Evaluative verbalization and delay maintenance behavior in children

An experiment is presented which examined the influence of verbalizations on children's tendencies to postpone immediate gratification in terms of increased delayed reward. Children's verbalizations were varied in terms of their evaluative valence and whether they focused upon the reward itself or the delay task. During a delay task children in experimental groups periodically verbalized evaluative statements that were either positive (I like …) or negative (I don't like …) and which focused upon either the reward itself (… the tokens) or the delay behavior (… to wait). Children who focused on reward, under conditions of either positive or negative evaluation, postponed immediate gratification less than control subjects who made no verbalization. Children who evaluated delay behavior positively postponed immediate gratification longer than silent subjects, though children who negatively evaluated delay behavior did not differ from subjects who did not verbalize. The results are interpreted in terms of the influence of evaluative valence and focus as parameters of plans for delay behavior.     

Children's use of expectations as a source of information in language comprehension

Six studies of children's comprehension of the passive transformation and of the Minimum Distance Principle are reviewed and their results integrated. Children were in kindergarten through Grade 6, inclusive. Expectations about usual grammatical relations (e.g., agent/action combinations) significantly affected children's comprehension: sentences reflecting expectations were understood more often than sentences contradicting children's expressed expectations. Results are discussed within the framework of referential event strategies in understanding spoken language. Limits of the effect of children's expectation on comprehension are described, including general cognitive developmental status, relevant belief systems, and nature of the psycholinguistic task.     

Teachers as raters of aberrant behavior

This study estimated the validity and interrater reliability for the Devereux Child Behavior Rating Scale when completed by classroom teachers. The behavior of 90 preadolescent males who were diagnosed as either normal, hyperactive, or emotionally disturbed was rated by two classroom teachers using the DCB. Interrter reliability estimates found between teachers' rating were not significantly different than those reported with mental health professionals. A stepwise discriminant analysis was used to evaluate the utility of teachers' ratings in predicting group membership. Results indicated teachers' ratings on the DCB differentiated significantly between diagnostic categories.     

An examination of encoding and retrieval processes in reading disabled children

A choice reaction time experiment was performed in order to assess the information processing characteristics of 12-year-old reading disabled children. Eight reading disabled children were compared to a sample of nondisabled readers. The stimuli consisted of consonants presented in three memory load conditions. A Stimulus Quality manipulation was included in the design in order to assess the encoding process. The results of the research indicated that the rate of encoding differed between disabled and nondisabled readers. In addition, support for the hypothesis that disabled and nondisabled readers do not differ in terms of central processes was also obtained.     

The prevalence of mental retardation: Cross-cultural considerations from Sweden and the United States

Recent reports from Sweden and other European countries have shown a sharp disparity between their incidence and prevalence figures on mild mental retardation and similar figures in the U.S. (Grunewald, 1979; Martin, Blodgett, Edwards, Geer, & Melcher, 1974; Robinson & Robinson, 1976).The purpose of this paper is to provide a model of intellectual performance that might explain such disparities and predict future levels of occurrence of mild mental retardation. Such explanations should have relevance for our views on the development of intellectual ability as well as, on a practical level, planning the allocation of treatment resources. Such planning clearly depends upon the number of children having the condition in question.Over the past few decades we have progressed substantially in our ability to describe mental retardation and to differentiate it from conditions that superficially resemble it; such as, autism, learning disabilities, schizophrenia, etc., (Baroff, 1974; Robinson & Robinson, 1976). Our ability to identify variables that relate to mild mental retardation also has developed substantially, but correlation does not necessarily lead to understanding. One of the large set of variables that often is associated with mild mental retardation in the U.S. is poverty. But “poverty” is too broad a variable to be explanatory. Such a dimension is a surrogate factor standing in the place of other variables, not yet understood, that control, in part, the actual process, by which the child develops the condition of mild mental retardation (Kirk & Gallagher, 1983). A series of papers has been presented by psychologists in Sweden that allow us to address this issue.The ability to observe two cultures, Sweden and the U.S., that have both substantial similarities and differences provides a natural comparison of the prevalence of mental retardation that would be impossible to achieve through experimental manipulation. Prevalence is used here as the total number of cases present in a population group during a specific interval of time (Kramer, 1975).