Choice in situations of time-based diminishing returns: immediate versus delayed consequences of action.

Pigeons chose between two schedules of food presentation, a fixed-interval schedule and a progressive-interval schedule that began at 0 s and increased by 20 s with each food delivery provided by that schedule. Choosing one schedule disabled the alternate schedule and stimuli until the requirements of the chosen schedule were satisfied, at which point both schedules were again made available. Fixed-interval duration remained constant within individual sessions but varied across conditions. Under reset conditions, completing the fixed-interval schedule not only produced food but also reset the progressive interval to its minimum. Blocks of sessions under the reset procedure were interspersed with sessions under a no-reset procedure, in which the progressive schedule value increased independent of fixed-interval choices. Median points of switching from the progressive to the fixed schedule varied systematically with fixed-interval value, and were consistently lower during reset than during no-reset conditions. Under the latter, each subject's choices of the progressive-interval schedule persisted beyond the point at which its requirements equaled those of the fixed-interval schedule at all but the highest fixed-interval value. Under the reset procedure, switching occurred at or prior to that equality point. These results qualitatively confirm molar analyses of schedule preference and some versions of optimality theory, but they are more adequately characterized by a model of schedule preference based on the cumulated values of multiple reinforcers, weighted in inverse proportion to the delay between the choice and each successive reinforcer.     

Interrater reliability of teacher rating scales for children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

Interrater reliability of eight teacher rating scales designed to assess characteristics of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder was investigated. Coteachers of 46 students completed the rating scales. The students, ages 8–17, were designated as having a Serious Emotional Disturbance. The resulting interrater reliability correlation coefficients ranged from .62 to .87. The percentage of variance shared between raters ranged from a low of 38.4% (the ACTeRS Oppositional factor and the CBCL-TRF Attention Problems factor) to 75.7% (ADHD Rating Scale). The percent of shared variance was higher for younger children. Kappa scores evaluating rater agreement were highest at the two standard deviations above the mean cutoff. The reliability coefficients were consistent with those reported in prior research.     

Prevention, solution-focused therapy, and the illusion of mental disorders

Therapy theorists' criticism of the lack of specific mechanisms in the prevention of mental disorders is examined from the perspective of solution-focused therapy (SFT), which argues that solutions can be unrelated to problems, and that it is not even necessary to know what a problem is in order to solve it. It is suggested that the shift of attention from problems to solutions in SFT offers a conceptual framework within which the criticism is not relevant, and from which theorists of therapy and prevention can share a common outlook. This outlook involves a focus on encouraging productive, useful, positive behavior, with a corresponding deemphasis on an skepticism about current conceptualizations of mental disorders.     

Norms for Parental Ratings on Conners' Abbreviated Parent-Teacher Questionnaire: Implications for the Design of Behavioral Rating Inventories and Analyses of Data Derived from Them

Despite the wide usage of Conners' 10-item Abbreviated Parent-Teacher Questionnaire (APTQ), normative data for parental ratings on the APTQ are rare. Moreover, its psychometric properties as a stand alone behavioral rating instrument have yet to be examined in detail. Using data from parental ratings for 6,841 children aged 5 to 14 years, this paper reports the psychometric properties of the APTQ and provides normative and prevalence estimates for four age cohorts (5 to 6, 7 to 8, 9 to 11, and 12 to 14 years) by gender. In presenting the findings, the paper highlights key methodological issues endemic to the design of behavioral rating inventories like the APTQ and the analysis of data derived from them. These issues are illustrated and discussed in terms of their implications for the measurement and determination of prevalence estimates of problem behaviors in child psychology and child psychiatry. The need to revise the design, content, and response formats of child behavior rating inventories is stressed.     

Conjoint schedules of timeout deletion in pigeons.

