ASSESSING AND PROGRAMMING GENERALIZED BEHAVIORAL REDUCTION ACROSS MULTIPLE STIMULUS PARAMETERS

Generalization across three stimulus parameters was examined for 5 individuals whose self-injurious behavior was maintained by escape from task demands. Prior to treatment, three stimulus parameters (therapist, setting, and demands) were systematically varied across baseline sessions. These variables were held constant during treatment, which consisted of escape extinction. When treatment was completed, three novel stimulus parameters were probed. If the rate of self-injury was high during this probe, treatment was reimplemented with one new stimulus parameter (the other two were the same as in the original treatment condition). Following this second treatment, another probe with three novel stimuli was conducted. If the rate of self-injury was again high, treatment was implemented again while a second stimulus parameter was changed. This sequence continued until generalization was observed across the three parameters. Results showed idiosyncratic differences in generalization. The behavior of 2 subjects showed complete generalization during the first novel probe. A 3rd subject's behavior showed generalization following treatment across two stimulus parameters (setting and therapist). The behavior of the 2 remaining subjects showed a complete lack of generalization across the three parameters; both subjects required training for novelty by randomly varying the stimulus parameters for a substantial number of sessions.     

Organic Unities

I defend the view that there are organic unities mainly by presenting examples of organic unities. I also defend the view against two objections. The first objection appeals to the notion of an evaluatively incomplete state of affairs. The second objection holds that the intrinsic value of a state of affairs can be different in different contexts. I argue that neither objection provides a compelling reason for rejecting these examples.     

GENERALIZED EFFECTS OF A PEER-DELIVERED FIRST AID PROGRAM FOR STUDENTS WITH MODERATE INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

Peers with mild intellectual disabilities taught first aid skills to 4 students with moderate intellectual disabilities. A multiple probe design across participants was used to examine the effects of the peer teaching program during an acquisition and a partial sequential withdrawal phase. Generalization assessments were conducted in the participants' homes using novel, randomized simulated injuries. Results suggested that the peer teaching program resulted in acquisition of first aid skills, and the participants' skills generalized to the home, to novel simulated-injury locations, and to new trainers. Additionally, a more detailed analysis of the generalized responding suggested that when given a choice among first aid materials, participants treated burns using large adhesive bandages rather than the materials used in training. Participants also successfully treated injuries when novel instructional cues were used. The findings are discussed with respect to training issues, generalization and maintenance of the acquired skills, and the use of peer tutors with disabilities.     

Resistance to change and the law of effect

Three experiments using multiple schedules of reinforcement explored the implications of resistance-to-change findings for the response-reinforcer relation described by the law of effect, using both steady-state responding and responding recorded in the first few sessions of conditions. In Experiment 1, when response-independent reinforcement was increased during a third component, response rate in Components 1 and 2 decreased. This response-rate reduction was proportionately greater in a component in which reinforcer magnitude was small (2-s access to wheat) than in the component in which it was large (6-s access to wheat). However, when reinforcer rates in the two components were varied together in Experiments 2 and 3, response-rate change was the same regardless of the magnitude of reinforcers used in the two components, so that sensitivity of response rates to reinforcer rates (Experiment 2) and of response-rate ratios to reinforcer-rate ratios (Experiment 3) was unaffected by the magnitude of the reinforcers. Therefore, the principles determining resistance to change, described by behavioral momentum theory, seem not to apply when the source of behavior change is the variation of reinforcement contingencies that maintain the behavior. The use of extinction as a manipulation to study resistance to change is questioned.     

Specific fears as predictors of generalized anxiety in children

The study investigated the relationship between fear and anxiety in childhood. One hundred fifty-one children aged 6 to 11 years (mean=8.7 years) completed the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (FSSC-R) and the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS). Correlational analyses demonstrated that the FSSC-R and each of the fear factors were significantly correlated with each other and with the RCMAS score. A stepwise regression procedure was used to determine if the FSSC-R or any of its five factors was significantly related to scores on the RCMAS. Results indicated that Factor 1 (Failure and Criticism) accounted for 31% of the variance (p < .0001)and Factor 2 (Fear of the Unknown) accounted for an additional 1% of the variance (p < .03)in the RCMAS scores. The relationship between these results and those from a similar study with adults (Goetsch, Tishelman, & Adams, 1987), as well as how the results add to an understanding of childhood anxiety, is discussed.This study was supported by BRSG Grant S07RR0714917 from the Biomedical Research Support Grant Program, Division of Research Resources, National Institute of Health, to the Research Foundation of the State University of New York at Binghamton.     

