Described is the parent education component of a St. Louis, Missouri, program for the severely handicapped (5-21 years old) which focused on instruction in behavior modification skills. Noted are the organization of the first program of 10 weekly sessions, a continuation program for parents who completed the first program, the "hard to reach"…

The purposes of this study are (1) to analyze learning ability in newborns using heart rate responses to auditory temporal conditioning and (2) to correlate these with measures on the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale. Twenty normal neonates were tested using the Brazelton Scale on the third day of life. They were also given a…

Until recently, the use of contingency contracting has been largely an issue of theory and discussion with little experimental research evidence gathered to support efficacy. Two major reasons for this problem are suggested and discussed: (1) the concept of contingency contracting has not been adequately defined nor its minimal requirements…

This study analyzed the mental distractions of students while reading a text. Ss were asked to press a switch to record mental distractions as they occurred, and a treatment was designed to attempt to reduce the number of distractions. The hypothesis related to the treatment effect was that students given explicit training to reduce distractions…

Behavior modification as an attack upon the problem of mutism in mongoloid children establishes the basis of the text. Case histories of four children in a state institution present the specific strategy of speech therapy using verbal conditioning. Imitation and attending behavior, verbal chaining, phonetic theory, social reinforcement,…

Described is an Operant Conditioning-Token Economy Program, teaching patients to be responsible for their own behavior, to make choices, and to be motivated to change. The program was instigated with mentally ill patients in a state hospital and was later used with institutionalized mentally handicapped groups. After two years, only four of the…

This program was developed to deal more effectively with behavior problems in children through providing training and consultative services to teachers and other school personnel who work directly with children. Program goals were: (1) the development and refinement of a model approach to intervention within a school, and (2) the development and…

Classroom management and what teachers can do to make it possible for children to behave better, which permits learning to occur, are the subjects of this handbook. The authors hypothesize that the first step toward better classroom management is a teacher's recognition that how children behave is largely determined by the teacher's behavior. When…

This bibliography comprises 153 references with abstracts on school building publications published during the period of 1960-1966. The references have been grouped under seven headings--(1) air conditioning and ventilation, (2) bibliography and research reports, (3) construction systems, (4) design development, (5) furniture, (6) lighting, and…

This paper develops a stimulus selection theory, based on an extensive review of previous research, which gives weight to context change or stimulus generalization decrement. The theory assumes no special compounding or configurational process, and accounts for the learning of successive discriminations without the addition of any special process.…

Great potential exists for saving energy and operating costs with a wide variety of heat conservation systems. Two major electric services--space conditioning and lighting--afford cost and energy savings opportunities. These services are detailed in checklist fashion in this brochure, with the suggestions included under space conditioning…

Several of the theoretical and experimental assumptions relating to behavior modification are examined and criticized: (1) the human mind can only be understood by observing and measuring the functional behavior it causes, (2) performance can be equated with learning, (3) reward systems and token economies improve intrinsic learning, and (4) all…

Seven articles treat the establishment of operant conditioning programs for the mentally retarded at Pacific State Hospital in California. Emphasis is on the administrative rather than the demonstration of research aspects of operant conditioning programs. Following an introduction and overview, the medical director's point of view on operant…

University graduate students worked as counselors with delinquent prone youths to develop and define means of identifying and re-orienting delinquent prone youths in a high school community setting. Diagnostic and evaluative instruments and techniques used included the computer analyzed Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the…

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of conditioning subjects to believe expectancy statements, and to demonstrate the effects of the conditioning on persistence and persistence of attention. A review of related research on suggestion, on cognitive dissonance, and on conditioning is included. The subjects for the experiment…