THE EFFECTS OF FIXED-TIME REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES ON FUNCTIONAL RESPONSE CLASSES: A TRANSLATIONAL STUDY

Research on functional response classes has applied significance because less severe forms of problem behavior have been found to co‐occur with more severe forms. In addition, the most severe forms of problem behavior are sometimes targeted for intervention without monitoring other less severe forms. In such cases, it is unknown whether and how untreated forms of problem behavior covary with the targeted behaviors. The present study employed a translational procedure (with button presses as the target behavior) to investigate response covariation under noncontingent reinforcement with typically developing preschoolers. The results indicated that noncontingent reinforcement was generally effective in decreasing all response class members when only one member was targeted.     

Effects of a meaningful, a discriminative, and a meaningless stimulus on equivalence class formation

Thirty college students attempted to form three 3-node 5-member equivalence classes under the simultaneous protocol. After concurrent training of AB, BC, CD, and DE relations, all probes used to assess the emergence of symmetrical, transitive, and equivalence relations were presented for two test blocks. When the A-E stimuli were all abstract shapes, none of 10 participants formed classes. When the A, B, D, and E stimuli were abstract shapes and the C stimuli were meaningful pictures, 8 of 10 participants formed classes. This high yield may reflect the expansion of existing classes that consist of the associates of the meaningful stimuli, rather than the formation of the ABCDE classes, per se. When the A-E stimuli were abstract shapes and the C stimuli became S(D)s prior to class formation, 5 out of 10 participants formed classes. Thus, the discriminative functions served by the meaningful stimuli can account for some of the enhancement of class formation produced by the inclusion of a meaningful stimulus as a class member. A sorting task, which provided a secondary measure of class formation, indicated the formation of all three classes when the emergent relations probes indicated the same outcome. In contrast, the sorting test indicated "partial" class formation when the emergent relations test indicated no class formation. Finally, the effects of nodal distance on the relatedness of stimuli in the equivalence classes were not influenced by the functions served by the C stimuli in the equivalence classes.     

The three latent classes of adolescent delinquency and the risk factors for membership in each class

This study used latent class analysis to examine subpopulation membership based on self-reports of delinquent behaviors obtained from Australian youth. Three discrete identifiable classes were derived based on 51 indicators of physical violence, property damage, minor infractions, drug use, and social delinquency. One class of youth engaged in primarily rule breaking and norm violations including underage alcohol use, typical of this age period. A second class was more actively delinquent emphasizing drug use, trespassing, and various forms of disobedience. A third class of highly delinquent youth differed from their counterparts by endorsing drug use, thievery that involved stealing money, goods, and cars, property damage, gambling, precocious sexual experiences, involvement with pornographic materials, and fighting. Multinomial logistic regression predicting class membership indicated highly delinquent youth were more likely to be older males, use venting coping strategies, and be fun or novelty seeking compared with rule breakers. Findings are discussed in terms of refining current taxonomic arguments regarding the structure of delinquency and implications for prevention of early-stage antisocial behavior.     

Observer,percevoir, partager : réflexions épistémologiques à partir d’une enquête ethnographique dans cinq établissements d’enseignement secondaire

For our research on “Gender practices and violence between peers: the stakes of mixed education” (ANR-09-ENFT-006), two researchers observed interactions between students within five schools during the 2011–2012 school year in an large French city. This paper focuses on the challenges of ethnography, the validity of the results produced by such a methodology, and the opportunity to intersect clinical (notably transference and counter-transference) and socio-anthropological concepts. Our analyses center on questions related to social class and the sex-gender system.     

潜变量交互效应标准化估计：方法比较与选用策略

标准化估计对模型的解释和效应大小的比较有重要作用。虽然潜变量交互效应的恰当标准化估计公式已经面世超过10年, 国内外都在使用和引用, 但至今未见到关于不同估计方法得到的恰当标准化估计的系统比较。通过模拟实验, 比较了乘积指标法、潜调节结构方程(LMS)、无先验信息和有先验信息的贝叶斯法的潜变量交互效应标准化估计在不同条件下的表现。结果发现, 在正态条件下, LMS和有信息贝叶斯法表现较好; 而在非正态条件下, 乘积指标法比较稳健, 但需要较大的样本(不小于500), 小样本且外生潜变量之间相关很低时可使用无信息贝叶斯法。     

国内调节效应的方法学研究

在心理学和其他社科研究领域, 大量实证文章建立调节效应模型, 以分析自变量对因变量的影响是如何随着调节变量的变化而改变。过去10多年, 调节效应分析成了方法学研究的一个热点。从显变量的调节效应、潜变量的调节效应、多层数据的调节效应、基于两层回归模型的单层调节分析、纵向数据的调节效应、调节和中介的整合模型六个主题系统地总结了国内调节效应分析的方法学研究的发展历程。最后对调节效应的未来研究方向做了讨论和拓展。