This article examines the status of behavioral research on genetic mental retardation syndromes and finds that the field continues to struggle with three methodological issues: (1) how to think about control or contrast groups, (2) the interplay of behavioral phenotypes with development and other within-group variations, and (3) the efficacy of…

Discusses the use of aversive treatment on children with behavior disorders. Suggests that aversive treatment should be used primarily in conjunction with behavior analysis and therapy. Argues that the primary ethical concern of aversive treatment should be whether there are safeguards against potential abuses of aversive procedures. (SNR)

The self-injurious escape behavior of an adult with developmental disabilities was treated with extinction. Results of a reversal design showed substantial bursts of responding when extinction was introduced and reintroduced: self-injury remained at a variable and elevated rate for some time before stable, low rates were observed. (Author/DB)

Describes a computer-assisted cognitive training program used to treat a 13-year-old Caucasian male with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Pre-/posttest differences on the Conners Parent Rating Scale revealed a decrease on all subscales. Scores on the Conners Teacher Rating Scale were less conclusive. A follow-up revealed that most gains…

New Zealand high school students (N=221) completed a questionnaire that examined the relationship among factors associated with professional psychological help-seeking behavior. Suicidal ideation, attitudes, psychological distress, treatment fears, and gender were some predictors accounting for 23% of students' self-rated help-seeking intentions.…

This article introduces this special issue on functional assessment methods and their application to children and youth with autism. It traces the 30-year history of functional assessment and briefly summarizes each of the following articles, noting the common emphasis on social validity and using the science and technology of functional…

Assesses the prevalence rate of bulimic disorders among 257 female Asian Americans from 18 to 30 years old. Finds that only two of the 257 women met the classification for bulimia nervosa. Contends that the findings illustrate the need for future research among culturally different populations. (CMK)

The purpose of this study was to critically examine the positive approaches to behavioral intervention research and young children demonstrating challenging behavior. The authors conducted a comprehensive review of articles published between 1984 and 2003 across 23 peer-reviewed journals. Each article that met the criteria for inclusion in the…

Undergraduate students in a learning laboratory course initially chose a species to study; researched that species' physical and behavioral characteristics; then learned skills necessary to select, operationalize, observe, and record animal behavior accurately. After their classroom preparation, students went to a local zoo to observe the behavior…

Repeated measures and longitudinal studies arise often in social and behavioral science research. During the planning stage of such studies, the calculations of sample size are of particular interest to the investigators and should be an integral part of the research projects. In this article, we consider the power and sample size calculations for…

In three experiments we studied lay observers' attributions of responsibility for an antisocial act (homicide). We systematically varied both the degree to which the action was coerced by external circumstances and the degree to which the actor endorsed and accepted ownership of the act, a psychological state that philosophers have termed…

The aim of the present behavioural experiment was to evaluate the most lateralized among two phonological (phoneme vs. rhyme detection) and the most lateralized among two semantic ("living" vs. "edible" categorization) tasks, within the dominant hemisphere for language. The reason of addressing this question was a practical one: to evaluate the…

Unmarried parents in the AHEAD study derive the majority of their long-term care hours from their children, and child caregivers are generally unpaid. This paper examines the extent to which the division of end-of-life transfers compensates caregiving children. In a model of siblings' altruistic contribution of care to a shared parent, the…

This paper offers organizational behavior management (OBM) a behavior analytically consistent way to expand its analysis of, and methods for changing, organizational behavior. It shows how Relational Frame Theory (RFT) suggests that common, problematic, psychological processes emerge from language itself, and they produce psychological…

The standardized group mean difference, Cohen's "d", is among the most commonly used and intuitively appealing effect sizes for group comparisons. However, reporting this point estimate alone does not reflect the extent to which sampling error may have led to an obtained value. A confidence interval expresses the uncertainty that exists between…