This literature review on antecedents, behaviors, and consequences in the noncompliant behavior of people with mental retardation found that noncompliance is more likely when instructions are vague or task demands are too difficult and that noncompliance responds well to programs utilizing combinations of social and tangible rewards. (Author/JDD)

Introduces the basic concepts of chaos theory and chaos modeling. Relates chaos theory to qualitative research and factor analysis. Describes some current research in education and psychology using chaos theory. Claims that the philosophical implications of chaos theory have been misapplied in practical terms. (KS)

Debunks two ideas appearing in brain-based education articles: the educational significance of brain laterality (right brain versus left brain) and claims for a sensitive period of brain development in young children. Brain-based education literature provides a popular but misleading mix of fact, misinterpretation, and fantasy. (47 references (MLH)

Describes meta-analysis of 99 studies that used interventions to decrease disruptive classroom behavior in public education settings. Overall, results indicate interventions yield comparable results to other studies investigating effectiveness of psychotherapy. Findings show that efficacious treatments used in public school settings decrease…

Details reports from high school students on each parents' responsiveness and demandingness and their own academic achievement, involvement in problem behavior, psychosocial development, and internalized distress. Adolescents with one authoritative parent exhibited greater academic competence than peers with parents who were consistent but not…

This study examined methods for determining how extinction should be applied to different functions of self-injurious behavior, specifically head-banging of three children with developmental disabilities. Since each subject's head-banging was maintained by different reinforcement contingencies, behavioral treatment techniques, although all based…

Discussion of the influence of violence in the media, especially on children, presents a multidimensional analysis of factors contributing to violent behavior which makes it possible for violence in media to have its effect. A psychological analysis is offered through a discussion of the film "The Bad Lieutenant". Contains 51 references.…

The concluding article to this special issue asks what science and its empirical rigors mean to those who work with children and youths with emotional or behavioral disorders. It considers how scientific evidence is being put to the test in the current context of schools and what failure to rely on empirical data might cost in the long run.…

Four pigeons were exposed to two tandem variable-interval differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedules under different stimulus conditions. The values of the tandem schedules were adjusted so that reinforcement rates in one stimulus condition were higher than those in the other, even though response rates in the two conditions were nearly…

An observing procedure was used to investigate the effects of alterations in response-conditioned-reinforcer relations on observing. Pigeons responded to produce schedule-correlated stimuli paired with the availability of food or extinction. The contingency between observing responses and conditioned reinforcement was altered in three experiments.…

As in studies of self-control, a tit-for-tat contingency in an iterated prisoner's dilemma game creates a conflict between maximization of local and global reinforcement. The present experiments examine this conflict in a multiplayer prisoner's dilemma game. Versus tit for tat, cooperation corresponds to self-control; defection, always immediately…

Pigeons were exposed to multiple and concurrent second-order schedules of token reinforcement, with stimulus lights serving as token reinforcers. Tokens were produced and exchanged for food according to various fixed-ratio schedules, yielding equal and unequal unit prices (responses per unit food delivery). On one schedule (termed the "standard…

Following pretraining with everyday objects, 1- to 4-year-old children received listener training with three pairs of arbitrary stimuli of differing shapes. For each pair, 9 children were trained to select one stimulus in response to the spoken word /zog/ and the other to the spoken word /vek/. Next, in the look-at-sample category match-to-sample…

Four pigeons were exposed to second-order schedules of token reinforcement, with stimulus lights serving as token reinforcers. Tokens were earned according to a fixed-ratio (token-production) schedule, with the opportunity to exchange tokens for food (exchange period) occurring after a fixed number had been produced (exchange-production ratio).…

We manipulated two parameters of response blocking to reduce pica: (a) the criteria for initiating the procedure (either earlier or later in the response chain) and (b) the distance from which the procedure was initiated. Results suggested that response blocking may be effective only when implemented early in the chain and with near-perfect…