Effects of a Differential Observing Response on Intraverbal Performance of Preschool Children: A Preliminary Investigation

Axe (2008) speculated that some instances of intraverbal responding might be associated with limited or delayed acquisition because they require discrimination of multiple components of verbal stimuli. Past studies suggest that acquisition of responses under control of complex, multicomponent antecedent stimuli (e.g., conditional or compound stimulus control) can be facilitated with the introduction of a differential observing response (DOR; Dube & McIlvane, 1999; Gutowski, Geren, Stromer, & Mackay, 1995). The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of a DOR (i.e., repeating the question) on intraverbal responding with six neurotypical preschool children. Findings included that (a) accuracy of intraverbal performance increased when the experimenter prompted a DOR; (b) 1 of 6 participants overtly emitted the DOR for a second relation in the absence of prompts, which was correlated with increased accuracy; and (c) following mastery, response accuracy was variable for 3 participants. Based on these findings, prompted DORs may offer an effective, if temporary, aid to intraverbal instruction for neurotypical preschool children.     

Order-picking in deep cold--physiological responses of younger and older females. Part 1: heart rate

The sales figures of chilled and frozen food have been rising steadily over the years. Naturally, this has also led to an increase in the number of jobs related to these goods. While these workplaces are becoming more and more important there are, nevertheless, only a few investigations into the effects of working in deep cold on humans. Order-picking in a cold environment represents a high workload. Especially working at -24°C with wearing heavy cold protective clothing leads to explicitly higher strain. Since performance decreases with age, varying physical strain between younger and older employees can hypothetically be expected. In order to quantify the physiological responses to working in the cold, 15 subjects of two female age groups, each, (20- to 35-year-olds and 40- to 65-year-olds) were asked to carry out whole working day tasks in a chill room (+3°) and in a cold store (-24°C). Simultaneously, heart rate and other physiological relevant parameters were measured.     

Messung der Qualität in Dienstleistungscentern – am Beispiel eines Flughafens

The study shows that customers’ perception of overall quality in services centers is driven by two components: the service encounter quality and the quality of the servicecape. Thus, customers’ overall evaluation of service quality in a services center is a function of n service encounter qualities (k?=?1…n) and the quality of the servicecape. Furthermore, it is of great importance for the quality management of a services center that there could be (1) direct effects between the quality dimensions and the overall service quality as well as (2) direct effects between the quality dimensions themselves. The above mentioned study had been carried out exemplarily at the EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg. The survey results suggest that servicecape quality has a significant effect both on the overall service quality and on the service encounter qualities. Moreover, the study shows that key quality indicators of the service center apply to the perception of security as well as to the service environment (for instance, arrangement of check-in/security desk, comfort of seats, ambience of waiting area).     

Evaluation of the importance of ornamental plants for pollinators in urban and suburban areas in Stuttgart,Germany

Urban Ecosystems - Urban landscapes are often characterized by a wide range of diverse flowering plants consisting of native and exotic plants. These flower-rich habitats have proven to be...     

Volunteer work, informal help, and care among the 50+ in Europe: Further evidence for ‘linked’ productive activities at older ages

Taking a cross-national perspective, we investigate linkages between volunteer work, informal help, and care among Europeans aged 50 or older. Based on 27,297 personal interviews from the 2004 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, we estimate univariate and multivariate probit models, which allow us to analyze the interrelationship between those non-market productive activities. There is substantial variation in the participation in volunteering, helping, and caring between countries. Independent of the general level of activity in a country, we find evidence for a complementary and interdependent relationship between all three activities. Our findings not only suggest an important role of societal opportunity structures in elders’ productive engagement, but also support notions of the existence of a general motivation to be active.     

Heterogeneity in Trajectories of Life Satisfaction After Reunification: The Role of Individual Resources and Life Stage in Former East Germany

Social Indicators Research - For people living in the former East Germany, reunification with the former West Germany fundamentally transformed the sociopolitical system and most domains of...     

Mitigation and Benefits Measures as Policy Tools for Siting Potentially Hazardous Facilities: Determinants of Effectiveness and Appropriateness

How do mitigation and benefits measures affect public acceptance for siting different kinds of potentially hazardous facilities? What kinds of benefits measures are seen as most (or least) appropriate for different kinds of facilities? This study used a nationwide telephone survey consisting of 1,234 interviews with randomly selected respondents to test for the effects of packages of safety and benefits measures for siting a landfill, prison, incinerator and nuclear waste repository. The experimental design used in the survey permits analysis of the fractions of respondents who are willing to change their initial levels of acceptance (or opposition) when presented with a sequence of the safety and benefit measures. The measures vary significantly in their impact on levels of acceptance for the facilities, and some measures that would at face value appear to reassure residents of facility safety turn out to lack credibility and therefore diminish facility acceptance. Ordering of the benefits versus safety measures significantly affects changes in acceptance in surprising ways. The perceived appropriateness of different kinds of benefits measures varies systematically by the type of facility under consideration. It appears that successful benefits packages will directly address the underlying dimensions of concern caused by the facility. These findings point to the importance of further research on “commensurable” benefits measures.