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PubMed1979

Developmental progression in play behavior of children between nine and thirty months. I: Spontaneous play and imitation.

The developmental progression of play behavior was studied cross-sectionally in 85 children at eight age-levels between nine and 30 months. In a structured play situation, three major play patterns were distinguished: (1) exploratory play (at the end of the first year); (2) functional play (beginning of second year); and (3) representational play (after 15 months). Sequential play first occurred at 21 months. Play behavior with spatial characteristics was also observed: relational and container play between nine and 15 months, and understanding of spatial relationships, stacking and grouping between 18 and 24 months. There was a significant relationship between spontaneous and imitative play behavior; the greatest affect was displayed when the demonstrated behaviors matched the child's developmental level of play.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2005

EEG evidence for mirror neuron dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are largely characterized by deficits in imitation, pragmatic language, theory of mind, and empathy. Previous research has suggested that a dysfunctional mirror neuron system may explain the pathology observed in ASD. Because EEG oscillations in the mu frequency (8-13 Hz) over sensorimotor cortex are thought to reflect mirror neuron activity, one method for testing the integrity of this system is to measure mu responsiveness to actual and observed movement. It has been established that mu power is reduced (mu suppression) in typically developing individuals both when they perform actions and when they observe others performing actions, reflecting an observation/execution system which may play a critical role in the ability to understand and imitate others' behaviors. This study investigated whether individuals with ASD show a dysfunction in this system, given their behavioral impairments in understanding and responding appropriately to others' behaviors. Mu wave suppression was measured in ten high-functioning individuals with ASD and ten age- and gender-matched control subjects while watching videos of (1) a moving hand, (2) a bouncing ball, and (3) visual noise, or (4) moving their own hand. Control subjects showed significant mu suppression to both self and observed hand movement. The ASD group showed significant mu suppression to self-performed hand movements but not to observed hand movements. These results support the hypothesis of a dysfunctional mirror neuron system in high-functioning individuals with ASD.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Modifying exposure to smoking depicted in movies: a novel approach to preventing adolescent smoking.

BACKGROUND: Most behavioral approaches to adolescent smoking address the behavior directly. We explore an indirect approach: modifying exposure to portrayals of smoking in movies. OBJECTIVES: To describe adolescents' exposure to smoking in movies and to examine factors that could modify such exposure. DESIGN: Occurrences of smoking were counted in each of 601 popular movies. Four thousand nine hundred ten northern New England junior high school students were asked to report which movies they had seen from a randomly generated subsample of 50 films, and responses were used to estimate exposure to the entire sample. Analysis The outcome variable was exposure to movie smoking, defined as the number of smoking occurrences seen. Risk factors for exposure included access to movies (movie channels, videotape use, and movie theater); parenting (R [restricted]-rated movie restrictions, television restrictions, parenting style); and characteristics of the child (age, sex, school performance, sensation-seeking propensity, rebelliousness, and self-esteem). We used multiple regression to assess the association between risk factors and exposure to movie smoking. RESULTS: Subjects had seen an average of 30% of the movie sample (interquartile range, 20%-44%), from which they were exposed to 1160 (interquartile range, 640-1970) occurrences of smoking. In a multivariate model, exposure to movie smoking increased (all P values <.001) by about 10% for each additional movie channel and for every 2 videos watched per week. Exposure increased by 30% for those going to the movie theater more than once per month compared with those who did not go at all. Parent restriction on viewing R-rated movies resulted in a 50% reduction in exposure to movie smoking. There was no association between parenting style and exposure to movie smoking. Much of the protective effect of parent R-rated movie restriction on adolescent smoking was mediated through lower exposure to movie smoking. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents see thousands of smoking depictions in movies, and this influences their attitudes and behavior. Exposure to movie smoking is reduced when parents limit movie access. Teaching parents to monitor and enforce movie access guidelines could reduce adolescent smoking in an indirect, yet powerful, manner.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Modification of problem interation in mother-child dyads by modeling and behavior rehearsal.

