Effects of two teacher-presentation rates on off-task behavior, answering correctly, and participation

Off-task behavior, correct answering, and participation during beginning reading instruction were recorded for two low-achieving first-grade children during two different rates of teacher presentation. A slow-rate presentation (A) was compared with a fast-rate presentation (B) in an ABABAB design. In slow-rate presentation, there was a delay between the children's response and introduction of the next task. In fast-rate presentation, there was no delay. A new teacher taught during the final AB phases, which allowed for a brief replication. Both teachers were reminded on a fixed-interval 90-sec schedule throughout all phases of the experiment to praise the subjects, thus preventing a confounding of social praise and rate of teacher presentation. Fast-rate presentation was accompanied by a lower per cent occurrence of off-task behavior for both Subjects 1 and 2. For Subject 1, correct answering and participation were more frequent during all three fast-rate phases. For Subject 2, correct answering and participation were more frequent during the fast-rate phases after the first reversal.     

Clock control of human performance on avoidance and fixed-interval schedules

The avoidance and fixed-interval performances of human subjects were studied in two experiments. Addition of time-correlated stimuli (added clock) improved behavioral efficiency, since response rates decreased without decreases in reinforcement rates. Response-dependent display of the clock maintained a second, observing response and reductions in clock duration weakened such observing behavior. Generally, the reinforcing properties of the clock were more apparent with the avoidance than with the fixed-interval schedule, a finding attributed to temporal cues already provided by delivery of the fixed-interval reinforcers. Reduced rates of the main response when the clock was dependent on an observing response were more than offset by rates of the observing response in the majority of subjects. Thus, the results do not support an interpretation of the reinforcing properties of added clocks simply in terms of work reduction.     

The effect of rearing environments on the contrafreeloading phenomenon in rats

Eight naive rats were reared in enriched or impoverished environments for 39 days after weaning and then lived in operant chambers, in which they could obtain food pellets freely or by lever pressing, for 25 or 30 days. The animals raised in an impoverished environment acquired the bar-press response quickly when placed in the operant chambers and maintained a preference for obtaining food via bar pressing. Animals raised in an enriched environment did not learn to lever press, as demonstrated by low levels of responding and the lack of bar pressing when free food was subsequently removed. It was concluded that restricting animals' postweaning environments facilitated learning in a choice situation, probably because of increased activity levels. The results are interpreted in relation to previous studies on rearing environments and on contrafreeloading.     

城市儿童超级英雄游戏的尴尬处境及其指导

超级英雄游戏是儿童最喜爱的游戏之一，城市儿童的超级英雄游戏由于游戏中的暴力成分、狭窄的游戏场地等原因遭到成人的反对。而成人合理管理和指导儿童的超级英雄游戏能促进儿童积极发展，完全禁止儿童的超级英雄游戏可能会对儿童的发展产生消极的影响。     

Comparing Traditional and Ebook-Augmented Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT): A Randomized Control Trial of Pocket PCIT

Disruptive behavior in young children is one of the most common referrals to behavioral health providers. While numerous effective parenting programs, such as parent–child interaction therapy (PCIT), exist for improving children’s behaviors, challenges with treatment engagement and retention limit the intended positive impact on child and caregiver outcomes, particularly for racial and ethnic minority families. In an effort to address barriers contributing to poor engagement and retention in traditional PCIT service delivery and among ethnic and racial minority families, a multimedia PCIT ebook was developed and evaluated. In a sample of the general public that utilized the ebook, users were found to be more engaged in viewing embedded videos within the ebook that were related to expert skill explanations and skill demonstrations than caregiver testimonies. A randomized controlled trial was also conducted to evaluate the extent that the ebook + PCIT improved treatment engagement, retention, parenting skills, skill acquisition efficiency, and child behavior above and beyond traditional PCIT. Participating families were randomly assigned to either the traditional PCIT (n = 71) or ebook + PCIT (n = 107) group using an online random number generator. Forty-nine caregivers (traditional PCIT n = 24, ebook + PCIT n = 25) were excluded from analyses because they were lost to follow-up during the intervention. Families in both the traditional PCIT and ebook + PCIT groups demonstrated generally equivalent positive outcomes in treatment engagement (i.e., attendance, treatment length, completion rate) and caregiver skill acquisition efficiency at midtreatment, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up. The addition of the ebook to PCIT also reduced child disruptive behavior at midtreatment, above and beyond traditional PCIT, but not at posttreatment or follow-up. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.     

