A convenience sample of 159 African American women, 18-45 years old, was trained to perform breast self-examination (BSE) and was categorized according to the participants' cognitive style (monitors/blunters). Participants were then randomly assigned to one of four groups differing in BSE maintenance strategy (self-management, positive reinforcement, both, or neither). Self-reported monthly compliance with BSE was subsequently assessed during a 9-month period. A significant interaction between maintenance strategies and cognitive style was found. For blunters, the highest compliance rates and the highest competency scores occurred in the group with no maintenance strategy, whereas for monitors, the highest compliance rates and competency scores were found in the groups receiving positive reinforcement and/or self-management strategies. Additional results indicate that high levels of BSE competency were achieved across conditions and that competency improved over time.
The Gorham Proverbs Test was administered to 278 black participants residing in a large metropolitan area in Southern California. Respondents were also asked to indicate whether they were familiar with each of the 40 proverbs in the test. Scores were significantly affected by respondents' ages, education, and perceived childhood socioeconomic status. Familiarity with a proverb increased the probability of its correct interpretation. Familiarity of proverbs and attempts to interpret them were significantly associated, that is, respondents tended not to attempt interpretation of unfamiliar proverbs. The number of familiar proverbs per test was not significantly associated with respondents' test scores. The mean Abstract score obtained in this study was comparable to mean scores previously reported in the literature, suggesting that ethnic differences do not significantly affect performance on the Proverbs Test.
Two experiments investigated the effects of successive reinforcement contexts on choice. In the first, concurrent variable-interval schedules of primary reinforcement operated during the initial links of concurrent chains. The rate of this reinforcement arranged by the concurrent schedules was decreased across conditions: When it was higher than the terminal-link rate, preference for the higher frequency initial-link schedule increased relative to baseline. (During baseline, a standard concurrent-schedule procedure was in effect.) When the initial-link reinforcement rate was lower than the terminal-link rate, preference converged toward indifference. In the second experiment, a chain schedule was available on a third key while a concurrent schedule was in effect on the side keys. When the terminal link of the chain schedule was produced, the side keys became inoperative. Availability of the chain schedule did not affect choice between the concurrent schedules. These results show that only when successive reinforcement contexts are produced by choice responding do those successive contexts affect choice in concurrent schedules.Key words: concurrent schedules, concurrent chains, successive reinforcement context, choice, key peck, pigeonsContextual variables have been shown to be important determiners of behavior (e.g., Fantino & Dunn, 1983;Gibbon, 1981;Heyman & Bouzas, 1980;Rescorla, 1982;Reynolds, 1961;Williams, 1981). For example, the effects of reinforcement context on response rate have been demonstrated in experimental situations involving one (Rachlin & Baum, 1972), two (Catania, 1963;Duncan & Silberberg, 1982;Lobb & Davison, 1977;Rachlin & Baum, 1969;Wilkie, 1973), or three response keys (Davison & Hunter, 1976;Davison & Temple, 1974;Nevin, Mandell, & Yarensky, 1981). In the above experiments, an alternative source of reinforcement-the reinforcement context-varied in reinforcer amount (Rachlin & Baum, 1969) or rate (e.g., Catania, 1963), or the alternative reinforcers were delayed (e.g., Rachlin & Baum, 1972), signaled (e.g., Nevin et al., 1981), or delivered freely as opposed to response contingently (e.g., Duncan & Silberberg, 1982). The The effect of contextual reinforcement upon choice per se has also been investigated (Davison, 1982;Davison & Hunter, 1976;Davison & Temple, 1974;Fantino & Dunn, 1983;Lobb & Davison, 1977;McLean & White,. 1983;Miller & Loveland, 1974;Pliskoff & Brown, 1976;Pliskoff, Shull, & Gollub, 1968;Prelec & Herrnstein, 1978). In these studies, contextual reinforcement consisted of a schedule of primary reinforcement, operating in the presence of, and uniquely correlated with, an exteroceptive stimulus. The contextual-reinforcement schedule constituted an additional source of primary reinforcement, above and beyond that which maintained the choice responding under study. The reinforcement context was provided in one of two ways. In one group of studies, it consisted of a third choice alternative, added to the original two-alternative choice. The added choice alternative was arrange...
A total of 278 black women (183) and men (95) were administered the Gorham's Proverbs Test and the Shipley Institute of Living Scale (revised). This study compared Abstract scores on the Gorham's Proverbs Test with Vocabulary and Abstract scores on the Shipley Institute of Living Scale. The two tests were remarkably similar in terms of score distributions and susceptibility to the effects of age, perceived socioeconomic level during childhood, education, and perceived quality of education. Analysis also showed that abstract reasoning, as measured by these tests, is not free from the effects of vocabulary skills. Mean scores on both tests were within the range of mean scores previously reported in the literature.
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