Effects of positive and negative adult-child interactions on children's social preference

The effects of positive and negative interactions on children's performance and preferences for the adults associated with each type of interaction were studied. Five children served as subjects during daily sessions in which each of three adults followed prescribed patterns of social interaction. One adult (positive) dispensed positive comments contingent upon either color-sorting or completion of arithmetic problems; a second adult (negative) mildly reprimanded the child for off-task behavior; and the third adult (extinction or nonreactive) said nothing to the child when he was present. Following each session the three adults reentered and the child chose one of them for an additional period of interaction. Three response measures (frequency, latency, and percent of time on-task) and children's adult preferences were obtained daily. The negative adult affected the most task behavior and had strongest stimulus control; the positive adult, though exerting little control over children's behavior, was the most preferred. Children's adult preferences were not specific to the task setting, but were observed across a variety of contexts.     

Progressive elaboration and memory for order in children

Three experiments were conducted investigating memory for items and order in a progressive elaboration paired-associates task. For all subjects retention of item information was improved by the use of progressively elaborated interactions relative to a no-elaboration control condition. For second and fourth graders, retention of order information depended upon the type of elaboration. If successive interactions were added in a logical temporal order, retention (of order information) was superior to the case where the successive interactions were added in a random order. This effect was not obtained with kindergarten children. In the second and third experiments, kindergarteners were instructed regarding the sequencing of the successive items, and results similar to those obtained with older children ensued. The data were discussed in terms of Tulving's distinction between episodic and semantic memory.     

An alaryngeal stutterer: A case history

This case study describes an individual who as a stutterer underwent a total laryngectomy and right hemithyroidectomy. Following the Doehler method of esophageal voice training, the client continued to exhibit dysfluent speech behaviors. The Iowa “Stutterer's Self-Rating of Reactions to Speech Situations” and the “Checklist of Stuttering Behaviors” were used to ascertain whether the stuttering behaviors had changed and to what degree.     

Stroop interference in the left and right visual fields

The Stroop Color-Word test was employed to study the amount of interference in naming colors when stimuli were presented in either visual field. It was hypothesized that more Stroop interference would occur in the dominant hemisphere. The subjects were 24 right-handed college students, between 18 and 25 years old. There were three conditions in each visual field: Interference, Reading, and Naming. Each slide was presented for 150 msec preceded by a fixation dot. Subjects were asked to verbally report as fast and as accurately as they could either the color words or the color names, depending upon the conditions. Reaction times and error rates were analyzed. As expected, significantly higher error rates were obtained when color words were presented in the right visual field under the Stroop interference condition. Under this same condition, reaction time analysis yielded no significant differences between hemispheres.     

The structure of interests as a structure of occupational stimuli and as a structure of affective responses

The structure of interests has usually been perceived as a structure of occupational stimuli, but it can also be conceived of as a structure of the affective responses that occupational stimuli elicit, or as a structure of these stimuli embedded within the matrix of affective responses which they produce. Each of these three structural representations was examined in this study. The semantic differential technique was used to rate a set of 10 occupational stimuli with 15 bipolar scales. A factor analysis of the stimuli yielded three occupational factors called Science, Things vs. People, and Social Welfare; a factor analysis of the scales indicated that the stimuli elicited Evaluation, Potency, and Activity responses. The three dimensions of affect were then used as the axes of a semantic space within which the occupational stimuli were located according to the unique affective meaning of each. The desirability of studying the structure of interests as a structure of occupational stimuli embedded within a structure of the responses they elicited was discussed.     

Phonemic effects in the silent reading of hearing and deaf children

Twenty-four deaf and hearing children silently read a printed passage while crossing out all detected cases of a pre-specified target letter. Target letters appeared in phonemically modal form, a category loosely analogous to “pronounced” letters (e.g., the g in badge), and in phonemically nonmodal form, a class which included “silent” letters and those pronounced in somewhat atypical fashion (e.g., the g in rough). Hearing children detected significantly more modal than nonmodal forms, an expected pronunciation effect for individuals in whom speech and reading ordinarily are in close functional relationship. The deaf detected exactly as many modal as nonmodal letter forms, provoking the interpretation that deaf children, as a group, do not effectively mediate print with speech. The deaf also were relatively unaffected by grammatical class, while hearing subjects were considerably more likely to detect a target letter if it occured in a content word than a functor term. Questions pertaining to reading instruction in the deaf are discussed.     

Aphasic adults' understanding of complex adverbial sentences

Twelve aphasics with relatively preserved auditory comprehension were tested for their understanding of four adverbial sentence types expressing the temporal order of events. The relative effects of order of mention, adverbial choice, and adverbial clause placement on subjects' comprehension were investigated. Only adverbial choice was significant with aphasics producing more errors of temporal order on after than before sentences. Subjects' error patterns were not similar to those of children acquiring language. The results are discussed with respect to the theory of lexical marking and the regression hypothesis.     

The relationship of drive for muscularity to sociocultural factors, self-esteem, physical attributes gender role, and social comparison in middle school boys

This study examines the relationship of three sociocultural factors—media influence, peer teasing, and parent teasing/comments and three potential moderator variables—self-esteem, social comparison, and endorsement of male strength and athleticism—to drive for muscularity in middle school boys. There were 287 seventh and eighth grade boys who completed a questionnaire measuring these variables as well as body mass index (BMI) and pubertal status. Results indicated that media influence and male physical attributes endorsement were particularly important correlates of drive for muscularity. These findings have implications for programs designed to prevent body dissatisfaction among adolescent boys.     

Psychometrics properties of the Swansea Muscularity Attitudes Questionnaire (SMAQ)

The psychometric soundness of the Swansea Muscularity Attitudes Questionnaire (SMAQ) was examined using two independent samples of Canadian male post-secondary students (Ns = 250 and 310, respectively). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggested that the final 19-item version of the SMAQ is represented by three latent constructs, which we have labeled: intention to become more muscular (eight-items), positive attributes of muscularity (nine-items), and engagement in muscle-building activities (two-items). Alpha coefficients for the intention and positive subscales were very good (i.e., range = .86–.92). Correlation coefficients between the two-items comprising the engagement subscale also suggest that they can be combined into a composite measure (rs = .70 [study 1] and .58 [study 2]). Various tests of criterion-related and construct validity were conducted, with results indicating that the SMAQ subscales are valid indicants of the drive for muscularity.