Are all phonemic awareness tests created equally? A comparison of the Yopp‐Singer and the task of auditory analysis skills (TASS)

This study examined two screening instruments designed to measure phonemic awareness (Test of Auditory Analysis Skills‐TAAS and Yopp‐Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation). Participants included 25 second‐semester kindergarten children who were administered both instruments. The dependent measure (the STAR Reading Test) was administered in February of their First‐Grade year. The investigation was designed to determine if these instruments are both evaluating the same skills and identify which was more effective in predicting success in reading near the end of First Grade. The children's scores from the Yopp‐Singer and the TAAS were correlated (r=0.56, p<0.01) and so were the scores between the TAAS and STAR (r=0.51, p<0.01). Comparison of scores between the Yopp and the STAR produced non‐significant results (r=0.31). Although the TAAS produced a higher correlation with reading achievement than the Yopp‐Singer, the difference between these two measures failed to reach significance (t=1.16). Implications of these findings, along with possible explanations of the results, are discussed.     

Lawson's Shoehorn, or Should the Philosophy of Science Be Rated ‘X’?

Lawson's (2002) interpretations of Galileo's discovery of the moons of Jupiter and other cases exhibit several historical errors, addressed here both specifically and generally. They illustrate how philosophical preconceptions can distort history and thus lessons about the nature of science.     

Novice Supervisees' Self‐Evaluations and Their Perceptions of Supervisor Style

Multiple regression analyses of data obtained for 36 counseling supervision dyads indicated that attractiveness, an aspect of supervisory style, was negatively associated with supervisees' self‐evaluations and positively associated with the difference between trainees' and supervisors' evaluations of counseling competence at the end of the 1st practicum experience. Supervisors' interpersonal sensitivity and task orientation were not found to contribute significantly to either of the criterion variables.     

Tiers of intervention in responsiveness to intervention: prevention outcomes and learning disabilities identification patterns

Response to Intervention (RTI) models have attracted great attention as an alternative to traditional methods used for identifying students with learning disabilities. A major feature of this approach is the implementation of academic interventions in general education and measuring the student's response to those interventions. A common question that needs to be addressed is the number of stages or tiers of intervention necessary in the Response to Intervention model. This article reviews three studies of RTI that investigate the RTI tiers. Sharon Vaughn and Rollanda O'Connor report on studies using the Standard Protocol approach to RTI. David Tilly reports on using the Problem Solving Model as an RTI model. This article summarizes the results of these three investigations.     

Further evidence that conditioned inhibition is not the mechanism of an extinction cue’s effect: A reinforced cue prevents spontaneous recovery

Previous research has demonstrated that discrete cues presented during extinction of a conditioned response (extinction cues) subsequently reduce spontaneous recovery and the renewal effect. In order to assess whether an extinction cue’s effect is due to conditioned inhibition, the effect of pairing an extinction cue with food on the cue’s capacity to modulate spontaneous recovery was investigated in an appetitive conditioning experiment with rats. Conditioned inhibitors paired with the unconditioned stimulus lose their potential to inhibit responding. The food-paired extinction cue did not lose its potential to reduce spontaneous recovery. In fact, it reduced spontaneous recovery more than did an extinction cue that was not paired with food. The results indicate that extinction cues attenuate postextinction recovery of conditioned responding through a mechanism other than conditioned inhibition. The cue’s action appears to be similar to that of serial negative occasion setters. Theories of spontaneous recovery and the relationship of extinction cues to other modulatory stimuli are discussed.     

Generative aspects of the Computer Based Educational Software System (CBESS)

A system of computer-based instruction (CBI) authoring and delivery tools was developed in which generative CBI techniques were used to dynamically create instructional presentations from content databases during program execution. Three applications using these techniques are examined with regard to trade-offs between case of development and limitations imposed by program specificity: 1) A semantic network was used to represent large bodies of terse facts to be memorized. The need for authors to create large numbers of question screens was avoided by a feature enabling questions and foils to be generated on-the-fly from database assertions as the student programs ran. 2) Technical vocabulary training was accomplished with a generative approach in which an array of student learning activities were automatically generated from a database minimally consisting of technical terms and their definitions. 3) A more difficult program allowed greater interface and lesson control flexibility for creating more sophisticated practice lessons in which new instances were dynamically inserted into templates for questions, anticipated answers and feedback. A common application theme emerging from field-testing the programs was their use in learning resource centers to address specific learning objectives from larger courses.     

Maternal social support as a predictor of mother-child stress and stimulation

There is increasing interest in the role of social support in determining risk for child abuse and neglect. The present study assessed the relationship between maternal social support and two areas: stress in the mother-child relationship: and level of stimulation provided in the home. Maternal social support was assessed prenatally and at a two-year follow-up, while the latter variables were compiled at the two-year follow-up. The data were obtained from 38 urban, low SES (80% on public assistance) mothers and their 2-year-old children. Maternal social support correlated positively with level of stimulation and negatively with level of mother-child stress, and was the best predictor of both, relative to any SES, mother or child variables. In addition, high stress, low support mothers provided significantly less stimulation to their children. The theoretical implications for social support as a mediator variable as well as its implications for early identification and prevention efforts in abuse and neglect are discussed.