THE DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF TEACHER AND PEER ATTENTION ON THE DISRUPTIVE CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR OF THREE CHILDREN WITH A DIAGNOSIS OF ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER

We conducted functional analyses of classroom disruption during contingent teacher and peer attention conditions for 3 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Attention provided by peer confederates appeared to function as a distinct form of positive reinforcement for all 3 children.     

The use of the mental development index of the Bayley scale to diagnose language delay in 2-year-old high-risk infants

To determine if a detailed analysis of the language items of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID) would be useful in detecting language delay, the Bayley Mental Development Index (MDI) and Reynell Developmental Language Scales (RDLS-R) were administered to 137 low-birthweight infants at 2 years of age. In spite of scores in the normal range on the BSID, many of these children had significantly delayed language. However, the children with delayed language could be detected on the basis of detailed analysis of certain language items of the MDI, indicating that these items are more useful than the total MDI score.     

THE REPRESENTATIVENESS OF OBSERVATIONAL SAMPLES OF DIFFERENT DURATIONS

The representativeness of behavioral observation samples with durations of less than the whole time of interest was investigated. A real-time recording system was developed to quantify the behavior of 5 profoundly mentally retarded physically handicapped adult students in an institutional training setting. Behavior was observed using six mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories during 2.5-hr observation sessions. Sample observation sessions with durations ranging from 15 to 135 min were computer simulated from the whole-session (150-min) records. It was found that the representativeness of these samples, when compared to whole-session records, was a function of the relative duration of the behavioral categories and of sample duration. The occurrence of relatively high-duration behaviors (lasting for more than 50% of the session) was estimated to within 20% error by samples of less than 60 min, but low-duration behaviors (1 to 3% of the session) were inadequately quantified even from 135-min samples. Increasing irregularity of bouts of behavior in the low-duration behaviors is suggested as the cause of the functions obtained. Implications of the findings for applied behavior analysis are discussed, with the recommendation that the adequacy of observational session durations be empirically assessed routinely.     

THE FAILURE OF FEEDBACK ON ALCOHOL IMPAIRMENT TO REDUCE IMPAIRED DRIVING

We examined the effects of rules to govern drinking, individual feedback on blood alcohol concentration (BAC), and public posting of group data on impaired driving on the incidence of impaired driving. Level of impairment was determined from breath samples taken from tavern patrons. Following baseline, an intervention package consisting of (a) cards to guide patrons in pacing their drinking to stay under the legal limit, (b) individual feedback on BAC, and (c) posted group feedback on the percentage of patrons driving while impaired the preceding week was introduced in two taverns. Results indicated that the intervention package did not reduce the percentage of impaired drivers departing either tavern. The addition of a brief intensive police enforcement program directed at impaired driving produced a short-term reduction in impaired driving.     

Body Image Testing System: A microcomputer program for assessing body image

An interactive computer program, the Body Image Testing System (BITS), was developed to assess different components of the body image construct. The BITS program displays a frontal and side view of a human body. Subjects can change the size of each of nine body parts independently (face, neck, shoulders, arms, chest, breasts, stomach, hips, and thighs). Subjects interact with the program until satisfied that the image created matches the instructions. Subjects also provide satisfaction ratings for the nine body segments. To validate BITS, a variety of body image and eating disturbance measures was obtained from over 500 subjects. A factor analysis of actual-ideal differences and a perceptual distortion measure, derived using multiple regression, resulted in five orthogonal factors. Factor 1 measured actual-ideal discrepancy for weight-sensitive body parts. Factor 2 measured the perceptual distortion of weight-sensitive body parts. Additional factors measured perception of face and neck, shoulders, and breasts. The five factor scores plus the satisfaction ratings were strongly associated with actual body size, body fat percentage, and circumference of specific body parts. In addition, there were strong associations between the BITS and other measures of body image. Finally, BITS scores accounted for between 15 and 60% of the variance in measures of eating disturbance.     

