SHORT- AND LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF CONTINGENCY MANAGED INSTRUCTION ON LOW,MEDIUM, AND HIGH GPA STUDENTS1

Undergraduate students had been assigned to a contingency managed course or a conventional lecture course (Du Nann and Fernald, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1976, 9 , 373–374). Two years later, some 35% (N = 86) of the original classes responded to a letter offering them $2.00 to participate in a study of their educational experiences. These students completed a multiple-choice test on material from the course, and answered questions about activities and attitudes that might have been affected by the experience in Introductory Psychology. In the contingency management course 2 yr past, students were tested each week on a chapter of textbook material with 10-item multiple-choice quizzes. The course employed a modified “Doomsday Contingency”, requiring each student to achieve 80% mastery on one of the four weekly quizzes or drop the course. Quizzes were given in small groups and scored individually, while the student stood near, by an undergraduate proctor assigned to that group. The proctor was asked to show interest in the students' quiz performances, help clear up difficult areas, and develop a friendly working relationship with each student. While many students passed the quiz on the first attempt, others were given individual tutoring, so that no one was in fact forced to drop the course. In addition to the weekly quiz assignment, students in the contingency managed group were asked to attend one lecture each week. While the contingency management course procedures had much in common with PSI (Keller, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1968, 1 , 79–89), several departures made them unique. First, self-pacing was curtailed because students were required to master one unit per week or drop the course. Second, proctors met with students in small groups, usually giving individual tutoring only to those students who did not pass the quiz on the first attempt. Finally, students were asked to attend one lecture per week. Students in the conventional lecture group were not asked to pass weekly quizzes, but instead attended three 50-min lectures each week. Two of these lectures followed the textbook material closely, while the third, which was also attended by students from the contingency management course, covered material only indirectly related to the text. This partition of lecture content allowed material to be similar across the two instructional groups. Although students in the lecture condition were told they could obtain copies of the quizzes, few of them did so. Course grades were determined by scores on two 45-item multiple-choice hourly exams, each covering half the semester material (each worth 25%), and by a 90-item final exam, which served as a measure of short-term retention. Before analyzing the follow-up data, several characteristics of the returning students were compared to determine the comparability of the sample from the two original classes. Most important, both attrition and the current mean GPAs of students from the two classes were very similar. These considerations, and others, suggested there was no systematic sampling bias to confound comparisons of student performance. A 2 (contingency management versus traditional lecture) by 3 (high, medium, and low GPA) analysis of variance was computed on the course final-exam scores and the follow-up measures. Instructional procedure and GPA interacted on the final exam such that low and medium GPA students performed significantly better under contingency management, but there was no significant effect of instructional procedure with high GPA students. On the 2-yr retention measures, students from the contingency management course performed significantly (p < 0.01) better on items drawn from quizzes used in their original course, and marginally better (p < 0.10) on items drawn from the final exams, but no interactions with GPA appeared. Furthermore, instructional method produced no significant main effects or interaction with how many students became majors or minors in psychology, how many psychology courses were later taken, how many books in psychology were reported to have been read, or on students' evaluation of the interest and importance of psychology.     

Facilitating paper recycling: effects of prompts, raffles, and contests

The effects of prompts and reinforcement to promote paper recycling were compared in six university dormitories. For a Prompt condition, residents were urged to recycle paper for ecological reasons via flyers distributed to each room. For a Raffle contingency, residents were given one raffle ticket for every pound of paper brought to a collection center. For a Contest contingency, two dorms were paired and the dorm whose residents delivered the most paper won $15 for its treasury. Contingency awareness was strengthened via a flyer placed under the door of each resident's room. Flyers alone had little effect in increasing paper-recycling behaviors, but the raffle (substantially) and the contest (somewhat) increased the amount of paper brought to a dorm's recycling center. Students whose rooms were closest to the collection center showed the greatest participation. Removal of the reinforcement contingencies resulted in a return to baseline levels.     

Producing a change from competition to sharing: effects of large and adjusting response requirements

Pairs of high-school students matched-to-sample for money. On each trial, the first pair member to complete a fixed ratio of knob-pulling responses could work the matching problem on that trial. Competition occurred when both pair members responded for the problem. Sharing occurred when only one pair member responded on each trial, and the subjects alternated trials. Hence, sharing requires less responding and still allows a moderate number of reinforcers for each subject. Recent research has shown that increasing the response requirement to the point that it may have aversive properties will produce a change from competition to sharing. A related variable is an adjusting schedule that adjusts the subjects' response requirements so that their abilities to take reinforcers are equal. In this way, subjects might learn that competition requires more responding but produces no more reinforcers. However, recent research also suggests that competition decreases over sessions without experimental manipulations. Because of this possibility of a time-related variable, ratio size and an adjusting schedule were studied in a group design. Competition did decrease for all groups over sessions, but the large-ratio groups switched from competition to sharing sooner than the low-ratio groups. The adjusting schedule had a similar but smaller effect.     

