Background: Research with children shows that theory of mind predicts reading comprehension both concurrently and longitudinally, while research with adults shows increased print-exposure relates to theory of mind understanding. However, until now whether reading and theory of mind have a mutually reinforcing relationship in which they promote one…

Here, we explored the structure of the 'Parenting Strategies Questionnaire', a new scale designed to measure parenting strategies for problem behaviour in ASD. We then examined links between child behaviour and parenting in a sample of 222 predominantly-UK parents of ASD children exhibiting behaviour found difficult or challenging. Analysis…

This study investigates the feedback practices and perceptions of lecturers and students in a UK university setting. To assess how lecturers give feedback in practice, 47 pieces of lecturer-written feedback were categorised into a total of 571 analytical points. Analysing the feedback from lecturers' perspectives in terms of the value of feedback,…

This article is based on the findings of a qualitative exploration of factors influencing confidence levels among adult amateur choral singers. Three focus group interviews, involving 18 singers in total, and 16 individual interviews were carried out. These provided over 40 hours of recorded verbal data, which then underwent a process of…

Background: Systemic approaches can be useful in working with people with learning disabilities and their network. The evidence base for these approaches within the field of learning disabilities, however, is currently limited. Materials and Methods: This article presents part of a service evaluation of systemic consultations in a Community…

Background: Teachers can deliver feedback using person ("you are clever") or process terms ("you worked hard"). Person feedback can lead to negative academic outcomes, but there is little experimental research examining the impact of feedback on children's perceptions of the student-teacher relationship. Aim: We examined the…

Although evidence-based interventions (EBIs) for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been identified in recent systematic literature reviews, the extent to which the practice of educational psychologists (EPs) in the UK and Ireland is informed by these is unknown. This study presents the results of a questionnaire that surveyed 146 EP…

Safety signals provide "relief" through predicting the absence of an aversive event. At issue is whether these signals also act as instrumental reinforcers. Four experiments were conducted using a free-operant lever-press avoidance paradigm in which each press avoided shock and was followed by the presentation of a 5-sec auditory safety…

We employ a behavioral-economic equation put forward by Hursh and Silberberg (2008) to explain human consumption behavior among substitutable food brands, applying a consumer-choice model--the behavioral perspective model (BPM; Foxall, 1990/2004, 2005). In this study, we apply the behavioral-economic equation to human economic consumption data. We…

In this article we address the issue of applying operant psychology to derive plausible and useful interpretations of complex firm behavior in natural settings. The objective is to discuss an appropriate methodology based on case study design, developed specifically in Vella and Foxall (2011), to produce an operant interpretation of secondary…

The research reported here was focussed on accessing the perceptions of pre-service teachers regarding the critical factors which support highly effective learning in schools in the United Kingdom. Their perceptions were arranged into a taxonomy so that they can be used as a starting point for their reflections on the observations they make of…

The applicability of matching analysis, pioneered in the context of laboratory experiments, to the investigation and interpretation of consumer choice in natural environments is explored by the examination of sequential purchases of four product categories based on information from a panel of British consumers. Over a 52-week period, participants…

A training course of two after-school sessions was run for teaching assistants (TAs) in a UK inner city primary school. The subject of the training was classroom use of a version of differential reinforcement of alternative behaviours (DRAs) known as Fair Pairs. The training introduced the concept of "Three Part Praise" within Fair…

This experiment examined the relationship between reinforcer magnitude and quantitative measures of performance on progressive-ratio schedules. Fifteen rats were trained under a progressive-ratio schedule in seven phases of the experiment in which the volume of a 0.6-M sucrose solution reinforcer was varied within the range 6-300 microliters.…

A segmentation approach is presented using both traditional demographic segmentation bases (age, social class/occupation, and working status) and a segmentation by benefits sought. The benefits sought in this case are utilitarian and informational reinforcement, variables developed from the Behavioral Perspective Model (BPM). Using data from 1,847…