智力落后儿童听觉注意的稳定性研究

本研究通过对智力落后儿童和正常儿童听觉注意稳定性的比较研究,探索智力落后儿童听觉注意稳定性的特点及影响因素。结果表明:4岁智龄组智力落后儿童听觉注意稳定性较弱,低于或等于同智龄组正常儿童水平。智力落后儿童慢速和快速情境下的注意稳定性高于中速。信噪比也影响注意的稳定性,信噪比越低,注意稳定性越差。频率因素对智力落后儿童的影响不显著。     

Effects of Mentally Subtracting Positive Events on Affective Status in Japanese College Students

This study examined the effect on positive and negative emotions in Japanese college students of mentally subtracting grateful events. Participants (N = 62) were randomly assigned to one of the following three conditions: (a) writing with surprise the ways that a positive thing or event might never have happened or might never have been part of life (the mentally subtracting a present good [MS] group), (b) writing without surprise the ways in which a positive thing or event happened easily or was certain to become a part of life (the counting gratitude group), and (c) no writing control. The results of analysis of variance showed that the MS group experienced significantly increased positive emotion and decreased negative emotion between pre‐test and post‐test. Furthermore, the MS group showed significantly greater positive emotion than the control group at post‐test. Surprise mediated the effects of the MS group intervention on positive emotion but not on negative emotion. Issues related to gratitude induction and mediation of surprise are discussed.     

A SUPERVISION PROGRAM FOR INCREASING FUNCTIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR SEVERELY HANDICAPPED STUDENTS IN A RESIDENTIAL SETTING

This study was designed to increase the amount of time severely handicapped students living in a residential facility engaged in age-appropriate and functional activities. After a brief in-service training, a program involving instructions to supervisors and staff feedback was implemented in a multiple-baseline design across settings. Results showed that after the supervision program was implemented, the students' participation in activities increased. Further, these increases maintained when feedback was reduced from an average of 3 days a week during treatment, to once a month for a 5-month period.     

LEISURE-DANCE INSTRUCTION FOR SEVERELY AND PROFOUNDLY RETARDED PERSONS: TEACHING AN INTERMEDIATE COMMUNITY-LIVING SKILL

We evaluated an approach for teaching an intermediate community living skill via a leisure-dance activity to institutionalized severely and profoundly retarded persons. The targeted skill was considered as intermediate in contrast to a community living skill per se because it was based on successful performances of higher functioning, noninstitutionalized retarded persons as opposed to nonhandicapped individuals. Definitions for appropriate dancing were established and then validated through observations of the performance of retarded persons living in the local community. The dance skills were then taught to four participants through serial training in leg movements, arm movements, and coordinated leg and arm movements, plus follow-up trainer supervision. Generalization was also programmed by way of multiple trainers and training settings. Results during structured assessments showed that all four residents acquired the dance skills and that both serial training and follow-up supervision were necessary for skill acquisition. Generalized increases in appropriate dancing at dances attended by the participants and retarded persons from the community were also demonstrated. However, in most cases some active supervision by caregivers was needed to enhance the generalized improvements. Results are discussed in terms of the applicability of this approach for validating goals when training other community-related skills to low-functioning populations.     

MANAGEMENT OF INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIORS OF TRAINABLE MENTALLY IMPAIRED STUDENTS USING ANTECEDENT EXERCISE

The effects of several levels of exercise on inappropriate behaviors of four trainable mentally impaired students were observed. Treatment conditions, which occurred as the first daily activity, included: Phase I, daily alternating conditions of warm-up exercises and jogging at a moderate rate for a short distance; Phase II, daily alternating conditions of no-exercise periods and jogging at a vigorous rate for a moderate distance; and Phase III, jogging at a vigorous rate for a moderate distance on consecutive days. For one student two additional conditions occurred, Phase IV, long-distance jogging on consecutive days at a vigorous rate and Phase V, consecutive days of no exercise. Observations of three inappropriate behaviors of each student occurred immediately after, 1 hour after, and 2 hours after each exercise period. Results indicate a decrease in all three inappropriate behaviors for three of four students and an inverse relationship between the level of exercise and the amount of inappropriate behavior for three of four students. Improvements over existing studies are discussed with suggestions for future research.     

Reduction of stimulus overselectivity with nonverbal differential observing responses

Three individuals with mental retardation exhibited stimulus overselectivity in a delayed matching-to-sample task in which two sample stimuli were displayed on each trial. Intermediate accuracy scores indicated that participants could match one of the samples but not both of them. Accuracy in a baseline condition was compared to accuracy with a differential observing response procedure. This procedure prompted participants to make simultaneous identity-matching responses that required observation and discrimination of both sample stimuli. These observing responses were never followed by differential consequences. When observing responses were prompted, participants' accuracy scores improved. In a return to the baseline condition, when differential observing responses were no longer prompted, accuracy returned to intermediate levels. The results show that stimulus overselectivity can be greatly reduced by a behavioral intervention that controls observing behavior and verifies discrimination, but that exposure to such procedures alone may be insufficient for lasting benefits.     

