Journal o f Abnormal Child Psychology, Vol 3, No. 1, 1975

Modification of an Impulsive Cognitive Tempo in Emotionally Disturbed Boys

A. J. Finch, Jr., t and Maxine Doyle Wilkinson Virginia Treatment Center for Children

W. M. Nelson III Virginia Commonwealth University

L. E. Montgomery Middle Peninsula-Northern Neck Mental Health and Retardation Services

In order to determine the relative effectiveness o f verbal selfinstruetions and training to delay before responding in modifying an impulsive cognitive style, 15 impulsive emotionally disturbed boys were assigned to one o f three groups. The cognitive-training group was given practice in verbal self-instructions, the delay- training group received praclice in delaying before responding, and the control group received no training. Posttreatment scores on the Matching Familiar Figures Test showed a significant increase in latencies for both the cognitive and delay-training groups. However, only the cognitive-training group, which had received practice in verbal self-instructions, made fewer errors following training. Implications for future research and potential treatment strategies for verbal selJ:instructions are discussed.

Reflection-impulsivity is the cognitive dimension employed by Kagan and his colleagues (Kagan, 1965a, 1965b, 1966; Kagan & Kogan, 1970; Kagan, Pearson, & Welsch, 1966) to describe differences in children's resolution o f response un- certainty. Reflective children consider all the available alternatives and withhold responding until they have a high probability of being correct. Impulsive chil-

Manuscript received in final form January 28, 1975. 1Reprints and an extended report of this study can be obtained from A. J. Finch, Jr., Coordinator of Research, Virginia Treatment Center for Children, Box l-L, Richmond, Virginia 23201.

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@1975 Plenum Publishing Corpora t ion , 227 West 17 th Street, New Y o r k , N .Y . 10011. No part Of th is pub l ica t ion may be reproduced~ stored in a retr ieval system, or t ransmi t ted , in any fo rm or by any means, e lect ron ic , mechanical , pho tocopy ing , m ic ro f i lm ing , recording, or otherwise, w i t h o u t w r i t t en permission o f the publ isher.

5 0 Finch, Wilkinson, Nelson, and Montgomery

dren respond quickly without considering the alternatives and consequently make errors.

Recently Montgomery and Finch (1975) and Finch and Nelson (in press) demonstrated a relationship between an emotionally disturbed child's cognitive style and the type of behaviors he exhibited. Since a number of studies (see Kagan & Kogan, t970) have demonstrated that cognitive style can be modified in normal children, and since one of the most frequent behaviors of emotionally disturbed children is impulsiveness, the present study was designed to determine if cognitive style in emotionally disturbed children could be modified. The Meichenbaum and Goodman (t 971) procedure of verbal self-instruction training was chosen because it appeared to have wider applicability than other proce- dures.

METHOD

Sub/ects

From a group of 45 emotionally disturbed boys in residential treatment at the Virginia Treatment Center for Children, 15 impulsive boys were selected on the basis of their performance on the Matching Familiar Figures Test. The mean mental age was 11:25 years. Diagnoses were: 12 behavior disorders of childhood or adolescence, I neurotic, 1 personality disorder, and 1 adjustment reaction.

Procedure

Following the administration of the Matching Familiar Figures Test:, sub- jects were assigned to one of three groups, corresponding to the three groups described by Meichenbaum and Goodman (1971), so that they did not differ significantly on latency, errors, or mental age.

Cognitive-Training Group. Subjects were seen individually for six �89 treatment sessions over a three week period. In the first session, the experi- menter performed one of the training tasks while talking to herself, giving spe- cific step-by-step instructions and repeating them frequently. The experimenter deliberately made an error and then stated that she should have proceeded slowly and been more careful. When the experimenter completed the task, the subject was asked to perform the task and to verbalize the self-instructions to himself. Further assistance was given in self-instructions if needed. During the last two sessions, subjects were instructed to continue using self-instructions but to do so silently. The day following the sixth session, subjects were retested.

