Mentally retarded and nonretarded adults (n=32) performed visual vigilance tests in which single digits were presented at either a fast or slow rate and the rate shifted without warning. Retarded observers detected fewer targets and made more false alarms than did nonretarded observers in all test conditions. (Author/JDD)

Replies to Gholson's commentary (PS 522 655) on the article by Coldren and Colombo in this monograph. Discusses limitations in the shift procedure methodology traditionally used in research on discrimination learning, and considers the use in future research of methodologies that can precisely decompose children's responses to feedback during…

Using simplified reversal treatment consisting of awareness training, competing response training, and social support procedures, minimal results were initially obtained in thumb sucking and hair pulling behaviors. Additional treatment phases involving differential reinforcement and response cost resulted in near zero levels of the behavior when…

This article discusses the waning interests on research-based models. Some experts and program developers say "research proven" programs are getting a smaller and smaller share of the pie under the 7-year-old initiative now called the Comprehensive School Reform program, as schools opt instead for home-grown and commercial programs with weaker…

Viewing a threatening stimulus can bias visual attention toward that location. Such effects have typically been investigated only in the visual modality, despite the fact that many threatening stimuli are most dangerous when close to or in contact with the body. Recent multisensory research indicates that a neutral visual stimulus, such as a light…

Traditionally the measures used to evaluate the impact of an educational programme on student outcomes and the extent to which students change is a comparison of the student's pre-test scores with his/her post-test scores. However, this method of evaluating change may be problematic due to the confounding factor of response shift bias when student…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the distinctiveness of stimulus cues on the relevant and irrelevant dimensions - both in original learning and in transfer - on the learning of intradimensional shifts by retarded subjects. (Author)

Five-year-old children who failed pretests of conservation of Number, Length, Mass, and Liquid Amount, but who possessed counting ability and knowledge of the terms "same" and "different" underwent Training and Conservation Posttests. (Author/CS)

Results indicate that children's preferences were relatively stable over time. (Authors/MB)

Study found that stimulus presence during a delay of reinforcement interval enhanced performance, and to a large extent prevented the usual delay-produced decrement. (Authors)

Recent research has suggested that the use of the shift effect as a measure of encoding is critically dependent upon its properties as a psychological phenomenon. Examines this interrelation in light of data from a simple experiment. (Author/RK)

Social-emotional and rational-cognitive explanations of group risky shift on choice dilemmas (hypothetical life situations) were evaluated by comparing shift in groups of low Mach (emotional) and high Mach (non-emotional) subjects. Effects of Machiavellian beliefs on social functioning are examined. Group composition was not observed to affect…

Two experiments with five individuals having severe mental retardation identified some problems and limits in training reversals of previously learned discrimination tasks using stimulus control shaping methodology. (DB)

Presents a theoretical account of human shift learning with the use of neural network tools. Details how simulations using the cascade-correlation algorithm which show that networks can capture the regularities of the discrimination shift literature better than existing psychological theories. Suggests that human developmental differences in shift…