Herbert C. Richards

Attitudes toward Computers: Validation of a Computer Attitudes Scale

A preliminary version of a scale to measure attitudes toward computers, the Bath County Computer Attitudes Scale (BCCAS), was developed and piloted on 398 students in grades 4 through 12 who were attending three rural schools in western Virginia. This instrument consisted of thirty-eight Likert items. The scale was judged to be unidimensional and internally consistent. With the aid of an item analysis, the number of items was reduced to twenty-six. The revised BCCAS was administered to 551 students whose demographic make-up was similar to those who participated in the pilot study. The BCCAS scores were found to be predictably related to computer experience and usage, educational and career plans, choice of favorite school subject, and attitudes toward school subjects. In general, the data supported the validity of the BCCAS as a measure of computer attitudes.

Prevalence and structure of behavior symptoms among children in special education and regular classroom settings

Abstract Studied the factor structure of the Behavior Problem Checklist using children from a middle to upper-middle-class suburban school system, determined the extent to which factors generated from children in regular classrooms approximated those generated from children in special education, and examined the effects of class placement, sex, and the interactions of these variables on the average rating children receive on the generated factors. One hundred children from 12 classes for the emotionally disturbed or learning disabled and 527 children from regular forst-through seventh-grade classes were rated by their teachers on the Behaviors Problem Checklist. Following a varimax factor rotation, coefficients of factor congruence and analysis of variance were conducted to test the hypotheses. Results indicated that although teacher ratings of special education and normal children are structurally similar, special education children scored higher on all three factors than did their regular class counterparts. Furthermore, almost all percentages of occurance for individual items were higher for special education children. Further research is suggested to deal with a possible expectancy effect in teacher ratings of problem behaviors.

Early Sign Language Acquisition and the Development of Hand Preference in Young Children

Hand preference for signing and for nonsign actions was examined longitudinally in 24 young children (3 deaf, 21 hearing) with deaf parents. Most of these children showed a strong preference for their right hands in their sign production. This preference emerged early in their development, was relatively consistent over time, and predicted mature hand preference. Although most of the children also preferred to use their right hands in nonsign actions, their right-hand preference for signing was much stronger. Hand preference scores for two types of nonsign actions, communicative gestures and object actions, were significantly correlated with those for signing. Hand preference also was linked to rate of motor development but not to sign language acquisition. These findings are discussed with regard to current conceptualizations about the interrelationships among language, motor processes, and laterality.

Cooperative Learning Environments: Effects on Academic Attitudes of Gifted Students

The attitudes of academically gifted students and the general cohort toward cooperative learning and academic school subjects were studied. Three hypotheses were tested: (a) in classes where cooperative learning is used, nonidentified children will exhibit more positive attitudes toward cooperative learning methods than their more academically able peers; (b) boys will exhibit more positive attitudes toward cooperative learning than girls; (c) Gifted children, in contrast to non-gifted peers, will exhibit more positive attitudes in settings where cooperative learning is seldom or never used than in settings where such instruction is frequently used. Data obtained from 28 classes of sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders in four schools generally supported hypotheses (a) and (b), but not (c). Although not a strong finding, overall attitudes toward school subjects were most positive in classes where cooperative learning was used sparingly as an instructional supplement.

WAIS factor patterns of epileptic and normal adults

abstract The pattern and level of WAIS performance for 118 epileptic adults (65 men and 53 women) were compared to those of the standardization sample. As expected, epileptic subjects performed more poorly on all 11 subtests (from .61 to 1.17 SD below the norm group). Contrary to expectation, epileptic subjects were neither more variable nor were the inter-correlations of the subtests lower than those of the norm group. Overall, strong similarities in the patterns of performance on the tests were found for the two groups. As in previous research, factor analysis revealed the presence of a verbal comprehension factor, a perceptual organization dimension, and, in the instance of the three-factor solutions, an additional freedom-from-distractibility dimension for both groups.

