the theoretical scales. The component patterns were well defined and stable across the two administrations of the inventory. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability coefficients were determined for each of the four new scales. A second administration involving only items from the first three components provided a partial replication.An initial version of this paper was presented at the Northeastern Educational Research Association Meeting, Ellenville, New York, October 1979.     

MEASURING AGENCY ATMOSPHERE AND COUNSELOR STYLE

A preliminary questionnaire designed to measure confrontive counseling styles was given to 101 counselors from the state division of vocational rehabilitation (DVR) and the state employment service (ES). The responses were analyzed to see which items discriminated between agencies and between the counselors' sexes, ages, levels of education, and number of years with the agency. There were 13 significant (p = .01) items and they are described and discussed.