AN INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF TOKEN REINFORCEMENT ON DIVERGENT VERBAL RESPONDING1

The effect of token reinforcement on three classes of divergent verbal responding to verbal stimulus items from three measures of the Wallach-Kogan Creativity test was examined. The subjects consisted of two “gifted”, two “average”, and two “learning disabled” children from a public-school setting. The design utilized both an intra-subject and inter-subject multiple-baseline design with a reversal design added. Tokens were dispensed contingent upon the number of appropriate verbal responses to each stimulus item, i.e., a continuous schedule of reinforcement was used—one token per appropriate response. Interobserver agreement on “appropiateness” was 993%. The tokens could be used to “purchase” items listed in a “menu” format (e.g., ball and jacks—100 tokens). Consistently large effects of token reinforcement were observed, without generalization of effect across the three classes of behaviors, or conditions. These results support the works of Goetz and Baer (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1973, 6 , 209–217), Goetz and Salmonson (Behavior Analysis and Education, G. Semb, (Ed.), University of Kansas, 1972, 53–61), and Maloney and Hopkins (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1973, 6 , 425–434). Implications lie in continued experimental analysis of behavior approach to the concept called “creativity”. Additionally, implications are made in classroom application of assessing and intervening in the area of divergent responding for children with deficits in those areas.     

Incidental teaching of language in the preschool

"Incidental teaching" denotes a process whereby language skills of labelling and describing are learned in naturally occurring adult-child interactions. In the present study, 15-min daily samples of the spontaneous speech of 11 children were recorded during free play over eight months of preschool. After incidental teaching of compound sentences, increases in unprompted use of compound sentences were seen for all the children, first directed to teachers, and then to children, in accordance with who attended to the children's requests for play materials. The incidental teaching procedure also stimulated spontaneous variety in speech, and appears to have general applicability to child learning settings.     

The role of verbal behavior in human learning: II. Developmental differences

When children in four different age ranges operated a response device, reinforcers were presented according to fixed-interval schedules ranging in value from 10 to 70 seconds. Only the behavior of the subjects in the youngest of the four groups, the preverbal infants, resembled that of other animal species. The children in age ranges 5 to 6½ and 7½ to 9 years exhibited either the low-rate or high-rate response patterns typical of human adults. Those who showed the low-rate pattern reported a time-based formulation of the contingencies and some of them were observed to occasionally count out the interval before responding. The performance of children aged 2½ to 4 years differed from that of both infants and older children, though containing some patterning elements similar to those produced by the older and younger subjects. The predominant response pattern of the infants consisted of a pause after reinforcement followed by an accelerated rate of responding that terminated when the next reinforcer was delivered. Analysis of postreinforcement-pause duration and response rate showed that infant performance, but not that of the older children, consistently exhibited the same kinds of schedule sensitivity observed in animal behavior. The evidence supports the suggestion that the development of verbal behavior greatly alters human operant performance and may account for many of the differences found between human and animal learning.     

REDUCTION OF CIGARETTE SMOKING IN A UNIVERSITY CAFETERIA

Passive smoking has been shown to be hazardous to the health of nonsmokers. Given this documented link between exposure to smoke-filled environments and deleterious health consequences, there is a need to develop effective procedures that establish and maintain no-smoking areas in various public settings. The present study focused on decreasing cigarette smoking in a section of a university cafeteria. Posting of no-smoking signs was found to decrease levels of smoking only minimally. However, when smokers were verbally prompted not to smoke, in the presence of the signs, marked decreases in smoking occurred in the target area.     

