TEACHING MENTALLY RETARDED ADULTS TO TIME-MANAGE IN A VOCATIONAL SETTING

Three retarded adults who had minimal ability to tell time were trained to “time-manage.” Each was given a card with clock face representations on which the hands of the clock were drawn, representing each trainee's assigned lunch and break times. Instruction was given before work to perform each of the required behaviors when the “real” clock matched the clock faces. Praise was given following correct responses, and reprimands, instruction, and, in some instances, delay or omission of the scheduled activity followed incorrect responses. Pre-instruction and instructional feedback were then sequentially withdrawn. Results indicated that the package consisting of pre-instruction, instructional feedback, and picture cues was effective in producing independent time management responding. When the first two components were withdrawn, two trainees maintained high levels of correct responding. Correct responding decreased for one trainee when pre-instruction was withdrawn. Reintroduction and subsequent withdrawal of the components resulted in maintenance by this trainee. Little improvement in time-telling ability resulted.     

Training class inclusion responding in typically developing children and individuals with autism

In a class inclusion task, a child must respond to stimuli as being involved in two different though hierarchically related categories. This study used a Relational Frame Theory (RFT) paradigm to assess and train this ability in three typically developing preschoolers and three individuals with autism spectrum disorder, all of whom had failed class inclusion tests. For all subjects, relational training successfully established the target repertoire and subsequent testing demonstrated both maintenance and generalization. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

Un regard structural sur l’inégalité des genres au travail : La causalité des différences « genrées » dans les caractéristiques de réseau de l’employé

This study aims at identifying gender differences in network structure and, hence, at understanding the underlying nature of gender inequalities in organisations. The hypotheses address four ego-network characteristics: network size and density, and ego’s centrality and brokerage. Contrary to the existing body of literature, none significant isolated gender difference in network structure is identified. Instead, those gender differences are triggered exclusively by organisational status, that is to say, they are due to the increased level of power. Thus, organisational status is considered as moderating the relationship between gender and network structure’s characteristics. Some further perspectives are suggested to clarify and generalise the phenomena observed.     

The thematic hierarchy in sentence comprehension: A study on the interaction between verb class and word order in Spanish

Linking is the theory that captures the mapping of the semantic roles of lexical arguments to the syntactic functions of the phrases that realize them. At the sentence level, linking allows us to understand “who did what to whom” in an event. In Spanish, linking has been shown to interact with word order, verb class, and case marking. The current study aims to provide the first piece of experimental evidence about the interplay between word order and verb type in Spanish. We achieve this by adopting role and reference grammar and the extended argument dependency model. Two different types of clauses were examined in a self-paced reading task: clauses with object–experiencer psychological verbs and activity verbs. These types of verbs differ in the way that their syntactic and semantic structures are linked, and thus they provide interesting evidence on how information that belongs to the syntax–semantics interface might influence the predictive and integrative processes of sentence comprehension with alternative word orders. Results indicate that in Spanish, comprehension and processing speed is enhanced when the order of the constituents in the sentence mirrors their ranking on a semantic hierarchy that encodes a verb's lexical semantics. Moreover, results show that during online comprehension, predictive mechanisms based on argument hierarchization are used rapidly to inform the processing system. Our findings corroborate already existing cross-linguistic evidence on the issue and are briefly discussed in the light of other sentence-processing models.     

An analytic hierarchy process model to apportion co-author responsibility

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) can be used to determine co-author responsibility for a scientific paper describing collaborative research. The objective is to deter scientific fraud by holding co-authors accountable for their individual contributions. A hiearchical model of the research presented in a paper can be created by dividing it into primary and secondary elements. The co-authors then determine the contributions of the primary and secondary elements to the work as a whole as well as their own individual contributions. They can use the results to determine authorship order.     

What Every Teacher of Science and Religion Needs to Know about Pedagogy

This essay provides practical tips for effective teaching in science-and-religion courses. It offers suggestions for dealing with difficult questions and creating a climate of shared learning. Along with pedagogical advice, it covers fundamental principles for teaching broadly integrative religion-and-science courses. Instructors are encouraged to reflect on their purpose(s) in offering their course and to formulate specific objectives using the techniques and resources outlined here.     

A Comparison of Least-to-Most Prompts and Progressive Time Delay on the Disruptive Behavior of Students with Autism

We compared the effects of two instructional strategies on the frequency of errors and episodes of disruptive behavior of 4 students with autism. In Phase I, easy and difficult tasks were presented to determine whether the tasks were associated with differential rates of disruptive behavior. Phase II compared the effects of a least-to-most prompting procedure (LTM) to a progressive time delay procedure (PTD) on errors and disruptive behavior when difficult tasks were presented. Observers sequentially recorded instructor instructions, response prompts, prompts for appropriate sitting, and feedback statements; and student disruptive, correct, error, and no responses during 1:1 sessions. Results showed PTD produced fewer errors than LTM for all 4 students, and lower rates of disruptive behavior for 2 students. When PTD was implemented as the final phase with 2 of the students, rates of disruptive behavior associated with the task previously taught with LTM immediately decreased. Conditional probability statements indicated that disruptive behavior occurred infrequently with all 4 students when effective response prompts were used.     

Marketing measurably effective instructional methods

The failure to gain wider acceptance of measurably effective teaching methods by the educational establishment may be due to resistance to behaviorism, in particular, and to a set of contingencies that resist change, in general. The promotion of effective instructional methods is presented in terms of recommended marketing principles, including identifying and solving perceived consumer needs, using plain English, segmenting the marketplace and developing specific solutions, identifying opportunities for greatest impact, creating tangible educational products, seeking new markets, planning marketing strategy and tactics, and writing for non-technical publications. Precision Teaching is presented as a case study in the promotion of effective instructional methods. Although it is a measurably superior instructional methodology, Precision Teaching has not been widely adopted. By applying basic marketing principles and strategic planning, some of its proponents have initiated an ongoing effort of outreach and promotion.     

Factors influencing hierarchy in a captive herd of eland Taurotragus oryx

Social interactions in a captive herd of 13 elands were investigated in an enclosed zoo population. Data from focal and scan sampling provided dominance rank, indices of affiliative interaction and association at rest. While there was a tendence for age and dominance to be positively correlated among females, an effect of matrilineal genealogy was also observed. This effect could be related to the affiliative interaction between mother and young causing offspring to share the hierarchical position of their mother. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.