Searching for Positive Aspects of Excessive Reassurance-Seeking

We investigated positive aspects of excessive reassurance-seeking in interpersonal relationships. Previous studies have emphasized that excessive reassurance-seeking leads to interpersonal rejection by significant others. However, Fowler & Gasiorek (2017) suggested that excessive reassurance-seekers tend to make efforts to maintain relationships with their romantic partners, and that these efforts affect their own satisfaction with the relationships. We investigated whether the findings of Fowler and Gasiorek in students could be replicated in general heterosexual couples (N = 437 couples). Data were analyzed using the modified actor–partner interdependence model. Results indicated that excessive reassurance-seeking had no actor or partner effects on the efforts to maintain the relationships, which predicted relational satisfaction. However, the actor and partner effects of excessive reassurance-seeking on relational satisfaction through the efforts to maintain the relationships differed according to the relational duration. These findings, despite certain inconsistencies with Fowler and Gasiorek, suggest that excessive reassurance-seeking might have positive effects on relationships.     

Childhood Maltreatment,Emotional Response Inhibition,and Suicide in Psychiatric Inpatients

Childhood abuse and/or neglect adversely influences development of neurocognitive systems that regulate affect and behavior. Poor inhibitory control over emotional reactions is thus one potential pathway from maltreatment to suicide. Adult psychiatric inpatients completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and an emotional stop-signal task indexing negative emotional action termination (NEAT): the ability to inhibit ongoing motor reactions to aversive stimuli triggered by negative affect. Clinical interviews assessed suicidal thoughts and behaviors during hospitalization (n = 131) and at follow-up assessments 6 months later (n = 87). Our primary aim was to examine whether maltreatment history and NEAT explain overlapping variance in suicidal behaviors (1) retrospectively and (2) 6 months following hospital discharge. Contrary to prediction, childhood maltreatment was unrelated to history of suicidal behaviors. However, NEAT was consistently associated with prior suicidal acts, even controlling for suicidal ideation and demographic covariates. NEAT similarly contributed to the prediction of post-discharge suicidal behaviors, whereas we found no effect of maltreatment history. The present study suggests that NEAT captures suicide risk independently of childhood maltreatment. Results implicated NEAT impairment specifically, rather than broader response inhibition deficits (e.g., to positive stimuli), in past and future suicidal behaviors. These findings provide preliminary support for NEAT as a behavioral vulnerability marker for suicide, with implications for understanding links between maltreatment history and suicidal acts.     

Methodological improvements to a Procedure for Rapidly Establishing Steady-State Behavior

We performed three experiments to improve the quality and retention of data obtained from a Procedure for Rapidly Establishing Steady-State Behavior (PRESS-B; Klapes et al., 2020). In Experiment 1, 120 participants worked on nine concurrent random-interval random-interval (conc RI RI) schedules and were assigned to four conditions of varying changeover delay (COD) length. The 0.5-s COD condition group exhibited the fewest instances of exclusive reinforcer acquisition. Importantly, this group did not differ in generalized matching law (GML) fit quality from the other groups. In Experiment 2, 60 participants worked on nine conc RI RI schedules with a wider range of scheduled reinforcement rate ratios than was used in Experiment 1. Participants showed dramatic reductions in exclusive reinforcer acquisition. Experiment 3 entailed a replication of Experiment 2 wherein blackout periods were implemented between the schedule presentations and each schedule remained in operation until at least one reinforcer was acquired on each alternative. GML fit quality was slightly more consistent in Experiment 3 than in the previous experiments. Thus, these results suggest that future PRESS-B studies should implement a shorter COD, a wider and richer scheduled reinforcement rate ratio range, and brief blackouts between schedule presentations for optimal data quality and retention.