Pigeons’ memory for event duration: Differences between visual and auditory signals

In Experiment 1, pigeons were trained to discriminate short (2 sec) and long (8 sec) durations of tone by responding to red and green comparison stimuli. During delay testing, a systematic response bias to the comparison stimulus correct for the long duration occurred. Tests of responding without the tone reduced accuracy on long-sample trials but not on short-sample trials suggesting that the pigeons were attending to the tone and not simply timing the total trial duration. The pigeons were then trained to match short (2 sec) and long (8 sec) durations of light to blue/yellow comparisons. During delay testing, “choose-long errors” occurred following tone durations, but “choose-short errors” occurred following light durations. In Experiment 2, accuracy was assessed on test trials in which the tone and the light signals were simultaneously presented for the same duration or for different durations. Pigeons responded accurately to durations of light, but were unable to accurately respond to durations of tone simultaneously presented with the light. The data from Experiment 1 suggest that there are important differences between light and tone signals with respect to the events that control the termination of timing. The data from Experiment 2 indicate that pigeons cannot simultaneously time visual and auditory signals independently and without interference. Consequently, they are inconsistent with the idea that there is a single internal clock that times both tone and light durations.     

Measuring and comparing academic language development and conceptual understanding via science notebooks

The authors of this quantitative study measured and compared the academic language development and conceptual understanding of fifth-grade economically disadvantaged English language learners (ELL), former ELLs, and native English-speaking (ES) students as reflected in their science notebook scores. Using an instrument they developed, the authors quantified the student notebook language and concept scores. They compared language growth over time across three time points: beginning, middle, and end of the school year and across language-status (ELL, former ELL, and ES), and gender using mixed between-within subjects analysis of variance (ANOVA). The authors also compared students’ conceptual understanding scores across categories in three domains using ANOVA. Students demonstrated statistically significant growth over time in their academic language as reflected by science notebook scores, and we noticed conceptual trends in which scores for ELLs, former ELLs, and male students lagged behind at first, but caught up to their peers by the end of the school year.     

Circumstances surrounding cheating: A questionnaire study of college students

A questionnaire assessing beliefs and behaviors associated with cheating was administered to 365 college students. Circumstances rated most likely to increase cheating were low instructor vigilance, unfair exams, an instructor who does not care about cheating, and dependence of financial support and long-term goals on good grades. Circumstances rated most likely to decrease cheating were high instructor vigilance, fair exams, high punishment for getting caught, essay exams, widely spaced exam seating, and valuable course material. Principal components analyses revealed several factors underlying planned cheating: difficulty/negative consequences of cheating, pressures, instructor personality, social norms, and interest in the course. These factors relate to the determinants of behavior specified by the theory of planned behavior. Self-reports indicated that 83 percent of respondents cheated in college and that the two most common types of cheating were giving (58 percent) and getting (49 percent) exam questions to and from other students before an exam. Acts of helping someone else cheat were more commonly reported than corresponding acts of cheating for oneself. Students with high cheating scores tended to be male rather than female, to have a low goal grade-point average, and to believe that the prevalence of cheating in college is high.Both authors contributed equally to this research.A version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Ontario, August 1993.     

Improving the Human Condition: Leadership for Justice-Oriented Service-Learning

The Banneker History Project (BHP) reconstructed the history of the Benjamin Banneker School, which operated as a segregated school for African Americans from 1915 to 1951. It was a project in social justice education with community service as its base. Here, the authors provide an insider perspective of group dynamics among core leaders for the BHP. Building relationships, working for social justice, and confronting racism are key themes for the group. Leaders recall moments of discomfort, particularly related to issues of race and racism, and describe ways they worked through them. Based on their wisdom of practice, authors offer suggestions for those who might do similar work.     

The Attention Skills and Academic Performance of Aggressive/Rejected and Low Aggressive/Popular Children

Research Findings: Aggressive/rejected children are at risk for continuing conduct and school problems. Some limited research indicates that these children have attention problems. Previous research has linked attention problems with academic performance. The current study investigated group differences in attention skills and the role of these skills in children's academic performance. Kindergarten and 1st-grade children (n = 54, 52% female) were identified as either aggressive/rejected or low aggressive/popular by peer sociometric interviews. Attention was assessed with a novel computer task, the Children's Space Game, as well as parent and teacher report. Teachers reported on children's academic performance. Aggressive/rejected children had lower adult-reported attention skills and academic performance than low aggressive/popular children. Aggressive/rejected children also had lower skills on the computer task. Support was found for an additive model of the influence of children's status and attention skills on their academic performance even after controlling for maternal education and family income but no evidence was found that attention moderated the relation between children's status and their academic performance. Practice or Policy: Aggressive/rejected children appear at significant risk for attention problems and these problems predict their academic performance. Future research should investigate whether these children would benefit from additional support of their attention skills.     

Something More than Straws and Sticks and Bits of Coloured Paper: English at Hackney Downs (formerly The Grocers' Company's School), 1876–1881

Herbert Courthope Bowen was a progressive spirit in English teaching during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Ideas about the role of activity in the development of the child – ideas usually associated with progressive teaching in the 1960s and 1970s – may be found in Bowen's published papers. In connection with the time that Bowen was Head Master of a London secondary school, I explain what turned on the amount of Latin in the school curriculum, why Latin mattered so much at the time and why English teaching at Grocers' (Hackney Downs) where Bowen taught, was so controversial. Bowen published a series of remarkable papers on key themes. At the core of all these writings lies his passionate interest in the psychological development of the individual child. From Froebel Bowen gained a rich conception of the productivity of mind as well as a sense of children's individual worth and dignity. I argue the case that his writings deserve revisiting as pivotal contributions to a theory of English that has a strong psychological component. Bowen acted as a conduit for a rich legacy of largely German ideas about self‐cultivation (Bildung). His emphasis on ‘self‐activity’, ‘creativity’ and the ‘constructive imagination’ prefigures the working out of principles usually associated with progressive English Teaching in the post‐war period, such as ‘personal growth’. Indeed, many of the presuppositions, norms and assumptions of progressive educators were shaped by the ideas I discuss. By historicising them, and stripping them of their aura, I envisage opening up fresh possibilities for interrogation and critique.