Reward Density And Variable-interval Schedule Performance In An Open Economy

There is no general agreement regarding the form of the relation between response rate and reinforcement rate when single schedules of reinforcement are studied in an open economy. The present study assessed the form of this relation using reward density, which incorporates both reinforcement rate and duration of access to food, as an independent variable. Reward density was manipulated with 4 pigeons by changing the value of the variable-interval schedule, the hopper duration, or both. The relations between response rate and reward density were sharply rising and hyperbolic in 3 of 4 pigeons, replicating results obtained by Catania and Reynolds (1968). Because eating efficiency was lower in conditions that provided longer hopper durations, programmed reward densities differed from obtained reward densities. When response rates were examined as a function of obtained reward densities, the same relations were demonstrated more strongly. In further clarifying the relation between response rate and reward density in an open economy, these results lend support to the conclusion that open and closed economies yield different behavioral effects.     

Modification indices for the 2-PL and the nominal response model

In this paper, it is shown that various violations of the 2-PL model and the nominal response model can be evaluated using the Lagrange multiplier test or the equivalent efficient score test. The tests presented here focus on violation of local stochastic independence and insufficient capture of the form of the item characteristic curves. Primarily, the tests are item-oriented diagnostic tools, but taken together, they also serve the purpose of evaluation of global model fit. A useful feature of Lagrange multiplier statistics is that they are evaluated using maximum likelihood estimates of the null-model only, that is, the parameters of alternative models need not be estimated. As numerical examples, an application to real data and some power studies are presented.     

Additive conjoint isotonic probabilistic models (ADISOP)

The ISOP-model or model of twodimensional or bi-isotonicity (Scheiblechner, 1995) postulates that the probabilities of ordered response categories increase isotonically in the order of subject ability and item easiness. Adding a conventional cancellation axiom for the factors of subjects and items gives the ADISOP model where the c.d.f.s of response categories are functions of an additive item and subject parameter and an ordinal category parameter. Extending cancellation to the interactions of subjects and categories as well as of items and categories (independence axiom of the category factor from the subject and item factor) gives the CADISOP model (completely additive model) in which the parallel c.d.f.s are functions of the sum of subject, item and category parameters. The CADISOP model is very close to the unidimensional version of the polytomous Rasch model with the logistic item/category characteristic(s) replaced by nonparametric axioms and statistics. The axioms, representation theorems and algorithms for model fitting of the additive models are presented.     

A Cross-Cultural Study of Response Biases in Personality Measures

The purposes of this study were to (a) compare the response bias tendencies of U.S. and Philippine college students and men and women in each culture when responding to personality measures, (b) examine the comparability of different measures of the same response biases, (c) examine the stability or consistency of response biases across instruments, (d) examine the extent to which controlling for response biases affects cultural mean comparisons in personality variables, and (e) test hypothesized personality correlates of response biases. The results did not support the presence of large cross-cultural or gender differences in response biases. Moderate to high agreement was found between different indexes of the same biases. Participants' response bias tendencies were moderately stable across instruments. Controlling for response biases led to trivial changes in effect sizes; in most cases, conclusions about cultural differences in personality constructs did not change. Most hypotheses relating personality variables to response biases were not supported.     

我国艾滋病流行的特点

我国艾滋病的流行有其自身的特点：１．人口多,多发病低,即使以目前的估计ＨＩＶ感染数３０万计,在世界上仍属极低水平;２．传播途径以吸毒为主,性传播为次,二者约为１０与１之比,这和世界各国正好相反;３．高危人群ＨＩＶ阳性率,指性病门诊者,妓女（暗娼）的阳性率都极低,约占０．０６％～０．０７％。目前我国还是以男性吸毒者为主要防治对象。     

题库智能化组卷的心理计量理论与方法

现代教育成就测验的广泛应用,促使题库技术迅速发展。现代教育测量理论与计算机技术的结合,更使智能化组卷成为可能。本文报告了以项目反应理论为指导,并改进一般线性规划法为分步离差加权模型法,编制程序在高等教育自学考试“逻辑学”题库上,成功实现智能化组卷的研究成果,从而为计算机技术在题库建设中的应用作了新的探讨。     

Local and normative rationality of science: The ‘content of discovery’ rehabilitated

The recent turn to the context of discovery and other postmodernist developments in the philosophy of science have undermined the idea of a universal rationality of science. This parallels the fate of the classical dream of a logic of discovery. Still, justificational questions have remained as a distinct perspective, though comprising both consequential and generative justification — an insight delayed by certain confusions about the (original) context distinction. An examination of one particular heuristic strategy shows its local rationality; even as an efficient procedure of hypothesis generation, it carries probative weight. It will be explored in which respects such a strategy can be normative or contain normative elements.Parts of this paper were published, in summary fashion, in Kirschenmann (1989).     

Precision teaching's unique legacy from B. F. Skinner

Precision Teaching's unique legacy from B. F. Skinner was the monitoring system of rate of response and the cumulative response recorder. This legacy is unique because the other instructional systems derived from Skinner's work do not use his monitoring method exclusively. Rate of response, cumulative recording and their extension to Precision Teaching's standard celeration charting are briefly described. In addition, Precision Teaching's nature, history, costs, distribution, inductive data-base, and academic base are briefly described. Skinner's legacy to education was a sound behavioral scientific base and his unique legacy to Precision Teaching was self-monitoring for real time decision making by learners and teachers.     

THE EFFECTS OF RESPONSE EFFICIENCY ON FUNCTIONALLY EQUIVALENT COMPETING BEHAVIORS

Three experiments addressed the role of response efficiency in the application of functional equivalence training. Functional equivalence training includes conducting a functional assessment of the problem behavior. Variables that predict and maintain the problem behavior are defined, and socially appropriate, functionally equivalent skills are identified and taught. The logic is that if the learner has a socially appropriate way to achieve the same function, he or she will be less likely to use problem behaviors. This study examined the role of response efficiency in functional equivalence training. Response efficiency was examined in terms of three variables: (a) physical effort, (b) schedule of reinforcement, and (c) the time delay between presentation of the discriminative stimulus and reinforcer delivery. Each of the three experiments involved a person who performed a set of problem behaviors and a functional assessment of the problem behaviors. A socially appropriate alternative response was taught, but this new response was less efficient than the problem behavior on one of the efficiency variables (effort, schedule, delay in time). The new behaviors did not compete successfully with the problem behaviors until a new, more efficient, alternative behavior was taught. These results are discussed in terms of our understanding of response covariation and the need in applied contexts to include response efficiency in any functional analysis assessment.     

A FADED BEDTIME WITH RESPONSE COST PROTOCOL FOR TREATMENT OF MULTIPLE SLEEP PROBLEMS IN CHILDREN

The sleep-wake cycles of 4 developmentally delayed individuals with longstanding severe sleep disturbances were regulated using a faded bedtime procedure with response cost. Bedtimes were systematically delayed for each individual, thus increasing the probability of short latency to sleep onset. The response cost component, consisting of removing the individual from bed for 1 hour, was implemented when an individual did not experience short latency to sleep onset. A fading procedure was then applied successfully to advance the bedtimes and to gradually increase durations of sleep. Specifically, all 4 individuals had decreased amounts of nighttime sleep that increased following treatment. Two of the 4 individuals showed excessive daytime sleep that decreased following treatment. Three of the 4 individuals experienced decreases in night wakings following treatment. Both environmental and biological manipulations of the sleep-wake cycle are hypothesized as mechanisms of treatment. The relative advantages of this procedure over other procedures for the treatment of pediatric sleep disorders are discussed, as are directions for future research.