PROVIDING A MORE APPROPRIATE EDUCATION FOR SEVERELY HANDICAPPED PERSONS: INCREASING AND VALIDATING FUNCTIONAL CLASSROOM TASKS

We evaluated a teacher training and supervision program for increasing the involvement of severely handicapped adolescents and adults in functional educational tasks. The program, consisting of a brief in-service followed by supervisory prompts and feedback, was accompanied by large increases in functional tasks in three classrooms. In addition, generalized increases occurred during nontargeted times in the classroom and the changes during both the targeted and nontargeted times were maintained over a 44–45 week period. In two subsequent experiments, surveys provided social validation for the criteria for functional versus nonfunctional tasks in that: (a) relevant individuals reliably categorized functional tasks as representing typical living, work, social, and leisure situations and (b) experienced clinicians consistently rated tasks previously categorized as functional as being more useful for severely handicapped persons than tasks categorized as nonfunctional. Results are discussed in terms of the relationship of functional classroom tasks in the overall provision of appropriate educational services for severely handicapped students.     

Defining Death for Persons and Human Organisms

This paper discusses how alternative concepts of personhood affect the definition of death. I argue that parties in the debate over the definition of death have employed different concepts of personhood, and thus have been talking past each other by proposing definitions of death for different kinds of things. In particular, I show how critics of the consciousness-related, neurological formation of death have relied on concepts of personhood that would be rejected by proponents of that formulation. These critics rest on treating persons as qualitative specifications of human organisms (Bernat, Culver, and Gert) or as identical to human organisms (Capron, Seifert, and Shewmon). Since advocates of the consciousness-related, neurological formulation of death are not committed to either of these views of personhood, these critics commit the fallacy of attacking a straw man. I then clarify the substantive concept of personhood (Boethius, Strawson, and Wiggins) that may be invoked in the consciousness-related, neurological formulation of death, and argue that, on this view and contra Bernat, Culver, and Gert, persons have always been the kind of thing that can literally die. I conclude by suggesting that the discussion of defining death needs to focus on which approach to personhood makes the most sense metaphysically and morally.     

中国人的印象整饰特征及其影响因素初探

本研究探讨在中国文化背景下．一个人如何表现他自己,即强凋社会的和谐与人际关系的融洽,即印象整饰过程。旨在揭示中国人的印象整饰特征及其影响因素,从而增进对特定文化背景下的中国人的心理和行为模式的理解。结果揭示了２个独特的中国人的印象整饰特征：社会道德维度与人际关系维度。     

信息的性质对内隐社会印象的影响

为了考察信息的性质对社会印象的影响,通过语义差异法建构了具有六个维度的社会印象量表;采用２×２×８的混合设计,给被试提供自然信息和七类不同性质的社会信息（组内设计）,考察了评价人和被评价人性别特征（组间设计）在社会印象形成过程中的作用;同时,还测量了被试的外显性别态度。结果表明,在否定个人智慧、社会地位、性别特征和品质特征时,所形成的社会印象在被评价人性别特征上表现出了差异,并且男女被试都表现出了“好人主义”倾向;在外显性别态度上男女被试设有差异;此外,还分析了用语义差异法测量内隐社会印象的适用性。     

Russian Neuropsychology After Luria

It is now more than 20 years after Luria's death in 1977. His collaborators, disciples, and followers both in Russia and abroad continue to further develop his work. The development of Russian neuropsychology reflects the universal tendency to replace static neuropsychology, which relates individuals' behavior to fixed cerebral lesions, with dynamic neuropsychology, which analyzes the dynamics of brain-behavior interaction. Three types of Russian studies illustrate the latter approach: (1) neuropsychological follow-up of different nosological groups of patients in the process of medical or psychological treatment, (2) studies of cognitive evolution (developmental neuropsychology), and (3) studies of cognitive involution (neurogeriatrics). All studies focus on cortico-subcortical and interhemispheric relationships. Another change in modern Russian neuropsychology consists of combining the qualitative approach with the quantitative one, but the system of rating is based, following Luria's tradition, on the psychological evaluation of each task's structure and the qualitative analysis of the patients' performance and possibilities for its correction. Hence, Luria's creative and comprehensive approach stimulates the further development of neuropsychology in Russia.     

