Research into human communication has been grouped under two traditions: referential and sociolinguistic. The study of a communication behavior simultaneously from both paradigms appears to be absent. Basically, this paper analyzes the use of private and social speech, through both a referential task (Word Pairs) and a naturalistic dyadic setting (Lego-set) administered to a sample of 64 children from grades 3 and 5. All children, of 8 and 10 years of age, used speech that was not adapted to the decoder, and thus ineffective for interpersonal communication, in both referential and sociolinguistic communication. Pairs of high-skill referential encoders used significantly more task-relevant social speech, that is, cognitively more complex, than did low-skill dyads in the naturalistic context. High-skill referential encoder dyads showed a trend to produce more inaudible private speech than did low-skill ones during spontaneous communication. Gender did not affect the results.

The creation and adaptation of scales or inventories assessing specific circadian typologies has been a predominant focus within the field of chronopsychology. The present study addressed the psychometric properties of two scales of morningness-eveningness: the Morningness Composite Scale (CS; Smith, Reilly, & Midkiff, 1989) and the Early/Late Preferences Scale (PS; Smith, Folkard, Schmieder, Parra, Spelten, & Almirall, 1993). Internal consistency and factor invariance of the CS and PS were analyzed in two samples: a group of 203 university students (age range = 19-30) and a group of 125 working adults (age range = 31-65). Results indicated satisfactory internal consistency for both full scales with each age group and confirmed the factor invariance across age for the two CS factors and one of the PS factors. A higher tendency in morningness on both scales was noted in the adult sample.

Wechsler's intelligence test-batteries are still popular yet suffer from psychometric shortcomings and lack a certain content improvement and enlargement. In this paper a new approach will be presented that suits traditional Wechsler-testing. The approach in question is the Adaptive Intelligence Diagnosticum (AID 2; Kubinger & Wurst, 2000). Due to it's “branched testing” design, AID 2 works out to be more economical and in this regard also offers other advantages, such as parallel tests and short forms. AID 2 offers a method of survey for identifying specific developmental disorders or learning disabilities. It includes an optional non-verbal instruction and a schedule for retrograde observation support of behavioral misfits. It also offers discriminative indicators for intellectual neglect vs. intellectual advancement.

The present study explores accuracy in estimating blood glucose levels (BGL) in children with type 1 diabetes and analyzes the kinds of symptoms and cues which they use to estimate their BGL. Forty two children with type 1 diabetes completed a SI/IC-3 scale consisting of 28 items (22 symptoms and 6 feelings), indicating those which they perceived at the time and their intensity. They estimated their BGL and gave reasons for their estimation, before having a blood glucose level analysis performed. The results indicated great variability in the accuracy of estimating BGL. They showed failures in the correct discrimination of symptoms of hypoglycemia as well as the presence of false beliefs regarding indicative symptoms of hyperglycemia, and the absence of symptoms as an indicator for euglycemia, beliefs which provoke different and frequent errors in the estimation of BGL. Correct use of external signs is shown to be related to correct estimations of normal BGL, as well as hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia. We discuss the implications these results could have on designing psychological intervention procedures for diabetics in the form of training programs to discriminate BGL accurately, taking into account these findings and previous studies completed in the same field.

Psychological models of mental disorders play an important role in the explanation of psychological deterioration. Researchers from this area usually study several cognitive and behavioral variables to account for the onset and maintenance of depression. However, many authors have detected the need to include a “social dimension” in the explanation of deterioration. In this sense, social support has become a crucial aspect in the study of mental health, and the psychological literature on this topic has generated an intense debate about several facets of the positive impact of social networks on psychological well-being. In this article, the author defends that this increasing centrality of the concept has been accompanied by a psychological reductionism that is making the role of “social aspects” to explain psychological well-being more problematic. Implications of this reductionism are discussed, and an alternative proposal is made to overcome some theoretical and empirical problems related to social support research.

