Differentiating Reinforcement Priorities of Junior High School Students

Two hundred seventh grade Ss were administered a paired comparison scale for the purpose of predicting reinforcer effectiveness of fifteen stimuli. These stimuli were selected from three categories of reinforcement: 1.) verbal and social, 2.) tangible and manipulatable, and 3.) knowledge of progress. Results of the study indicated that the paired comparison scale of determining reinforcing preferences was moderately reliable. On the validation task, Ss performed equally well for the most and least preferred reinforcers. This finding suggests that a S, when selecting from several reinforcers, cannot choose the stimulus which would be most effective in increasing his performance.     

McLuhan,Mass Media,and Education

A lesson in Gestalt theory was presented to college students via lecture, videotape, audiotape, and printed notes. Comparing the effectiveness of various mass media, it was found that the group with the printed notes performed best on an examination of the material, followed by the lecture and videotape groups who fared equally well, and by the audio tape group who did the poorest. A test of prolonged retention two months later revealed that each group showed a significant drop in level of retention, but the relationship between the various medias remained the same. The general findings gave no support to McLuhan’s theory that the medium is the message. The content of the material and the attitude of the students greatly influenced the effectiveness of the media.     

The Multi-Sensory-Motor Method of Teaching Reading

Despite repeated warnings against its usage, researchers and textbook authors continue to employ the phrase “level of confidence” as a synonym for the phrase “level of significance.” Three possible sources of this incorrect usage are noted: (a) imitation; (b) the related but different concepts of fiducial inference and confidence interval estimation; and (c) the myriad of terms associated with confidence. It is recommended that the magnitude of level of confidence be restricted to that of the complement of the level of significance and also that the term level of confidence should be used only in connection with interval estimation.     

Henrietta Crosman on voice

Good American Speech. By Margaret Prendergast Mclean. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1928.

The Psychology of Language. By W. B. Pillsbury and C. L. Meader. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1928; pp. 306: $3.

Abraham Lincoln: 1809‐1858. By Albert J. Beveridge. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1928: 2 volumes, pp. 1348.

The Public Mind: its disorders; its exploitation. By Norman Angell. New York, Button, 1926: pp. 220.

The Public and Its Problems. By John Dewey. New York, Henry Holt, 1927: pp. 224

Publicity for Social Work. By Mary Swain Routzahn and Evart G. Routzahn. New York: Bussell Sage Foundation, 1928, pp. xviii, 392.

Readings in Public Opinion. By W. Brooke Graves. New York: Appleton's, 1928, pp. viii, 1281. $6.

Propaganda. By Edward L. Bernays. New York: Horace Liveright, 1928, pp. 159. $2.50.

Propaganda Technique in the World War. By Harold Lasswell. New York: Knopf, 1927, pp. 283. $3.25.

Political Behavior. By Frank R. Kent. New York: Wm. Morrow, 1928, pp. 342. $2.50.

Public Discussion and Debate. By A. Craig Baird. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1928: pp. iv, 370.

Principles of Effective Speaking: A Text for Colleges and Universities. By William Phillips Sandford and Willard Hayes Yeager. New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1928: pp. xv, 416.

The Art of Interpretative Speech. Principles and Practices of Effective Beading. By Charles H. Woollbert and Severina E. Nelson. New York: F. S. Crofts and Company, 1927: pp. vii, 385.

Communicative Speaking. By J. Stanley Gray. Boston: Expression Co., 1928: pp. 299: $2.50.

How to Talk. By John Mantle Clapp and Edwin A. Kane. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1928: pp. 631.

A Bibliography of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. By Clark Sutherland Northup (now President of the national Phi Beta Kappa Society). New York: The Elisha Parmele Press, 1928. pp. viii, 328.

Crowell's Dictionary of English Grammar and Handbook of American Usage. By Maurice H. Weseen. New York: Thomas T. Crowell Company, 1928: pp. ix, 703.

The Influence of the Audience on Shakespeare's Drama. By Robert Bridges. New York: Oxford University Press, 1927; pp. x, 29.

The Art of Playwriting. Lectures delivered at the University of Pennsylvania on the Mask and Wig Foundation. Philadelphia: the University of Pennsylvania Press: 1928.

The Oxford Recitations. With a Preface by John Masefield. New York: The MacMillan Company: 1928: $1.50.

Power Control. By H. S. RAushenbush and Harry W. Laidler. New York: New Republic, Inc., 1928: $1.     

One man's opinion

In recent years rank and file leaders within labor unions have risen to challenge incumbents. This paper offers an addition to Herbert W. Simons’ theory on phases of leadership in certain types of social movements by examining the rhetoric of two union leaders who represent the dissident rank and file within the United Mine Workers of America and the United Steelworkers of America. Both men call for adaptation, renewal, and a new type of labor leader.     

Book review section

FREE SPEECH: RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION UNDER LAW. By Robert M. O'Neil. Indianapolis, Indiana: The Bobbs‐Merrill Company, Inc., 1966; pp. viii 123+$1.25.

THE MOYNIHAN REPORT AND THE POLITICS OF CONTROVERSY, by Lee Rainwater and William L. Yancey. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1967; pp. xvii+493. $3.95.

VOICES OF CRISIS: VITAL SPEECHES ON CONTEMPORARY ISSUES, by Floyd W. Matson, New York: The Odyssey Press, Inc., 1967; pp. xi+304.

THE BLACK POWER REVOLT. Edited by Floyd B. Barbour. Boston: Porter Sargent Publisher, 1968; pp. 287. $5.95 cloth; $2.95 paper.

THE AGITATOR IN AMERICAN SOCIETY. By Charles W. Lomas. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice‐Hall, 1968; pp. viii+182.

BLACK POWER: THE POLITICS OF LIBERATION IN AMERICA. By Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton. New York: Vintage Books, 1967; pp. xii+ 198. Paper $1.95.

REPORT OF THE NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMISSION ON CIVIL DISORDERS. New York: Bantam Books, 1968; pp. xi+609. Paper $1.25.