Effects of differential reinforcement and task difficulty on preschoolers' compliance with teacher instructions

Preschool children in day schools were given instructions to complete certain tasks. Four tasks were given of two types and two levels of difficulty. In each condition compliance with at most one instruction (one task) was reinforced. In two similar experiments, with six children, general results were: compliance with easy tasks was maintained without reinforcement when any task compliance was reinforced; compliance for hard tasks remained high only when that specific task was reinforced. Thus, generalization of compliance with instructions varied with task difficulty. The setting and procedure for both studies were designed to reduce possible coercive features of laboratory studies of generalized performance. Results show generalized performance can occur under naturalistic conditions. The effect of effort, as a response characteristic affecting generalized performance, is discussed.     

Follow-up in classroom behavior modification: Survey and discussion

A survey of several behavior modification journals showed that only 28% of the studies conducted in educational settings reported any follow-up data. Of those studies including follow-up data, 86% reported that therapeutic gains were completely or partially maintained. Follow-up was more often reported and was longer when the subject was an individual or small group than when an entire class served as the subject. More follow-up data were based on direct observation than on anecdotal verbal reports, but the follow-up period was longer when verbal reports were obtained than when direct observation was used. A greater percentage of studies published prior to 1971 than of those published since 1971 included follow-up data. Problems in the methodology and design of follow-up research are discussed.     

The processing of fundamental frequency in a dichotic matching task

The temporal characteristics of auditory memory were investigated using a reaction time paradigm. The study attempted to determine whether or not there are functionally distinct left and right hemisphere components of auditory memory with different capacities for the retention of nonlinguistic information, such as fundamental frequency, over the course of several seconds. The results indicated that fundamental frequency information in auditory memory remains substantially unchanged over the course of 2 sec. No evidence was found for the existence of separate left and right hemisphere components of auditory memory with different temporal characteristics. The implications of this finding for the organization of auditory memory in the brain are discussed.     

Developmental auditory agnosia in retarded adolescents: A preliminary investigation

Four mentally retarded adolescents who showed little or no expressive or receptive language were given a series of tests to determine if they could respond to meaningful nonlinguistic sounds. The tests required the subjects to respond to sounds on the basis of meaning by classifying the sounds according to the objects which produced them, i.e., the sound sources. The results show that the subject could not classify the sounds on the basis of their source although they could discriminate between them. These results are in contrast to the near perfect classification by another retarded subject who lacked speech due to a motor disorder but, nevertheless, showed good understanding of language. The finding that some nonverbal children have difficulty in responding to the meaning of nonlinguistic sounds suggests the possibility that the failure of these children to develop language may have been due to an agnosia not unlike that found in adult stroke patients.     

Neutralizing sexist titles in Holland's Self-Directed Search: What difference does it make?

Sex-role stereotyping in the linguistic structure of Holland's Self-Directed Search (SDS) was examined. A revised SDS was constructed involving the removal of all masculine-toned terminology from the items and test-taking instructions, as well as the affixing of the letters M/F and F/M to all occupational titles and terms commonly perceived as gender specific. Subjects were 266 lower division female students at a large state university; 133 subjects completed the standard SDS and 133 completed the revised form. Following SDS assessment, subjects rated their inventory with respect to perceived sexual equality. Comparison variables included: daydreams, occupations' scores, summary codes, and subsequent occupational choices. Occupational choices at each stage of the assessment process were classified as nontraditional or traditional choices for women. Results indicated that across all indices derived from the standard and revised versions of the SDS, there were no significant differences in these subjects' performance. The subjects did perceive the two inventories differently, with subjects completing the standard SDS viewing it as slightly less equitable.