Investigates the effects of personality types on the effectiveness of various treatment procedures in reducing test anxiety. Fails to support previous studies in which group application of counseling techniques reduced anxiety more than did a study skills group. (Author/PC)

Investigation supported by a Research Career award from the National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Public Health Service, and related to AA 501 855.

Behavior therapy is going through a period of questioning and self-examination. This pause for self-questioning is certainly a healthy trend, and is sorely needed to prevent the field from becoming too entrenched in orthodoxy. (Author)

Author argues that behavior therapists could do worse than to begin the latest chapter in their development with the recognition that a decade or so of work has brought them back to conclusions they scorned at the outset. (Author)

Author argues that as long as behavior therapy continues to ignore the inductive, single-case research on behavior frequency that was so successful for both Pavlov and Skinner, there will be little progress. (Author)

Effects of model status and offender type on imitation of self-reward criteria were examined. Immature-inadequate and gang-oriented offenders viewed videotapes of models who were either stringent or liberal in self-reward criteria and were either staff members or peers. Subjects viewing the liberal model rewarded themselves more. (Author)

In one study of a college merit pay program, the best predictor of salary improvement was proximity to the evaluator's office. (IRT)

Six mildly to severely mentally retarded 10- to 16-year-olds were given 10 to 45 minutes of interpolated reinforcement (additional to existing unplanned reinforcement) for target behavior that interfered with habilitation. When the interpolated reinforcement was discontinued, the forms of responding returned to those of initial baseline and the…

Two experiments with four autistic children (ages 5-13) demonstrated that reinforcement of appropriate toy play was an effective means of reducing disruptive behaviors of autistic children in unsupervised settings. (Author/DB)

Participants were trained to assemble two seven-piece vocational tasks. The Standard Behavior Chart was used to display, analyze, and quantify behavior change. The major dependent variables were response rate (celeration) and trials to criterion. For both dependent measures, the total task procedure was superior to the backward chaining procedure.…

Methods for dealing with classroom behavior problems of handicapped students in mainstream classes should follow the principle of least intensive intervention. Specific strategies for reducing undesirable behavior (planned ignoring, stating expectations, signaling) and increasing desirable behaviors (modeling, structuring the situation, positive…

The article discusses special considerations in applying standard token economy techniques to behavior change with the head injured with examples of token economies at three rehabilitation facilities. (DB)

A behavioral package was used to shape and maintain adherence of five adult females with recurring vascular headache to a program of aerobic exercise training. Results demonstrated a functional relationship between the behavioral package and exercise adherence, as well as clinically significant collateral reductions in vascular headache activity…

The article describes three aspects of negative reinforcement as it relates to applied behavior analysis: behavior acquired or maintained through negative reinforcement, the treatment of negatively reinforced behavior, and negative reinforcement as therapy. Current research suggests the emergence of an applied technology on negative reinforcement.…

The study examined effects of aversive taste treatment of thumb sucking on untreated habitual hair pulling by two young males (ages 2 and 5). Concomitant with successful treatment of thumb sucking, hair pulling was also eliminated. Results suggest an efficient method for changing behaviors that are difficult to treat directly. (Author/JW)