John C. Brantley

Changes in Ability and Achievement Scores Over Time: Implications for Children Classified as Learning Disabled

This study examined the effects of WISC-III IQ changes on the IQ-achievement discrepancy required for special education eligibility in the area of Specific Learning Disabled. Within a sample of 224 students with learning disabilities, WISG-III scores were significantly lower when compared to WISC-R scores. No significant changes occurred in achievement scores as measured by the Woodcock-Johnson Revised and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test. As a result, fewer children retested with the WISC-III qualified for LD services. This drop in eligibility rates was evidenced by both the simple difference and regression methods. The possibility that a significant number of students no longer qualify for LD services should raise concern among psychologists and educators alike. In response to these results, emphasis should be placed upon consultation and pre-assessment intervention designed to serve those students who may no longer qualify for services.

Social class differences in children's comprehension of adult language

Twenty-five mothers of all social class levels were asked to tell, as if to a 6-year-old child, the stories suggested by several cartoon picture sequences. These stories, tape-recorded, were played to a hundred 6-year-old white male children of high and low social class levels, who were then asked standard comprehension questions about their content. Analysis of the comprehension scores revealed significant main effects of social class of adult speaker and of social class of child listener but no interaction of these two variables. Further analysis of transcriptions of the stories revealed two characteristics, namely the factual information included in the stories and the use of nonstandard grammar, which seemed to mediate the effects of both social class and speaker IQ on comprehension.

A Repeated Estimate Effect in Line Drawing

In studies in which Ss make repeated estimates of time intervals, with no knowledge of results (KR), successive judgments tend to grow longer (e.g., White, 1964; Von Smrmer, 1966). There has also been some evidence to indicate that this tendency might be more pronounced in females than in males (Geer, Platt, & Singer, 1964). The data reported here show that this lengthening of judgments with repetition occurs also in the repeated drawing of lines without KR. These data were from 8 undergraduates, 4 males and 4 females, who were assigned to a no-KR control group as participants in a larger (unpublished) study. These Ss drew a 3-in. line from memory 100 times while blindfolded. The intertrial interval was 30 sec., and starting position was held constant by placing Ss hand at the same point on each trial. Data for each S were combined into 10 blocks of 10 trials and a 2 X 10 (Sex X Trials) analysis of variance was run. This analysis yielded a significant Sex X Trials interaction (F = 4.03, df = 9/54, p < .01). The females showed progressive lengthening of judgments with repetition, but the males did not. Based on least squares straight-line fits, there was no overlap (p < .05) in slopes for the females ( 1.6, 1.5, 1.4, and 1.2) and for the males ( 1.1, -0.1, -0.2, and -0.6). Lengthening of judgments may commonly occur in any task in which estimates are made without KR. This possibility, along with the possibiliry that sex differences can be reliably obtained, opens many avenues for testing Von Sturmets ( 1966) hypothesis that lengthening of time estimates is due to decreasing vigilance, with an associated decrement in detection rate for cues of time passage.

Ethics and Computer-Assisted Assessment: Three Case Studies.

Three ethical-legal case incidents involving computer-assisted psychodiagnostic assessment in the schools are presented. Each case incident is analysed in terms of applicable laws, ethical codes, and standards for professional practice.

IMPROVING A CEREBRAL PALSIED CHILD'S TYPING WITH OPERANT TECHNIQUES

A 7-yr.-old cerebral palsied girl was taught to correct responses on two typing tasks using reinforcement contingent on number of correctly typed words. Maintenance of the behavior remained contingent on the presence of tangible reinforcement.