Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-07, Section: B, page: 3438. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

In the Bransford and Franks paradigm, college Freshmen and Sophomores (N = 302) heard tape recorded sentences that were either positively stated or negatively stated (Syntactic Variable) and whose content was semantically compatible or semantically incompatible (semantic variable) with an overall idea set. On acquisition lists, sentences were of one, two, three, and four idea component length, but only one idea component length sentences appeared on recognition lists. Groups differed according to whether the sentences were old (i.e. appeared on both acquisition and recognition lists) or new (i.e. appeared only on recognition list). In Experiment I in which subjects were asked whether they had heard the exact sentence before, the subjects accurately recognized old positively stated, semantically compatible sentences, but they thought that old, negatively and positively stated, semantically incompatible sentences were new. Inversely, subjects incorrectly thought new positively stated semantically compatible sentences were old, but they accurately recognized the new positively and negatively stated, semantically incompatible sentences and the new negatively stated, semantically compatible sentences. In Experiment II, in which subjects were asked whether the sentence meant the same as one heard before, recognition scores closely resembled those observed in Experiment I, suggesting that the subjects were basing their recognition scores upon a meaning criteria in both experiments. The results indicate that subjects construct a semantic memory referent when hearing thematically related sentences, and that the recognition decision is a function of this semantic memory referent and not some artifactually learned size of sentence pools. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-02, Section: B, page: 0539. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

The purpose of the present study was to explore developmental patterns of negotiation used by young children interacting with their mothers. Participants included a younger cohort of 30 children who were observed between 18 and 30 months of age and an older cohort of 37 children who were observed between 30 and 48 months of age. The children's parents were primarily well-educated, middle to upper-middle class, Caucasians. Behavioral observations in a laboratory toy clean up task was the primary method of documenting child negotiation. Various forms of verbal resistance were coded including resistive episodes (included negotiation and refusal), negotiation and various subcategories of negotiation including the type (on-task or off-task), level (increasing in verbal complexity) and outcome (effective). As predicted, an increase in the frequency of resistive episodes, negotiation and off-task negotiation in the toddler years was followed by a decline frequency of these behaviors in the preschool years. A second pattern revealed that, with age, children used increasingly higher proportions of negotiation. Thus, although children in the older cohort engaged in resistance progressively less often, they were more likely to use negotiation and higher levels of negotiation when they resisted. In regard to caregivers' contributions to negotiation, the findings supported a link between child negotiation and maternal strategies. However, the findings were less conclusive in regard to the relationship between child negotiation and maternal style. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-12, Section: B, page: 6582. / Major Professor: Janet A. Kistner. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

An instrument was constructed to assess preschool teachers' attitudes toward young children's behaviors and questions regarding sexuality. Two panels of judges consisting of child development professionals and certified sex educators were randomly selected to participate in the instrument development process. The first panel of judges answered open-ended questions from which a 28, multiple choice item scale was developed. A second panel of judges reviewed the multiple choice items for validity. The second panel of judges also ranked the answers according to quality. The judges were asked to review the items and rank the answers twice to determine the consistency of their opinions. Using Aiken's validity and reliability of validity indexes the validity of each item was established. Seven items were judged invalid and deleted. Weights assigned by judges were averaged to compute the answer key. Kendall's coefficient of concordance was utilized to show the agreement of the judges' ranking of the answers. The scale was sent to 128 preschool teachers who work for a nationwide-child care corporation. Eighty-two teachers returned useable scales. Cronbach's coefficient alpha was used to determine interitem reliability which was .54, p < .001. The instrument was designed to be used as a teaching tool. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-01, Section: B, page: 0379. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.

This study was conducted to determine the relationship between certain dimensions of family functioning (cohesion, expressiveness, conflict, organization, independence, control, and general family functioning) and family life cycle stages. The Moos Family Environment Scale and the Family Functioning Index were distributed to a non-random sample of 100 intact families, evenly distributed across five family life cycle stages. Multiple Analysis of Variance, Univariate Analysis of Variance, Scheffe and t tests were performed on the means of average family, male and female scores obtained from the two separate questionnaires, yielding three sets of data for each questionnaire. The results of this analysis showed significant differences between certain life stages on three of the dimensions measured (expression, conflict and control). No significant differences across life stages on the means of the remaining three dimensions and one global measure (cohesion, organization, independence and the Family Functioning Index score) were found at the .05 level. A test of gender difference between the scores on all dependent measures found significant differences only in scores for expression in stage I families. It was concluded that there are some dimensions of family functioning which change across the life cycle of families and others which do not. Discussion of the findings focused on the relative health of the subject families and speculation on reasons for the results obtained. Implications were drawn for theory building about healthy families and clinical work with dysfunctional families. Reference is made to possible social or occupational variables which may affect any future research attempts to clarify family functioning differences across family life cycle stages. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-07, Section: B, page: 2264. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

The effects of a response cost treatment tactic on the classroom off-task behavior and sociometric status of seven elementary school-aged hyperactive children, four girls and three boys, were assessed within a multiple-baseline design across two academic periods. Results indicated that the response cost procedure was effective in reducing off-task behavior in the classroom and improving teacher perceptions of child behavior for six of the seven target children. The results of this study replicated the effects on off-task behavior obtained by Rapport et al. (1980; 1982) and extended these findings to demonstrate that the response cost procedure can be effectively implemented by one teacher across more than one hyperactive child in the same classroom. Classroom observational data on pre-selected normal control children suggested that response cost effectively reduces hyperactive children's off-task behavior to a level commensurate with that of their normal peers. The results of a nonparametric analysis of the difference between pre- and post-administrations of sociometric assessments revealed a significant improvement in sociometric status for target children as a group. Weekly sociometric assessments revealed that, of the five children who demonstrated the clearest effects from the response cost intervention, three children's mean sociometric ratings improved. Overall, the results obtained suggest that improving a child's off-task behavior through the use of a contingency management system such as response cost may produce corollary improvement in social status even when this behavior is not directly targeted. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-06, Section: B, page: 1987. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

