A classroom program teaching disadvantaged youths to write biographic information

Little attention has been given to how formal classroom instruction can be adapted to teach youths everyday skills such as the correct writing of biographic information frequently requested in transactions like applying for a job or a social security number and cashing a check. In this study, six youths in a special education classroom were taught to complete job application forms with the date, their name, signature, address, telephone number, date of birth, and a reference's name, address, and occupation. Each youth was trained on one item of biographic information at a time, after which he was tested on four application forms, including one on which he had not been trained. The tests show that after an item had been taught, it was correctly used in completing application forms on which the youths had been trained and forms on which they had never been trained. The study demonstrates the feasibility of teaching community-living, vocation-related skills to special-education youths in a classroom setting.     

Generalization of teacher behavior as a function of subject matter specific discrimination training

The effect of training on the rate of behavior-specific praise for two fourth-grade teachers was investigated within a multiple-baseline design. Training teachers to identify instances of behavior-specific praise on videotaped presentations (discrimination training) combined with instructions to use praise, and audiotape recordings of the teachers' classroom interactions as feedback, increased the rates of behavior-specific praise. However, the effects were restricted to subject-matter areas in which training was conducted.     

Effects of computer‐based training on procedural modifications to standard functional analyses

Few studies have evaluated methods for training decision‐making when functional analysis data are undifferentiated. The current study evaluated computer‐based training to teach 20 graduate students to arrange functional analysis conditions, analyze functional analysis data, and implement procedural modifications. Participants were exposed to training materials using interactive software during a 1‐day session. Following the training, mean scores on the posttest, novel cases probe, and maintenance probe increased for all participants. These results replicate previous findings during a 1‐day session and include a measure of participant acceptability of the training. Recommendations for future research on computer‐based training and functional analysis are discussed.     

Teaching children with autism spectrum disorder to tact olfactory stimuli

Research on tact acquisition by children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has often focused on teaching participants to tact visual stimuli. It is important to evaluate procedures for teaching tacts of nonvisual stimuli (e.g., olfactory, tactile). The purpose of the current study was to extend the literature on secondary target instruction and tact training by evaluating the effects of a discrete‐trial instruction procedure involving (a) echoic prompts, a constant prompt delay, and error correction for primary targets; (b) inclusion of secondary target stimuli in the consequent portion of learning trials; and (c) multiple exemplar training on the acquisition of item tacts of olfactory stimuli, emergence of category tacts of olfactory stimuli, generalization of category tacts, and emergence of category matching, with three children diagnosed with ASD. Results showed that all participants learned the item and category tacts following teaching, participants demonstrated generalization across category tacts, and category matching emerged for all participants.     

Comparing simulator sickness in younger and older adults during simulated driving under different multisensory conditions

Driving simulators are valuable tools for traffic safety research as they allow for systematic reproductions of challenging situations that cannot be easily tested during real-world driving. Unfortunately, simulator sickness (i.e., nausea, dizziness, etc.) is common in many driving simulators and may limit their utility. The experience of simulator sickness is thought to be related to the sensory feedback provided to the user and is also thought to be greater in older compared to younger users. Therefore, the present study investigated whether adding auditory and/or motion cues to visual inputs in a driving simulator affected simulator sickness in younger and older adults. Fifty-eight healthy younger adults (age 18–39) and 63 healthy older adults (age 65+) performed a series of simulated drives under one of four sensory conditions: (1) visual cues alone, (2) combined visual + auditory cues (engine, tire, wind sounds), (3) combined visual + motion cues (via hydraulic hexapod motion platform), or (4) a combination of all three sensory cues (visual, auditory, motion). Simulator sickness was continuously recorded while driving and up to 15 min after driving session termination. Results indicated that older adults experienced more simulator sickness than younger adults overall and that females were more likely to drop out and drove for less time compared to males. No differences between sensory conditions were observed. However, older adults needed significantly longer time to fully recover from the driving session than younger adults, particularly in the visual-only condition. Participants reported that driving in the simulator was least realistic in the visual-only condition compared to the other conditions. Our results indicate that adding auditory and/or motion cues to the visual stimulus does not guarantee a reduction of simulator sickness per se, but might accelerate the recovery process, particularly in older adults.     

The relationship between feature binding and consciousness: evidence from asynchronous multi-modal stimuli

Processing the various features from different feature maps and modalities in coherent ways requires a dedicated integration mechanism (“the binding problem”). Many authors have related feature binding to conscious awareness but little is known about how tight this relationship really is. We presented subjects with asynchronous audiovisual stimuli and tested whether the two features were integrated. The results show that binding took place up to 350 ms feature-onset asynchronies, suggesting that integration covers a relatively wide temporal window. We also asked subjects to explicitly judge whether the two features would belong to the same or to the different events. Unsurprisingly, synchrony judgments decreased with increasing asynchrony. Most importantly, feature binding was entirely unaffected by conscious experience: features were bound whether they were experienced as occurring together or as belonging to a separate events, suggesting that the conscious experience of unity is not a prerequisite for, or a direct consequence of binding.     

Using mnemonic images and explicit sound contrasting to help Japanese children learn English alphabet sounds

Although mnemonics have been shown to be effective in remembering letter-sound associations, the use of foreign words as cues for English phonemes had not been investigated. Learning phonemes in Japan is challenging because the Japanese language is based on a different sound unit called mora (mostly consonant-vowel combinations). This study investigated the effectiveness of using mnemonic images utilizing Japanese words as cues for the phonemes, and explicit sound contrasting of phonemic sounds with morae they could be confused with, in facilitating children's acquisition of knowledge about alphabet letter-sound correspondence. The participants were 140 6th-grade Japanese students who were taught phoneme-consonant correspondence, with or without the use of mnemonics or explicit sound contrasting. Analysis of the students’ pre- and post-instruction assessments revealed significant interaction effects between types of instruction provided and instruction phase, indicating better performance in letter-sound association as a consequence of the inclusion of both mnemonics and explicit sound contrasting.     

Personalized System Of Instruction In Cyberspace

Four different undergraduate psychology courses with no allotted classroom time slots were taught in the same term by means of a computer-based version of Keller's personalized system of instruction (PSI), called computer-aided personalized system of instruction (CAPSI). Students' performance and ratings indicate that CAPSI is a viable on-line educational method.     

学前数学教法和儿童智能发展的追踪研究

本研究从儿童心理发展的特点和数学学习之间的内在规律出发,综合考查了各类教学法在学前施教的利弊;同时,在活动教法、指导操作法、演示法和讲授法之间做了对比实验,并设计了一整套以指导操作法为主的学前数学教法,以演示为主的数学教法之间进行了长期、深人的跟踪对比实验。结果表明,在其他变量基本被控制的条件下,指导操作法优于其他的教法;实验班儿童的智能发展,特别是数学能力的发展,明显好于对照班的儿童。这个优势一直持续到小学毕业。     

A parent advice package for family shopping trips: development and evaluation

THIS ARTICLE REPORTS ON THE PRIMARY STEPS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PARENT ADVICE FOR POPULAR DISSEMINATION: (a) developing advice for one specific problem situation, family shopping trips; (b) testing the advice program for benefit to children and convenience to adults; and (c) packaging the advice so it can be used successfully by interested parents. Systematic observation of 12 families using the written advice package on shopping trips revealed its effectiveness in reducing child disruptions and increasing positive interactions between parents and children. These findings, along with interview information from families, showed that the package is usable, effective, and popular with both parents and children, and thus is ready for dissemination to a wide audience of parents-a step that in itself should involve research and evaluation.