Multivariate permutation tests are described, and some are suggested as substitutions for Hotelling's one-sample T2 test in common situations in behavioral science research. A Monte Carlo study shows advantages of these tests when the T2 test fails or is suspect. (SLD)

A close friend and colleague of Burrhus Frederic Skinner comments on obituaries of Skinner published in major newspapers and expresses his gratefulness for Skinner's contributions to the field of behavioral psychology, including his writing of "The Behavior of Organisms" and development of teaching machines and programed instruction.…

The daughter of Burrhus Frederic Skinner writes of her father's activities during the last few days of his life--his speech upon receipt of an award from the American Psychological Association, his work on research papers and books, interviews, and his final admission to the hospital where he died. (JDD)

Analysis of 347 articles published in the "Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis" over 19 years found that the volume of behavior-analytic papers on educational topics has declined. Concern with classroom conduct diminished but is still heavily emphasized. Reports of social skills and language studies accelerated, but analyses of academic…

In a study of interspecies understanding, 75 naive human listeners classified 18 vocalizations of monkeys into 1 of 7 semantic categories, which were also related to the behavioral situation. Results suggest that both species share vocalization patterns signalling fear, aggression, dominance, and emotional neutrality. (45 references) (LB)

A method is presented that eliminates some interpretational limitations arising from assumptions implicit in the use of arbitrary rules of thumb to interpret exploratory factor analytic results. The bootstrap method is presented as a way of approximating sampling distributions of estimated factor loadings. Simulated datasets illustrate the…

This article summarizes procedures used in translating technical jargon in the field of behavior therapy to plain English. It lists phrases translated from applied behavior analysis to public education, presents acronyms useful in remembering sequences of steps, and describes two tests to help in decision making in behavior analysis applications.…

An introduction to the concepts and terminology of chaos science and a discussion of its implications for the behavioral and social sciences are provided. The paper points out that chaos science assumptions pertaining to nonlinearity, controlled randomness, and dynamic system modeling offer challenging new directions to assessment and intervention…

Reviews four norm-referenced instruments used to assess preschool and school-aged children. The Social Skills Rating System was found to be the most comprehensive; the School Social Behavior Scales and the Walker-McConnell Scale of Social Competence are useful for more limited school scope. (Author/JDM)

Questions about perceived self-efficacy are used to analyze cognitive processes through which people approach their efficacy for performance. The review indicates that: (a) self-efficacy perceptions generalize across idiosyncratic sets; (b) efficacy-standards discrepancies can create individual negative moods; and (c) distinctions can be made…

Uses the Job Loss Coping Behavior Scale to examine the coping behavior of 131 unemployed male and female managers. Results indicate that men have higher job-search efficacy than women. Encourages career counselors to be mindful of this and to help unemployed women to develop proactive job-search behaviors and skills. (MKA)

Traditional thinking links environmental knowledge to awareness followed by action. However, research suggests that environmental education would be more effective if based on levels of variables involved in environmental citizenship behavior: entry-level (sensitivity, ecology knowledge, androgyny, attitudes); ownership (knowledge of issues,…

This paper presents a method for distinguishing between extinction and punishment effects. In extinction and punishment, different schedules of reinforcement or punishment are in effect when a given proportion of responses is blocked. Response patterns in treatment of hand mouthing in an adult with profound mental retardation suggest that a…

Stresses the importance of including ethnically diverse populations in psychological research. Seeks to determine the extent to which behavioral psychology has recognized issues of ethnic diversity in its published literature. Research finds that overall, only 1.31% of articles published in 3 well-known behavior journals focused on U.S. ethnic…

Children who have status epilepticus have continuous or rapidly repeating seizures that may be life-threatening and may cause life-long changes in brain and behavior. The extent to which status epilepticus causes deficits in auditory discrimination is unknown. A naturalistic auditory location discrimination method was used to evaluate this…