Radical behaviorism: A productive and needed philosophy for education

Radical behaviorism is the philosophy of the science of behavior originating in the work of B. F. Skinner and elaborated over the years by a community of researchers, scholars, and practitioners. Radical behaviorism is a complete, or thoroughgoing behaviorism in that all human behavior, public and private, is explained in terms of its functional relations with environmental events. Radical behaviorism is often misrepresented in the literatures of education and psychology. Two fundamental misconceptions of radical behaviorism are that its followers (1) are logical positivists who require that a phenomenon be observed by two or more people before it qualifies for scientific analysis, and (2) either will not or cannot incorporate private events (e.g., thoughts, feelings) into their analyses of human behavior. This paper offers an advocacy perspective on contemporary radical behaviorism. In particular, we define radical behaviorism and briefly outline the history of the term's use in psychological literature, discuss the scientific practice of behavior analysts, explain the intolerance exhibited by radical behaviorists, and comment on the use of popularity as a criterion for good science. The paper concludes with a discussion of the recent shift in educational research and practice from empiricism and outcome-oriented intervention toward a holistic/constructivist philosophy described by its advocates as incompatible with behaviorally-based instruction.     

短期目标和长期目标设置对投篮成绩,努力程度和状态焦虑的影响

这篇论文调查了短期目标和长期目标对投篮成绩、努力程度和状态焦虑的影响．８７名被试被随机分配到以下一个组中：（１）短期目标组,（２）长期目标组,（３）短期和长期目标结合组,（４）“尽力做好”组。实验时间为７周。研究结果显示：（１）结合目标组、短期目标组和长期目标组的投篮成绩显著优于“尽力做好”组;（２）结合目标组的投篮成绩提高幅度最大,其次是短期目标组和长期目标组,最后是“尽力做好”组,（３）结合目标组、短期目标组和长期目标组的投篮成绩随练习次数的增加而显著提高,（４）努力程度是结合目标组和短期目标组投篮成绩提高的调节变量。     

Primes, contingent attention, and training: effects on a child's motor behavior

The use of primes, contingent attention, and training sessions to assess a child's engagement and skill in six large motor activities was examined using a combination reversal and multiple-baseline design. Assessment was based on four levels: proximity to equipment, touching equipment, unskilled participation, and skilled participation. Before training, priming (suggestion to the child) was more effective than contingent attention for increasing the subject's engagement (but not skill) in five activities and for increasing skilled participation in one activity. Training of four activities in the natural environment effectively increased the subject's skill level in five activities. Thus, training appeared to generalize to one of these five activities in this setting and also to skillfully executed stair climbing in an adjoining setting. After training, primes and contingent attention were sufficient to maintain both the subject's skill level and engagement in all activities. Postchecks in the same setting the following semester with different teachers revealed only slight increases in participation, as compared to previous baselines, but all participation was at the skilled level. Social interaction, which was not experimentally manipulated, did not systematically vary in relation to changes in experimental conditions.     

Component models for three-way data: An alternating least squares algorithm with optimal scaling features

A review of the existing techniques for the analysis of three-way data revealed that none were appropriate to the wide variety of data usually encountered in psychological research, and few were capable of both isolating common information and systematically describing individual differences. An alternating least squares algorithm was proposed to fit both an individual difference model and a replications component model to three-way data which may be defined at the nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio, or mixed measurement level; which may be discrete or continuous; and which may be unconditional, matrix conditional, or row conditional. This algorithm was evaluated by a Monte Carlo study. Recovery of the original information was excellent when the correct measurement characteristics were assumed. Furthermore, the algorithm was robust to the presence of random error. In addition, the algorithm was used to fit the individual difference model to a real, binary, subject conditional data set. The findings from this application were consistent with previous research in the area of implicit personality theory and uncovered interesting systematic individual differences in the perception of political figures and roles.This paper is part of a Thesis performed by Richard Sands under the direction of Forrest Young at the L. L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Thanks are extended to Drs. Charles Schmidt and Andrea Sedlak for the use of their political role data set.     

不同联想等级语词的启动效应及其发展研究

以汉字常用词为材料,使用经过大量统计工作建立的语词联想等级量表,来探讨语词的联想等级、学习时的加工水平、以及年龄变量对语词记忆启动效应的影响。结果发现：ａ、不同联想等级间语词启动效应有显著差异,ｂ、加工水平对启动效应的影响只在大学年龄被试中才显示出来,ｃ、年龄对启动效应的影响,主要是通过其与语词联想等级相互作用产生的。     

Influence and development: Two basic paradigms of education

The article discusses two basic paradigms of western educational theory, namely the concept of influence and the concept of development. Two historical contextes are analyzed, John Locke's theory of human learning and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's theory of natural development. Both theories are rejected in favour of a position beyond influence and development. This position of a theory of education (Erziehung) is marked with the term moral communication.An earlier and slightly different version of this article was presented to the International Symposion The Crisis of Schools (Corsendonck/Belgium, March 1992). It was translated from the german original by Annette Roeder. The final draft is my own.     