Acquisition and maintenance of trusting behavior

This study determined whether a two-person exchange situation contained natural contingencies for trusting behavior or whether external contingencies were necessary. Pairs of college students worked matching-to-sample problems for money. On each trial there was one problem and the subjects determined which of them would solve it. Trusting behavior was defined as an increase in the number of consecutive problems each subject allowed his partner to work during sessions that also ended with an equitable distribution. Simply, trust was a temporary deviation from equity. A subject could give the problem to the other person (cooperate), or not respond and let the other person take the problem (share). Other possibilities were for both subjects to try to take the problem (complete), or for neither subject to respond and thereby let the person who worked the last problem also work the next one (passive trust). When only four lever pulls were required to distribute a problem (no external contingencies to reach either equity or trust) subjects reached equity, but only minimal trust (strict alternation of single problems) developed in 18 sessions. When 30 or 60 lever pulls were required to distribute a problem (smaller response requirement for passive trust and therefore a contingency for trust), trusting behavior developed after a few sessions (fixed ratio 30) or after several trials of the first session (fixed ratio 60) and it ordinarily expanded gradually to 10 to 15 consecutive problems through passive trust. The aversiveness of the inequity involved in trusting appears to necessitate a contingency for acquisition. Once trust develops, however, this aversiveness is reduced as subjects learn the inequity is only temporary (e.g., once trust was acquired at fixed ratio 60 it was maintained at fixed ratio 4, which would not initially produce it), and the direction of the inequity appears to become of questionable importance (e.g., being behind was alternated over rather than within sessions and usually not in a systematic manner).     

中小学生语文阅读能力结构的发展特点

本研究对小学六年级、初中三年级、高中三年级三个年龄切面的学生的阅读能力结构构成进行分析,揭示该能力结构的发统特点。结果表明,语文阅读能力结构随年龄的增长而发生变化。一方面表现为因素的数量逐步增加,另一方面表现为比较复杂、层次较高的因素在整个结构中的相对地位不断增强。研究结果进一步指出,该能力结构因素增加的实现方式不同于西方心理学界所认为的分解模式,而是表现为“接替”模式,亦即通过“基础能力因素”对活动的影响作用为新的因素所接替而实现。     

Deficits in set-shifting ability in nonclinical compulsive checkers

Recent studies suggest deficits in set-shifting ability in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) as measured by tasks such as the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST; Berg, 1948). The present study examined the extent to which these deficits were demonstrated by nonclinical subjects selected on the basis of their checking scores on the Maudsley Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory. A multivariate analysis revealed that frequent checkers performed significantly worse on the WCST than noncheckers, making more total errors and more perseverative errors and requiring more time to complete the test. A follow-up analysis on a subset of the original sample found similar performance deficits in checkers. While the poorer performance of checkers could be statistically accounted for by anxiety during the first administration of the WCST, anxiety could not explain the relationship between checking status and WCST performance at follow-up. Therefore, there does appear to be some relationship between checking status and WCST performance beyond what can be explained by affective variables.     

Observational training improves adult womens'' performance on Piaget''s water-level task

Among women university students who lacked conceptual understanding of the principle that the surface of still water is always horizontal, a specific task procedure designed to optimize self-discovery of the principle proved effective. Successful learning was reflected in more accurate responses on an adjustment task and by a significant increase (p less than .01) in the number of subjects able to verbalize a correct strategy. In contrast to previous research the results show that adult womens' performance on the water-level task can be improved by observational training, suggesting that the female lag in spatial skills may depend on experiential factors.     

Multicategorical spline model for item response theory

Additional information contained in incorrect responses calls for a multicategorical rather than a binary analysis of multiple choice data. A nonparametric divided-by-total model for joint maximum likelihood estimation of probability-of-choice functions (for particular responses) and of latent ability is proposed. The model approximates probability functions by rational splines. Some illustrative examples of real test data analysis and the results of a Monte Carlo study are presented.The research in this paper was supported by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Grants OGP0105521 and APA 320 awarded to the first and the second author, respectively. The authors are indebted to R. Melzack and A. Baker for making available the data analyzed in this paper. We would also like to thank J. McKenna and B. Cont for their assistance in editing this paper.     

聋童与听力正常儿童分类能力的比较研究

本研究通过不同性质的分类实验,比较了聋童和听力正常儿童在年龄和教育程度相同或相近的前提下表现出的分类能力的差异,研究结果表明:(1)听力正常儿童的分类水平高于聋童。(2)教育程度的提高对二者的分类水平均有明显的促进作用。(3)就本实验结果看,约在13、14岁间,二者的分类水平均趋于平稳。(4)具体语词的掌握对二者的分类水平均有明显的促进作用。(5)二者对具体材料的分类均优于对抽象材料的分类。