James E. Ysseldyke

Teacher retention of stereotypes of exceptionality.

Before an experimentally induced stereotype of a child can be passed by a teacher to a child in the form of an expectancy, the teacher must attend to, comprehend, and retain the expectancy (see Barber, Forgione, Chaves, Claverly, McPeake, & Bowen, 1969). In actual classroom settings, the teachers expectancy for the child and the childs performance and characteristics are interactive; the childs behavior can create teacher expectancy or modify existing teacher expectancies. This study sought to determine what happens to stereotypes of exceptionality in the face of normal behavior. When teachers in training are faced with an intellectually normal child who is improperly labeled, do they retain the stereotype by rating the behavior of children labeled gifted more positively than when the same child is labeled normal and by rating the behavior of a child labeled retarded more negatively than when the same child is labeled normal?

Dissertation research in school psychology: 1967–73

Abstract Reports the results of a categorical analysis designed to ascertain the kinds of dissertation research completed for the doctoral degree in school psychology during the years 1967–1973. Major areas of research emphasis were delineated although trend analysis revealed no significant trends over the seven-year period.

1972 Revision of the Stanford-Binet: A Farewell to the Mental Age.

Inspection of the 1972 revised norms for the Stanford-Binet demonstrate that the average mental age for a particular CA no longer numerically corresponds to that CA. Thus, mental ages derived from the test cannot any longer be interpreted as mental ages. A table of test ages based on the 1972 norms is provided.

Process- and Product-Dominant Testing of Disadvantaged and Nondisadvantaged Appalachian Children:

Editors Note: The journal receives many more manuscripts of interest and worth than space permits publishing in full. This department, In Brief. will present shortened versions of some articles as recommended by associate editors. Authors have agreed to furnish interested readers with full copies of the papers if requested The full length article must have been submitted for review and the author(s) will prepare the Briefs. GJW

The Dvorine color blindness test with retarded boys.

Studies using the Dvorine Color Plates (Dvorine, 1953) have reported prevalence rates for red-green color blindness in retarded populations which are several times higher than in the normal population (Archer, 1964; Krause, 1967; Salvia, 1969). Furthermore, these studies have failed to obtain the sex difference so necessary for, the genetic interpretation of color blindness. Two explanations· seem reasonable: the retarded may be an unusually select genetic population, or estimates of color blindness are spuriously high for this population. The latter explanation is examined here. Pseudoisochromatic tests such as the Dvorine Color Blindness Test are suitable only for screening purposes, and the accurate diagnosis of color blindness can be made only with an anomaloscope (Adam, Doron, Be Modan, 1967). A screening test may be expected to yield false positives but should not yield false negatives. Consequently, inflated prevalences could result when diagnosis is based on a screening device. To test this hypothesis, the Dvorine Test (Numbers and Trails sections) was examined for diagnostic stability and validity with 69 institutionalized mentally retarded boys who were residents of either the Lincoln (Illinois) State School or the A. L. Bowen Childrens Center (Harrisburg, Illinois). All subjects received all of the Dvorine Plates. Then approximately 10 months later, the Dvorine Plates were readministered and the subjects were also examined with an anomaloscope (Pickford, 1957). The results indicated both the Numbers and the Trails sections have low diagnostic stabilities (4) = .65 and .47, respectively).