A COMPARISON OF PEER-DIRECTED AND TEACHER-DIRECTED EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW TRAINING FOR MENTALLY RETARDED ADULTS

Interview skills deficits may limit employment prospects of mentally retarded adults. Although numerous papers highlight the importance of interview skills, few have validated effective strategies for use with mentally retarded persons. Further, there has been a lack of research contrasting rival interview skills training strategies. The present study was conducted with two mentally retarded young adults. It contrasted peer-directed instruction, in which both participants were equally deficient in the target skills, with teacher-directed instruction. Results of the investigation indicated that instruction, rehearsal, and feedback may be effective strategies regardless of who provides instruction. Comparisons of teacher-directed and peer-directed instruction indicated little or no difference in the effectiveness of the two procedures. However, the peer-directed procedure involved considerably less staff time than did the teacher-directed procedure.     

Altering contingencies to facilitate compliance with traffic light systems

The effects of altering light pattern sequences on driver compliance at a busy, urban intersection were explored. The baseline light timing sequences resulted in only 46.8% of drivers stopping at the yellow or red lights. Using an A-B-C design, we altered light pattern sequences that increased the probability of drivers stopping at the signals to 88.8% and 98.8%. These findings indicate that traffic light contingencies have potent effects in influencing driver behaviors at busy intersections. Following completion of the study, the traffic engineer approved the permanence of the light timing pattern that increased traffic rule compliance. Accident data collected before and after the light timing changes indicated a reduction in automobile accidents.     

PROMOTING AUTOMOBILE SAFETY BELT USE BY YOUNG CHILDREN

A program using behavioral practice, assertiveness training, and social and contrived reinforcers was developed to establish and maintain automobile safety belt use by young children. Sixteen children (ages 4.8 to 7 years) who never used their safety belts during a 5-day preexperimental observation period were randomly assigned to two groups of eight each. A multiple baseline design across groups was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the training program. During the 8-day baseline period for Group 1, no children used their safety belts when unobtrusively observed while being driven from school. During the 26-day intervention period, the children were buckled up on 96% of the observations. Follow-up probes conducted 2–3 months after program discontinuance found safety belt use to range from 86% to 100%. For Group 2, the 14-day baseline safety belt use averaged 6% and increased to a mean of 81% during the 20-day training and maintenance program. Follow-up probes 2–3 months later found safety belt use to occur during 75% to 96% of the observations. Parent questionnaires indicated the generalizability and social validity of the program.     

AN ALTERNATING TREATMENTS COMPARISON OF ORAL AND TOTAL COMMUNICATION TRAINING WITH MINIMALLY VERBAL RETARDED CHILDREN

This study was a comparison of the effects of oral speech with total communication (speech plus sign language) training on the ability of mentally retarded children to repeat 4-word sentences. Three children were chosen who used single words to communicate but who did not combine words into complete sentences. Three sentence pairs were trained, with each pair having one sentence trained using oral methods and an equivalent one trained using the total communication approach. Both training procedures involved chaining sentence parts, reinforcement, and prompting. Oral methods involved presenting vocal stimuli and requiring vocal responses whereas total communication methods involved presenting vocal and signed stimuli and requiring vocal and signed responses. For the initial sentence pair with each child, an alternating treatments design was used to determine the relative efficacy of the two language training approaches. This was repeated with a second and third sentence pair using a multiprobe technique within a multiple baseline design. Results pointed to the superiority of the total communication approach in facilitating sentence repetition. Possible explanations of these results are offered and the utility of the alternating treatments experimental design is discussed.     

作业中断对任务绩效的影响及心理疲劳的调节作用

作业中断会对中断后行为绩效产生影响,探讨不同疲劳状态下中断对作业绩效影响的认知机制将有助于完善和发展中断的认知理论。本研究采用事件相关电位(ERP),通过在不同心理疲劳状态下执行数学题任务中断、暂停中断和不中断的空间2-back任务,结合行为数据和ERPs结果,分析作业中断对任务绩效的影响以及心理疲劳在其中的调节作用。实验结果发现,中断后诱发的P200和P300振幅显著提高,作业中断使得主任务的注意力资源下降,任务中断的无关信息干扰了主任务工作记忆,而疲劳状态则进一步加剧了中断对注意资源、工作记忆及行为绩效的负面效应。本研究在揭示作业中断认知过程及疲劳对其影响机理的同时,也支持了中断的目标记忆模型。     

