Effects of food deprivation on learning and expression of flavor preferences conditioned by saccharin or sucrose

In four experiments, food deprivation was varied during conditioning and testing of conditioning of flavor preferences by sweeteners. Conditioned preferences for a flavor associated with a more concentrated solution were enhanced by increased deprivation in training whether sucrose or saccharin was used when rats consumed solutions freely during training. When consumption of solutions was controlled and higher deprivation levels were used, preference for the higher concentration of sucrose was still enhanced by increased deprivation in training, but this did not occur with saccharin. We suggest that deprivation may enhance the reinforcing value of sweetness only when calories increase along with sweetness. We also suggest that deprivation can enhance flavor preference learning by increasing consumption and thereby increasing exposure to the flavored solutions.     

Students' application of a biological concept: Factors affecting consistency

This study investigated factors affecting students' ability to apply consistently the concept of adaptations (i.e., characteristics which suit an organism to its environment). Individual interviews were carried out with 74 Year 10 students, of whom only 47% showed an understanding of the concept. These students were asked to indicate on a list of living and non-living items which ones whould have adaptations. It was found that they were more likely to apply the concept to vertebrates than to other types of living things. In addition, many students appeared to be unable to separate consistently the idea of “adaptations as characteristics” from the other everyday and scientific meanings of the terms “adapt” and “adaptation”.     

Legal implications of divorce and custody battles for day care administrators

The moment is tense ... and somewhat confusing. I am in my office with a small group of five-year-olds reading a story when Mrs. Wilson arrives. She is young, pretty, and looking very serious. “Billy says that his father visited here today!”     

Gold mining in papua new guinea: A curricular omission?

Conclusion The topic of gold/gold mining contains an admixture of ideas from a variety of disciplines which with further curriculum development can lead to a fully integrated course for year 10 or 11 in P.N.G. high schools. The politics of mining at the present time in P.N.G. might well encourage many companies to help in that curriculum development by providing booklets and other curriculum materials to schools, such as those the mining industry in Australia has already provided for Australian schools (Note 2).     

Cognate Awareness in French Immersion Students: Contributions to Grade 2 Reading Comprehension

Cognate awareness is the ability to recognize the cognate relationship between words in two etymologically related languages. The current study examined the development of cognate awareness and its contribution to French (second language) reading comprehension among Canadian French immersion children. Eighty-one students were tested at the end of Grade 1 and again at the end of Grade 2. Children were administered a cognate awareness task in French, in which they were asked to decide whether a French word had a cognate in English. Overall, performance on the cognate awareness task was significantly above chance at both time points, and it improved overtime. Thus, for the majority of the participants, cognate awareness was evident as early as first grade. Regressions revealed that cognate awareness measured in Grades 1 and 2 made a significant contribution to Grade 2 French reading comprehension, beyond multiple controls. The results of the study suggest that cognate awareness is a unique aspect of second-language reading comprehension in young bilingual children.     

Does the discussion help? The impact of a formally assessed online discussion on final student results

While there is agreement that participation in online asynchronous discussions can enhance student learning, it has also been identified that there is a need to investigate the impact of participation in online discussions on student course performance. This paper presents a case study based on an undergraduate engineering management unit employing a formally assessed online discussion area. It was observed that while many students read a significant number of discussion postings, generally, the posting of new and reply messages occurred at the minimum level required to qualify for the assignment marks. Based on correlation and multiple regression analysis, it was observed that two variables were significantly related to a student's final unit mark—prior academic ability and the number of new postings made to the online discussion. Each new posting contributed three times as much to the final unit mark as its nominal assessment value, suggesting that the work in preparing their new discussion postings assisted students in the completion of a range of assessable tasks for the unit. The number of postings read was not significantly correlated with the final unit mark, suggesting that passive lurking in this online discussion did not significantly contribute to student learning outcomes.     

Cognitive ability,learning approaches and personality correlates of general knowledge

The relationship between general knowledge (GK) and cognitive ability (IQ and abstract reasoning), learning approaches, and personality (‘big five’ traits and typical intellectual engagement) was investigated in a sample of 101 British undergraduates. As predicted, GK was positively correlated with cognitive ability (more so with IQ than with abstract reasoning), typical intellectual engagement, and openness to experience. A hierarchical regression showed that IQ was the strongest predictor of GK, explaining 26% of GK variance. However, openness (15%) added incremental validity to the variance explained. These results are discussed in relation to previous findings in the field of GK and the personality–intelligence interface.     

Modelling mathematical argumentation: the importance of qualification

In recent years several mathematics education researchers have attempted to analyse students’ arguments using a restricted form of Toulmin’s [The Uses of Argument, Cambridge University Press, UK, 1958] argumentation scheme. In this paper we report data from task-based interviews conducted with highly talented postgraduate mathematics students, and argue that a superior categorisation of genuine mathematical argumentation is provided by the use of Toulmin’s full scheme. In particular, we suggest that modal qualifiers play an important and previously unrecognised role in mathematical argumentation, and that one of the goals of instruction should be to develop students’ abilities to appropriately match up warrant-types with modal qualifiers.     

The Development of Adolescents' Emotional Stability and General Self-Concept: The interplay of parents,peers, and gender

Gender differences associated with the development of adolescents' sense of general self-concept (confidence and self-worth) and emotional stability (calmness, freedom from anxiety, and depression) were investigated using a sample of 655 adolescents (mean age 16 years). Relationships with parents were important for males' emotional stability but not females' and so this finding challenges the belief that adolescent males are more concerned with establishing independence from parents than females. The research also challenges the notion that adolescent boys are less interested in close personal peer relationships than girls. Same sex and opposite sex peer relationships were more influential in the formation of adolescents' emotional stability than parental relationships. A reciprocal relationship was revealed between general self-concept and emotional stability. Comparing these results with results obtained on the same students 18 months previously (aged 14.5 years), demonstrates that adolescents increasingly transfer their emotional attachment from parents to peers in a process called individuation.