One control group and eight experimental groups, each composed of 12 first grade children, participated in this experiment. It was designed to investigate the effects of frequency of reinforcement and repeated evaluation of stimuli on the conditioning of preferences. Each child participated in the experiment for seven consecutive school days. The…

Two counseling approaches, which differ on how to help a client make a realistic decision, are evaluated for their relative effectiveness. Fifty subjects, randomly selected from a population of students which expressed a need for educational/vocational counseling were assigned to either the reinforcement or the persuasive advice-giving treatment…

The aim of the method for quantifying hierarchy stimuli by Galvanic Skin Resistance recordings is to improve the results of systematic desensitization by attenuating the subjective influences in hierarchy construction which are common in traditional procedures. (Author/CS)

Presents two studies which investigated the effects of social stimulation on infant's vocalization rates. Experiment I focused on response-contingent and response-independent social stimulation. Experiment II focused on continuous or omitted social stimulation. In both studies, social stimulation increased vocalization and the rate of responding…

Research supported by NICHHD grant HD-00870.

Discussed is the language impairment of children with infantile autism. The speech patterns of autistic children, including echolalia, pronomial reversal, silent language, and voice imitation, are described. The clinical picture of the autistic child is compared to that of children with such other disorders as deafness, retardation, and…

SOME OF THE PROBLEMS IN ARRIVING AT A TRAINING PROGRAM FOR BEHAVIOR THERAPISTS STEM FROM THE DIFFICULTY IN DEFINING BEHAVIOR THERAPY. BASICALLY, HOWEVER, A PERSON'S DIFFICULTY IS UNDERSTOOD AS HIS BEHAVIOR IN REACTION TO SITUATIONS. THIS BEHAVIOR RESULTS FROM A CURRENT OR PREVIOUS REINFORCER. NORMAL AND ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR DIFFER ONLY IN THE TERMS…

This paper examines the acquisition of superstitious behavior in young children. Six preschool children were exposed to a 15 minute fixed-time inter-reinforcement interval (FT-15") schedule while another six preschoolers were exposed to a 30 minute fixed-time inter-reinforcement interval (FT-30") schedule. In a free-operant laboratory…

Responses of individual fourth-grade children were monitored in daily 30-minute sessions for 10 consecutive school days. Individual subjects were used as their own controls. The child sat before a small table with a surface-mounted button and a wall-mounted screen upon which visual stimuli were rear-view projected, using a filmstrip projector with…

A case study of a learning disabled 8-year-old with behavior disturbancs is presented to highlight the use of operant conditioning in cutting down educational costs and easing the teacher's class management problems. (CL)

This module facilitates acquaintance with the application of behavioral principles in the classroom. It contains: (1) a pretest; (2) knowledge-based objectives and enabling activities; (3) demonstration-based objectives and enabling activities; (4) instructional personnel decision points; (5) two models demonstrating use of the module; (6)…

This paper points out the inadequacies of emotional or drive-based theories of exploratory behavior and offers instead a behavior analysis conceptualization. Exploratory behavior as an emotional state was rejected because the environmental conditions said to arouse exploration and the behaviors said to manifest curiosity are too general to…

Sixty-five infants (mean age of 111 days) who failed to complete a two-day operant-conditioning task were compared with a stratified random sample of those who did on measures of infant temperament and several demographic characteristics. A discriminant-function analysis was performed. (Author/BN)