Learned helplessness in Black and White children identified by their schools as retarded and nonretarded: Performance deterioration in response to failure.

20 Black and 20 White children who had been identified as retarded and nonretarded but were similar in MA (110.2–214.3 mo) were administered concept formation problems designed to reveal use of strategies. When feedback was veridical the groups did not differ in their use of effective strategies, but when feedback became consistently negative the groups diverged markedly. Under negative feedback, retarded Ss showed striking deterioration in strategy usage, but nonretarded Ss showed no deterioration. Consistent with these findings, teachers rated retarded Ss as significantly more helpless than their nonretarded peers on a checklist of relevant school behavior. Additional findings suggest that Black retarded Ss may be more susceptible to helplessness than are their White counterparts. Finally, group differences in verbalizations during problem solving bore little relation to group differences in actual performance. Findings point to helplessness deficits in retarded children that may interfere significantly with expression of their actual abilities. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differences in attitudes toward sex-typed behavior of nonretarded and retarded children

The present study was an initial attempt at understanding gender constancy in retarded children. Stories about retarded or nonretarded boys or girls were given to teachers and caretakers of retarded children and teachers of nonretarded children. The stories described children in four sex-stereotyped activities. Respondents rated each child in the stories on scales of typicality and acceptability. Results indicated that, while nonretarded children were rated as typical when engaging in sex-appropriate, desirable play activities, retarded children were rated as typical when engaging in undesirable activities, regardless of sex appropriateness. Different professional groups appeared to use different criteria when judging the children in the stories.     

Improving the social status of mainstreamed retarded children.

37 mainstreamed educable mentally retarded (EMR) children in Grades 3, 4, and 5 were randomly assigned to a control group or to an experimental treatment given during regular class activities for the purpose of improving their social status among nonretarded classmates. On the average, Ss were 8–20 mo older than their normal classmates. Each experimental S worked in a small cooperative group with 4–6 nonretarded classmates on highly structured, manipulative tasks using multimedia materials. The treatment was provided in 2 cycles which lasted a total of 8 wks. Sociometric tests were given before and after treatment to pupils in classes with experimental and control EMR Ss. By 2–4 wks following completion of treatment, nonretarded Ss' social acceptance of their experimental peers improved significantly more than that of control Ss. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Failure effects on outerdirectedness: a failure to replicate

A replication was conducted of part of Turnure and Zigler's (1964) experiment in which they assessed whether outerdirectedness was a function of failure experiences. Thirty nonretarded and 30 retarded children, matched on MA, experienced either failure games administered with positive or negative comments followed by an imitative assessment task or received only the imitation task. The results did not support Zigler's hypothesis concerning the antecedents of outerdirectedness, as no short-term effects of failure were found. The findings refuted Turnure and Zigler's hypothesis that outerdirectedness is a function of situational social reinforcement. Differences in tasks presented, methods of analysis, and/or school populations may have contributed to the lack of correspondence with the Turnure and Zigler findings.     

Correlates of social status among mainstreamed mentally retarded children.

Explored the relative contributions of misbehavior, academic incompetence, and exposure to nonretarded children to the explanation of retarded children's sociometric status. Teachers and peers rated retarded children on the dimensions of misbehavior and academic performance. The results indicate that perceived academic incompetence was associated with educable mentally retarded children's level of social acceptance, whereas perceived misbehavior was associated with retarded children's social rejection by peers. Amount of exposure to nonretarded children did not relate significantly to retarded children's social status. The data are discussed in terms of the assumptions underlying the mainstreaming of retarded children into regular classes. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cardiovascular reactivity during social and nonsocial stressors: Do children's personal goals and expressive skills matter?

The relationships between social competence and cardiovascular reactivity were evaluated in 180 children (ages 8-17; 52% female; 53% Caucasian). Participants performed a social task (Social Competence Interview [SCI]) and 2 nonsocial tasks while reactivity measures were obtained. Social competence was coded from SCI audiotapes. Among adolescents, higher scores on the Acceptance-Affiliation subscale were associated with increased heart rate (HR) and blood pressures and with decreased HR variability during the SCI. Among boys, greater Acceptance-Affiliation scores were associated with increased vascular reactivity during the SCI. During the nonsocial tasks, higher Self-Defensiveness and Expressiveness scores were associated with increased cardiac output and stroke volume among African American children. Personal strivings and expressive skills do matter for understanding cardiovascular responses in children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia During Stress Predicts Resting Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia 3 Years Later in a Pediatric Sample.