The Perceptual Pathway: Tracing the Mechanisms of Political Value Transfer across Generations

The transfer of political values across generations is commonly understood as a two-step process. First, the child perceives the characteristics of the parent, thereby creating an image of what the parent is like. Second, the child is persuaded to adapt his or her own views to that image. Despite its theoretical dominance, the details of this perceptual pathway of parentalsocialization have rarely been examined empirically. A major Swedish socialization study offers unusually good opportunities to investigate how it actually operates. The results indicate that the perceptual pathway as a whole is of great but not universal significance, that perception is more important than persuasion because of its greater variability, and that the conditions regulating the former are distinct from those regulating the latter. One implication of the results is that studies of interpersonal influence based on a single source (e.g., the child alone) are likely to yield a very lopsided view of the socialization process.     

Transfer tests of stimulus value in concurrent chains

We report two experiments that use transfer tests to investigate whether in concurrent chains the value of a terminal-link stimulus is affected by the alternate terminal link. In Experiment 1, two groups of pigeons were trained on multiple concurrent-chains schedules in which switching between the schedules was via pecking a changeover key. For one group, the terminal links were fixed-interval 8 s versus fixed-interval 16 s in one component and fixed-interval 16 s versus fixed-interval 32 s in the other component. For a second group, the terminal links were variable-interval 10 s versus variable-interval 20 s in one component and variable-interval 20 s versus variable-interval 40 s in the other. After sufficient baseline training had been given so that performances had stabilized, transfer tests were conducted in which the two chains with equal terminal-link schedules were presented together as a new concurrent pair. For 6 of the 7 subjects, initial-link responding changed fairly rapidly during the test in the manner predicted if the values of the terminal links were equal. In Experiment 2, pigeons were trained on multiple concurrent chains using a two-key procedure, and the terminal links were the same variable-interval schedules as in Experiment 1. After baseline training, transfer tests were conducted that assessed (a) the relative reinforcing strength of the terminal-link stimuli in a novel initial-link situation and (b) the relative ability of those stimuli to evoke responding. The data from the reinforcing strength test were consistent with those from Experiment 1, but those from the evocation strength test were not. Although this discrepancy shows that responding in transfer tests is not solely a function of stimulus value, the results from both experiments suggest, overall, that value is determined by the stimulus—reinforcer relation independently of the alternative terminal link.     

Nonstable concurrent choice in pigeons

Six pigeons were trained on concurrent variable-interval schedules in which the arranged reinforcer ratios changed from session to session according to a 31-step pseudorandom binary sequence. This procedure allows a quantitative analysis of the degree to which performance in an experimental session is affected by conditions in previous sessions. Two experiments were carried out. In each, the size of the reinforcer ratios arranged between the two concurrent schedules was varied between 31-step conditions. In Experiment 1, the concurrent schedules were arranged independently, and in Experiment 2 they were arranged nonindependently. An extended form of the generalized matching law described the relative contribution of past and present events to present-session behavior. Total performance in sessions was mostly determined by the reinforcer ratio in that session and partially by reinforcers that had been obtained in previous sessions. However, the initial exposure to the random sequence produced a lower sensitivity to current-session reinforcers but no difference in overall sensitivity to reinforcement. There was no evidence that the size of the reinforcer ratios available on the concurrent schedules affected either overall sensitivity to reinforcement or the sensitivity to reinforcement in the current session. There was also no evidence of any different performance between independent and nonindependent scheduling. Because of these invariances, this experiment validates the use of the pseudorandom sequence for the fast determination of sensitivity to reinforcement.     

Taboo Trade-offs: Reactions to Transactions That Transgress the Spheres of Justice

Taboo trade-offs violate deeply held normative intuitions about the integrity, even sanctity, of certain relationships and the moral-political values underlying those relationships. For instance, if asked to estimate the monetary worth of one's children, of one's loyalty to one's country, or of acts of friendship, people find the questions more than merely confusing or cognitively intractable: they find such questions themselves morally offensive. This article draws on Fiske's relational theory and Tetlock's value pluralism model: (a) to identify the conditions under which people are likely to treat trade-offs as taboo; (b) to describe how people collectively deal with trade-offs that become problematic; (c) to specify the conceptual components of moral outrage and the factors that affect the intensity of reactions to various explicit trade-offs; (d) to explore the various strategies that decision-makers—required by resource scarcity and institutional roles to confront taboo trade-offs—use to deflect the wrath of censorious observers; (e) to offer a method of dispute resolution based on pluralism.     

肯定性“重要度“语义量词的多级估量模糊集模型建立及其应用

在人员选拔和心理素质评价研究中,需要通过被研究者在特定的问题、事件或情境上所作出的评价,来了解他们的心理活动特点。为了确保评价的可靠性,在量表设定上多采用自然语言的回答方式,如是或否,或极重要、很重要、较重要、稍重要等.等级性自然语言可表征人们评价事物的心理量,称语义量词.但这些语义量词不是一个数值,而是一个边界不确定的数量范围,难以作数量化分析,一直是心理测量方法学研究的重要课题。马谋超提出的模糊评判的“多级估量法”［‘l为等级性自然语言的数量化研究提供了重要的理论依据。优秀军事指挥员心理选拔与…