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Biomedical subjects

A B Silverstein

Publications and source records attributed to A B Silverstein.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

Cognitive development of severely and profoundly mentally retarded individuals.

Corman and Escalona's scales for Object Permanence and Spatial Relationships were readministered to 71 severely and profoundly mentally retarded individuals five years after the last previous administration of the scales. Gains in mean scores were small but statistically significant for both scales. In addition, significantly more subjects gained than lost on Spatial Relationships, though not on Object Permanence. These findings provide evidence that the cognitive development of at least some severely and profoundly retarded individuals continues into early adulthood, even in the absence of special programs designed to promote such development.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Psychometric properties of two measures of intrinsic motivation.

Howard's Maze Test and Maw and Maw's Which-to-Discuss Test were individually administered to 25 educable mentally retarded junior high school students. Although the internal consistency of both tests was acceptably high (.81 to .90, respectively), scores were essentially unrelated to a host of demographic and other types of variables. Moreover, the correlation between scores on the two instruments was only -.06. It was suggested that the tests might better be described as measures of diversive curiosity and specific curiosity, respectively, than as measures of intrinsic motivation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Convergent and discriminant validity of project PRIME's Guess Who?

Two forms of the Guess Who?, a peer-assessment instrument, were administered to 1,095 mildly handicapped learners and 143 teachers. Factor analysis of the student and teacher ratings yielded three factors--disruptive, bright, and dull--for both sets of data. Factor scores for the student and teacher forms were then intercorrelated in a multitrait-multimethod matrix, and the results established the convergent and discriminant validity of the instrument. The finding that teachers could provide valid estimates of student perceptions of the three traits was interpreted as promising for future research.

Child↗
PubMed1979

Attitudinal versus ecological approaches to the characterization of institutional treatment environments.

The relational and discriminative properties of attitudinal and ecological measures of environments were examined within the context of a state hospital for mentally retarted clients. Three hypotheses were advanced, and the results gave substantial support for one of these and partial support for a second: (a) that the correlations between attitudinal and ecological measures should not differ significantly from zero, and (b) that differences among hospital treatment programs and living units should be reflected in ecological but not in attitudinal measures. However, the results did not provide clear confirmation for a third hypothesis: that differences among staff demographic characteristics and employment history should be reflected in attitudinal but not in ecological measures. It was suggested that these background variables may not be appropriate measures of personality-linked attributes.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1979

Imitative behavior by Down's syndrome persons.

Three scales of imitative behavior (nonverbal, vocal, and verbal) were administered to 28 Down's syndrome subjects and 56 subjects with other diagnoses. All of the subjects were severely retarded and had at least partial vision and hearing, and the two groups were closely comparable with respect to sex, CA, and IQ. The results provided no support for the hypothesis--backed by a century of clinical observation--that individuals with Down's syndrome "are outstanding in their mimicry" (Belmont, 1971, p. 38).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Relationship between classroom behavior and achievement of mildly mentally retarded children.

Although the relationship between classroom behavior and academic achievement is well established for nonretarded children, the nature of this relationship is not clear for retarded children. Behavioral observations of 177 students in classrooms for educable mentally retarded children and for educationally handicapped children were compared to their achievement scores. Although significant correlations were found between some categories of behavior and achievement in arithmetic, the general absence of strong correlations was noteworthy when compared to previous findings on nonretarded subjects. Implications for academic instruction were suggested by the particular patterns of significant correlations.

Achievement↗
PubMed1978

MA changes in institutionalized Down's syndrome persons: a semi-longitudinal approach.

A semi-longitudinal approach was employed in this partial replication of a larger study of MA changes in institutionalized retarded persons (Fisher & Zeaman, 1970). Curves were fitted to MA data for a Down's syndrome group and a group of retarded subjects matched on the basis of initial Ma and CA. The findings generally replicated those of the earlier study. Specifically, the results of a multiple regression/correlation analysis indicated that the two curves were similar in shape, but differed with respect to height.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Factor structure of the SREB Attendant Opinion Scale.

A factor analysis of the SREB (Southern Regional Education Board) Attendant Opinion Scale was performed, based on the responses of 105 subjects. The results were very similar to those reported by the authors of the scale. Four factors were interpreted as relating to job dissatisfaction, maintenance of the rights of residents, belief in making residents conform to moral standards, and authoritarianism. The scale appears to be a promising instrument for evaluating attendants' attitudes.

Allied Health Personnel↗
PubMed1975

Comparison of two sets of Piagetian scales with severely and profoundly retarded children.

Corman and Excalona's (1969) scales for Object Permanence and Spatial Relationships and the corresponding scales of Uzgiris and Hunt (1975) were administered to 64 severely and prfoundly retarded children. Most of the findings applied equally to both sets of scales: the scoring reliability was very high; the total scores did not vary as a function of subject characteristics (except IQ) or testing conditions; differences in the difficulty of the items did not correspond closely to those reported for nonretarded infants, and the scalability of the items was much lower. Less time was required to administer the two scales constructed by Uzgiris and Hunt, but their Object Permanence scale showed a pronounced ceiling effect and the internal consistency of their Spatial Relationships scale was unacceptably low.

Adolescent↗