The effectiveness of two drill and practice methods, computer-assisted instruction and workbook, was compared using six learning disabled and six normal learning students. Both instructional methods provided highly structured drill and practice of multiplication facts, but differed on several important dimensions: immediacy of feedback, individually-tailored practice of problems, and mode of presentation. A combination group/single-subject methodological approach was employed to determine any idiosyncratic or group performance differences between drill and practice methods or any group differences between learning disabled and normal students. While overall, few differences were found between the instructional methods, they did differ with respect to when learning occurred. Also, individual data suggest that for some of the students, performance varied according to the type of drill and practice employed. The performance of learning disabled and normal subjects was surprisingly similar across measures. / It was concluded that the highly structured nature of both modes of drill and practice eliminated differences in performance between the two groups. Also, while computer and workbook instruction differed on some basic structural features, these characteristics did not have a significant impact on student achievement. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-03, Section: B, page: 0934. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

A problem brought to the attention of the Florida State University's Psychology Department by school personnel was the behavior of the more than 350 kindergarten, first- and second-graders assigned to a playground prior to the beginning of the school day. The problem behaviors were found to comprise three general categories of responses: aggression; property abuse; and rule violations. / The initial step was to develop a reliable observation system with which different interventions could be compared. After several attempts, a satisfactory method was devised. Three independent observers monitored separate areas of the playground and recorded the frequency of inappropriate incidents. / The first experiment utilized a multi-element design to compare the implementation of organized games, a brief timeout on a bench and the combination of games and timeout. The major findings were that the days with games available were generally better than those without games, and timeout was only infrequently used by the teachers' aides who supervised the playground. However, the data were highly variable which may have been due to the large number of extraneous variables that could have been present since the experiment spanned an eight-month period. In addition, the general ratings of the children's behavior obtained from the aides did not reflect the improvements seen by the direct observations. / In the second experiment, the most effective treatment, games, was compared to baseline procedures in a reversal design. At the request of school personnel, timeout was also available for extreme situations; but this was, again, very infrequently used. Substantial reductions in inappropriate behaviors were obtained when the treatments were in effect, and these results were more stable than in the first experiment. Despite an alteration of the rating method, the aides' evaluation did not coincide with the improvements recorded by the observers. However, the ability of the aides to accurately identify and intervene on the children's problem behaviors was the primary focus of this research. As such, it is suggested that in similar situations, where large groups are involved, antecedent environmental manipulations may be more practical than providing consequences for behaviors which have already been exhibited. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-06, Section: B, page: 2646. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

The relationship between proportional reasoning ability and self concept was studied from a cognitive developmental approach. A sample of 222 adolescents attending junior high and high school in a rural southern state was comprised of 57.7% females, 41.8% males, 61.1% blacks, and 30.8% whites. The adolescents were asssigned to two problem solving groups, concrete operational and formal operational, based on their performance on three sets of proportional reasoning tasks. The mean age for the concrete group was 13.1 and for the formal group the mean age was 15.2. The two groups had comparable Cognitive (intellectual) Skills Index scores, with the concrete problem solvers mean score being 98.68 and for the formal operational problem solvers the mean score was 97.01. Data were also collected on self concept using the My Characteristic Self scale, instrumentality and expressiveness (Self Perception Inventory), and masculinity (Adolescent Sex Role Inventory). / A test of four hypotheses was carried out using a multivariate analysis of variance with two levels of the independent variable, concrete and formal operational problem solving, and four dependent variables, self concept, instrumentality, expressivenesss, and masculinity. The Hotellings multivariate test of significance revealed statistical significance ((alpha) = .05) between the two problem solving groups. The investigation of the univariate F-tests indicated that self concept was a statistically significant ((alpha) = .05) dependent variable. The statistical decision resulting from this analysis revealed that null hypothesis (1) could be rejected and hypothesis (1A) considered. The analysis further indicated that instrumentality, expressiveness, and masculinity were not statistically significant ((alpha) = .05) dependent variables; therefore, null hypotheses (2), (3), and (4) failed to be rejected. The conclusion based on these findings indicate that formal operational problem solvers rate self concept higher than concrete operational problem solvers; increases in proportional reasoning ability were associated with higher self concept ratings. / The results were discussed in relation to similar findings on elementary school and early adolescent age youth. The data from these studies and those from the present investigation indicate that cognitive developmental problem solving appears to be related to higher self concept ratings of children and adolescents. These findings provided support for the study of self concept development from a cognitive developmental framework. Finally, implications and recommendations for improving self concept ratings of adolescents were presented to educators, parents, and therapists. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-11, Section: B, page: 3640. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.

The study examined the effects of early childhood intervention, social class and ethnicity on family communication style. The latter was assessed through the analysis of parent-child behaviors observed during a home interview. The results show the extent to which social class and cultural differences can be understood in terms of a participatory and democratic style of parent-child interaction. Social class and ethnicity were found to affect both, the way families communicate and the child's scholastic achievement. The findings also suggest that an early, family-oriented intervention develops a more active and participatory interaction style in low SES families. Path models were employed in examining the relation of the above style of family interaction and intellectual ability as assessed through standardized achievement test performance of white and black children in one of three experimental conditions. The results show that relationship to be explained largely by social class and ethnic background. Family communication style's effect on the child's intellectual performance is discussed in terms of verbal regulation theory, which views verbal interaction as influencing the child's cognitive development. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-06, Section: B, page: 2018. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.