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VARIATIONS IN THE PROPERTIES OF INSTRUCTIONAL REINFORCEMENT WERE STUDIED UNDER TWO ASPECTS OF TEACHER BEHAVIOR, PUNITIVENESS AND EXPERTISE, TO IDENTIFY TECHNIQUES FOR AFFECTING OPERANT RESPONSE RATE IN A VERBAL CONDITIONING SITUATION. PUNITIVENESS AND EXPERTISE WERE MANIPULATED BY USING PREARRANGED TAPE RECORDINGS OF A SIMULATED SOCIAL STUDIES CLASS. THESE RECORDINGS WERE PRESENTED TO 160 HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN GROUPS OF FIVE. TWO STUDENTS FROM EACH GROUP (MALE) THEN PARTICIPATED IN INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS WITH THE TEACHER WHOSE CLASS THEY HAD HEARD. SOCIAL REINFORCEMENT WAS VARIED DURING THE INTERVIEWS. POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT WAS USED IN 75 PERCENT OF THE INTERVIEWS WHERE THE TEACHER SMILED AND NODDED HIS HEAD WHEN STUDENTS MADE CERTAIN RESPONSES. IN THE REMAINING INTERVIEWS, THE TEACHER REMAINED NEUTRAL TO ALL STUDENT RESPONSES. QUESTIONNAIRES WERE ADMINISTERED AFTER BOTH THE SIMULATED CLASSROOM SESSIONS AND INTERVIEWS TO ELICIT SPECIFIED STUDENT REACTIONS. THE MAJOR FINDINGS INDICATED THAT NONPUNITIVE TEACHERS ELICITED A HIGHER OPERANT RATE UNDER THE REINFORCEMENT CONDITION AND THAT PUNITIVE TEACHERS ELICITED A HIGHER OPERANT RATE UNDER THE NEUTRAL CONDITION. EXPERTISE PRODUCED NO SIGNIFICANT EFFECTS ON THE OPERANT RATE. THE OPERANT RESPONSE RATE WAS SIMPLY THE NUMBER OF FIRST PERSON PRONOUNS EMITTED BY THE INDIVIDUAL STUDENTS DURING THEIR INTERVIEWS. (JH)

Ninety-six fifth-grade children--representing all combinations of male and female, low and middle socioeconomic status, and Negro and white characteristics--were arranged in pairs with peers of the same sex, economic background, and race. The pairs were observed in a two-party communication situation which involved the exchange of descriptive information in order to identify similar pictures. Results showed that middle socioeconomic class pairs were significantly more accurate in the picture identification than were the lower class pairs and that white pairs were significantly more accurate than Negro pairs. Observed differences could not be attributed to differences in IQ nor to differences in amount of verbal discussion required to complete the task. Differences between SES groups were partly attributed to the middle-class groups' ability to communicate more critical attributes about the pictures. These differences in language usage which are related to the accurate exchange of information have important implications for the design and content of language arts curricula. (Tables of results and selected references are provided.) (Author/LH)

This report describes the design, production, and evaluation of the first six lessons of a self-instructional program in standard English. The program is designed for use by fifth-grade students in Baltimore who are speakers of Baltimore non-standard Negro English. The six lessons were developed, pre-tested, revised, and evaluated in an attempt to assess the effectiveness of the program and to provide a more empirical basis for further development of instructional materials for the particular student population. A mastery test, constructed to measure the objectives of the lessons, successfully discriminated between the students receiving the programed instruction and a control group. Furthermore, the evaluation resulted in specific suggestions for program improvement. (Authors/DO)

The occurrence of the two allomorphs of the indefinite article in standard English ("a" before nouns or noun clauses beginning with consonant sounds and "an" before those beginning with vowel sounds) is a concept similar to those studied in the general concept formation paradigm. The acquisition of this grammatical concept was examined using 80 inner-city Negro fifth-graders. Results indicated that (1) learning the sound differences between instances and non-instances of the concept had no effect on subjects learning to effectively use instances of the concept orally; (2) learning to verbalize the grammatical rule which governs the concept did not facilitate concept formation; (3) training on the application of the verbalized rules strongly facilitated the acquisition of the ability to produce instances of the concept (p .001). The application training was superior to rule learning for low IQ but not for high IQ subjects. The ability to produce instances of the concept did not affect the ability to produce sentences containing instances of the concept. (Author/LH)