Qualitative aspects of pantomime recognition defect in aphasia

This study investigated the performance pattern of aphasic patients on a pantomime recognition test in which one of the four response alternatives was an object semantically related to the correct choice. Aphasics with defective pantomime recognition made 71% of their total errors on the semantic foils, and for the majority of such patients, semantic errors represented 80 to 100% of total errors. Only aphasies with objective evidence of confusion failed to make highly frequent semantic errors. The findings suggest that most aphasies who fail pantomime recognition are impaired because of semantically vague understanding of the pantomimes' intended meaning rather than complete lack of understanding of the pantomime.     

Behavior modification in education: Contributions and limitations

Behavior modification has been applied widely in educational settings encompassing a wide range of student populations, ages, and areas of focus. Major contributions of behavior modification include development and evaluation of a large number of techniques with extensive classroom research. As a direct consequence of technique development, behavior modification has provided teachers with a selection of classroom practices and information regarding their use. Despite the widespread application of behavioral principles in education, several limitations can be identified including the responses that are altered, the emphasis on response consequences, the focus on child performance rather than behaviors of teachers and others, and the lack of maintenance of improvements evident in many programs. Although limitations can be identified within the field, remarkable advances have been made in identifying educational practices that can improve student and teacher behavior. A major limitation in applying behavior modification to education pertains to dissemination and extension of existing techniques to a large number of settings likely to profit their use. The present paper considers various contributions and limitations of contemporary behavior modification and suggests areas for expansion to augment the progress that has been made.     

Mental capacity,mental effort,and cognitive style

This study tests the relationship between two theoretical models of human attentional capacity: Pascual-Leone's mental capacity and Kahneman's mental effort. It was found that significant and positive correlations exist between the empirical measures of the above constructs, and the relationship is demonstrated via construct validation by showing that the two constructs relate in the same manner to the subject's cognitive style (i.e., field-dependence/independence).