Criterion Level Of Performance Research Articles

The ethanol stimulus in rats with differing ethanol preferences

Alcohol-accepting (AA) and alcohol-nonaccepting (ANA) rats (Alko, Finland) were tested for their ability to master a shock-motivated (0.6 mA scrambled AC current) T-maze discrimination in which IP injections of ethanol (1.0 g/kg, 10% w/v in saline, 20-min latency) and, on alternate days, equivolume saline were employed as a discriminative stimuli signalling the safety of right or left goal compartments. ANA rats reached the criterion level of performance (eight of ten correct first-trial responses) more quickly than did AA rats (12.3 +/- 2.3 versus 31.4 +/- 7.7 sessions, P less than 0.01) and also maintained a superior level of performance through-out the course of the experiment, suggesting that ethanol may have been a more salient cue for ANA rats than for AA rats. Injections of acetaldehyde (0.1-0.25 g/kg, 1.0-2.5% w/v in saline) produced ethanol-appropriate responding to a greater extent in ANA rats than in AA rats, indicating that the actions of acetaldehyde may contribute importantly to the stimulus condition produced by the injection of ethanol in ANA rats. Sodium pentobarbital (10.0 g/kg) was equally effective in mimicking the action of ethanol in both AA and ANA rats. AA and ANA rats did not differ significantly in the impairment of motor performance produced by a range of ethanol doses, suggesting that differences in stimuli related to motor impairment do not contribute to the differences observed in the cue value of ethanol for AA and ANA rats.

Test Purpose and Item Type

The recent Popham-Ebel (1978) debate on criterion versus normreferenced measurement has tended to point up some of the less clear patches in the field of measurement and evaluation. Central to many of the current problems, it seems, lie the issues of test purpose and of item type. This paper attempts to examine the two basic types of item in relation to currently emphasized core curricula, criterion versus norm referenced measurement, and formative and summative evaluation. In essence, Popham argued in the debate that most educators are primarily concerned with populations of knowledges, understandings, and skills which are susceptible to fairly precise description. In that the elements of a given population are known, a sample of them can be obtained in some systematic manner for estimating the level of a student's achievement with respect to that population. Further, as comparisons among students are largely irrelevant to the educational process, evaluation of achievement should be only by direct reference to an established criterion level of performance on the sample of items selected. Ebel presented the contrasting view that in general for most educators the populations of important knowledges and skills and their interrelationships for the courses they teach are almost infinitely great, so that these populations defy complete description both qualitatively and quantitatively. As the elements of these populations cannot be completely described, systematic sampling is not possible and, this being the case, the

EFFECTS OF SERIAL VERSUS CONCURRENT TASK SEQUENCING ON ACQUISITION, MAINTENANCE, AND GENERALIZATION1

Effects of serial and concurrent task presentation on skill acquisition, generalization, and maintenance were compared. Two severely retarded females participated. During serial training, items of one response class, tracing, were trained to mastery before those of a second task, vocal imitation. In the concurrent method, training on two different tasks, tracing and vocal imitation, alternated within sessions for fixed periods of time. There were no major differences between the serial and concurrent methods of instruction in the number of steps attained per behavior or in the number of trials required to reach criterion levels of performance. It was found however, that concurrent training resulted in more generalization. Retention results were not consistently related to training method.

Visual intelligibility of consonants: a lipreading screening test with implications for aural rehabilitation.

A lipreading screening test consisting of 100 consonant-vowel (CV) syllables was prepared on videotape and presented to subjected with normal hearing and vision. The results of visual consonant confusions revealed nine homophenous categories with high test-retest reliability. Based upon these categories, obtained under ideal viewing conditions, criterion levels of performance were specified in an attempt to determine the need for place of articulation instruction during lipreading training. Examples of confusion patterns from hearing-impaired observers are shown and implications for visual training are presented.

Premackian Reinforcement of Classroom Behavior Through Topic Sequencing

Summary In a test of Premack's model of reinforcement, 108 fifth-grade students at Cactus Wren Elementary School were randomly assigned to three groups. All subjects participated in 15 daily 90-minute experimental sessions. Prior to initiating the treatment, all of the subject's preferences for reading, social studies, and science were measured by means of a 10-point rating scale. Ratings for each of the three topics ranged from zero (“I don't like it”) to 10 (“I like it very much”). On the basis of the pretest ratings, it was possible to determine for each subject his least preferred (L), intermediate or middle (M), and highest rated (H) topic. One of the treatment groups, designated Reward, studied the three topics in a sequence that conformed to Premack's prescription for reinforcement. These subjects were required to achieve some criterion level of performance in L in order to gain access to M. Criterion achievement in topic M earned the right to initiate activities related to the most preferred topic...

