By use of student-selected consequences and an individual token reinforcement program, a special education student's habitual slouching in his chair was decreased and other positive behavior changes occurred. Procedures were carried out in the usual classroom setting, required only available school personnel and an inexpensive reward. (DS)

Examines the effects of reward contingency and positive performance feedback on subsequent intrinsic motivation for an enjoyable task. Subjects were 93 high school students. (CM)

The matching law for reinforced behavior solves a differential equation relating infinitesimal changes in behavior to infinitesimal changes in reinforcement. The equation expresses plausible conceptions of behavior and reinforcement, yields a simple nonlinear operator model for acquisition, and suggests a alternative to the economic law of…

Variations of systematic desensitization that include deep muscle relaxation (DMR) seem useful in remediating some behavior problems of children. Studied the effects of DMR and DMR with Covert Positive Reinforcement (CPR) in reducing maladaptive behavior of children, ages 6 to 12. (Author)

Eighteen profoundly retarded men (mean age 41) were given repeated presentations of a two-choice visual discrimination using a modified Wisconsin General Test Apparatus and two probabilistic reinforcement schedules counterbalanced for order. (Author)

The use of edited videotape replay (which showed only "positive" behaviors) to improve the water skills of three spina bifida children (ages 5 to 10) was examined. A multiple baseline across Ss design was used, and behavioral changes were observed to occur in close association with intervention. One child was given successive…

Describes study which investigated differences between Programmed Student Achievement (PA) and Programmed Achievement Study System (PASS) instructional systems. Concludes that both systems are equally effective in motivating students. (KC)

Those evaluating teacher behavior were highly influenced by verbal remarks that led them to expect either excellent or poor performance. (Editor)

Two punishment procedures were compared to determine their effectiveness in reducing rates of noncompliance in a class of 11 educable mentally retarded elementary school students. (Author/DLS)

The study investigated the effectiveness of a positive practice overcorrection procedure in reducing the self-stimulatory behavior of an institutionalized moderately retarded 10-year-old. (SBH)

Reviews the theoretical and empirical literature dealing with functionalist and conflict perspectives of the social processes of rule-creation, rule-maintenance, and the relationship of these processes to deviant behavior. (DR)

In an investigation using children experiencing reading difficulties, procedures involving partial reinforcement and attribution retraining were assessed in terms of their relative effectiveness in developing reading persistence. (Editor)

Three experiments, employing conditioned suppression in rats, examined the extent to which pretraining on one element of a compound stimulus blocked conditioning to the other element when some feature of the reinforcer was changed on compound trials. (Editor)