Epilepsy, neuropsychological deficits, and EEG lateralization

One hundred eight epileptic patients (59 men, 49 women; 55% partial seizures, 45% generalized) were examined on 45 indices comprising a modified Halstead Neuropsychological Test Battery. Factor analyses identified five dimensions: Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Organization, Selective Attention, Motor Skills, Abstract Reasoning. These factors are similar to those previously reported for neurocognitive abilities in several different populations. Relative deficits on Verbal Comprehension and Abstract Reasoning were related, as predicted, to left hemispheric dysfunction as indexed by EEG localization. Perceptual Organization demonstrated a further, predictable relationship to right hemispheric function. Deficits on Selective Attention were not clearly lateralized, being correlated with a wide variety of electroencephalographic abnormalities. The implications of these findings for the use of neurocognitive profiles in treatment planning for this population are discussed.

Tactile perceptual functioning as a factor in general psychological abilities

This investigation was designed to study the influence of simple sensory perceptual ability (tactile perception) on various human abilities such as language acquisition, visuo-spatial problem solving, concept formation, motor skills, memory, and learning. Children with documented evidence of impaired brain functions (seizure disorder and corresponding EEG abnormality) and children without evidence or suspicion of neurological impairment were examined. The results suggest that tactile perceptual ability exerts a significant effect on the adequacy of a broad range of human abilities.

Piagetian Task Performance of Learning Diabled Children

Tests of visual integration and hierarchical classification (both Piagetian tasks) were administered to 77 middle-class, white boys who ranged in age from 4 to 12 years. Thirty of these subjects (equal numbers of 8-, 10-, and 12-year-olds) were classified as learning disabled; the remainder served as age-matched controls. The Visual Integration Test measured ability to perceive both part and whole relationships within a set of ambiguous visual stimuli. The Hierarchical Classification test assessed ability to understand class inclusion. The findings showed that (1) older children outperformed younger ones in a manner consistent with the developmental sequence described by Piaget and (2) older learning disabled children performed similarly to controls who were 2 to 4 years younger. The results were consistent with the view that learning disabled children experience a delay in developing certain concrete operations.

Moral reasoning and consistency of belief and behavior: decisions about substance abuse.

In view of implications of Kohlbergs theory of moral development, two hypotheses were considered in two independent studies: a) individuals who consider the use of potentially harmful substances to be morally wrong will be less likely to use such substances than peers who view such activities as a personal choice; and b) compared to those who are less mature, more mature moral reasoners display more consistency between their expressed beliefs about the morality of drug use and their reports of actual drug use. Two samples of college students, 29 men and 59 women in Study 1 and 46 men and 100 women in Study 2, served as participants. All completed questionnaires about their use of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs and their beliefs about the morality of using these substances. Participants in Study 2 also responded to the Defining Issues Test (DIT) to assess their level of moral thinking. Results from Study 1 supported hypothesis (a). Findings from Study 2 supported hypotheses (a) and (b).

Mother-Infant Interactive Behaviors: Impact of Maternal Deafness

The interactive behaviors of eight deaf and eight hearing mothers and their hearing infants were examined during normal play. The mother-child dyads were videotaped periodically in their homes when the infants were between 9 and 17 months of age. These videotapes subsequently were scored for eye gaze, facial expression, physical contact, vocalization, and maternal and infant initiations. The most marked differences between the deaf and hearing mother-infant dyads occurred in vocal behavior. The deaf mothers produced significantly fewer and shorter vocalizations than the hearing mothers. The two groups of hearing infants, however, differed on the frequency and duration of their vocalizations only during the 16-17 month age level. Although the hearing mothers made more vocal initiations to their infants, the deaf mothers typically made more nonvocal initiations. The deaf mothers also tended to touch their infants more frequently during the earlier age levels tested. Overall, for most of the dimensions of interactive behavior examined, the two groups evidenced patterns of considerable similarity and few differences.