The impact of exposure to social models displaying variably tolerant pain behaviour on observers' expressions of pain is examined. Findings indicate substantial effects on verbal reports of pain, avoidance behaviour, psychophysiological indices, power function parameters, and sensory decision theory indices. Discussion centers on how social models…

This response mode study attempts to determine whether different response modes are helpful or not in facilitating the thought process in a given problem solving situation. The Luchins Water Jar Test (WJT) used in this study illustrates the phenomena "Einstelling" (mechanization of response) because it does not require any specialized content…

Observers viewed silent videotapes of elementary school children listening to a lesson. Some of the stimulus children were listening to either a very easy or a very difficult lesson; consequently, their nonverbal behavior occurred naturally and spontaneously. Other stimulus children were instructed to pretend (role play) that they understood or…

This study assessed the differential effectiveness of two types of response delays on correct responding (with communicative gestures) by three individuals with severe mental handicaps to training instructions. Results showed that response delay was effective in increasing the number of correct responses in two of the three individuals. (DB)

Effective instructional strategies used to teach language skills to 24 elementary aged students with autism or moderate mental retardation included the use of choral responding; the use of student-to-student responding; the frequent rotation of materials while teaching 2 to 3 concepts; and the use of random, unpredictable trials for student…

This study explored questions concerning the specificity of facial expression of emotions in infants. A sample of 27 infants (nine each at ages 10, 11, and 12 months) were tested in six experimental and six control conditions. Two of the experimental conditions were designed to elicit fear, two happiness, and two surprise. Videotapes of the…

To test some aspects of Skinnerian programed instruction, a 241-frame program on Swedish grammar was presented to students 10 to 12 years old. Skinnerian insistence on student-constructed overt responses and on presenting the "key answer" after each frame were contrasted with covert responses and key answer frequencies less than 100…

Infants in four age groups--three, six, nine and twelve months--were exposed to an experimental procedure designed to assess the extent to which such subjects were capable of discriminating between different orientations of the same form, and the extent to which they were capable of recognizing the identity between different orientations of the…

A STUDY BY TABER AND GLASER WHICH TAUGHT SIGHT VOCABULARY BY THE VANISHING LITERAL PROMPTS METHOD WAS REPLICATED IN AN EXPERIMENT WITH 14 PRESCHOOL, KINDERGARTEN, AND BEGINNING FIRST-GRADE CHILDREN. MATERIALS USED WERE EIGHT LOWER CASE COLOR WORDS PRINTED ON 3 BY 5 CARDS. AFTER PRETESTS TO IDENTIFY COLOR KNOWLEDGE AND CONFIRM LACK OF WORD…

A manipulandum-referenced taxonomy for response categories appropriate to primary education is presented. The tenability of automatic on-line evaluation of the different types of response when processing equipment of the sort that probably will be available to Southwest Regional Laboratory is preliminarily evaluated. (Author/SK)

We examined some conditions under which a response acquired as a tact might facilitate the establishment of a mand. We taught 3 participants with developmental disabilities to tact the items ranked highest and lowest in a preference assessment and subsequently tested to see if the responses occurred as mands. All participants manded for the highly…

Presents a case study illustrating learned helplessness orientation in preschool children and how adult responses to a child's successes and failures directly influence a child's perception of his or her abilities. Suggests that teachers should compliment successes by highlighting the ability demonstrated and address failures with comments…

Pattern practice, as a functional part of the audiolingual and grammar translation methods of language instruction, is described. Characteristics and limitations of repetition, substitution, transformation, and translation drills are outlined. (AF)

The structure of the testing condition is an important variable in measuring young children's language comprehension. This study examined effects of two testing conditions on the language comprehension scores of 24 toddlers, mean age 20.3 months. The methodology was based on the rationale that a test which allows parents to select stimuli which…

While studies in learning and verbal behavior show that learning comes through paired-associate problems, they do not explain the acquisition of language. Three paradigms demonstrate mediation effect in paired-associate learning: response equivalence, stimulus equivalence, and chaining model. By reviewing children's language acquisition patterns…