Effects of immediate performance feedback on implementation of behavior support plans

Research has focused on increasing the treatment integrity of school-based interventions by utilizing performance feedback. The purpose of this study was to extend this literature by increasing special education teachers' treatment integrity for implementing antecedent and consequence procedures in an ongoing behavior support plan. A multiple baseline across teacher-student dyads (for two classrooms) design was used to evaluate the effects of performance feedback on the percentage of antecedent and consequence components implemented correctly during 1-hr observation sessions. Performance feedback was provided every other week for 8 to 22 weeks after a stable or decreasing trend in the percentage of antecedent or consequence components implemented correctly. Results suggested that performance feedback increased the treatment integrity of antecedent components for 4 of 5 teachers and consequence components for all 5 teachers. These results were maintained following feedback for all teachers across antecedent and consequence components. Teachers rated performance feedback favorably with respect to the purpose, procedures, and outcome, as indicated by a social validity rating measure.     

Health Care Reform: What History Doesn’t Teach

The paper begins by tracing the historical development of American medicine as practice, profession, and industry from the eighteenth century to the present. This historical outline emphasizes shifting conceptions of physicians and physician ethics. It lays the basis for showing, in the second section, how contemporary controversies about the physician’s role in managed care take root in medicine’s past. In the final two sections, I revisit both the historical analysis and its application to contemporary debates. I argue that historical narratives can function as “master narratives” that suppress or leave out historical facts. I bring to the surface what is covered up by the master narrative approach, and show its relevance to contemporary ethical debates. I conclude by proposing that preserving the integrity of medicine will require modifying the master narratives we tell about physicians. The integrity of medicine also offers new perspectives for thinking about managed care and the broader topic of health care reform.     

Beyond Defiance: An Augmented Investment Perspective on Creativity

An investment perspective on creativity, proposed 30 years ago, no longer seems adequate, nor do various revisions of the model made since then. The world, or at least the way many people experience it, has changed and so have the challenges for creativity. In particular, creativity is being used to increasingly greater effect in negative ways and in ways that lack integrity with respect both to internal coherence and external correspondence to the world. To understand creativity and adequately teach it, people need to take into account its positivity and its integrity with respect to internal coherence and external correspondence.     

When Does the Honeymoon End? Electoral Cycles of Satisfaction With Democracy in Africa

Scholars have argued that multiparty elections have a profound and immediate influence on mass evaluations of political support. However, what is less clear is whether the effects of elections are short lived or long lasting. Investigating dynamic effects of elections on mass perceptions of political regimes has profound implications on popular foundations of democratic consolidation in an era of democratic backsliding. This article examines electoral cycles in citizens' satisfaction with democracy (SWD)—an important dimension of political support—in multiparty regimes. First, we argue that proximity to elections enhances SWD because campaigns and elections include several processes that reduce the costs and increase the benefits of citizen engagement with the political system. This results in a bell-shaped relationship between citizens' proximity to elections and SWD. Second, we contend that electoral cycles in SWD should vary by the quality of elections and citizens' winner/loser status. We examine these hypotheses using Afrobarometer data in 34 multiparty regimes between 1999 and 2015 finding compelling support. SWD is higher among respondents surveyed closer to elections, while electoral cycles in SWD are more prominent among winners and around low-quality elections.     

汉字字形知觉的整合性对部件认知的影响

该研究在两个实验中探讨了汉字字形知觉的整合性,发现无论是弱化还是强化汉字字形的知觉整合性,都带来部位效应量值的相应变化。这些结果一方面证实了汉字知觉的客观实在性;另一方面还表明．在部件认知作业中同时存在部件及其整字的加工．这似乎是对文字认知混合模型的一种支持。     

On the hazards of whistleblowers and on some problems of young biomedical scientists in our time

This paper examines two different, but closely related, classes of problems. The first part deals with whistleblowers, and the difficulties and dangers that they have often faced, although their actions, in the rare cases where they become necessary, are indispensable for the maintenance of honest science. The problems are illustrated by discussion of several specific cases from 1960 to 1990. The second part deals with problems that face many young scientists today, and the stresses to which they are exposed in an increasingly competitive atmosphere. There are powerful pressures for premature publication, and many gifted scientists are driven to spend an inordinate amount of time in writing grant applications that are turned down for lack of funds, while receiving high praise from reviewers. Correction of conditions is an important matter for science policy; it is also important, among other things, to relieve pressures that would tend to encourage deviations from the standards necessary for trustworthy science.     

Efficacy of teacher-implemented good behavior game despite low treatment integrity

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a well-documented group contingency designed to reduce disruptive behavior in classroom settings. However, few studies have evaluated the GBG with students who engage in severe problem behavior in alternative schools, and there are few demonstrations of training teachers in those settings to implement the GBG. In the current study, 3 teachers were trained to implement the GBG in a restrictive setting for students with histories of emotional and behavioral disorders and delinquency. The teachers used the GBG to produce substantial reductions in problem behavior despite low treatment integrity. Clinical implications and future directions for research are discussed.