The effect of a retention interval on habituation of the neophobic response

In three experiments, water-deprived rats were preexposed to a novel saccharin solution. The neophobic response to this flavor was then assessed in a choice test involving saccharin and water, administered either immediately or 24 h after preexposure. Subjects displayed a significantly greater preference for saccharin at the 24-h test than at the immediate test (Experiments 2 and 3). This “incubation” effect was eliminated if the subjects were more water-deprived at the delayed test than at the immediate test (Experiment 1), and enhanced if the amount of saccharin consumed during preexposure was increased (Experiment 3). Possible ways in which current theories of habituation might be amended in order to accommodate this finding are discussed.     

Large-scale curriculum change in a system of ten indonesian medical schools — A case study of educational innovation

This article reviews the literature on educational innovation and change, and emphasises factors which are held to facilitate rapid change. The remainder of the paper presents a detailed case history o1 educational innovation in 10 Indonesian medical schools, involvingN=260 academic departments. Within a 3-year period three-quarters of these departments have developed new curricula haled on sets of explicit instructional objectives, and most of these departments now indicate they are using these sets of objectives both for their teaching and for assessing students' competence. This case history describes how this task was approached, provides a synoptic picture of the results which have been obtained: then attempts to provide an overall account o1 those factors which assisted these changes to take place. It is contended that this case history of change within a system of established medical schools clarifies selected aspects of the theoretical literature on educational innovation and diffusion, on the planning of effective programmes of staff development, and provides planners with sonic practical guidelines for programme development and evaluation.     

Productivity tools for simulation-centered training development

Model-based training offers a number of potential benefits in training performance of complex tasks, particularly when an interactive device model can be manipulated both by the training system and by the learner. Unlike fixed training systems, simulation-centered training allows the learner to practice in a realistic setting that is not artificially constrained, and it allows the training system to automatically support the learner in attaining complex goals. Rapid authoring of many other learning transactions can also be supported in a model-based environment, enhancing the potential for both high-quality interactive instruction and productivity in the development of such instruction. A potential problem with the model-based approach, however, is that the model development process is traditionally very unproductive and often results in unreliable or unrealistic models of the systems to be learned. Presented in this article is theRapids authoring system, an integrated set of direct manipulation tools for the production of interactive graphical models and instruction based on those models. A short course based on models of neural networks on the visual retina is described to illustrate the productive application of theRapids simulation and course authoring tools. Development ofRapids was funded by the Air Force Human Resources Laboratory, under RICIS Research Activity No. ET 13 (NASA Cooperative Agreement NCC9-16) administered by the University of Houston, Clear Lake. Our colleagues, Lee D. Coller, Quentin A. Pizzini, David S. Surmon, and James L. Wogulis, collaborated in the design and implementation ofRapids. Mark Johnson of our organization was instrumental in developing the diagnostic model used inIMTS.     

A recent study of graduate assistants

University administrators, college deans, department chairpersons and directors, faculty members, graduate assistants, and undergraduate students were mailed questionnaires concerning the roles of and attitudes toward graduate assistants at the University of Minnesota. Basic agreement was found to exist among the six groups surveyed with regard to many aspects of graduate assistantships. Graduate assistants were found to have little knowledge of many departmental concerns that directly affect them. The number of formalized policies regulating graduate assistantships was found to vary with the classification of assistantship.Copies of the complete report may be obtained from Measurement Services Center, University of Minnesota, 9 Clarence Ave. S.E., Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414.     

A critical analysis of the INQAAHE Guidelines of Good Practice for higher education quality assurance agencies

The International Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education’s Guidelines of Good Practice by higher education quality assurance agencies need substantial revision before they can be considered adequate by stakeholders in any national higher education system. Various revisions are proposed in this article. But the International Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education also argues that adoption of its Guidelines of Good Practice has international significance in that the decisions about higher education quality made by agencies which comply with them can be accepted at face value universally. This conclusion, however, cannot be accepted until the Guidelines of Good Practice are amended to address the processes whereby each agency can become comfortable with the criteria and standards which the others impose in their respective jurisdictions. This article also maintains that, even if the Guidelines of Good Practice were technically perfect, agencies and/or governments ought to subject any proposals for their implementation to the discipline of rigorous risk management processes.

Developmental changes in the understanding of implied motion in two-dimensional pictures.

The power of various pictorial movement cues in eliciting a reading of movement was studied to determine the relationship between the ease with which a picture is interpreted and the degree to which the picture retains the structure of reality. Movement was indicated in 2 ways: pictorial conventions indicated movement by lines, blurs, and vibration marks; and pictorial postures indicated movement by figures which were isomorphic with the postures involved in real movement. Preschoolers, first graders, sixth graders, and college students were asked to label and sort pictures of human figures as "moving" or "still". Members of the 2 young groups did not classify pictures with conventional cues as "moving" as often as they did pictures with postural cues. Members of the 2 older groups classified both types of pictures as "moving". Since postural cues for movement are recognized at an earlier age than conventional cues, those that are more similar to reality may be easier to understand.     

Nonassociative habituation,US preexposure,and backward inhibitory conditioning with signaled and unsignaled USs

In a conditioned suppression experiment, rats received a single, massed session of conditioning in which one backward conditioned inhibitory stimulus (CS-) followed shocks that were signaled by a visual cue, and a second backward CS-followed shocks that were unsignaled. Conditioning was preceded by a preexposure phase in which some groups of rats were preexposed to unsignaled shock, while others were not preexposed and remained in the experimental apparatus in the absence of shock. The groups were further distinguished by whether US preexposure and conditioning occurred in the same or different contexts, and by whether conditioning began immediately or after a 24-h rest period in the home cage. Although the conditioning itself was effective in establishing the visual cue as a conditioned excitor in the nonpreexposed groups, it was not effective in establishing the two backward cues as reliable inhibitors with either signaled or unsignaled USs. After 210 US preexposures, however, the same conditioning sessions did yield conditioned inhibition to both CS-s. A 24-h rest period in the home cage reduced the magnitude of, but did not completely abolish, the facilitative effect of US preexposure on inhibitory conditioning. Other tests demonstrated that US preexposure had retarded excitatory conditioning to the visual cue. This interference with excitatory conditioning was unchanged in magnitude after the 24-h rest period. The facilitative effect of US preexposure on backward inhibitory conditioning, and the interference effect on excitatory conditioning, were both eliminated by a change in context between US preexposure and conditioning. These observations encourage predominantly associative accounts of the effects, but allow for a small nonassociative habituation component.