Affordances and infant learning: A reply to Horowitz

We reply to three major points made by F. Horowitz (1983, Developmental Review, 3, 405–409) in her commentary on the ecological approach to infant knowing presented by E. Goldfield (1983, Developmental Review, 3, 371–404). We first clarify the relation between perceiving and acting from an ecological perspective, and distinguish between affordances as environmental properties scaled to the perceiver/performer and representations as mental structures. We then present a critique of the process of association offered by Horowitz as an explanation of infant learning. Association fails to specify the constraints on what is learned, while the ecological process of noticing affordances, presented by Goldfield, considers such constraints. We conclude by presenting operational criteria for measuring affordances and evidence that perception is scaled to the perceiver/performer.     

Use of contingent lemon juice to eliminate public masturbation by a severely retarded boy

Contingent lemon juice successfully reduced and maintained at zero levels, public masturbatory responses in a severely retarded boy with a four year history of this behavior. Previously, more common procedures (loud “no” plus hand spanking. ignoring) had proven to be ineffective. The lemon juice contingency was shown to be effective in a period of from 13 to 16 days (in both home and school settings) and was easily implemented by a parent, a teacher and a para-professional.     

An empirical test of the covariation analysis in causal attribution

The present investigation was designed to reveal the cognitive inference processes associated with both detection and utilization of covariation information in causal attribution. Male undergraduates were (a) informed that a test was easy or difficult and shown a videotape in which (b) the test-taker's performance was high or low, and (c) covariation between the test-taker's effort expenditure and trial-by-trial outcome was present or absent. High performance was attributed to the test-taker's effort and ability, whereas low performance was attributed to the difficulty of the test. However, recognition of the covariance relationship decreased the attribution of high performance to ability and of low performance to test difficulty and increased the attribution of low performance to effort. Effort attribution in the high performance condition was independent of covariation information. The results are discussed in terms of the relationship between covariation information and typical beliefs about the causes of achievement outcomes.     

Visual search in multicharacter arrays with and without gaps

Subjects searched through briefly presented arrays of letters in a controlled order, indicating quickly which of two possible targets had occurred. Some arrays contained gaps—three missing letters. Reaction time (RT) and accuracy were both improved by a gap after the target; improvement was less when the gap preceded the target. To account for these results, a new model is proposed, one which calls for overlapping processing of successive array items. This is not a “hybrid” model, but a third alternative between the two extremes of serial (zero overlap) and parallel (complete overlap). Quantified, the overlapping model generates U-shaped serial-position curves and produces RT predictions in good accord with our data from arrays with and without gaps. The predicted functions for RT vs. array size are concave upward; however, for arrays of five or less they are virtually linear and not very different in slope for positive and negative trials. Although this model is primarily designed for RT, with some additional assumptions it can be extended to accuracy results.     

Perception of growth: a geometric analysis of how different styles of change are distinguished

Although there have been many demonstrations that human observers can accurately recognize a variety of styles of change, such as rolling, walking, or growing, there are no existing theories capable of explaining how one style of change is distinguished from another. The present article offers a hypothesis that any recognizable style of change is uniquely specified by geometric invariants- the abstract properties of a visual display that are preserved by the change. In an effort to provide an empirical test of this hypothesis, several experiments involving the perception of growth were performed. Observers were required to make perceptual judgments of consequences of facial profiles, each of which was constructed by using a different mathematical transformation. The same pattern of results was obtained on both a free response task and a growth rating task: All transformations that were consistently identified as growth preserved the same geometric invariants.     

Texture perceived with the fingers

Relative assessments of 10 attributes commonly used to describe the texture of liquids on skin were obtained for 14 liquids of widely varying rheological properties. The results were analyzed to show that these judgments can be predicted accurately from the assessments of just three attributes, smoothness, thinness, and warmth. Smoothness was found to be closely related to the forces of contact lubrication, and could be predicted from measurements of coefficients of friction. Thinness was found to be closely related to viscous forces, consistent with other predictions of assessments of thickness and spreadability. Warmth was not studied further. The results show how careful definition of the stimulus on the skin’s surface can sharply simplify the interpretation of the psychophysical experiment.     

Developmental theories of parental contributors to antisocial behavior

In view of the increased interest in a developmental approach to psychopathology, and mounting evidence of the importance of parent-child interactions in the etiology of early antisocial behavior, the following questions were posed for this review. What theories of parent-child relationships and family management techniques are available? How developmental are they, how specific and transactional are they relative to parent and child behaviors involved? And how well do they cover the period in which antisocial behavior develops? Six theories have some developmental features but the attachment theories (by L. A. Sroufe, B. Egeland, and M. T. Greenberg) and two social learning theories (by G. R. Patterson and J. Martin) are most clearly developmental. They postulate reciprocal interactions of parent and child, and transformations in the form of normative changes in the child or changes in family processes. The social learning theories of Patterson and Martin are most specific, microanalytic in fact, as to the interaction processes involved, and the attachment theories at least specify kinds of behavior involved and also do not rely on traits or types of influence as their units of analysis. Conceptualization is most weak and overly general between late infancy and the preschool years. This gap makes it difficult to link attachment and social learning theories, both of which have driven a large number of studies. A bridging theory is offered to link the two sets of theories in the critical period involved.     

Combining whole-school and targeted programs for the reduction of bullying victimization: A randomized,effectiveness trial

Despite the extensive evaluation of school-based interventions for bullying, victimization remains a significant problem in schools. Bullying victimization is significantly predicted by contextual (school-related) factors. As a consequence whole-school programs have been commonly used to prevent and reduce bullying victimization. Evidence also points to individual risk factors (such as emotional distress) in predicting victimization, yet programs to prevent bullying victimization by changing these individual risks are far less developed. Few studies have approximated “real-world” implementation conditions in their trials. The current effectiveness trial evaluated the combination of a whole-school program designed to prevent bullying perpetration and victimization together with a targeted intervention for at-risk students, teaching them individual and dyadic strategies to reduce their anxiety and manage victimization, allowing schools some latitude to implement programs as they typically would. Students from Grades 3 and 4 (N = 8,732) across 135 schools were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: combined intervention; whole-school intervention only; individual intervention only; and care as usual. Victimization decreased significantly and similarly across all four conditions at 12 and 24 months following baseline. Similar reductions and failure to discriminate conditions were found on other key constructs: anxiety; bullying perpetration; and depression. Possible reasons for the failure to demonstrate victimization prevention differences and lessons learned from this large, effectiveness trial are considered.     

Preference for leisure items over edible items in individuals with dementia: A replication

We replicated previous research in which adults with dementia tended to show a preference for leisure items over edible items when presented in the same array. Additionally, we conducted engagement analyses with the highest, middle, and lowest preference leisure items to determine whether relative preference corresponded to engagement in the natural environment. The most highly preferred stimulus for 6 out of 7 participants was a leisure item, and for each of those six the top 3 preferred stimuli were leisure stimuli. For 4 participants, the most preferred stimulus also produced the longest duration of engagement. We discuss the issues we encountered when conducting preference assessments with adults with intact vocal verbal repertoires, and suggest potential explanations for the displacement of edibles by leisure stimuli in older adults with dementia.