Electrophysiological analysis of stimulus variables in equivalence relations

Recently, electrophysiological measures have been used to evaluate the functional overlap between semantic relations and laboratory-defined equivalence relations with abstract stimuli. Several studies using semantic judgment procedures have shown that accompanying EEG-measured neural activity for stimulus pairs from equivalence classes is very similar to that of word pairs from participants' native language. However, those studies often included pronounceable elements (e.g., written nonsense syllables) as at least one member of the experimentally defined classes. The present study conducted EEG studies that contrasted classes with and without such elements. Two groups of undergraduate students completed a matching-to-sample procedure to establish 3 4-member equivalence classes. For Group 1, samples and comparisons were pronounceable pseudowords and abstract figures. For Group 2, the matching-to-sample stimuli were abstract figures only. EEG data recorded during the semantic judgment tasks showed waveform patterns compatible with prior studies of semantic relations in Group 1 but not in Group 2.     

述情障碍与中学生人际关系:有调节的中介模型

为明确述情障碍与中学生人际关系间关系的内在机制,采用中学生人际关系量表、多伦多述情障碍量表、社交焦虑量表及领悟社会支持量表调查了北京市、石家庄市、佳木斯市三所中学7至11年级共998名学生,根据述情障碍的筛查标准,最终获得218份有效数据。结论如下：（1）述情障碍与社交焦虑呈显著正相关,与人际关系、社会支持呈显著负相关;人际关系与社交焦虑呈显著负相关,而与社会支持呈显著正相关;社交焦虑与社会支持呈显著负相关;（2）社交焦虑在述情障碍与中学生人际关系间起中介作用;社会支持在述情障碍与中学生人际关系间起调节作用;（3）"述情障碍→社交焦虑→中学生人际关系"这一中介路径的前半段,受到社会支持的调节。与高社会支持个体相比,述情障碍对低社会支持个体的社交焦虑影响更大。     

基本需要在导师排斥感知与研究生心理健康的关系中的作用

为探讨导师排斥感知对研究生心理健康的影响及作用机制,本研究采用导师排斥感知问卷、基本需要问卷、生活满意度量表、简版流调中心抑郁量表及攻击问卷,对北京市六所本科院校的864名在校硕士和博士研究生进行问卷调查。结果发现：（1）导师排斥感知正向预测研究生的抑郁和攻击性,负向预测其生活满意度;（2）基本需要在导师排斥感知与研究生的生活满意度、抑郁之间起着完全中介作用,在导师排斥感知与攻击性之间起部分中介作用。结果表明,研究生导师排斥感知越强,基本需要的满足水平越低,进而导致研究生的抑郁水平越高、攻击性越强、生活满意度越低。即研究生感知的导师排斥感越强,其心理健康水平越低。     

大学生主观童年创伤症状对抑郁的影响:抗挫折能力和外向性的多重中介效应

本研究将"童年创伤"定义为"个体14岁以前所经历的,站在主体的角度主观感受到的创伤性事件"。采用问卷调查法对302名大学生进行调查,通过定量加定性的方式探索了童年创伤与抑郁之间的关系。相关分析表明：主观童年创伤症状、外向性、抗挫折能力、抑郁之间两两显著相关;结构方程模型表明：主观童年创伤症状通过外向性、抗挫折能力完全、多重中介作用间接预测抑郁。本研究结果在理论和实践层面对大学生抑郁问题的预防和干预工作提供重要的借鉴依据。     

2004至2016年中国大学生身体自尊的变迁:一项横断历史研究

大学生身体自尊是如何随年代变化的呢？研究对2004年至2016年107篇使用身体自尊量表的研究进行了横断历史研究,涉及大学生30738名。结果显示：（1）我国大学生身体自我价值感、运动能力和身体素质与年代有着显著正相关关系;（2）男女大学生身体自尊水平都有了一定提升;（3）男生在身体自尊各个因子的得分高于女生0.2~0.3个标准差,显示出了大学生在身体自尊水平上的性别差异;（4）从大学生整个群体来看,经济因素、高等教育因素与大学生身体自尊具有显著相关,而从不同性别群体来看,经济因素与人口压力对于男大学生的身体自尊影响更为明显。     

初中生亲子关系与抑郁:自尊和情绪弹性的中介作用

基于生态系统理论和认知易感性模型,本研究拟探讨初中生亲子关系对抑郁的影响及作用机制,采用问卷法对813名初中生进行调查。结果表明：（1）亲子关系、自尊、情绪弹性与抑郁之间呈两两显著相关,且亲子关系能显著负向预测抑郁;（2）自尊和情绪弹性在亲子关系与抑郁之间起显著的中介作用,具体包括三条路径：一是自尊的单独中介作用;二是情绪弹性的单独中介作用;三是自尊和情绪弹性的序列中介作用。本研究揭示了初中生亲子关系通过内在心理因素对抑郁水平产生影响的作用机制,为进一步提升初中生的心理健康提供了指导性建议。     

未来时间洞察力与大学生职业决策自我效能感的关系:领悟社会支持与自尊的链式中介

为考察未来时间洞察力对大学生职业决策自我效能感的影响及其作用机制,本研究采用未来时间洞察力量表、领悟社会支持量表、自尊量表和职业决策自我效能感量表,对756名高校学生进行调查。结果表明:(1)未来时间洞察力、领悟社会支持、自尊、职业决策自我效能感两两之间存在显著正相关;(2)社会支持和自尊在未来时间洞察力与职业决策自我效能感之间起显著的中介作用。具体为三条中介路径:一是社会支持的单独中介作用; 二是自尊的单独中介作用; 三是社会支持和自尊的链式中介作用。研究揭示了未来时间洞察力与大学生职业决策自我效能感的关系及其作用机制,拓展了大学生职业决策自我效能感的影响因素,对大学生的职业指导具有一定的现实意义。