A Comparison of Cloze Ability in Deficient and Non-Deficient Readers Matched According to Verbal Ability (open access)

A Comparison of Cloze Ability in Deficient and Non-Deficient Readers Matched According to Verbal Ability

The present study was designed to investigate whether a good reader, by the fifth grade, will have attained sufficient knowledge of the language structure to enable him to more exactly and more appropriately reconstruct mutilated texts than a poor reader, matched for verbal intelligence level. Four 250-word cloze-treated passages were administered to twelve deficient and twelve non-deficient sixth grade readers, matched according to sex and the verbal portion of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Analyses of variance failed to show any significant differences between good and poor readers except for a weak indication that good readers produced more exact replacements.
Date: May 1974
Creator: Berrier, Helen Victoria
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Study of the Relationship Between Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Scores and Koppitz's Human Figure Drawing Test Scores for Mentally Retarded Adults (open access)

A Study of the Relationship Between Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Scores and Koppitz's Human Figure Drawing Test Scores for Mentally Retarded Adults

The present study explored the possibility of applying Koppitz's developmental scoring techniques of mental maturity to retarded adults. The following hypotheses were tested: 1) that there is a significant correlation between the Koppitz HFD Test scores and the WAIS Full Scale scores; 2) that the correlation between the Koppitz HFD Test scores and the WAIS Performance Scale scores is also significant. Statistical computations did confirm the latter hypothesis but not the former one.
Date: May 1974
Creator: Carlisle, Joseph Frank
System: The UNT Digital Library
Simple Color Discrimination in Autistic Subjects: Effect of Using a Single Stimulus as SD and Reinforcer (open access)

Simple Color Discrimination in Autistic Subjects: Effect of Using a Single Stimulus as SD and Reinforcer

A one-trial learning color discrimination task was extrapolated from Jarvik's (1953) teaching color discrimination to primates. A yellow-blue discrimination was selected to teach eleven autistic children. As in Jarvik's, SD and SA, reinforcer and punisher, were one and the same. Sugar-flavored water was the S D alum-flavored water, S . The instrumental response of reaching for a colored glass and drinking was established. Then one-trial learning occurred. The learning tests were a block of twenty-five trials for each individual subject on the following day. The second day another block of twenty-five trials was administered to each subject. It was hypothesized that the subjects would function at a ninety per cent criterion level. None of the subjects learned the task.
Date: May 1974
Creator: Ellis, Janet
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Application of Group Contingent Reinforcement to Hospitalized Adolescents (open access)

The Application of Group Contingent Reinforcement to Hospitalized Adolescents

Fifteen hospitalized adolescents were used as subjects. An individually consequated token economy was in effect during baseline. Measures were taken of work output, attending behavior, and disruptive behavior. During the treatment phase, reinforcement was contingent upon the performance of a randomly selected subgroup. Following the treatment phase, the individual token system was reinstated for baseline-2 measures. The mean performance of the group during baseline was compared to performance under treatment conditions for work output and attending behaviors. In addition, performance of the contingent subgroup was compared to performance of the non-contingent group. No significant t values were obtained. With failure to obtain significant t values, the null hypothesis was not rejected, i.e., the two conditions were not proven significantly different.
Date: May 1974
Creator: Flynn, Michael Howard
System: The UNT Digital Library
Sex Dimension of the Dogmatism Scale: A Factor Analysis (open access)

Sex Dimension of the Dogmatism Scale: A Factor Analysis

The problem of this study was to factor-analyze Rokeach's Dogmatism Scale and examine the factor structures of the scale for differences in the solutions obtained for the male and female groups. It was hypothesized that the Dogmatism Scale consists of several discriminable dimensions of the construct dogmatism and that these dimensions differ significantly for males and females. The dogmatism scale was administered to 186 male and 115 female college students. The male and female solutions yielded thirteen and sixteen orthogonal factors, respectively. Six male factors and eleven female factors were unique to their respective sex groups, indicating that the Dogmatism Scale is multidimensional and that significant sex differences are found when these dimensions are examined.
Date: May 1974
Creator: Gordon, William Knox
System: The UNT Digital Library
Elimination of Cigarette Smoking, Employing a New Aversive Conditioning Procedure (open access)

Elimination of Cigarette Smoking, Employing a New Aversive Conditioning Procedure

