Comparing interspersed requests and social comments as antecedents for increasing student compliance

Two students were alternately presented with interspersed high-compliance requests and social comments as antecedents to low-compliance requests. An initial comparison demonstrated similar positive effects on compliance for interspersed requests and social comments. A second analysis indicated that the effectiveness of social comments for increasing compliance was related to the time interval between social comments and low-compliance requests.     

Stimulus control in the use of landmarks by pigeons in a touch-screen task

Pigeons were tested in a search task on the surface of a monitor on which their responses were registered by a touch-sensitive device. A graphic landmark array was presented consisting of a square outline (the frame) and a colored “landmark.” The unmarked goal, pecks at which produced reward, was located near the center of one edge of the frame, and the landmark was near it. The entire array was displaced without rotation on the monitor from trial to trial. On occasional no-reward tests, the following manipulations were made to the landmark array: (a) either the frame or the landmark was removed; (2) either one edge of the frame or the landmark was shifted; and (3) two landmarks were presented with or without the frame present. On these two-landmark tests, the frame, when present, defined which was the “correct” landmark. When the frame was absent, the “correct” landmark was arbitrarily determined. Results showed that pecks of 2 pigeons were controlled almost solely by the landmark, pecks of 3 were controlled primarily by the landmark but the frame could distinguish the correct landmark, and 1 bird's behavior was controlled primarily by the frame. Stimulus control in this search task is thus selective and differs across individuals. Comparisons to other search tasks and to other stimulus control experiments are made.     

Self-control and impulsiveness in children and adults: Effects of food preferences

Experiment 1 used 6 preschool boys and Experiment 2 used 6 adult women to explore the effects of food preference on humans' choice in self-control paradigms. The boys showed a higher proportion of responses for more delayed, larger reinforcers (a measure of self-control) when those choices resulted in receipt of the most preferred food compared to when those choices resulted in the least preferred food. Further, the boys chose the less delayed, smaller reinforcers significantly more often when only those choices, as opposed to both choices, resulted in the most preferred food. Conversely, they chose the more delayed, larger reinforcers significantly more often when only those choices, as opposed to both choices, resulted in the most preferred food. Finally, the women demonstrated significantly less sensitivity to reinforcer amount relative to sensitivity to reinforcer delay (another measure of self-control) when they had a higher preference for the juice received as the less delayed, smaller reinforcer than for the juice received as the more delayed, larger reinforcer. Together, the results show that subjects' food preferences can influence self-control for food reinforcers.     

Wisdom and abiding interest: Interviews with three noted historians in later life

This article explores the connections between wisdom-related attributes and abiding interest and draws upon material from interviews with three eminent historians in later life. It is proposed that one characteristic of wisdom, namely, the coordination of affective/attaching and cognitive/detaching modes of processing information, is related to abiding interest or the ability to self-regulate attention in a way that promotes lifelong learning. The article (a) reviews pertinent constructs in the literatures on adult development and wisdom; (b) presents selected excerpts from in-depth interviews; and (c) concludes by discussing the developmental implications of the ideas presented.     

Parenting stress in parents of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and parents of children with learning disabilities

Parenting a child with ADHD can challenge parenting resources and coping. Increasingly, researchers are examining the relationship between the behavior of the child with ADHD and family functioning. While studies have shown inceased parenting stress in parents of children with ADHD, these studies have compared children with ADHD to non-disabled children. This study compares reports of parenting stress among mothers of children with ADHD, mothers of children with learning disabilities and mothers of non-referred children. Results showed that parenting stress was highest for mothers of children with ADHD. Increased parenting stress was associated with child characteristics and, in particular, with externalizing behavior problems.     

兰州市不同社区中、小学生学习态度的比较研究

通过对兰州市不同社区中、小学生学习态度的主要特征及差异情况的分析,揭示出学生的学习态度受到广泛的社会文化背景、教育思想及学生年龄等因素的影响。     

幼儿从电视中学单词──项伴随学习的研究

对幼儿从电视中伴随学习单词的可能性及其影响因素进行了初步的探讨。４０名小班幼儿和４６名大班幼儿参加了实验,他们在接近自然的状态下观看有字幕的动画片。结果发现：幼儿在无任何指导的情况下观看有字幕的动画片,能伴随学习到汉字,这表明,电视对幼儿的词汇发展有着积极的影响;不同性别的儿童都能同等程度地从电视中伴随学习到单词;词义的伴随学习受幼儿原有的词汇水平和幼儿对目标词熟悉程度的影响;词音的伴随学习只发生在词汇水平较高的幼儿当中,并且随着幼儿对目标词熟悉程度的增加而增加;词音和词义的伴随学习存在频度效应。     

合作学习对小学生同伴关系、成就动机和成就影响的研究

旨在探讨在我国开展合作学习教学的可行性,以及合作学习对小学生同伴关系、成就动机和成就水平的影响,运用自然实验和测量相结合的方法,选择了北京师范大学实验小学三年级两个班进行实验研究,其中一个班为实验班（ｎ＝３５）,另一个班为控制班（ｎ＝３７）．实验为期三个月。结果表明：合作学习在小学教学中不但是可行的,而且效果较为显著;合作学习对同伴关系的改善有着积极的影响,学生间的接纳度和被接纳度都有普遍的提高;合作学习在较大程度上激发了学生的成就动机水平,学生对合作学习的课程兴趣明显提高．成绩较差的学生表现得更为明显;合作学习对提高学生的学习成绩有一定的促进作用。     

Brain dynamics,psychophysiological uncertainty and behavioral learning

The present paper takes a first step toward the integration of recent findings on brain dynamics and learning into established fields of psychophysiological science. Leading-edge studies of brain dynamics have shown that the brain manifests an inherent variability and that, when new stimuli (i.e., “problems”) are presented to the organism, brain chaos increases.     

Role of the striatal cholinergic system in the regulation of learned manipulation in rats

The experiments were performed on adult Wistar male rats trained to push with the forepaw on a fixed piston inside a narrow tube. It was found that after localized intracerebral injection of a cholinergic antagonist into the dorso-lateral (but not medial) neostriatum (i.e., the caudato-putamen) the behavioral performance requiring brief innate movements remained unchanged, but the performance requiring a prolonged pushing movement (> 50 msec) became disrupted. Microinjection of carbacholine (0.03-3 μ g/1 μ1) did not affect the performance of the acquired movements, whereas scopolamine (3 μ g/1 μ1) led to the significant decrease in pushing time. We conclude that changes in the state of the dorso-lateral neostriatal cholinergic system result only in disturbances of the sensory-controlled component of a complex instrumental movement. The 1994 Pavlovian Society Young Investigator Awardee was Nadezda Dubrovskaya, first author of this paper, which was presented at the annual meeting of the Pavlovian Society, July 3, 1994, in Prague, Czech Republic.