汉字触觉辨认与触觉双指模式

大量的以往研究涉及到字词识别 ,其中又有相当一部分是对字词或字母的触觉辨认研究 ,但未见汉字模式的触觉辨认研究。为了探讨汉字模式与英文字母或词模式触觉辨认的异同 ,我们先做简单汉字的视触匹配实验以确定此类实验是否可行。把 10个高频且笔画少的汉字在 6× 2 4的触觉振动仪上转换成振动的触觉模式 ,由于汉字比以往触觉模式辨认实验中所用的单指振动模式要复杂 ,所以我们不得不把汉字转换成双指模式 ,即用了两片振动显示仪来呈现一个模式 ,被试用双指接触振动片。汉语母语被试与从没学过汉字的英语母语被试各 10名对这些汉字触觉模式作了触觉与视觉模式匹配实验 ,结果表明两类被试的匹配成绩都很低而且无显著差异 ,结果可能是由于双指模式所致 ,从而不能完全说明汉字模式太难不适合触觉辨认 ,于是我们用单指模式的通常结构构建双指模式 ,使单双指模式的复杂度差异只表现在量上 ,检验了单双指模式的辨认效果 ,结果表明双指模式辨认成绩虽比单指辨认差但辨认中的认知特征如干扰中的反应竞争与知觉竞争效应相同。     

Assessing and teaching job‐related social skills to adults with autism spectrum disorder

Few studies have evaluated interventions to improve the job‐related social skills of adults with autism spectrum disorder. In this study, we examined the efficacy of a treatment package for teaching several social skills that are critical to job success, such as responding appropriately to feedback and asking for a task model from the supervisor. Three adults, aged 19 to 27 years, participated. Initial training of each skill consisted of verbal explanations, modeling, and role‐play with feedback, along with stimulus prompts to promote generalization to a different setting. The trainer introduced additional intervention components as needed. We also evaluated generalization across different social skills and evocative situations. Results indicated that the treatment package was generally effective in improving the targeted social skills, and that stimulus prompts may be necessary for generalization to a job setting. However, generalized responding across social skills rarely emerged. These findings have important implications for preparing individuals with autism to function successfully on the job.     

Different working memory capacity in normal young adults for visual and tactile letter recognition task

Thirty-nine young adult participants performing the visual and tactile n-back working memory task were compared. In the visual task, letters were presented on a computer screen and in the tactile task, plastic letters embedded on a board were explored tactually. The amount of incorrect responses increased with increasing memory load in both tasks, but was significantly lower in the visual task. Subgrouping the participants with extreme performances into "skilled" and "poor" performers showed that the best performance was found among "skilled" visual performers, and the worst one among "poor" tactile performers. There was more interindividual variation among tactile than visual performance. We conclude that tactile working memory capacity, measured here by letter recognition and letter memory, is generally more limited and shows more variability than visual memory in normal sighted participants.     

Effects of a checklist on self-assessment of blood glucose level by a memory-impaired woman with diabetes mellitus

This study evaluated effects of a checklist on the accuracy of self-assessment of blood glucose level by a diabetic woman with memory impairments caused by viral encephalitis. The checklist consisted of 54 steps for operating an electronic glucometer, which the subject performed in sequence and checked off when completed. Following introduction of the checklist, the percentage of steps completed correctly increased in simulated and actual blood glucose tests and yielded clinically useful information.     

Using concurrent reinforcement schedules and prompts to produce varied manding: A replication of Seaver and Bourret (2020)

Deficits in social communication and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior or interests are displayed by individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Given this, individuals with ASD may engage with a limited variety of reinforcers. Treatments designed to modify the distribution of manding may allow individuals to contact a broad array of reinforcers that could improve the quality of life for individuals with ASD (Seaver & Bourret, 2020). The purpose of the current study was to replicate the results of Seaver and Bourret (2020) by evaluating the effects of manipulating concurrent schedules of reinforcement, alone and with prompts, on the rates of target manding in three boys with ASD, aged 7–9 years, in the United Arab Emirates. All three participants showed increased target manding following intervention. The findings support the use of concurrent reinforcement schedules and prompts as an effective intervention to produce varied manding.     

INCREASING ENGAGEMENT IN DAILY ACTIVITIES BY OLDER ADULTS WITH DEMENTIA

This study analyzed the effects of nursing assistants' use of prompts and praise to increase the engagement of older adults with dementia in daily living activities. The multiple baseline design across morning and afternoon work shifts showed consistent increases in engagement by each of the 5 residents during the intervention. These results suggest that increasing prompts and praise by nursing assistants may, in turn, increase the rate of engagement of older adults with dementia.     

Cues-pause-point language training: teaching echolalics functional use of their verbal labeling repertoires.

We evaluated the direct and generalized effects of cues-pause-point language training procedures on immediate echolalia and correct responding in two severely retarded females. Two experiments were conducted with each subject in which the overall goal was to encourage them to remain quiet before, during, and briefly after the presentation of questions and then to verbalize on the basis of environmental cues whose labels represented the correct responses. Multiple baseline designs across question/response pairs (Experiment I) or question/response pairs and settings (Experiment II) demonstrated that echolalia was rapidly replaced by correct responding on the trained stimuli. More importantly, there were clear improvements in subjects'' responding to untrained stimuli. Results demonstrated that the cues-pause-point procedures can be effective in teaching severely retarded or echolalic individuals functional use of their verbal labeling repertoires.     

REDUCING RISK OF PRESSURE SORES: EFFECTS OF WATCH PROMPTS AND ALARM AVOIDANCE ON WHEELCHAIR PUSH-UPS

People who use wheelchairs are at risk for developing pressure sores. Regular pressure relief, in the form of a wheelchair push-up, is one way to reduce the likelihood of pressure sores. We examined the effects of antecedent (i.e., instructions, audible prompts) and consequent (i.e., alarm avoidance) events on wheelchair push-ups, using a multiple baseline analysis with 2 participants with spina bifida. Results suggest that the combined procedure was more effective than either antecedent or consequent events alone, and there is some evidence suggesting maintenance of effects over time.     

Increasing driver yielding and pedestrian signaling with prompting, feedback, and enforcement

The effects of an intervention package on drivers' yielding to pedestrians and on pedestrians' signaling their intention to cross the street were assessed using a multiple baseline design. The intervention, which consisted of publicly posted feedback on the percentage of motorists yielding to pedestrians, small signs prompting pedestrians to engage in appropriate crossing behavior, and an enforcement program involving the use of warning tickets and feedback fliers, was sequentially introduced on two streets. The intervention more than doubled the percentage of motorists yielding to pedestrians and increased the percentage of pedestrians signaling their intention to cross the street to over 13% from a baseline level of less than 1%. Near misses involving pedestrians decreased by more than 50% on the narrower of the two streets.     

GENERALIZATION AND MAINTENANCE OF COMPLEX SKILLS BY SEVERELY HANDICAPPED ADOLESCENTS FOLLOWING PICTURE PROMPT TRAINING

Three severely handicapped adolescents were trained, using a picture prompt package, to complete three complex vocational or daily living tasks. Results indicated that all students required many training sessions to learn the first training task. Following initial training, however, all students generalized their use of the pictures across settings without additional training. The students also needed substantially reduced amounts of training on the remaining two tasks. During maintenance, two of the students continued to perform at relatively high levels of accuracy with and without the picture prompts, whereas one student continued to need the pictures.