The author examined whether respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) responses to stress predicted resting RSA approximately 3 years later in children and adolescents. A total of 149 children and adolescents (49% girls and women, 44% African Americans) participated in 2 laboratory protocols approximately 3 years apart. RSA reactivity during tasks was consistent within participants across tasks during each session. Resting RSA at Visit 1 explained 17% of the variance in resting RSA at Visit 2 when body mass index, duration between visits, race, gender, and age were controlled for. Visit 1 RSA reactivity explained an additional 5% of the variance in resting RSA at Visit 2. The positive relationship between Visit 1 reactivity and Visit 2 resting levels suggests that larger decreases in RSA during stress predicted lower resting RSA. Conversely, increases in RSA during stress were associated with higher resting RSA an average of 3 years later. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental perception of emotional expressiveness in children with autism.

Parents' perceptions of their children's emotional expressiveness, and possible bases for these perceptions, were investigated in a study comparing older, nonretarded autistic and normal children and in another study comparing young autistic, mentally retarded, and normal children. Both groups of autistic children were perceived as showing more negative emotion and less positive emotion than comparison children. In the younger sample, parental perceptions correlated with the children's attention and responsiveness to others' displays of emotion in 2 laboratory situations. Findings contradict the view that autism involves the "absence of emotional reaction." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Autonomic nervous system changes associated with a spider phobic reaction.

Tested the theory that autonomic nervous system arousal increases during a phobic reaction. 11 spider phobics and 11 nonphobics (female undergraduates) viewed spider, seascape, and surgical slides while several physiological responses were continuously recorded. Spider phobics showed significantly faster heart rate, greater heart-rate variability, and vasoconstriction during spider slide presentations than nonphobics. Spider phobics also showed more frequent phasic skin responses but not larger skin response amplitudes to spider slides. Respiration rate and respiration amplitude were not significantly different for the 2 groups. It appears that while a general autonomic nervous system arousal occurs during a spider-phobic reaction, the demand characteristics of the phobic situation seem to determine which physiological responses are most affected. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Computer assisted training of attention and concentration with healthy children

The intention of this study was to analyze in how far a computer assisted training for brain damaged adults can be used for the practice with children. Healthy children of different ages were trained with this attention and concentration programme. The results should help to adapt the training programme for the use in brain damaged children. Age-groups differed significantly in level of performance. Data showed that in comparison to Kindergarten-children, first-grade children showed a higher benefit from the training. Implications for modifications of the training-programme are discussed. Other parameter of performance (reaction-time, errors) in relation to school age provide clues to the distribution of structure of difficulty in the programmes. A questionnaire assessing motivation before and during the training, intelligibility of the task, feasibility of the computer and adequacy of the test in children showed that sustained motivation can be achieved provided the training is used in an adaptive way. Thereby demotivating with too easy tasks as well as frustration caused by difficult tasks can be avoided. In general, there was good acceptance of the computerised cognitive training. The presence of a therapist during every training session proved to be necessary in children under the age of 6 years.     

Assessment of the physical work capacity of institutionalized mentally retarded males

Educable and trainable mentally retarded males (N=37) were examined for physical work capacity. Analysis of results indicated that the physical work capacity of the test population was 20 to 30% below that cited in the literature for nonretarded subjects of similar age and sex. Evidence also suggested that developmental and maintenance programs of physical fitness were required in order for mentally retarded persons to qualify for and maintain employment on most of the manual occupational tasks cited.     

Comprehension and memory in the solution of verbal arithmetic problems by mentally retarded and nonretarded individuals.

This study assessed the effects of cue words, problem contexts, memory aids, and number of computational steps on the solution of simple addition and subtraction problems by mildly mentally retarded adolescents and nonretarded children of comparable mental age and computational ability. Results indicated that accuracy, and presumably problem representation, were affected by the cue word and context variables. Cue words, which facilitated the performance of all Ss, apparently were relied on as problem-solving crutches by both groups. Context, manipulated by the varying of problem cover stories, influenced the performance of the mentally retarded Ss only, which suggests that their failure to delete irrelevant details from problem representations may have contributed to relatively poor overall performance. Finally, though memory aids may have facilitated the retention of quantitative information, they did not facilitate problem comprehension and accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychophysiological studies in the pre-school children

The behavior of 24 children, aged 3-6 years, was recorded on video-tape. Simultaneously the ECG was recorded telemetrically. These observations were made during two pre-school educational programs lasting 90 minutes each: "Didactic games" and "Elementary music and movement program". For each child a scale was developed to show the correlation of mean heart-rate and well defined motor-activity. It was evident that the mean heart-rate was higher during the music program than during the didactic program, corresponding to the higher motor-activity. But it was found that in the didactic program the variation of the heart-rate within short intervals was higher due to the more frequent occurrence of respiratory arrhythmias. It was also seen that during the music program the children showed no signs of exertion as they did towards the end of the didactic program. Respiratory arrhythmias were not seen in children who according to the Schellong-test were classified as stable in their cardiovascular system. The arrhythmias occurred mainly when the children showed signs of fatigue.     

