Differences in extracurricular activity participation, achievement, and attitudes toward school between ninth-grade students attending junior high school and those attending senior high school

The purpose of this study was to determine the type of school organization that most benefited ninth-grade students. Results indicated that ninth graders in the junior high school setting participated significantly more in extracurricular activities and achieved significantly higher academically than did ninth graders in the senior high school setting.     

Environmental dispositions and the evaluation of architectural interiors

The Environmental Response Inventory (ERI) was developed, in part, to assess dispositions toward everyday physical environments and to aid in explaining variance in response to settings. The eight ERI scales were examined and resultant hypotheses were tested in a design involving evaluative ratings of 10 everyday public building interiors briefly presented in sequences of color slides to 118 participants. Settings were arranged in three levels of generality. Results support the ERI as a promising tool. Biographical items also correlate with ratings. Environment evaluation is discussed as a complex phenomenon, in which rater differences play a significant part.     

Providing noncontingent,alternative, functional reinforcers during delays following functional communication training

Functional Communication Training (FCT) involves arranging extinction for problem behavior and reinforcement for a more desirable, functionally equivalent, communicative response (FCR). Although effective under ideal arrangements, the introduction of delays to reinforcement following the FCR can result in increased problem behavior. Austin and Tiger (2015) showed that for individuals whose problem behavior was sensitive to multiple sources of reinforcement, providing access to alternative, functional reinforcers during delays mitigated this increase in problem behavior during delay fading. The current study replicated the procedures of Austin and Tiger with 2 individuals displaying multiply controlled problem behavior. Providing alternative functional reinforcers reduced problem behavior during 10-min delays for both participants without requiring delay fading.     

Pavlov's legacy to behavioral psychology,physiology, and psychiatry: A program about Pavlov

A program about Pavlov was held at the Countway Library as part of the “Leaders in American Medicine” series on 12 March 1980. A film (Pavlov Himself) was shown; it was produced by USSR Central Television and the Soviet Academy of Science and obtained from Films for the Humanities, P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, N.J. 08540. Three distinguished scholars discussed Pavlov's influence on psychology (Professor B. F. Skinner), physiology (Professor John Pappenheimer), and psychiatry (Dr. Peter Dews).     

Doubting one’s doubt: A formula for confidence?

People feel, think, and act differently when doubt rather than confidence is accessible. A traditional perspective on the accessibility of doubt holds that multiple sources of doubt activation should lead to increased levels of uncertainty. In contrast, we find that under some conditions two sequential sources of doubt activation result in decreased levels of uncertainty. We suggest that this follows from a meta-cognitive process in which people come to “doubt their doubt.” In Study 1, individuals with chronically accessible uncertainty who were further exposed to an uncertainty manipulation paradoxically reported reduced uncertainty. In Study 2, participants were first primed with doubt or certainty and then exposed to a manipulation associated with either confidence (i.e., head nodding) or doubt (head shaking). Supporting the idea that people can either trust or doubt their own doubts, head nodding (vs. shaking) accentuated (vs. attenuated) the impact of the initial doubt vs. certainty manipulation. These findings advance the literature on meta-cognition, self-doubt, and embodiment, and may have clinical applications.     

Moral behavior and the development of verbal regulation

The present paper examines the relationship between the development of moral behavior and the development of verbal regulatory processes. Relational frame theory and the distinctions among pliance, tracking, and augmenting forms of rule governance are applied to the domain of moral behavior and its development, in order to identify the specific social and verbal contingencies that are responsible for an evolving moral repertoire. It is argued that moral behavior is controlled by relational and rule-following repertoires, and that these can be arranged into a rough progression: pliance, tracking, augmenting, social concern for pliance, social concern for tracking, and social concern for augmenting. Congruence with data derived from other research traditions is examined, and applied implications are explored.     

Chiluba's Christian nation: Christianity as a factor in Zambian politics 1991–1996

This article examines the role of Christianity in the change of regime in Zambia in 1991, and after its new President, Frederick Chiluba, declared Zambia a ‘Christian Nation’ at Christmas 1991. Chiluba, a born‐again Christian, had the support of many of Zambia's churches in his campaign to oust the long‐serving incumbent. President Kenneth Kaunda, himself prone to use Christianity for political support. Particularly significant in Chiluba's campaign were the Christian media. The three branches of Zambian Christianity (the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Christian Council of Zambia, the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia) have traditionally worked in close cooperation. The Catholics and the Christian Council were not consulted about Chiluba's declaration of Zambia as ‘Christian’ and have tended to regard the proclamation as unfortunate, at best; elements within the Evangelical Fellowship have been very supportive of Chiluba and his regime, most obviously because they saw the new dispensation as one offering them a share of political power. Corruption and mismanagement have continued lo characterise Zambia's political system, which has caused the declaration lo be viewed with widespread cynicism.     

The Desk or the Bed?

Assertions that studying is done best at a desk rather than on a bed are largely untested. In the present study the GPA of students working at their desks was compared with that of students studying on their beds. There was no difference in the GPA's of the two groups. The assumption that there is a single type of study environment optimal for all students appears unwarranted. Since a sizable number of college students use their beds and even the floor for studying, the use of softer and more comfortable furniture in libraries and study halls deserves consideration.