The study was designed to find a response on the behavioral level that would be an effective index across subjects for determining when conditioned aversive suppression of a response had been achieved. Ten male volunteers received shock during trials in which they had to smoke. Half of the subjects received a brief but more intense shock when they stopped smoking during a trial. A comparison of these subjects to the others showed their average amount of smoking suppression in pre- and post-treatment rates to be significantly (P < .025) greater. In addition, these subjects showed conditioned emotional responding. It was concluded that this behavioral level response was an effective index for determining when suppression of smoking would occur.
Date: May 1974
Creator: Himes, Jerome A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Reframing Loneliness in Adult Females Who Vary in Dependency and Locus of Control (open access)

Reframing Loneliness in Adult Females Who Vary in Dependency and Locus of Control

Reframing in counseling offers the client a different framework for symptoms, thereby allowing the client a perspective that leads to change or no need for change. Using a loneliness measure as the dependent variable, 58 females underwent one of three treatments: positive reframing, self-control statements, or a waiting list control procedure. Two two-way analyses of covariance used an independent measure of dependency for the first analysis and a measure of perceived control for the second. Treatment type was the second dimension for each analysis. A significant interaction resulted for control by treatment F (2, 51) = 3.24; p < .05). A Newman-Keuls revealed significant differences for those who perceived themselves as in control, where reframing was more effective than either the control procedure (q_r = 3.56; p < .05) or those who perceived others as in control (q_r = 3.21; p < .05).
Date: May 1974
Creator: Jarvis, Mary Ann O'Loughlin
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Effects of Incentive and Frustrative Cues on the Acquisition of an Alleyway Running Response in Rats (open access)

The Effects of Incentive and Frustrative Cues on the Acquisition of an Alleyway Running Response in Rats

The motivational properties of Longstreth's (1970) definitions of incentive and frustrative cues were tested using 32 rats in a two phase straight alleyway experiment. During pretraining, incentive cue Ss were presented a visual cue prior to reinforcement; frustrative cue Ss experienced the visual cue simultaneously with reinforcement. Ss encountered the same cue in mid-alley during 40 CRF training trials. Significant inhibition developed as frustrative cue Ss passed through the cue and postcue segments. Significant incentive effects occurred midway through training only in the postcue segment. Differential resistance to extinction was not found. The results did not support all of Longstreth's assumed functions. The motivational effects were interpreted using Spence's and Amsel's instrumental learning paradigms.
Date: May 1974
Creator: Morey, John Christopher
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Effect of Elimination of Subvocalization with Electromyographic Feedback on Reading Speed and Comprehension (open access)

The Effect of Elimination of Subvocalization with Electromyographic Feedback on Reading Speed and Comprehension

The purpose of this experiment was to study the effect of audio feedback from an electromyograph on reading speed and comprehension. The subject reduced as much audio feedback, and thus laryngeal tension, as possible, thus permitting more efficient reading. After baseline, the subject received twelve half-hour practice sessions, six ten-minute testing sessions on easy, or light, material and six ten-minute testing sessions on difficult material. A post-test without feedback was given after training and a follow-up test, without feedback, was given. This method of training permits a higher rate of reading speed, while allowing the subject to process complex information and maintain a constant level of recall.
Date: May 1974
Creator: Ninness, H. A. Chris
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Comparison of Group Systematic Desensitization, Group Covert Positive Reinforcement, and Test-Retest in the Treatment of Test Anxiety (open access)

A Comparison of Group Systematic Desensitization, Group Covert Positive Reinforcement, and Test-Retest in the Treatment of Test Anxiety

The investigation was concerned with determining the effectiveness of group systematic desensitization and group covert positive reinforcement, with a control group. The two treatment conditions were to be compared if both were effective in reducing test anxiety as measured by the College Form of the Test Anxiety Questionnaire. Three groups were employed, two treatment and one control group, with four subjects in each. An analysis of covariance yielded insignificant results at the .05 level. A review of the literature was presented, procedural aspects of the treatments were covered, and possible reasons for the insignificant results were discussed.
Date: May 1974
Creator: Smith, William Michael
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Application of Geometric Principles to the Place-Versus-Response Issue (open access)

An Application of Geometric Principles to the Place-Versus-Response Issue

By applying geometric analysis to some experimental maze situations the present study attempted to determine if a continuity in the responding of experimental Ss existed. This continuity in responding might suggest the presence of alternative explanations for the behavior of these Ss in some maze problems. The study made use of a modified version of the Tolman, Ritchie, and Kalish (1946a) experiment using six runways during training rather than one. The results of the study show that three of the six groups obtained the identical angle of choice, angle between the runway trained on and the runway chosen during the experimental trial, indicating the possibility of an underlying behavioral factor determining this continuity in responding.
Date: May 1974
Creator: Williams, John Burgess
System: The UNT Digital Library