Objective. To compare the effectiveness of a semiautomated teaching procedure for teaching, spelling, and reading to retarded children with a similar fully automated procedure and with a standardized classroom procedure. Procedures. Two groups of 40 to 60 retardates in the age range from 10 to 20 years, matched as closely as possible on relevant variables, will comprise the experimental group. Subjects from public school classes and a residential training center will serve as a control group. A semiautomated and a fully automated program which are identical in essential word elements will be developed experimentally with nonsample subjects. The fully automated procedure involves machine-presentation and machine-reinforcement of the teaching programs. A correct response results in a machine signal; an incorrect answer receives a different signal. No reinforcement is required from an instructor. The semiautomated method requires the subject to manipulate a device on which correct responses are recorded. Visual reinforcement is provided by the written response and corresponding images. Verbal reinforcement is provided by an instructor. Comparison of the two techniques will be based upon achievement during equal time exposures. LESLIE F. MALPASS, professor and chairman of the Behavioral Science Program, University of South Florida, Tampa. Project 1267. Duration: 2 years. Comprehension of Rapid Speech by the Blind Problem. This project is an extension of current research which seeks to determine the feasibility of the time compression techniques for increasing the rate of communication of spoken information. Objectives. (1) To determine the upper limit of speech compression at which useful comprehension is still obtainable, and (2) to formulate several training procedures for subsequent evaluation that can be used in training large groups of blind children and adults to approach the upper limit in the comprehension of compressed speech. Procedures. The research staff will listen to compressed speech under a variety of conditions that seem to be related to comprehension. They will manipulate such variables as the amount of experience in listening to compressed speech, schedules for increasing the rate of compressed speech, length of practice periods, problems posed 649899-62- -7 by complexity of material, testing for comprehension of material heard, and relation to the degree of compression employed. Then about six adults of college ability, some of whom are blind, will be trained to a high degree of compression on the basis of the experience of research personnel. When these adults have achieved what seems to be their upper limit in the comprehension of compressed speech, their experiences will be pooled with those of the research personnel in an attempt to formulate tentative training procedures to be fieldtested with small groups of blind children. The statistical anaylsis will include the recording of the trends of performance in training procedures. In addition, the field testing with small groups will use tests and correlational studies seeking post hoc findings to be formulated as specific testable hypotheses. RAY H. BIXLER, professor and head, and EMERSON FOULKE, adjunct associate professor, Department of Psychology and Social Anthropology, University of Louisville, Ky. Project No. 1370. New Methods of Language Development in Deaf Children Problem. To develop methods of helping deaf children acquire language earlier and at a more rapid rate than is possible with conventional methods. Objectives. To devise a more effective method of introducing language and simulating its development in deaf children than conventional methods used at present. Procedures.-This study will be divided into two phases. Phase I will be devoted to the investigation of different adaptations of Moore's method of teaching language via the typewriter. The sample will include approximately 25 deaf children ranging in age from 3 to 8 years from the Kendall School and the Gallaudet Speech and Hearing Center. Children will be permitted to manipulate a modified electric typewriter in a permissive environment in which feedback of their efforts is provided. Pre- and post-assessment of each child's verbal skills will be made. Most of the data will be analyzed clinically. However, some data will be subjected to an analysis of variance. The data from phase I will determine which method will be used for phase II. In this phase, 2 groups of 20 children each will be assigned to either the experimental or control condition. The children will be matched on several variables. Appropriate tests of significance will be made of differences between experimental and control groups, and between pre- and post-measures on the experimental group. HOWARD L. Roy, director, Counseling Center, professor of psychology, and JEROME D. SCHEIN, clinical psychologist and director, Office of Psychoeducational Research, Gallaudet College, Washington, D.C. Project 1383. Sept. 1961 to Aug. 1963. Factors Influencing Learning and Problem-Solving Behavior in the Mentally Retarded Problem.-This project is concerned with a study of factors influencing learning and problem-solving behavior in the mentally retarded. Objective. To determine what conditions and experiences impede or improve the learning and problem-solving behavior of mental retardates. Procedure. The basic procedure will be to manipulate and control the intervening variables in certain learning and problem-solving situations. As an example, in some experiments intensity-brightness and peripheral characteristics will be deliberately emphasized in an effort to facilitate insight and certain problem-solving behavior. In other experiments, efforts will be made to minimize or eliminate the preoccupation with peripheral cues. Extensive use will be made of directive reinforcements. The design of all experiments will be such as to permit intergroup and intragroup comparisons, the study of intraproblem and interproblem variables, and the assessment of individual differences in performance. Multivariate factorially designed analyses of variance in which it is possible to treat such things as "time" and "error" data simultaneously will be used. The sample will include 2 main groups of mentally retarded subjects. One group will be composed of about 50 young people and adults at the Southern Colony and Training School at Union Grove, Wis.; the second group will be composed of about 50 children in primary special classes of the Madison and the Milwaukee public schools. The sample will vary from experiment to experiment. KAI JENSEN, professor of education, Project 1440. Duration: 5 years. Sept. 1961 to Sept. 1966. |