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Biomedical subjects

H N Switzky

Publications and source records attributed to H N Switzky.

18 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Self-reinforcement in mildly mentally retarded adults: effects of motivational orientation and instructional demand.

The effects of external (environmental) and internal (cognitive) self-influences of self-regulatory behaviour were investigated in 60 mildly mentally retarded adults. External conditions were three demand conditions (stringent, variable, and lenient). The 'internal' variable was an individual differences one, motivational orientation: one-half of the subjects were relatively intrinsically motivated and the other half were relatively extrinsically motivated. Both external and internal self-influences affected performance on a motor/attention task. Subjects in the stringent-demand condition worked harder, set higher performance standards and arranged leaner schedules of self-reinforcement than did subjects in the lenient demand condition. Intrinsically motivated subjects worked harder, set higher performance standards, and arranged leaner schedules of self-reinforcement than did extrinsically motivated subjects over all demand conditions. Furthermore, intrinsically motivated subjects chose higher performance standards than had been demonstrated to them in the lenient-demand condition, and also arranged leaner schedules of self reinforcement over all demand conditions than had been demonstrated to them, compared to extrinsically motivated subjects. Internal self-system characteristics appear to interact reciprocally with external demand characteristics to reveal substantial individual differences in patterns of self-reward behaviour.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1985

Work response of mildly mentally retarded adults to self- versus external regulation as a function of motivational orientation.

The Picture Motivation Scale was administered to 144 mildly mentally retarded adults from a community-based intermediate care facility. Those in the top and bottom quartiles on intrinsic motivation were classified as either relatively task intrinsically motivated or task extrinsically motivated and were assigned to behavior regulation conditions: self-regulated reinforcement, externally imposed reinforcement, or control. All subjects were given a work task consisting of placing washers into successive compartments of a container, with subjects in the external-reinforcement condition yoked to those in the self-regulation condition with respect to work goal and number of tokens received for their work. Across conditions intrinsically motivated subjects worked harder than did extrinsically motivated subjects; all of them worked harder under conditions of regulation of reinforcement matched to their motivational orientation (i.e., intrinsically motivated subjects under self-regulation, extrinsically motivated subjects under externally imposed reinforcement) than under the contrary condition. When not rewarded, intrinsically motivated subjects showed more sustained performance than did extrinsically motivated subjects. The importance of matching self-regulation expectations to individual differences in motivational orientation of retarded persons being prepared for relatively independent living was discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Development of school-age children's stereotypic attitudes toward mentally retarded children.

The developmental changes in the structure of attitudes toward mentally retarded children in elementary-school-aged students were investigated. Four orthogonal factors characterized their responses: General Negative Evaluation, General Positive Evaluation, Likeability, and Unhappiness. For the most part, increased age was associated with a decrease in negative stereotypes and an increase in a specific stereotype. The results were discussed in terms of contradictory findings in previous attitudinal research.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1979

Exploration and play in retarded and nonretarded preschool children: effects of object complexity and age.

Three-dimensional random polygon objects ranging in complexity between 4 and 40 turns were presented to 12, 30-month-old and 12, 42-month-old moderately retarded and nonretarded children. Time spent in exploration and in play was measured over three successive exposure-time blocks. Exploration time for the combined sample of retarded and nonretarded younger children did not vary with object complexity. The older retarded children explored objects of low complexity more than did either the combined sample of younger children or the older nonretarded children. Nonretarded older children explored complex objects more than did the combined sample of younger children. Exploration time decreased linearly with exposure-time blocks. Play time increased linearly with successive exposure-time blocks and decreased linearly with increasing complexity.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1975

Effects of auditory and pictorial-auditory stimulus enrichment on the verbal abstracting abilities of low-SES children.

Sixty-four low-SES Caucasian children, mean age 8.3 years, with high- and lowintellectual ability, were given a verbal similarities task. One-half of the subjects (the control group) received nonenriched items (2 exemplars of each concept on Presentation 1, which were repeated on Presentation 2), and half (the experimental group) received enriched items (2 exemplars of each concept on Presentation 1 and 4 exemplars on Presentation 2). Stimuli were presented in either the auditory or pictorial-auditory mode. The low-ability experimental group achieved abstracting gain scores greater than those of the lol-ability control group and greater than those of the high-ability experimental group. The low-ability experimental group achieved scores equivalent to those of the high-ability group under the pictorial-auditory enriched condition. Implications of these findings were discussed relative to academic performance of EMR children.

Acoustic Stimulation↗