The present study examined public perceptions toward children with autism or with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A convenience sample was used consisting of 30 children (7-12-yearolds) and 30 adults. Participants read a stereotyped scenario featuring either a child with autism, a child with ADHD, or a normal child. Child participants were significantly more likely than adults to (a) express dislike/avoidance toward a child described with either stereotypic autistic or ADHD behaviors, and (b) perceive the child with ADHD as unlike themselves. However, child participants and adults were equally likely to see the autistic child as unlike themselves. Reasons for the different perceptions of children and adults may include differences in perceived threat and in categorization.

No abstract

As a partial replication of Grey and Barnes (1996), the transfer of discriminative functions in accordance with equivalence relations was examined. Twelve participants were exposed to one of two conditions. In Condition 1, six participants were trained in six matching-to-sample tasks (A1-B1, A1-C1, A2-B2, A2-C2, A3-B3, A3-C3) and were then tested for the formation of three equivalence relations (B1-C1, B2-C2, B3-C3). One member from two of these relations (B1 and B2) was then used to label one of two videocassettes that contained either humorous (B1) or nonhumorous (B2) material that the participant viewed. In order to test for a transfer of functions, two tests were administered. Participants were first presented with four new videos, labeled A1, A2, C1, and C2, and were asked to categorize them as humorous or nonhumorous, respectively. Next, participants were asked to write down what visual material they thought was on videos C1 and C2, respectively. In Condition 2, participants were not exposed to a prior matching-to-sample equivalence test. The sequence of transfer test phases was alternated across participants in both conditions. All participants in Condition 1 and three of the participants in Condition 2 sorted the unseen videos in a class-consistent fashion, while a total of seven participants categorized C1 and C2 as humorous and nonhumorous, respectively. Implications for a preliminary behavioral analysis of humor are discussed.