BEACHES: AN OBSERVATIONAL SYSTEM FOR ASSESSING CHILDREN'S EATING AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY BEHAVIORS AND ASSOCIATED EVENTS

An integrated system for coding direct observations of children's dietary and physical activity behaviors was developed. Associated environmental events were also coded, including physical location, antecedents, and consequences. To assess the instrument's reliability and validity, 42 children, aged 4 to 8 years, were observed for 8 consecutive weeks at home and at school. Results indicated that four 60-min observations at home produced relatively stable estimates for most of the 10 dimensions. Interobserver reliabilities during live and videotaped observations were high, with the exception of “consequences” categories that occurred in less than 1% of observed intervals. Evidence of validity was provided by findings that antecedents were associated with respective dietary and physical activity behaviors. The five physical activity categories were validated by heart-rate monitoring in a second study. The Behaviors of Eating and Activity for Children's Health Evaluation System is appropriate for studying influences on diet and physical activity in children in a variety of settings.     

Mind-over-body beliefs in sport and exercise: A driving force for training volume and performance,but with risks for exercise addiction

We assume that athletic success is associated with certain beliefs that on the one hand promote performance-enhancing behavior (training volume), but on the other hand can also be detrimental to health (sports addiction). These beliefs are succinctly characterized by the title of the 9-item “Mind-over-Body” scale presented here. They are the three beliefs that 1) athletic performance requires a high level of effort, 2) that willpower plays an important role in athletic success, and 3) that athletic success requires pain tolerance. A total of six web-survey-based studies with a total of 1121 participants (approximately gender parity), including individuals with different levels of athletic performance (no competition; amateur sport; regional, national, or international competition), examined the psychometric network and construct and criterion validity of the MoB scale. Exploratory graph analyses, which included the studies with the largest sample sizes, showed that the three belief components (effort, willpower, pain) form separable communities within the MoB network and that the MoB items form communities distinct from self-control and self-efficacy. Meta-analyzed correlations across all six studies showed low positive correlations with self-control and self-efficacy. In terms of criterion validity, MoB beliefs were positively correlated with training volume and exercise addiction. We discuss MoBs as “on the edge of unhealthy” and place MOBs within a framework of related but distinct concepts.     

The biasing effects of selection and attrition on estimating the mean

Organizational and validation researchers often work with data that has been subjected to selection on the predictor and attrition on the criterion. These researchers often use the data observed under these conditions to estimate either the predictor or criterion's restricted population means. We show that the restricted means due to direct or indirect selection are a function of the population means plus the selection ratios. Thus, any difference between selected mean groups reflects the population difference plus the selection ratio difference. When there is also attrition on the criterion, the estimation of group differences becomes even more complicated. The effect of selection and attrition induces measurement bias when estimating the restricted population mean of either the predictor or criterion. A sample mean observed under selection and attrition does not estimate either the population mean or the restricted population mean. We propose several procedures under normality that yield unbiased estimates of the mean. The procedures focus on correcting the effects of selection and attrition. Each procedure was evaluated with a Monte Carlo simulation to ascertain its strengths and weaknesses. Given appropriate sample size and conditions, we show that these procedures yield unbiased estimators of the restricted and unrestricted population means for both predictor and criterion. We also show how our findings have implications for replicating selected group differences.     

L’influence des pratiques éducatives sur le sens donné à l’école : étude auprès de lycéens français

There are many studies exploring the link between meaning and learning. However, none of it examines the link between parental educational practices and the meaning of schooling. Based on a review of the literature, the objective of this article is to test the hypothesis of a link between the educational practices that high school students benefit from and the meanings that they attribute to school. Thus, we assume that educational practices play a predictive role in different processes of elaboration of the meaning of education by high school students (GH). The analysis of the results collected with the help of a measurement instrument consisting of two variables: the PEP – measuring parental educational practices – and the meaning of education (MOE) – measuring the meaning of education – questioning 390 French high school students, confirm our general hypotheses. Furthermore, it appears that a flexible educational practice is associated with a high level of meaning attributed to the school; conversely, a rigid educational practice is associated with a low level of meaning attributed to the school; and finally, a weak educational practice is not associated with an absence of meaning attributed to the school.