Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Self-Control And Choice In Children: Effects Of Food Magnitude And Reinforcer Delay, Ellen Lee Sharenow

Dissertations

The present research was designed to replicate and extend earlier studies with humans and nonhumans in the area of self-control. A discrete trial, within-subject experimental design over multiple sessions, with food as the reinforcer, was used. Instructions did not describe contingencies of reinforcement Subjects were preschool age children, a population that questionably possess the verbal repertoire capable of generating sophisticated tacting, or mediating behavior during long delays. Four experiments consisted of fixed-ratio, concurrent chain schedules with initial and terminal links. Initial links were forced trials, terminal links, choice trials. In Experiment I, the effects of differences in magnitude while holding …

The Development Of An Instrument To Screen Children At Risk For Attention Deficit Disorder, Carlisle Applewhaite

Dissertations

Problem. The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to screen children who may be at risk for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). This study utilized ten subtests/variables--letter sequencing, numerical operations, number sequencing, coding, listening concentration, color sequencing, object sequence, attention for sequencing, selective attention, and sentence repetition--to generate responses from two groups of students. The intent was to determine if the linear combination of variables or some subset of them could discriminate between the ADD and nonADD groups.

Method. The items in each subtest were carefully selected and subjected to critiques by eight psychologists, a psychometrician, and two …

A Revisitation Of The Wisc-R Factor Structure With Adequate Sample Size, Systematic Control Of Both Iq And Age Ranges, And The Use Of Procedures To Limit Overfactorization, Rudolph D. Bailey

Dissertations

Problem statement. This study addressed the problem of inconsistency in the results of factor-analytic studies of the WISC-R by performing analyses where age and size of Full Scale IQ ranges were held constant, and by using adequate sample sizes.

Methodology. Factor analyses were performed on the WISC-R scale scores. Principal Axes Factor method with squared multiple Rs in the diagonals was used. Oblimin was the rotation of choice. Sample size varied for each analysis, the largest being 3,493; and the smallest, 225.

Results. At the broad IQ ranges a general factor was found. At narrower IQ ranges, evidence of the …