2 The standard MFF available from Kagan was used.

Modification of Impulsive Cognitive Tempo

Table I. Latencies and Errors Pre- and Posttreatment for the Three Groups

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Latency (mean § SD) Errors (mean + SD)

Group Pretreatment Posttreatment Pretreatment Posttreatment

Self-instruction 4.92+ 1.78 18.92 + 11.13 a 7.80+_ .84 4.20+ 2.17 b Delay 5.32 +_ 2.t0 9.65 _+ 6.10 b 8.20 • 1.48 7..00 • 2.45 Control 5.00_+ 1.47 6.16 • 1.71 8.40• 2.61 6.60• 2.07

ap < .025. bp < .05.

Delay-Training Group. This group had the same number of sessions, mate- rials, .and activities as the cognitive-training group but did not receive training in verbal self-instructions. Rather, they were instructed to delay before responding.

Control Group. This was a test-retest control group.

RESULTS

Table I presents the means and standard deviations for latencies and errors on the pre- and post t reatment scores for the three groups. For latencies, there was a significant increase for both the cognitive-training group ( t = 2.92;

p < .05) and the delay-training group (t = 2.29, p < .05) but not for the control group. For errors, the only significant decrease was for the cognitive-training group (t = 3.71~;p < .01).

DISCUSSION

These results indicate that the cognitive-training procedure, which empha-

sized verbal self-instructions, significantly modified cognitive style in emo- tionally disturbed boys. That is, both an increase in latencies and a decrease in errors were obtained as a result o f the self-instructions procedure. In the delay- training group, in which subjects were instructed to delay before responding during training but were not trained in verbal self-instructions, only an increase in latencies was obtained.

Additional research in modifying an impulsive cognitive style in emo- t ionally disturbed children should focus on other behavioral changes that may accompany changes in performance on the Matching Familiar Figures Test. Meichenbaum and Goodman (1971) reported that verbal self-instruction resulted in significant improvement on the Porteus Maze test and the WlSC Performance IQ as well as on the Matching Familiar Figures Test. It would appear that the

verbal self-instruction procedure may offer considerable treatment potential in helping emotional ly disturbed children in learning to delay many of their impul-

52 Finch, Wilkinson, Nelson, and Montgomery

sive behaviors. The training procedures are relatively simple and could be used by paraprofessionals. If it can be demonstrated that the control gained through verbal self-instruction can be generalized to other maladaptive behaviors, the possibility of modifying many impulsive behaviors at once, rather than having to attack each one separately, would result in a considerable saving of time and effort.

REFERENCES

Finch, A. J., Jr., & Nelson, W. M. III. Reflection-impulsivity and behavioral problems in emotionally disturbed children. Journal of Genetic Psychology, in press.

Kagan, J. Individual differences in the resolution of response uncertainty. Journal of Person- ality and Social Psychology, 1965, 2, 154-160. (a)

Kagan, J. Reflection-impulsivity and reading ability in primary grade children. Child Develop- ment, 1965, 36, 609-628. (b)

Kagan, J. Reflection-impulsivity: The generality and dynamics of conceptual tempo. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1966, 71, 17-24.

Kagan, J., & Kogan, N. Individual variation in cognitive processes. In P. H. Mussen (Ed.), Carmichael's manual of child psychology (Vol. 1, 3rd ed.). New York: Wiley, 1970.

Kagan, J., Pearson, L., & Welsch, L. Modifiability of an impulsive tempo. Journal of Educa- tional Psychology, 1966, 57, 359-365.

Meichenbaum, D. H., & Goodman, J. Training impulsive children to talk to themselves. Jour- nal ofAbnormalPsychology, 1971, 77, 115-126.

Montgomery, L. E., & Finch, A. J., Jr. Reflection-impulsivity and locus of conflict in emo- tionally disturbed children. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1975, 12, 89-91.