Multirelational semantic maps

Research on multirelational semantic maps is laden with promise for educational applications, but the development of knowledge mapping systems has been largely unsystematic. This paper describes the distinctive features of knowledge maps, discusses their origins, and explores some of the strengths and weaknesses of the wide variety of maps and mapping approaches that have been appearing in the literature over the past several years. Research findings pertaining to maps' potential and actual uses in educational settings are summarized, with some indepth attention to the more programmatic efforts of Novak as well as to our own mapping system. Suggestions are made for future exploration of, and experimentation on, maps as unique tools for organizing, representing, and communicating a wide variety of knowledge domains.     

Food as a contextual cue in counterconditioning experiments: Is there a counterconditioning process?

In three experiments, counterconditioning was found to reduce fear less effectively than extinction. In Experiments 1 and 2, the resistance to extinction of avoidance was greater if food was given during extinction of fear to the CS than if no food was given, even when exposure to the CS and numbers of food and no food confinement trials were equated. It is suggested that these results could be attributed to contextual control of fear extinction by the food cue and/or to frustration produced by removing food for the counterconditioning group. Experiment 3 also found counterconditioning to be less effective than extinction and provided evidence that this difference occurs because of contextual control of fear extinction by the food cue. Measuring conditioned suppression of licking, in a test with no food present, less fear was shown if no food had been present during fear extinction, and greater fear was shown if no food had been present during fear conditioning. These results indicate that food is an important part of the context controlling fear and fear extinction. It is suggested that there may be no unique counterconditioning process. Rather, when counterconditioning procedures are employed, rules governing interference paradigms in general may apply. Thus, in a test for fear following counterconditioning, fear will be shown to the extent the test situation is similar to that in which fear conditioning occurred rather than that in which fear reduction occurred.     

Introduction: Reflexions on Interdisciplinarity in Adapted Physical Activity

ABSTRACT

The articles included in this special issue of Quest emerged from a research workshop entitled Thinking About Our Thinking in Adapted Physical Activity, held at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, from June 18–19, 2013. The aim of the workshop was to examine different worldviews that contribute to the adapted physical activity research literature, to identify key disciplinary assumptions, and to outline their consequences for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research in the field. A lack of understanding of the basic assumptions held by researchers often impedes communication between the disciplines. Hence, a sub-theme of this special issue is communication across disciplines. These conversations are, of course, essential to interdisciplinary inquiry.     

Behavioral, Affective, and Social Correlates of Involvement in Cross-Sex Friendship in Elementary School

The purpose of this study was to compare children with and without cross-sex friends on measures of social and cognitive competence, endorsement of sex-role stereotypes, and family composition. Subjects were 723 third and fourth graders (377 girls, 346 boys) from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds; 35% were African American. Measures included sociometric assessments of peer acceptance, friendship, and behavioral reputation, as well as self-reports of perceived self-competence and endorsement of sex-role stereotypes. In addition, teachers completed ratings of children's social and cognitive competence. In all, 92 children, about 14% of the sample, had one or more reciprocal opposite-sex friends; for 21 of these children, their cross-sex friendships were their primary or only friendships. African American children were more likely than European American children to have opposite-sex friends. Involvement in cross-sex friendships was unrelated to the gender make-up of the classroom, but was related to family structure. Comparisons of the children who had primarily or only cross-sex friends to matched groups of children who had only same-sex friends and to children who had cross-sex friends secondarily to same-sex ones revealed a number of differences between the groups in social competence and relationships with peers. Overall, children with primarily opposite-sex friends had poorer social skills than other children with friends, although they were less stereotyped about sex roles than other children, and were better adjusted than children with no friends on most measures. In contrast, children involved in opposite-sex friendship secondarily to same-sex friendship were as well adjusted socially as children with only same-sex friendships. These results suggest that children with cross-sex friends differ among themselves, depending on the primacy of the cross-sex relationship.     

Enhancing the Development of Low-Birthweight, Premature Infants: Changes in Cognition and Behavior over the First Three Years

The Infant Health and Development Program is a randomized clinical trial to test the efficacy of educational and family support services and pediatric follow-up offered in the first 3 years of life on reducing the incidence of developmental delay in low-birthweight (LBW), preterm infants in 8 clinical sites ( N = 985). Effects of the intervention on cognitive and behavior problem scores over the 3 years are examined. Significant intervention effects were seen on cognitive scores at 24 and 36 but not 12 months of age; effect sizes were similar at both ages. These effects persist when controlling for earlier cognitive scores. At 24 and 36 months, behavior problem scores for the intervention group were significantly lower than for the follow-up group; the intervention was more efficacious for children with higher initial behavior problem scores. Results are discussed in terms of timing and targeting of services for LBW and disadvantaged children.     

Teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education: a critical review of published questionnaires

Teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education affect its successful implementation within mainstream schools. This paper reviews nine questionnaires which capture primary school teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion, with the aim to support researchers in selecting the most appropriate measure according to the purpose of their study. Most of the reviewed questionnaires showed acceptable reliability and validity. The Multidimensional Attitudes towards Inclusive Education Scale (MATIES) and the Sentiments, Attitudes, and Concerns about Inclusive Education Revised Scale (SACIE-R) were the only questionnaires with adequate psychometric properties which addressed the affective, cognitive and behavioural components of teachers’ attitudes. As another psychometrically sound scale, the Teachers’ Attitude towards Inclusion Scale (TAIS) was found to use more up-to-date terminology and suitably addressed the cognitive and behavioural components. This paper provides a useful resource to facilitate the appropriate selection of questionnaires that measure teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion.     

Similarity and difference in fee-paying and no-fee learner expectations,interaction and reaction to learning in a massive open online course

The new pedagogical opportunities that massive open online course (MOOC) learning environments offer for the teaching of fee-paying students on university-accredited courses are of growing interest to educators. This paper presents a case study from a postgraduate-taught course at the Open University, UK, where a MOOC performed the dual role of a core teaching vehicle for fee-paying students and also as a “free-to-join” course for open learners. An analysis of survey data revealed differences between the two groups in respect to prior experience, knowledge, expectations and planned time commitment. The nature and experience of interaction was also examined. Fee-paying student feedback revealed four conditions in which MOOCs could be considered a pedagogic option for taught-course designers. These are: when there is a subject need; when used to achieve learning outcomes; when there is acknowledgement or compensation for the financial disparity; and when issues of transition and interaction are supported.     

Multiple hedonic memory: Memory for more than one hedonic event in rats

In each of two investigations, rats ran in a runway to obtain varying quantities of food pellets presented in a fixed order, such as 20-0-20. The major finding was that rats ran faster on a 0-pellet trial if that trial was followed shortly by a 20-pellet trial (e.g., 20-0-20 series) than if it was not (e.g., 20-0 series). This finding was obtained both within groups (Experiment 1) and between groups (Experiment 2), and suggested that the memory of 20 pellets arising from the first trial of the 20-0-20 series was retrieved not only on the second trial of the series, thereby signaling 0 pellets, but on the third trial as well, thereby also signaling 20 pellets. Retrieving the memory of 20 pellets on Trial 3 of the 20-0-20 series apparently resulted in that memory’s elevating speed on Trial 2 of that series.     

Behavioral Competence among Mothers of Infants in the First Year: The Mediational Role of Maternal Self-Efficacy

This study tests the idea that mothers' self-efficacy beliefs mediate the effects on parenting behavior of variables such as depression, perceptions of infant temperamental difficulty, and social-marital supports. Subjects were 48 clinically depressed and 38 nondepressed mothers observed in interaction with their 3-13-month-old infants (M = 7.35 months). As predicted, maternal self-efficacy beliefs related significantly to maternal behavioral competence independent of the effects of other variables. When the effects of self-efficacy were controlled, parenting competence no longer related significantly to social-marital supports or maternal depression. In addition, maternal self-efficacy correlated significantly with perceptions of infant difficulty after controlling for family demographic variables. These results suggest that maternal self-efficacy mediates relations between maternal competence and other psychosocial variables and may play a crucial role in determining parenting behavior and infant psychosocial risk.     

School-wide Positive Behavior Support: Addressing Behavior Problems that Impede Student Learning

The school-wide application of positive behavior support (PBS) is a prevention-oriented approach to student discipline that is characterized by its focus on defining and teaching behavioral expectations, rewarding appropriate behaviors, continual evaluation of its effectiveness, and the integration of supports for individuals, groups, the school as a whole, and school/family/community partnerships. Although school-wide PBS has been implemented in hundreds of schools thus far, many professionals in education and psychology remain, for the most part, unfamiliar with this proactive alternative for increasing positive student behavior. This article reviews the foundations and core components of school-wide PBS, provides a case example of the implementation and preliminary evaluation of school-wide PBS in an urban middle school, and summarizes critical issues and future research directions in this area of considerable importance to professionals in educational psychology and related fields.