Living alone,marital status,gender and health

Non-married people have generally been found to be less healthy than the married. It has been suggested that this difference may be brought about by the greater lack of social integration of those living alone. This hypothesis was tested by comparing the health of those living alone with those living with another person in the four non-married categories of never married, separated, divorced and widowed for women and men separately, initially controlling for age, education and income and subsequently adding five proximate indices of social integration. The person lived with was further categorized as an adult, cohabitee, child aged 4 or under, child aged 5 to 17, adult child, parent, relative or non-relative. The three indices of health were the 30-item General Health Questionnaire of psychological distress. a 15-item checklist of common physical symptoms and alcohol intake. The main differences obtained were that women living alone drank more alcohol than those cohabiting or living with a child aged 4 or under, and that widowers living alone were more psychologically distressed than those living with an adult child, even when social integration was controlled. The results suggested that living alone was not generally associated with poor health and so could not account for the difference between the married and non-married.     

Reliability and validity of children's reports of migraine headache symptoms

The present study was concerned with whether children's responses to a questionnaire correspond with parents' reports of the child's headache symptoms and whether these responses correlate with self-monitored headache activity. Twenty-eight children, ages 7 years–16 years, participated in the study. Using a questionnaire format, data on a wide variety of headache characteristics were gathered from parents and children. During the subsequent 4 weeks, children monitored their headache activity and medication usage. Results were generally supportive of the validity and reliability of children's reports via a questionnaire format. The responses to the frequency of headache and medication usage were found to predict the responses over the next month, whereas the response on the duration of headache did not. Significant correlations for most headache-symptom items indicated that children and parents agree on their presence and severity. This investigation is the first step in developing a systematic assessment procedure for childhood headache.     

The effects of labelling,expert testimony,and information processing mode on juror decisions in SVP civil commitment trials

Expert witnesses offering testimony in sexually violent predator civil commitment trials may use diagnostic labels that are either familiar (e.g. ‘psychopath’) or unfamiliar (e.g. ‘paraphilia’) to jurors. Using predictions based on cognitive experiential self-theory, we explored the influence of testimony type (clinical versus actuarial) and diagnostic label (psychopath versus paraphilia) on jurors motivated to adopt either an experiential processing mode (PM; in which heuristic cues may be strongly relied upon) or an analytic rational PM. Consistent with previous research, our results indicated that when given a psychopathic diagnostic label, mock jurors motivated to process information experientially were more influenced by clinical testimony, whereas mock jurors induced into a rational mode were more influenced by actuarial testimony. However, experientially oriented jurors given a paraphilia diagnostic label did not show the expected influence of clinical expert testimony, and instead were more persuaded by actuarial testimony. These findings are discussed from a judgement and heuristics cues framework. The implications of several procedural suggestions are examined. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

小剂量酒精伤害驾驶行为的时序效应

酒后开车普遍存在并致交通肇事居高不下的现实,对法定酒精限量的科学性提出质疑.本实验在多数国家交通法规采用的体内血液酒精水平BAL＜0.5‰的标准以下,设计三项任务对12名被试在酒前酒后四段时间内的行为实施测试,结果表明个体无法准确估计安全的酒精摄入量;小剂量酒精仍具有伤害行为的效应;酒精影响依行为复杂程度呈现时序效应.     

Paternal Child-Rearing Style and Child Social Anxiety: Investigation of Child Perceptions and Actual Father Behavior

This study examined associations among perceived and actual father behavior and child social anxiety. Forty-eight children (22 high socially anxious, 26 low socially anxious) completed self-report measures of social anxiety, general anxiety, and depression. Children also completed a measure of perceived parental style and subsequently collaborated with their fathers on a challenging task (origami). After controlling for general anxiety and depression, fathers of high socially anxious children exhibited more controlling behavior during the origami task; high and low socially anxious children, however, did not differ behaviorally from one another. Perceptions of father child-rearing style did not differ as a function of child social anxiety, nor were significant relations found between perceived parenting and specific father behaviors. Findings underscore the importance of assessing various types of internalizing symptoms (i.e., controlling for shared construct variance), obtaining children's perceptions of parental style in conjunction with conducting behavioral observations, and including fathers in psychopathology research.