Ogden R. Lindsley and the historical development of precision teaching

This paper presents the historical developments of precision teaching, a technological offshoot of radical behaviorism and free-operant conditioning. The sequence progresses from the scientific precursors of precision teaching and the beginnings of precision teaching to principal developments since 1965. Information about the persons, events, and accomplishments presented in this chronology was compiled in several ways. Journals, books, and conference presentations provided the essential information. The most important source for this account was Ogden Lindsley himself, because Lindsley and his students established the basic practices that define precision teaching.     

A BRIEF COMPONENT ANALYSIS OF POTENTIAL TREATMENT PACKAGES IN AN OUTPATIENT CLINIC SETTING WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

The purpose of this study was to develop outpatient clinic assessments that allowed us to assess multiple treatment variables, produce relatively quick effects, and isolate active treatment components. Assessment began by evaluating a treatment package consisting of antecedent and consequence variables followed by a component analysis to determine the separate effects of the treatment variables. Three examples of the findings are presented.     

Keeping a group psychotherapy program alive and well within a psychiatric residency

A mandatory year of outpatient group therapy training is an accepted part of residency training in psychiatry. Residents need stable groups to lead in order to have a satisfactory training experience. A solid group program is integrated and cohesive. A group therapy coordinator has to consider the following factors in developing and maintaining the optimum program: sanction from the department of psychiatry; integration of the program into the system; transfer of groups from one class to another; personal screening and followup of all referrals; availability to professionals in the community; coordinator participation in relevant group therapy classes; a vehicle for supervisors to collaborate with each other and administrator; and a format for all members of the group program community to interact.This paper is an elaboration of a symposium presentation, Training in Group Psychotherapy: The Quest for a Viable Model, AGPA Annual meeting, 1990.     

Temporomandibular disorders: evidence for significant overlap with psychopathology.

Data were analyzed for 277 acute and chronic temporomandibular disorder (TMD) patients to determine if there was a relationship between psychological and physical diagnoses. A significant (p < .01) relationship existed among the following: combined past or current mood disorder-personality disorder and muscle disorder; combined current mood, anxiety, or substance use disorder-personality disorder and muscle disorder; and combined current anxiety disorder-personality disorder and muscle disorder. This study further confirmed other research that has found that significant psychopathology exists in TMD. More important, this psychopathology appears to be linked primarily to muscle disorders, as opposed to disc or joint disorders, within the rubric of TMD.     

Echo suppression and discrimination suppression aspects of the precedence effect

The precedence effect is a phenomenon that may occur when a sound from one direction (the lead) is followed within a few milliseconds by the same or a similar sound from another direction (the lag, or the echo). Typically, the lag sound is not heard as a separate event, and changes in the lag sound’s direction cannot be discriminated. The hypothesis is proposed in this study that these two aspects of precedence (echo suppression and discrimination suppression) are at least partially independent phenomena. Two experiments were conducted in which pairs of noise bursts were presented to subjects from two loudspeakers in the horizontal plane to simulate a lead sound and a lag sound (the echo). Echo suppression threshold was measured as the minimum echo delay at which subjects reported hearing two sounds rather than one sound; discrimination suppression threshold was measured as the minimum echo delay at which subjects could reliably discriminate between two positions of the echo. In Experiment 1, it was found that echo suppression threshold was the same as discrimination suppression threshold when measured with a single burst pair (average 5.4 msec). However, when measured after presentation of a train of burst pairs (a condition that may produce “buildup of suppression”), discrimination suppression threshold increased to 10.4 msec, while echo suppression threshold increased to 26.4 msec. The greater buildup of echo suppression than of discrimination suppression indicates that the two phenomena are distinct under buildup conditions and may be the reflection of different underlying mechanisms. Experiment 2 investigated the effect of the directional properties of the lead and lag sounds on discrimination suppression and echo suppression. There was no consistent effect of the spatial separation between lead and lag sources on discrimination suppression or echo suppression, nor was there any consistent difference between the two types of thresholds (overall average threshold was 5.9 msec). The negative result in Experiment 2 may have been due to the measurements being obtained only for single-stimulus conditions and not for buildup conditions that may involve more central processing by the auditory system.     

On the relationship of data to theory: A reply to Ronis and Greenwald

Ronis and Greenwald (Dissonance theory revised again: Comment on the paper by Fazio, Zanna, and Cooper. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 15, 1979, 62–69) question our integrative formulation of dissonance and self-perception processes. We argue that our formulation provides an explanation of both the full range of results in the literature and our own experimental data, while neither dissonance nor self-perception theory can singly explain the existing data.     

The voice problems of stutterers: A practical approach from clinical experience

Voice disorders, which may be caused by the stuttering problem, have been noted in at least one-third of stutterers seen. Basically, stutterers have false speech images that normal speech is perfect and without natural dysfluencies (repetitions, pauses, etc.). Many stutterers also have erroneous vocal images of how they should or should not sound. Both images control speech and voice. Clinical experience indicates that vocal rehabilitation should be used in conjunction with speech therapy for many stutterers.     

Test-retest reliability of retrospective self-reports in three populations of alcohol abusers

The reliability of alcohol abusers' retrospective self-reports was evaluated using a time-line follow-back interview technique. Independent groups of male subjects were interviewed in three different treatment settings (outpatient,n=12; inpatient,n=12; residential,n=12) on two separate occasions to assess the test-retest reliability of their self-reports of daily drinking and related events occurring 1 year prior to treatment. Correlational and scatterplot analyses generally showed a high correlation and low discrepancy between the two sets of interview responses for all groups. However, since some population differences were found in the reliability of reports for some variables, further research is needed to delineate the conditions under which reliable and valid retrospective self-reports can be obtained from different populations of alcohol abusers.This research was supported, in part, by Grant No. AA07072 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to Vanderbilt University.