Teacher attitudes toward stuttering

Attitudes of 100 elementary school teachers toward stuttering were studied using the Teacher Attitudes Toward Stuttering (TATS) Inventory. Teacher attitudes, as indicated by TATS Inventory scores, were compared with teacher knowledge of stuttering, age of teacher, number of years teaching experience, educational level, and whether the teacher had personal experience with a stutterer. Results indicated that significant positive correlations existed between teacher attitudes toward and knowledge of stuttering. Significant negative correlations were demonstrated between teacher attitudes/knowledge of stuttering and the presence of a stuttering child in the classroom. The applicability of the TATS Inventory as a clinical instrument in its current form and the research needed to enhance its flexibility are discussed.     

A shortened version of the Southern Illinois university speech situation checklist for the identification of speech-related anxiety

This study investigated the ability of the 51-item Southern Illinois University Speech Situation Checklist (SSC) to differentiate stutterers known to have high levels of speech-related anxiety from nonstutterers with normal levels of speech- related anxiety. Checklist responses of 65 randomly selected subjects (33 stutterers and 32 nonstutterers) were subjected to a stepwise discriminant analysis. The analysis identified a combination of 21 SSC items that had significant discriminative power. Subsequently, the derived discriminant equation achieved 93% accuracy in correctly classifying a hold-out sample of 29 subjects (14 stutterers and 15 nonstutterers). These results strongly suggest that the 21 items of the SSC identified by discriminant analysis may provide an effective screening device for identifying disfluent speakers who experience an abnormal amount of speech-related anxiety.     

Alexia and agraphia with spared spelling and letter recognition abilities

A patient with alexia and agraphia had intact spelling and comprehension of spelled words and used a letter-naming strategy to read and write. We propose that there is a graphemic area important for distinguishing graphemic features and for programming movements used in writing. In this patient this area was not functioning or did not have access to the area of visual word imagés. Therefore, he used an ideographic letter-naming strategy to verbally circumvent his disability and gain access to the area of visual word images.     

Effects of positive and negative adult-child interactions on children's task performance and task preferences

In individual sessions, an adult directed three boys to work on each of three different tasks. Within a given session the on-task behavior for one task was praised, the off-task behavior for another task was verbally reprimanded, and all behavior was ignored with the third task. Using a multielement baseline design, the manner in which the adult interacted with the children on a given task varied from day to day. Across 18 sessions, verbal reprimands produced the highest task rates, with praise producing only a slightly higher rate of responding than noninteraction. After each session the children were given the choice of which of the three tasks they wished to work on when the adult left the room for a few minutes. Tasks associated with verbal reprimands of off-task behavior were never chosen. The first and second choices were always the task associated with praise for on-task behavior or the task where the children were ignored. These preferences generalized to similar tasks.     

Developmental differences in subjects' associative-learning strategies and performance: Assessing a hypothesis

Fifth-, seventh-, and ninth-grade (11-, 13-, and 15-year-old) subjects were presented with a list of paired associates to learn and were interviewed about the strategies used to learn them. Although a majority of fifth graders reported simply rehearsing the pairs in order to remember them, very few ninth graders relied exclusively on rehearsal. Consistent with a hypothesis advanced by Rohwer (1973), the number of subjects who elaborated some or all of the pairs increased with age. Paired-associate performance increased with age, but the level of paired-associate learning was much more related to the type of strategy reported by the subject than to the age of the subject per se.     

Ear asymmetries on a selective attentional task

To ascertain whether there are ear-hemisphere asymmetries of selective attention, signal stimuli (tonal sequences) were presented monaurally with and without complex maskers (music and speech). The right ear-left hemisphere was more disrupted by language maskers; the left ear-right hemisphere was more disrupted by music maskers. These results suggest that there are hemispheric asymmetries of selective attention and that the ear hemisphere that usually processes a class of stimuli has greater difficulty filtering out those stimuli than does the nonspecialized hemisphere.     

An application of the state-trait concept to the need for achievement

This study concerned relationships between state (situationally defined) n Ach, trait n Ach, and sex of subject in 80 college freshmen. Three standard n Ach tests (the Adjective Check List, Personal Preference Schedule, and TAT measures) and the mean of n Ach states measured under nonarousal conditions were used as trait measures. State measures of n Ach were also obtained in four experimental conditions (Social Ability, Success-Failure, Conventional Arousal, and Extrinsic Competition). There were no significant correlations between the four trait measures. The mean of states in the neutral conditions was highly predictive of states in three of the four arousal conditions, but none of the standard trait tests predicted state arousal to any significant extent.     

Security and potential level preferences with thresholds

The security level models of Gilboa [1988. A combination of expected utility and maxmin decision criteria. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 32, 405-420] and of Jaffray [1988. Choice under risk and the security factor: An axiomatic model. Theory and Decision, 24, 169-200] as well as the security and potential level model of Cohen [1992. Security level, potential level, expected utility: A three-criteria decision model under risk. Theory and Decision, 33, 101-104] and Essid [1997. Choice under risk with certainty and potential effects: A general axiomatic model. Mathematical Social Sciences, 34, 223-247] successfully accommodate classical Allais paradoxes while they offer an interesting explanation for their occurrence. However, experimental data suggest a systematic violation of these models when lotteries with low probabilities of bad or good outcomes are involved. In our opinion, one promising candidate for the explanation of these violations is the assumption of thresholds in the perception of security and potential levels. The present paper develops an axiomatic model that allows for such thresholds, so that the derived representation of preferences can accommodate the observed violations of the original security and potential level models.