Extrageniculostriate vision in the monkey. II. demonstration of brightness discrimination

Five monkeys ( Macaca mulatta) were trained, before and after histologically confirmed complete removal of area 17, most of 18 and part of 19, to choose the brighter of 2 targets in 3 discriminations using a pulling-in technique with movable transilluminated stimuli. A fourth test was given only postoperatively. All problems contained a 66:1 brightness difference. In test Problem I, figures differed in total luminous flux (equal area). The targets in all of the remaining tests were matched for luminous flux. In addition, in Problem III they were equated for overall surface, and in Problem IV, for amount of contour. Preoperatively, all monkeys mastered the 3 problems and showed transfer effects across the tests as revealed by both the performance of the first 10 trials, and the reduction in total error scores on successive tests. Postoperatively, all animals reached criterion level of performance in the 4 problems with significant deficits in only the first one. Marked transfer effects were present across the last 3 tests. Findings indicate that destriated monkeys may master the discrimination of targets which differ in brightness but are equated for total luminous flux and for overall surface or amount of contour. The presence of transfer effects suggests that these animals exhibited some degree of brightness constancy under the present testing conditions.

The effect of the duration of the warning signal on extinguishing avoidance responses in Fischer344 rats

Whenever an animal fails to respond during extinction trials in a discriminative avoidance procedure, shocks are omitted and the warning signal is terminated arbitrarily after some fixed interval. This experiment examined the effects of variations in the duration of this interval on the performance of inbred rats of the Fischer344 strain during shuttlebox extinction trials. Immediately following training to a criterion level of performance, the Ss were divided into four groups on the basis of the duration (ranging from 5 to 20 sec) of the warning signal before its arbitrary termination. The probability of responding during such extinction trials was an increasing monotonic function of the duration of this interval.

Extrageniculostriate vision in the monkey: Discrimination of luminous flux-equated figures

Six monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were tested before and after histologically confirmed total removal of the striate area and complete degeneration of the lateral geniculate nuclei. Using Klüver's pulling-in technique with nonmovable transillu-minated targets, two discrimination problems were given at both a high and a low photometric level. In the first test, the targets were of equal area and differed in luminance and total luminous flux (B-F problem). In the second test, figures differed in luminance and area in an inverse proportion (BA problem) which resulted in their being closely matched for total luminous flux. Postoperatively, the animals showed significant deficits on all tests. Every monkey, however, achieved criterion level of performance not only on the B-F but on the BA problem as well. Performance on the latter test did not change after dilatation of the pupils, or when minimal flux differences were eliminated as cues by making the rewarded target to have the lesser flux in half of the trials and the greater flux in the other half. These findings indicate that monkeys can be trained to discriminate between stimuli equated for total luminous flux after exclusion of the geniculostriate system. Although it is possible that other stimulus parameters are discriminated by such animals, our results do not necessarily negate Klüver's original concept. Indeed, destriated monkeys may still utilize a luminous flux cue to discriminate flux-equated figures through the detection of differences in the rate of change of this parameter during eyes, head and/or body movements.

Cage Size and Discrimination Tests in Birds: a Methodological Caution

A positive correlation was found between the stability of a learned discrimination and increased cage size in canaries. In the smaller cages, the canaries failed to achieve criterion for a simple discrimination problem, while in a cage four times as large, the same canaries immediately achieved a criterion level performance. A fruitful use of operant conditioning methods requires consideration of the features of the environment important to the animal.

The Evaluation of Interior Lighting on the Basis of Visual Criteria

Contrast sensitivity and visual acuity data are used to derive a unified visual performance contour which describes the generalized improvement in visual performance resulting as task background luminance is increased. Factors which influence the difficulty of visual tasks are described, and examples are given of the degree of task background luminance, and hence illuminance, required to permit criterion levels of performance for sample tasks. Physical principles and devices are described which permit measurements of: (a) task object contrast, (b) the integral of ocular light scatter which reduces task image contrast, and (c) the joint effect of luminance differences in the environment which produce transitional adaptive effects on visual performance. These physical aspects of luminous environments are shown to influence visual performance in quantitative ways which may be assessed by reference to the standard performance contour. An over-all lighting performance index is derived which takes account of the ta background luminance and these three other measures of the effects physical aspects of luminous environments have upon visual performance. Lighting performance indices are presented for five sample lighting installations, which reveal the overriding importance of other aspects of luminous environments than the level of illuminance they provide. The problem of predicting the over-all visual performance to be expected from specific luminous environments in advance of construction is discussed, and empirically derived calculational methods are described.