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Biomedical subjects

S A Soraci

Publications and source records attributed to S A Soraci.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Generalized oddity performance in preschool children: a bimodal training procedure.

Oddity performance requires relational discriminative responding, which typically is difficult to establish in children with MAs below five. In Experiment 1, a combination intrasubject reversal and multiple baseline across subjects design was used to establish the internal validity of a bimodal intervention in establishing generalized oddity performance. Six of seven children demonstrated oddity responding when presented with stimuli that instantiated the oddity relation in the visual and auditory modalities simultaneously. Oddity performance was evaluated with both reversal assessments and assessments with new sets of stimuli. The newly acquired oddity performance was durable; the six children continued to respond discriminatively when returned to a visual-only task on which they previously had been unsuccessful. Utilizing a reversal assessment more stringent than that of Experiment 1, Experiment 2 replicated this effect. The present studies are the first to demonstrate the utility of bimodal training in establishing oddity performance. The bimodal procedure is discussed with respect to the theoretical positions of Gibson, Dinsmoor, and Dixon.

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PubMed1990

Attentional functioning and relational learning.

Stimulus properties such as similarity-dissimilarity and novelty-familiarity are inherently relational and are embedded in ubiquitous stimulus contexts. Children with mental retardation and young children without mental retardation are particularly prone to failure on relational tasks such as oddity and match-to-sample (Greenfield, 1985; Soraci et al., in press). Converging evidence from a number of studies suggest that a critical factor in the performance discrepancies between these and other children is a differential sensitivity to relational information. In these studies relational characteristics of stimulus arrays were enhanced in order to facilitate performances on such relational tasks. Findings indicate the theoretical and practical significance of perceptually based interventions that induce rapid discrimination learning.

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PubMed1988

Oddity learning in developmentally delayed children: facilitation by means of familiar stimuli.

Four of 8 low-functioning, developmentally delayed children initially failed to demonstrate oddity responding under conditions in which ostensibly similar children did show oddity responding (e.g., Soraci et al., 1987). In the context of a multiple baseline across-subjects design, each of the 4 previously unsuccessful children demonstrated statistically significant increases in the percentage of correct oddity responses immediately upon introduction of familiar stimuli. These results indicate that perceptual differentiation enhances relational learning of the type required by the oddity task.

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PubMed1987

Oddity performance in preschool children at risk for mental retardation: transfer and maintenance.

The oddity performance of five preschool children at risk for mental retardation was facilitated by increasing the number of nonodd elements in a visual array. A combination intrasubject reversal and multiple baseline across subjects design indicated the internal validity of interventions designed to enhance the perceptual salience and consequent stimulus control of the odd stimulus. Results demonstrate that transfer and maintenance of oddity learning can be obtained even with individuals for whom correct oddity responding is uncommon. The typically poor performance of young and developmentally delayed children as compared to nondelayed children on tasks such as the oddity task may be attributable to a lower sensitivity to relational information.

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PubMed1983

Assessment of patient satisfaction in activities of daily living using a modified Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire.

Patient satisfaction in performing activities of daily living (ADL) was assessed by using a self-administered questionnaire modified from the Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ). The HAQ includes questions to determine a patient's degree of difficulty and need for help and assistive devices in ADL. A modification of the HAQ (MHAQ) was developed to include questions concerning perceived patient satisfaction regarding the same ADL, along with perceived change in degree of difficulty. In order to add additional questions while maintaining the length of the questionnaire in a format suitable in routine care, the number of ADL included in the MHAQ was reduced from 20 to 8. Information regarding degree of difficulty derived from 8 questions in the MHAQ is comparable with that derived from 20 questions in the HAQ. The response of a patient that a specific activity is associated with difficulty in functional capacity was not inevitably associated with the absence of patient satisfaction; 43.7% of patients responding "with some difficulty" and 19.1% of patients responding "with much difficulty" expressed satisfaction with their functional capacity. A major determinant of expression of patient satisfaction was perceived change in difficulty: 81.4% of patients noting that their function was "less difficult now," in contrast to 16.9% of patients responding "more difficult now," expressed satisfaction. These studies suggest that data regarding patient satisfaction and perceived change in difficulty can be assessed to more completely characterize patients' functional status in ADL.

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