A brief neuropsychological screening battery to detect brain damage in a psychiatric population

Seventy-five patients admitted to the psychiatric unit of a general hospital were administered a brief neuropsychological screening battery. Discharge diagnoses obtained from the medical records revealed that 20% had brainbased pathology. A discriminant function analysis resulted in a five-variable model (Symbol-Digit Modalities Test, educational level, Psychiatric-Organic subscale of the MMPI, and Shipley Vocabulary and Abstraction scores) which correctly classified 84% of the subjects, with 87% correct identification of the brain-damaged group. A jackknife cross-validation procedure resulted in comparable hit rates.     

STIMULUS (INSTRUCTIONAL) FADING DURING EXTINCTION OF SELF-INJURIOUS ESCAPE BEHAVIOR

Three individuals with developmental disabilities were exposed to a series of assessment conditions to identify the source of reinforcement for their self-injurious behavior. In each case, self-injury occurred most often in instructional (demand) situations containing a brief time-out from the task contingent on self-injury, indicating that the behavior was an escape response (i.e., maintained by negative reinforcement). Treatment was implemented in a multiple baseline across subjects design and consisted of extinction (prevention of escape) plus instructional fading (initial elimination of instructions followed by their gradual reintroduction). Results showed that the combined treatment produced immediate and large reductions in self-injury that were maintained as the frequency of instructions was increased across sessions to match the original baseline rate of presentation. Results of a component analysis conducted with 1 subject suggested that stimulus fading accelerated the behavior-reducing effects of extinction.     

Comparison of the factors influencing interviewer hiring decisions for applicants with and those without disabilities

Two studies present an examination of the factors that influence hiring decisions for applicants with, and those without, disabilities in the employment interview. In Study 1, an integrative conceptual model of interviewer hiring decisions was proposed and tested in a field sample of applicants with disabilities. Interviewers provided ratings for 70 unstructured interviews with disabled applicants. Study 2 examined the fit of the model in an independent field sample of interviews with fully-able applicants (n=165). Results supported the model among both groups of applicants. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.This paper has been improved greatly through the suggestions of John Binning, Michael Campion, Robert L. Dipboye, Miles Patterson, and Mark Tubbs, and Lisa Brady and Jennifer Malatesta. Study 1 was partially funded by a grant from the U.S. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to the Wright State University Office of Disability Services (Theodore L. Hayes, co-Principal Investigator).     

Effects of models and demonstrations of personal narratives on the use of lexical ties by writers with mental retardation

A single subject reversal design was used to investigate the effects of two methods for teaching writing to eight adolescents with mild or moderate mental retardation during a weekly process writing workshop. During each workshop, each student wrote a personal narrative while the teacher circulated among the group and provided positive verbal feedback and spelled words on request. Students' texts were later typed with corrected spelling and punctuation and returned to them with verbal praise before the next writing workshop. During the first experimental condition, the subjects listened to an exemplar text selected by the teacher. In the second phase, the teacher read a narrative she had written as the exemplar text. During the third experimental condition, the teacher orally self-instructed herself through steps in writing a narrative. The subjects' texts were analyzed for number of words written and number and type of lexical ties used to produce cohesion between sentences in a text. The model narrative produced the best gains in the number of words written by the poorer readers, while the demonstration improved the cohesiveness of their texts. The better readers and writers wrote more cohesively during the model narrative and produced longer text during the demonstration condition.     

Evaluating competence of women and men: Effects of marital and parental status and occupational sex-typing

A sample of 160 female and male college students read a completed job application and a letter written by the applicant. The job was in either a feminine or a masculine field. The applicant was described as either female or male, single or married, and having one or no children. Subjects answered seven evaluative questions about the competence of the applicant and the merits of the letter. Women, especially single ones, who applied for a sex-typical job generally were evaluated most favorably. Men, especially single ones, and women who applied for sex-atypical jobs were evaluated least favorably.     

Students' self-estimated and actual knowledge of gender traditional and nontraditional occupations

This study investigated the degree and congruence of students' estimated and actual information about gender traditional and nontraditional occupations. Twenty-nine female and 29 male college students completed an instrument on which they rated how much they thought they knew about 18 male-dominant and 18 female-dominant occupations. They also completed an instrument measuring their actual knowledge of these and an additional wide variety of occupations. Results showed that subjects of each sex perceived themselves as less informed about nontraditional occupations. This result was much more pronounced for women than men. Each sex also tended to underestimate their actual knowledge of nontraditional occupations. Men and women did not differ in their actual knowledge, which was fairly limited for both sexes.     

The effects of videotape modeling and daily feedback on residential electricity conservation, home temperature and humidity, perceived comfort, and clothing worn: Winter and summer

Two studies were conducted in all-electric townhouses and apartments in the winter (N = 83) and summer (N = 54) to ascertain how energy conservation strategies focusing on thermostat change and set-backs and other low-cost/no-cost approaches would affect overall electricity use and electricity used for heating and cooling, the home thermal environment, the perceived comfort of participants, and clothing that was worn. The studies assessed the effectiveness of videotape modeling programs that demonstrated these conservation strategies when used alone or combined with daily feedback on electricity use. In the winter, the results indicated that videotape modeling and/or feedback were effective relative to baseline and to a control group in reducing overall electricity use by about 15% and electricity used for heating by about 25%. Hygrothermographs, which accurately and continuously recorded temperature and humidity in the homes, indicated that participants were able to live with no reported loss in comfort and no change in attire at a mean temperature of about 62 degrees F when home and about 59 degrees F when asleep. The results were highly discrepant with prior laboratory studies indicating comfort at 75 degrees F with the insulation value of the clothing worn by participants in this study. In the summer, a combination of strategies designed to keep a home cool with minimal or no air conditioning, in conjunction with videotape modeling and/or daily feedback, resulted in overall electricity reductions of about 15% with reductions on electricity for cooling of about 34%, but with feedback, and feedback and modeling more effective than modeling alone. Despite these electricity savings, hygrothermograph recordings indicated minimal temperature change in the homes, with no change in perceived comfort or clothing worn. The results are discussed in terms of discrepancies with laboratory studies, optimal combinations of video-media and personal contact to promote behavior change, and energy policies that may be mislabeled as sacrificial and underestimate the effectiveness of conservation strategies such as those investigated in these studies.