Interference and auditory short-term memory in the bottlenosed dolphin

Interference in auditory short-term memory in the bottlenosed dolphin,Tursiops truncatus (Montagu), was studied using a delayed matching-to-sample task. At each trial, one of two sample sounds, chosen randomly, was projected underwater for 4 sec and then, after a variable delay interval, both sounds were presented. A response to the sound matching the initial sample was reinforced. Correct matching was significantly reduced following short intervals between trials in combination with long delays after the sample (proactive interference), or when a near continuous irrelevant sound was inserted into the delay interval (retroactive interference). There was rapid habituation to interference if the irrelevant sound was short in duration relative to the delay interval. For both proactive and retroactive interference, the errors were predominantly responses to the sample sound appropriate to the prior trial rather than to the current trial, indicating that memory for the relative recency of events (temporal memory) was degraded by interference. When interference was deleted or minimized, temporal memory remained nearly perfect over 30-sec delay intervals, the longest tested. The importance of distinguishing between temporal memory and nontemporal, or event, memory in different forms of the delayed matching task was emphasized.     

用法治理性建构校园和谐

建设校园和谐关系,以法治理性的价值判断和价值选择审视并优化校园环境,是坚持以人为本、以民主法治原则建设校园和谐关系的关键所在。以民主法治原则构建现代校园和谐关系是法治理性的基本要求;尊重人权是法治理性的真谛;校园和谐需要法治理性的宽容精神;法治理性包含对法制的敬畏和行使自由权利的节制;校园和谐关系呼唤体现法治理性的校园文化。学校教育通过尊重和保护青年学生的正当权利并使其自觉践行义务的过程,使他们长期浸润在崇尚法治的文化氛围里,培养并形成他们未来人生中自觉的、理性的遵纪守法和护法精神。     

Childhood Ideology in the United States: A Comparative Cultural View

Childhood ideology functions in each nation as a complex of ideas about what children are like and how best to teach and socialise them. One important domain of childhood ideology concerns ideas and practices related to children's development and behaviour management. Drawing from an analysis of popular childrearing magazines and early childhood education materials in the United States, this cultural study describes contemporary American mainstream beliefs concerning children's early emotional and behavioural development. In particular, the paper explores themes of emotional expression, autonomy, individuality, power, and consumerism. Some comparisons with Japanese views on child development and emotional/behavioural socialisation are also made. The paper suggests that popular ideas and techniques of emotional and behavioural management in the United States in both families and early childcare environments reflect a dominant ideology of children that has potentially negative consequences for children's welfare. Furthermore, childhood ideologies, while retaining culturally specific values and ideas neither remain static nor exist in isolation from one another. The paper questions the global diffusion of a Western-style professionalised discourse of child psychology that may not be applicable to all nations and their children.     

穴位埋线治疗对冠心病稳定型心绞痛的疗效观察

目的 :观察穴位埋线对冠心病稳定型心绞痛的疗效。方法 :按随机对照方法 ,分为治疗组 32例 ,对照组 (长效硝苯地平 ) 31例。治疗 8周 ,观察心肌缺血发作次数、持续时间及缺血总负荷等指标。结果 :两组治疗前后各观察指标有显著差异 ,P <0 .0 1。两组之间比较无明显差异 ,P >0 .0 5。结论 :穴位埋线法能显著改善心肌缺血。     

Predictors of Delinquent Behaviors Among Latino Youth

This study used an ecological framework to examine predictors of delinquent behaviors among 91 sixth-grade Latino youth. Both proximal and distal contextual factors were assessed to determine their impact on various forms of delinquency, such as violent behaviors, violent thoughts, substance abuse, and general delinquency (e.g., skipping school). Attitudes toward school, mobility (number of moves to new schools and neighborhoods), and exposure to community violence were distal variables, whereas attachment to parents and attachment to peers were considered more proximal variables. Environmental experiences or exposure to distressing community violence was the strongest predictor of delinquent outcomes. The results were discussed in terms of school officials' developing linkages with the community to promote safe environments for youth.     

Classroom

In this section of Resonance, we invite readers to pose questions likely to be raised in a classroom situation. Wemay suggest strategies for dealingwith them, or invite responses, or both. “Classroom” is equally a forum for raising broader issues and sharing personal experiences and viewpoints on matters related to teaching and learning science.     

Agonistic democracy and passionate professional development in teacher-leaders

Politicians and policy-makers in education routinely proclaim the centrality of schools and teachers in sustaining and consolidating democracy and democratic society. This article offers an account of teachers engaged in research in their schools and classrooms, with peers and students, so as to highlight the democratic potential of this engagement. In order to do so, it draws on an agonistic account of democracy that is distinct from more familiar liberal or procedural versions. Such an account is characterised by an emphasis on the values of constitutive pluralism, robust contestation and enduring tragedy, where the latter entails recognition of the ineliminable nature of (political) conflict and the inevitability of loss in human life. The teachers involved in this research demonstrated capacities which, it is argued, reflect an agonistic democratic ethos, including: developing the confidence to assume intellectual leadership by asking questions and eliciting and engaging plural perspectives in relation to these questions; engagement in the cut and thrust of research without the expectation of finding any final or perfect solutions; and an acceptance of difference and disagreement as constitutive and constructive elements in rethinking areas of policy and practice. Developing and encouraging these capacities, it is argued, is important in an increasingly authoritarian policy context that threatens the vital links between democracy and education highlighted by Dewey a century ago.     

Preschoolers perceptions of the unfairness of maternal disciplinary practices

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine preschoolers' perceptions of maternal discipline's unfairness. The participants' gender, age, SES, family intactness and sibship size were examined for their possible relevance to such perceptions. METHOD: Five vignettes, describing forms of discipline the literature suggests constitute psychological maltreatment, were presented to 57 preschoolers (27 boys and 30 girls). They included excessive withdrawal of privileges, withdrawal of entertainment, differential treatment of siblings, threatening power assertion, and public humiliation. The children had to decide on the fairness or unfairness of each vignette in which a child was disciplined in each of these ways by his/her mother. They were then asked to offer an explanation for each of their choices. RESULTS: Of the five forms of discipline employed in the vignettes, children judged differential treatment of siblings as more unfair than either power assertion (threatening spanking), or public humiliation. No differences were found for withdrawal of privileges or entertainment. Of the various predictor variables employed, preschoolers from smaller families were more likely to judge threatening to spank as unfair. As well, compared to boys, girls and children from larger families were more likely to judge differential treatment as unfair. Age, SES, and family intactness had no effect on discipline judgements likely because of their limited range. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that preschoolers can offer views on the fairness or unfairness of parental disciplinary practices, and can differentiate among them. Further, not all forms of parental discipline were viewed by preschoolers as unfair. Yet it has to be appreciated that the vignettes employed here were adapted for younger children, hence they may not have appeared as negative as in studies involving older children and adults.     

毛泽东同志的“减负”思想及启示

毛泽东同志在减轻学生负担、关注学生身心健康方面作了大量论述,对新中国成立后的教育发展影响很大。毛泽东同志“减负”思想的基本出发点是要学生生动活泼地、主动地发展,其科学内核包括精简课程设置和教材;反对注入式教学方法,提倡启发式教学方法;改革考试和评价方法。毛泽东同志的“减负”思想,对当前我国教育改革有重要的启示。     

浅析现代远程教育中的互动

互动作为影响教育教学质量最为重要的因素之一,在现代远程教育中具有新的特点和内容。文章着重探讨了现代远程教育中互动的形式及特点,分析了影响互动效果的因素,提出了增强现代远程教育互动效果的策略。