Systematic review of interruption and redirection procedures for autistic individuals

Interruption and redirection (IR) procedures involve systematically disrupting an undesirable behavior and prompting an individual to engage in an alternative behavior. These procedures have been frequently assessed for reducing repetitive behaviors for autistic individuals. The primary purpose of this review was to assess IR interventions to determine whether outcomes vary according to intervention characteristics, dependent variable types, design quality, or publication status. A secondary purpose was to assess the extent to which generalization and maintenance outcomes were measured and whether characteristics of these conditions were related to outcomes. IR interventions were moderately successful for reducing repetitive behaviors but less effective for improving corollary variables such as appropriate vocalizations and functional engagement. Generalization and maintenance outcomes, when measured, were poor. Results indicate the need for alternative or augmentative procedures that focus on engagement in meaningful interactions and activities.     

L’approche existentielle dans l’accompagnement de personnes au chômage en perte de repères : les processus de construction du sens de la vie et du travail (études de cas)

The guidance design for unemployed people in changing career must increasingly take into account their existential concerns about career meaning. The literature about life and work meaning has highlighted the multifactorial complexity of meaning definition and determinants of meaning. This fact does not facilitate their use in counselling design. Bernaud et al. (2020) “Guidance for life and work meaning” device takes into account this problem; it offers many thinking prospects that organize meaning questioning in order to help people who loosed professional and personal markers. By analyzing an application of this device with the multiple cases method, our article examines how a meaning guidance helps unemployed people in giving a new direction of their career. The study of five cases with chronologic analysis unities shows how various meaning dimensions help people to clarify, to enrich and to transform their initial problematic during accompaniment and how they progress with different rhythms to major personal and vocational decisions.     

It's just (family) business: The impact of familial work experience on perceived qualification and hireability during the selection process

Though scholars have explored the impact of familial work experience (FWE) posthire, research has yet to determine the role of such experience during the selection process. Drawing from Attribution Theory and research on nepotism and family business dynamics, we suggest that the presence of FWE on an applicant's selection materials will lead to reduced perceptions of qualifications and hireability. Through two online experiments (N₁ = 170, N₂ = 251), we found mixed support for this proposition. In our first study focused on cover letters, we found that applicants who reported FWE were not appraised differently than those who did not. In our second study focused on letters of recommendation, however, we found that applicants who reported FWE were perceived as less qualified and less hireable. Moreover, we found that the level of job (i.e., service vs. managerial) moderates these relations, such that managerial applicants with FWE on their letter of recommendation were perceived as less hireable than those who did not. Implications for research and practice are discussed, and future research directions are offered.     

Self-Monitoring negative statements

We examined the effects of a self-monitoring program on reducing the frequency of negative statements of a student with mild mental retardation who was enrolled in a self-contained classroom at a middle school. A changing criterion design was used within a multiple baseline design across two classroom periods. Additionally, the frequency of positive statements was reported. The results showed a decrease in the number of negative statements, and an increase in the number of positive statements. Maintenance data collected up to 8 weeks after the program ended indicated that the student continued to emit positive rather than negative statements. The use of this procedure to decelerate undesirable behavior is discussed.     

Global self-evaluations and perceived instability of self in early adolescence: A cohort longitudinal study

A cohort longitudinal design with four adjacent cohorts of students ( n = 1689) followed over two years was used to study key issues identified in the research literature on the development of self-evaluations in early adolescence. There was no clear relationship between age/grade and self-evaluations. We found no support for a "stressful periods" hypothesis with respect to self: Possible changes were very gradual and quite small. However, there was a consistent "relative age" effect implying that younger students within a grade had more negative self-evaluations. There were small but consistent sex differences in self-evaluations in favor of the boys; more detailed analyses of very negative self-evaluations suggested that the early adolescent years are the period in which a sex difference in depression related symptomatology begins to emerge. Finally, the usefulness of some kind of effect size measure and advantages and problems associated with a cohort longitudinal design were discussed.