社会认知中印象形成的记忆和认知表征研究

本文以社会认知为出发点,考察印象形成记忆和认知表征;采用具体行为描述作为刺激材料,通过三个实验,160名被试,系统考察了印象形成中行为信息加工的方式。结果表明：（1）印象形成过程中,我们对行为信息进行精致加工编码,行为信息与品质相关,但它们是独立存贮在记忆中;（2）项目增加和项目丢失技术是区别精致加工和组织加工的有效工具。     

构词法对无意识加工的影响:中德数字启动效应的比较研究

本文采用客观觉察阈值作为启动刺激呈现时间、以数字(阿拉伯数字)和数词(以中、德两种文字写出的数词)为刺激比较研究了在掩蔽刺激条件下中国与德国被试的启动效应.结果表明:1)中国被试的启动效应显著,在德国被试中未发现显著的启动效应;2)除数字—数字刺激组外,中国被试的启动效应显著地大于德国被试;3)中国被试的数词—数字刺激组比其他三个刺激组产生的启动效应大。我们从无意识加工特征、构词法的差异以及并行—连续加工理论的观点对上述结果分别进行了讨论.     

Conditional discrimination learning: A critique and amplification

Carter and Werner recently reviewed the literature on conditional discrimination learning by pigeons, which consists of studies of matching-to-sample and oddity-from-sample. They also discussed three models of such learning: the “multiple-rule” model (learning of stimulus-specific relations), the “configuration” model, and the “single-rule” model (concept learning). Although their treatment of the multiple-rule model, which seems most applicable to the pigeon data, is generally excellent, their discussion of the other two models is incomplete and sometimes inaccurate. Potential problems of terminology are discussed in the present paper, as are additional lines of research that deserve consideration by those interested in further work in this area. The issue of response versus stimulus selection (configuration versus compound-cue learning) is discussed in connection with the configuration model. Particular attention is given to Carter and Werner's criticism of the application, in studies with other species, of the learning set procedure in testing for single-rule learning. Some of the important related issues are: the bias for improvement on new problems in a series, the adequacy of a multiple-rule model to explain learning set formation, and evidence in favor of the single-rule model, at least in primates. Consideration of these additional contributions to the study of conditional discrimination learning emphasizes the usefulness of this task in the comparative study of cognitive processes.     

NORMALIZATION OF INSTITUTIONAL MEALTIMES FOR PROFOUNDLY RETARDED PERSONS: EFFECTS AND NONEFFECTS OF TEACHING FAMILY-STYLE DINING

Benefits have been reported for certain institutionalized populations when mealtimes are arranged under normal, family-style conditions. In this study, we evaluated a program for teaching family-style mealtime skills to institutionalized persons with skill deficits greater than those targeted in previous research—the profoundly retarded. Results showed that the program, involving forward chaining with a less-to-more intrusive prompting sequence and contingent reinforcement, successfully taught four profoundly retarded persons several family-style skills. Also, systematic measures supported the durability of the skills, social validity of the behavior changes; Final acceptance of the program by staff trainers, and no detrimental changes in health-related variables associated with food consumption. However, results also indicated that beneficial corollary changes (e.g., increased peer communication) previously reported with higher skilled populations did not occur. These results suggest that with more seriously handicapped populations, multiple changes should not be assumed when normalizing institutional conditions; rather, specific skill training will probably be necessary.     

Formation of the sameness-difference concept by Japanese monkeys from a small number of color stimuli

Japanese monkeys were trained to form the sameness-difference concept. In Experiment 1, four monkeys were trained with two colors to discriminate matching stimulus pairs from nonmatching pairs by reinforcing only lever-pressing responses to matching pairs with a variable-interval schedule. Three monkeys showed successful transfer of this discrimination to two new colors, thus demonstrating that some Japanese monkeys are able to form this relational concept from a minimum number of stimuli. In Experiment 2, two monkeys were trained, in a Yes/No procedure with three colors, to press one lever under matching pairs and another lever under nonmatching pairs. Poor transfer performances to three new colors suggest that simultaneously establishing two different response patterns to matching and nonmatching pairs is ineffective in forming the concept. In Experiment 3, the amount of transfer to three new colors after mastering a standard three-color matching-to-sample task was compared with that of a modified task in which correct responses were reinforced with a within-trial variable-interval schedule. All three monkeys showed greater transfer with the modified procedure. The results suggest that the variable-interval schedule adopted within trials is effective in forming the sameness-difference concept.