Eighteen mother-child dyads who previously had reported difficulties in solving problems were assessed behaviorally in situations in which they attempted to resolve conflicts. Half the dyads then were given two treatment sessions that consisted of modeling and rehearsal designed to improve their skills in resolving problem situations. In the pretest assessment a number of significant correlations between mother and child responses were found. Notably, when mothers blamed or used direct arbitrary power with their children, the children in turn emitted oppositional behaviors, but when the mothers made tentative proposals, their children reciprocated with positive responses. In the posttest assessment, treatment mothers employed the expression of feelings to their children as a conflict resolution strategy significantly more often than did control mothers. There was also a tendency for the treatment children to acquiesce less to their mothers' demands than did control children in the problem situations.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Role-playing techniques: locus of control and the attraction to behavior simulation interventions.

This study investigated the relationship between internal-external locus of control and preferences to enact conflict situations designed as spontaneous, mimetic-replication or a combination of these two behavior simulation (role playing) conditions. Four groups of females, high-school students (N = 10 each), indicated their portrayal preferences on a Role Playing Situation Questionnaire. Two of these, an internal and an external group, participated in a task designed to create feelings of failure (lack of success) prior to taking the questionnaire. Spontaneous portrayals were preferred by internals, and portrayals that involved mimetic-replication were favored by externals. Unsuccessful internals preferred the combined spontaneous/mimetic-replication alternative more than did the other internals. The relationship between personality and role playing, as well as the implications for clinical uses of behavior simulation conditions, is discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

The effect of two kinds of role playing on self-evaluation of improved assertiveness.

The study investigated the "differential effect of role-playing enactments" hypothesis through self-evaluations of improvement in assertiveness by participants in an assertive training program. Twenty-two nonassertive Israeli students were trained in two groups: mimetic-replications (action modeling, n = 12) and spontaneous (self-produced action, n = 10) role-playing interventions. Comparisons of their scores on the Self-Expression College Scale (CSES) before and after the training showed that both groups significantly improved their self-evaluations, but the mimetic-replication group did better. In particular, this group scored significantly higher on the CSES first factor (the willingness to take risks in situations that involved other, significant persons).

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Effect of mother on the development of aggressive behavior in rats.

Young rats 23 days of age (Wistar strain) that are offspring of aggressive parents will attack mice. They kill them, however, only if the mother has already killed mice in their presence. Rats 30 days of age will kill mice spontaneously without any previous exposure to killing. The occurrence of muricide activity in young rats of this age is the same as in the adult population. If offspring of aggressive parents are reared by nonaggressive foster mothers from birth, they will not exhibit the muricide reaction at 30 days. In adulthood, however, the reaction appears to the same extent as in the offspring of aggressive parents reared by aggressive mothers. If the descendants of nonaggressive parents are reared by aggressive foster mothers from birth, 64.7% of them will kill mice at the age of 30 days. This aggression is retained in equal intensity during adulthood and cannot be attributed to specific learning in that the mothers have never encountered a mouse in the presence of their foster young.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1986

High-school smoking prevention: results of a three-year longitudinal study.

This study compared two strategies for preventing cigarette smoking among high-school students. One strategy emphasized social-pressure resistance skills, while the other focused on education about health concerns which are relevant to high-school students. Additionally, the use of same-age peer leaders and the use of familiar models in media presentations were investigated. The results suggest that social-influences resistance training was efficacious in reducing transitions to higher use by those who had previously experimented with cigarettes. Health education was most effective in preventing initial experimentation among those who had not smoked prior to the beginning of the study. Neither program was effective in limiting transitions among those who had gone beyond the experimental stage of smoking, and neither had any effect on encouraging cessation. There were no differences which could be attributed to peer leaders or to familiar media models. During later adolescence, a combined health education and social skills training approach is advocated. It is suggested that while there are some gains by implementing programs during late adolescence, prevention programs targeted at younger students may be more effective generally.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

A social skills group for autistic children.

The evolution and preliminary evaluation of a social skills training group for 10 autistic children aged between 9 and 16 years was described. These children attended a special unit which aimed to integrate them into normal school provision. The paper consists of a description of the evolution of the group and the training methods employed and an evaluation of the effect of the group. This was accomplished by the use of a standard teacher's questionnaire. The results of the evaluation are described and the implications for further study of this means of helping autistic individuals discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Cultural innovation and transmission of tool use in wild chimpanzees: evidence from field experiments.