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS IN THREE SUPPORTED EMPLOYMENT OPTIONS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Controversy exists over the benefits that workers with severe disabilities accrue under different supported employment options. This study focused upon one benefit of supported employment: social integration. Direct observation procedures were used to assess the social interactions of 37 adults with severe disabilities in 18 employment programs representing three different supported employment contexts (individual, enclave, and work crew). Results indicated that workers employed in individual and enclave programs had significantly more contact with nondisabled persons than did members of work crews. No differences were detected in the social contact rate between disabled and nondisabled workers in individual versus enclave sites. Furthermore, few differences in type of interactions across the three different work options were revealed. Results suggest that both individual and enclave models are capable of facilitating social integration. However, characteristics of specific job sites, more so than the employment model per se, may determine whether a particular employment setting is conducive to social integration.     

THE ROLE OF REFERENTIAL SPEECH IN SIGN LEARNING BY MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN: A COMPARISON OF TOTAL COMMUNICATION AND SIGN-ALONE TRAINING

We conducted two experiments to assess the role of referential speech during sign training in which the spoken words corresponding to signs were receptively known to the participants. An alternating treatments design was used to compare sign acquisition across two teaching conditions in which referents were presented either with or without the corresponding verbal label. During the first experiment, signs were taught concurrently; during the second experiment, signs within each of the respective conditions were taught in a serial fashion. In both experiments, signs taught by total communication were acquired faster than those taught by sign-alone training.     

Establishing auditory stimulus control over an eight-member equivalence class via conditional discrimination procedures

Two eight-member equivalence classes of visual stimuli were established during three phases of a training program. In Phase 1, two training arrangements were compared. In one, 3 subjects were taught on different trials to select from a single pair of comparison stimuli (A1, A2) in response to eight sample stimuli that were trained in pairs (B1, B2; C1, C2; D1, D2; E1, E2). In the second arrangement, subjects were taught to select from four pairs of comparisons (B1, B2; C1, C2; D3, D2; E2, E2) in response to two samples (A1, A2). Training with the single pair of comparison stimuli resulted in the development of equivalence relations (B1C1, B2C2, D1B1, D2B2, B1E1, B2E2, C1D1, C2D2, C1E1, C2E2, D1E1, D2E2, and their reciprocals) between the sample stimuli without direct training of these relations. In the other training arrangement, these relations among the comparison stimuli developed in the performance of 1 subject only. In Phase 2, three new pairs of stimuli (F1, F2; G1, G2; H1, H2) were substituted for three of the original pairs (B1, B2; C1, C2; D1, D2) and the training arrangements for the groups were reversed. Following training, the performances that showed equivalence relations on the probes in the first phase also showed equivalence relations in the second phase. If such relations did not develop in the first phase, they did not do so in the second phase. In Phase 3, relations between stimuli across the two previous phases (e.g., B1F1, B2F2, B1G1, B2H2, C1F1, etc.) were investigated. The 4 subjects whose performances showed the development of these relations were taught to select one stimulus from each class (E1 and E2) in response to a verbal label (I1 and I2) and then were tested to see if the verbal label controlled responding to the remaining members of the class (e.g., I1A1, I2A2, I1B1, I2B2, etc.). For 3 subjects, this generalized control occurred; for the 4th, generalization occurred only after verbal training with a second pair of visual stimuli (F1 and F2). In retests several months later, these auditory-visual relations were found to be intact or, if not, were recovered without direct training.     

Emergent simple discrimination established by indirect relation to differential consequences

Three experiments examined a discrimination training sequence that led to emergent simple discrimination in human subjects. The experiments differed primarily in their subject populations. Normally capable adults served in the first experiment, preschool children in the second, and mentally retarded adults in the third. In all experiments, subjects learned a simple simultaneous discrimination: When visual stimuli A1 and A2 were displayed together, reinforcers followed selections of A1, the S+, but not A2, the S-. The subjects also learned a conditional discrimination taught with an arbitrary visual-visual matching-to-sample procedure. Comparisons were two additional visual stimuli, B1 and B2, and samples were A1 and A2. Reinforcers followed selections of B1 in the presence of A1 and of B2 in the presence of A2. After the simple-discrimination and conditional-discrimination baselines had been acquired, B1 and B2 were displayed alone (without a sample) on probe trials. Subjects had never been taught explicitly how to respond to such displays. Nonetheless, they almost always selected B1, which was involved in a conditional relation with A1, the stimulus that served as S+ on the simple-discrimination trials. This outcome suggested the formation of stimulus classes during conditional-discrimination training. Through class formation, B1 and B2 had apparently acquired stimulus functions similar to those shown by A1 and A2 on simple-discrimination trials, thereby leading to emergent selections of B1 on the probes.