This experiment attempted to bring behavior under joint control of two distinct contingencies, one that provided food and a second that extended the periods during which that food was available. Pigeons' responses on each of two keys were reinforced according to a single random-interval schedule of food presentation except during signaled timeout periods during which the schedule was temporarily disabled. By means of a conjoint schedule, responses on the initially less preferred key not only produced food but also canceled impending timeouts. When behavior came to predominate on this conjoint alternative, the consequences of responding on the two keys were reversed. Responding in 3 of 4 pigeons proved sensitive to the conjoint scheduled consequences, as evidenced by systematic shifts in response rates favoring the conjoint key. In 2 of these 3 pigeons, sensitivity to the conjoint contingency was evident under time-in:timeout ratios of 2:1 (time-in = 120 s, timeout = 60 s) and 1:5 (time-in = 30 s, timeout = 150 s), whereas for the other pigeon preference for the conjoint key was observed only under the latter sequence of conditions. There was only weak evidence of control by the conjoint scheduled consequences in the 4th subject, despite extended training and forced exposure to the conjoint alternative. The overall pattern of results is consistent with studies of timeout avoidance but also shares features in common with positively reinforced behavior.     

Characterizing the manifest probabilities of latent trait models

The problem of characterizing the manifest probabilities of a latent trait model is considered. The item characteristic curve is transformed to the item passing-odds curve and a corresponding transformation is made on the distribution of ability. This results in a useful expression for the manifest probabilities of any latent trait model. The result is then applied to give a characterization of the Rasch model as a log-linear model for a 2 ^J -contingency table. Partial results are also obtained for other models. The question of the identifiability of “guessing” parameters is also discussed. The research reported here is collaborative in every respect and the order of authorship is alphabetical. Dr. Cressie was a Visiting Research Scientist at ETS during the Fall of 1980. His current address is: School of Mathematical Sciences, The Flinders University of South Australia, Bedford Park SA, 5042, AUSTRALIA. The preparation of this paper was supported, in part, by the Program Statistics Research Project in the Research Statistics Group at ETS.     

Some properties of the correlation matrix of dichotomous guttman items

Both the elements and the eigenvalues of the Pearson correlation matrix of dichotomous Guttman-scalable items can be expressed as simple functions of the number of items if the score distribution is uniform and there is an equal number of items at each difficulty level. Even when these special conditions do not hold, the correlations can often be expressed in a simple form by assuming a particular score distribution.The author thanks Neil Dorans, Bob Mislevy, Ledyard R Tucker, and Howard Wainer for their comments.     

Psychometric instability of measures in novel settings: Use of psychiatric rating scales in nursing homes

Researchers have become increasingly concerned about problems of the quality of measurement in applied evaluation settings. Of particular importance is change in both the reliability and the validity of a measure that is used in a novel setting. This problem is illustrated by an attempt to use psychiatric rating scales to assess the behavior of chronic mental patients currently residing in nursing homes. Methods for assessing changes in both reliability and validity are presented, along with suggestions for how to deal with these problems.This research was supported in part by an Extramural Research Grant from the State of Illinois Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities.     

Assessment of social skills using a Thurstone Equal-Appearing Interval scale

Although Likert ratings of social skill are widely used in behavioral assessment, such ratings may have limited replicability potential and social validity. The present study compared the reliability of Likert and Thurstone Equal-Appearing Interval scales. The Thurstone-derived scale was slightly more reliable than its Likert counterpart. Moreover, the empirical and clinical potential of Thurstone scaling substantially exceeds that of Likert and other rating methods.     

Exploring the Factor Structure of the RTI Readiness and Implementation Survey

Response to intervention (RtI) models have increasingly been adopted to improve outcomes for all students through the delivery of a continuum of supports and making timely responsive instructional decisions based on data. With this increasing popularity, researchers and practitioners have developed several RtI-related assessments, many of which have no known psychometric properties. As a result, there is an urgent need to develop psychometrically sound RtI readiness and implementation assessments that possess technical adequacy and practical utility. This study surveyed 377 participants to examine the factor structure of the author-developed RtI survey. An exploratory factor analysis identified seven relevant factors (system support, belief, conceptual knowledge, practical knowledge, resource, time, and system barrier) from the initial pool of 49 items. Results of reliability estimates supported the internal consistency of each subscale. Collectively, this validated RtI survey can be used to help district and school leaders efficiently screen a system's current RtI readiness and implementation status. The data may also inform successful RtI initiation and sustainment of the reform. Limitations and future directions for research are discussed.