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are the most proficient and versatile users of tools in the wild. How such skills become integrated into the behavioural repertoire of wild chimpanzee communities is investigated here by drawing together evidence from three complementary approaches in a group of oil-palm nut- ( Elaeis guineensis) cracking chimpanzees at Bossou, Guinea. First, extensive surveys of communities adjacent to Bossou have shown that population-specific details of tool use, such as the selection of species of nuts as targets for cracking, cannot be explained purely on the basis of ecological differences. Second, a 16-year longitudinal record tracing the development of nut-cracking in individual chimpanzees has highlighted the importance of a critical period for learning (3-5 years of age), while the similar learning contexts experienced by siblings have been found to result in near-perfect (13 out of 14 dyads) inter-sibling correspondence in laterality. Third, novel data from field experiments involving the introduction of unfamiliar species of nuts to the Bossou group illuminates key aspects of both cultural innovation and transmission. We show that responses of individuals toward the novel items differ markedly with age, with juveniles being the most likely to explore. Furthermore, subjects are highly specific in their selection of conspecifics as models for observation, attending to the nut-cracking activities of individuals in the same age group or older, but not younger than themselves. Together with the phenomenon of inter-community migration, these results demonstrate a mechanism for the emergence of culture in wild chimpanzees.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Proximal peer-level effects of a small-group selected prevention on aggression in elementary school children: an investigation of the peer contagion hypothesis.

Examined peer contagion in small group, selected prevention programming over one school year. Participants were boys and girls in grades 3 (46 groups, 285 students) and 6 (36 groups, 219 students) attending school in low-resource, inner city communities or moderate resource urban communities. Three-level hierarchical linear modeling (observations within individuals within groups) indicated that individual change in aggression over time related to the average aggression of others in the intervention group. The individual child was "pulled" toward peers' mean level of aggression; so the intervention appeared to reduce aggression for those high on aggression, and to make those low on aggression more aggressive. Effects appeared to be magnified in either direction when the child was more discrepant from his or her peers. From these results we derive a principle of "discrepancy-proportional peer-influence" for small group intervention, and discuss the implications of this for aggregating aggressive children in small group programs.

Aggression↗
PubMed2004

Psychometric properties of the STAT for early autism screening.

The STAT is an interactive screening measure for autism that assesses behaviors in the areas of play, communication, and imitation skills. In Study 1, signal detection procedures were employed to identify a cutoff score for the STAT using developmentally matched groups of 2-year-old children with autism and with nonspectrum disorders. The resulting cutoff yielded high sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values for the development sample as well as for an independent validation sample. Study 2 examined psychometric properties of the STAT and revealed acceptable levels of interrater agreement, test-retest reliability, and agreement between STAT risk category and ADOS-G classification. The STAT demonstrates strong psychometric properties and shows promising utility as a Level 2 screening measure for autism.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1985

Facilitating telephone number recall in a case of psychogenic amnesia.

In the present case study, a middle-aged woman was admitted to the hospital with no identification and no recollection of her identity. Attempts by social and police agencies to recognize, or discover some clue about the patient, were unsuccessful. The behavioral interventions of modeling, reinforcement, and progressive relaxation were designed to induce telephone dialing behavior and telephone number recall. The positive outcome of the case is discussed in terms of spontaneous remission, and the effects of relaxation therapy, a physical-motoric non-verbal procedure on the recollection process of the amnesia victim.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Evaluation of an instructions and modeling procedure for training behavioral assessment interviewing.

Ten undergraduate psychology majors served as participants in two experiments training behavioral assessment interviewing skills. In the first study four participants received training with instructions and audio and written modeling in a multiple baseline across participants design. All participants increased interviewing performance substantially with training. The second study was conducted to evaluate the written instructional material alone. After baseline interviews all six remaining participants received training with instructions in a multiple baseline across participants fashion. For four participants who did not increase interview performance to 90% correct with instructions, the modeling component was added as a third phase. By the end of a subsequent feedback phase all participants increased their performance to 90% or better. Social validation measures of participants' interviewing performance were than added to evaluate process-related variables in the interview.

Audiovisual Aids↗