4 T-fMRI study of nonspatial shifting of selective attention: cerebellar and parietal contributions

Regional blood oxygenation in the cerebellum and posterior cerebral cortices was monitored with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at four Tesla while 16 normal subjects performed three tasks with identical visual stimulation: fixation; attention focused upon either stimulus shape or color and sustained during blocks of trials (sustained attention); and rapid, serial shifts in attention between stimulus shape or color within blocks of trials (shifting attention). The stimuli were displayed centrally for 100 ms followed by a central fixation mark for 900 ms. Each stimulus was either a circle or a square displayed in either red or green. Attention shifting required switching between color and shape information after each target detection and occurred on average once every three seconds. Subjects pressed a response key upon detecting the target; reaction time and response accuracy were recorded. Two protocols for T2*-weighted echo-planar imaging were optimized, one with a surface coil for the cerebellum alone and the other with a volume coil for imaging both cerebellum and posterior brain structures (parietal, occipital, and part of temporal cortices). Because fMRI of the cerebellum is particularly susceptible to cardiac and respiratory fluctuations, novel techniques were applied to isolate brain activation signals from physiological noise. Functional activation maps were generated for contrasts of 1) sustained attention to color minus fixation; 2) sustained attention to shape minus fixation; and 3) shifting attention minus sustained attention (to color and shape; i.e., summed across blocks of trials). Consistent with the ease of these tasks, subjects performed with >80% accuracy during both sustained attention and shifting attention. Analysis of variance did not show significant differences in false alarms or true hits across either attentional condition. A subgroup of subjects whose performance data were recorded during ten minutes of continuous practice did not show significant changes over time. Both contrasts between the conditions of sustained attention to color or to shape as compared with the fixation condition showed significant bilateral activation in occipital and inferior temporal regions (Brodmann areas 18, 19, and 37). The anterior medial cerebellum was also significantly activated ipsilateral to the finger used for responding. The principal comparison of interest, the contrast between the condition of shifting attention and the condition of sustained attention produced significant and reproducible activation: lateral cerebellar hemisphere (ansiform lobule: Crus I Anterior and Crus I Posterior; left Crus I Posterior); cerebellar folium; posterior superior parietal lobule (R and L); and cuneus and precuneus (R and L).     

Social perspective-taking skills in maltreated children and adolescents.

The primary goal of this study was to assess the ability of maltreated school-age children and adolescents to understand the thoughts, feelings, and points of view of others. Level of egocentrism and social perspective-taking coordination were assessed in a group of 49 maltreated and 49 demographically matched nonmaltreated children. Twenty-six elementary and 23 high school students in each group were individually interviewed and their responses to hypothetical interpersonal situations coded for egocentricity and level of perspective-taking ability. The findings revealed that maltreated children and adolescents were more egocentric and delayed in their social perspective-taking development than their nonmaltreated peers and that they reported lower levels of global self-worth. However, differences within the group of maltreated children and adolescents emerged with regard to negotiating novel relationships, as those with fewer internalizing or externalizing symptoms exhibited better skills in this area than their peers who displayed more symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's attachment representations: Longitudinal relations to school behavior and academic competency in middle childhood and adolescence.

A longitudinal study examined children's (N?=?108) attachment representations in relation to behavior and academic competency at school during middle childhood and adolescence. Attachment representations were assessed from children's responses to a separation story at age 7 years. At ages 9, 12, and 15, teachers rated children on four dimensions of school behavior: attention–participation, extroversion, disruptive behavior, and insecurity about self. Children's grade point average (GPA) in school was also examined. Children's attachment representations (secure vs. insecure) did not predict either disruptive behavior or extroversion, but they were significantly linked to attention–participation, insecurity about self, and GPA, with secure representations being associated with more favorable outcomes. The study controlled for social class, gender, IQ, perspective-taking ability, and prior competency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Performance of retarded and nonretarded persons on information-processing tasks: Further tests of the similar structure hypothesis.

Reviews information-processing studies applicable to the similar structure hypothesis, which holds that when nonorganically impaired retarded and nonretarded persons are similar in general developmental level, they are also similar in the cognitive processes and concepts by which they reason. Results are different from those of an earlier review by the 2nd author and K. O. Yeates (see record 1981-28282-001) that focused on Piagetian investigations. A meta-analysis revealed that the performance of retarded groups was significantly inferior to that of their nonretarded psychometric mental age peers. A significant relation between the mental age of the Ss and the probability of finding a significant difference between retarded and nonretarded Ss was also found. A number of alternative explanations are offered for these findings. (76 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Studying cognitive development in retarded and nonretarded groups: the role of theory

Stephens and McLaughlin's (1974) report of retarded-nonretarded group differences in performance on Piagetian reasoning tasks was critically examined. The findings were difficult to interpret in relation to major theories of cognition in retarded and nonretarded persons because of problems in the investigators' testing and subject selection procedures and because of an inappropriate use of analysis of covariance. These problems were discussed, their potential impact on the findings examined, and certain guidelines proposed for research of this genre--guidelines designed to sharpen the relationship between experimentation and theory.