This paper describes characteristic behaviors of my father, B. F. Skinner, using family documents and my own recollections. Early contingencies in his upbringing strengthened his love of building things and his independence in discovering how the world works. Those skills, combined with a lack of supervision in graduate school, set the stage for his discovery of the operant. He did not stop with laboratory research. He extended his discovery of how consequences select behavior into education and the design of cultural practices. As well as solving society's problems, my father was always concerned with improving his own behavior. Some of the contingencies he set up to maximize his own productivity are described.

Over the centuries and across all societies educational achievement does not improve. The attempt to improve the instructional process has concentrated on instructional technology. But these attempts have overlooked the importance of two other factors: the science that should underlie the instructional technologies and the organization that must operate those technologies. A considerable step forward in handling the problems of instructional effectiveness has been the derivation of instructional technologies based on Skinnerian science. But the instructional technologies based on Skinner's analysis of behavior are promoted as if they were to operate in an organizational vacuum. The division of labor, and its necessary coordination and control, is taken for granted. But in any large scale enterprise, the organization of the division of labor must fit the technology through which that enterprise achieves its mission. Educational technology must tie directly to a pertinent science and to a proper organizational structure. To teach effectively requires an overhaul along three lines: 1) a relevant science that reflects and encapsulates an accurate understanding of behavior; 2) a contingency-based technology of instruction that directly derives its practices upon proper scientific principles; and 3) a suitable organization based on teaching teams that operate the new instructional technology.

These short notes describe the way in which Skinner considers and resolves his differences with Pavlov in the question of the relation between psychology and physiology as forms of knowledge. After establishing his viewpoint in the general epistemological issue, Skinner is concerned about linking his study of behavior to the work of Pavlov, who considered it to be of a physiological nature. Skinner contrasts Pavlov's empirical and theoretical work and characterizes the latter in terms of the notion of the “Conceptual Nervous System.”

In 1957, Skinner, in his “Verbal Behavior”, proposed an explanation on how a language is learned. In 1959, Chomsky strongly argued the non-learnability of language, establishing in the field of developmental psycholinguistics the substitution of the term “learning” for that of “acquisition”. Currently, the constructivist models describe language acquisition as a process of ontogenetic, gradual, complex, and adaptive change. This new theoretical framework has been especially useful for rereading Verbal Behavior because it facilitates recovering the Skinnerian learning mechanisms. This can be observed in the recent research trends that recapture reinforcement and imitation (echoic responses), although they are now located in the initial phases of the process and are included in a cognitive dynamic that, by gradually increasing its complexity, can achieve grammar. The new constructivist theoretical framework, by retrieving the functional and referential aspects of language, can also take advantage of the classic Skinnerian proposal about the pragmatic types of verbal behavior, providing it with new meaning.

This article is a radical restatement of the predominant psychopathology, which is characterized by nosological systems and by its approach towards a neurobiological conception of the so-called mental disorders. The “radical” sense of this restatement is that of radical behaviorism itself. As readers will recall, “radical” applied to behaviorism means total (not ignoring anything that interests psychology), pragmatic (referring to the practical sense of knowledge), and it also derives from the Latin word for “root” (and thus implies change beginning at a system's roots or getting to the root of things, in this case, of psychological disorders). Based on this, I introduce the Aristotelian distinction of material and form, which, besides being behaviorist avant la lettre, is used here as a critical instrument to unmask the hoax of psychopathology as it is presented. The implications of this restatement are discussed, some of them already prepared for clinical practice.

Skinner is, without a doubt, one of the most predominant figures in the development of Behavior Modification and Behavior Therapy. Skinners' work is essential to the development of Behavior Modification and Behavior Therapy. Beginning with the social need for efficient psychotherapy, and after having generated a solid theoretical body of behavioral laws, Skinner indicated and also developed the appropriate path towards efficient interventions for unadaptive behavior. He developed a new theory regarding abnormal behavior (psychopathology), as well as a procedural model for evaluation (diagnosis) and intervention: “The functional analysis of behavior”. His applications for this kind of work are pioneering and at the same time, he is the agglutinant figure of what we today call “Behavior Modification and/or Therapy”.

It is remarkable that a scientist could change the theories and practices of a discipline as radically as Skinner and his work did. His work, however, still has its limitations. The best way to acknowledge and pay tribute to Skinners' work is to overcome these limitations.