The effects of obstetrical medication on the behavior of Israeli newborn infants and some comparisons with Uruguayan and American infants.

The effects of obstetrical medication on neonatal behavior were studied using a sample of Israeli infants from medicated and nonmedicated mothers. Few significant behavioral differences were detected in the first month of life, and there was no difference in Bayley Infant Scale performance at 3 months of age. Comparative analyses using samples of American and Uruguayan infants and additional data from other studies of American newborns led to the conclusion that light levels of obstetrical medication do not appear to have significant effects on neonatal behavior. However, this may well be qualified by some initial population differences, by the measurements commonly used in the studies reviewed, and possibly by critical cutoff points dividing the levels of medication that will and will not affect neonatal behavior.     

The decomposition of sociology

This essay was originally presented as part of the panel “The Social Sciences, An Intellectual Balance Sheet,” at “On the State of Academic Discourse,” the third national conference of the National Association of Scholars, held in Minneapolis, October 18 to 20, 1991. It is part of the opening chapter of a book scheduled for publication in 1993 by Oxford University Press tentatively entitledThe Decomposition of Sociology.     

Symbolism and survival in developing organizations: Regional colleges in Israel [1]

This article draws on the work of John Meyer and others who look at the institutional side of organizations. We analyze the origins and early history of a system of regional colleges in Israel in the context of an emerging postsecondary system. We argue that the terms used to define legitimacy, as well as who defines it, are crucial issues in the institutionalization of educational organizations, especially colleges and universities.     

The stability of visual habituation during the first year of life

The short-term reliability and long-term stability of visual habituation and dishabituation in infancy were assessed in a sample of 186 infants from 4 age groups (3-, 4-, 7-, and 9-month-olds) seen for 2 within-age sessions and in a sample of 69 infants seen longitudinally at 3, 4, 7, and 9 months of age. Moderate week-to-week reliability (r's = .30-.50) was observed for duration-based and magnitude of habituation variables at all ages, although better reliability was evident at 4 and 9 months than at 3 and 7 months. In most cases, the reliability of habituation magnitude measures was attributable to the reliability of the peak fixation alone. Data from the longitudinal sample suggested that only the duration of peak fixation was consistently stable across the ages tested, although stability for several measures emerged across the 7-9-month testing. No consistent reliability or stability emerged for the presence or magnitude of dishabituation in either sample.     

The Effect of Team‐Based Learning on Student Attitudes and Satisfaction

We examined student attitudes toward a team‐based learning method known as the readiness assurance process encompassing team exams to model how student satisfaction is initially shaped and subsequently changed over time as a function of scholastic performance and perceived development of professional skills (PS). We found that students were generally positively disposed toward the learning method and recognized its benefits in terms of developing teamwork skills. A regression analysis of student responses to an instrument distributed directly after each of four quizzes given over the course of a semester leads to the inferences that satisfaction with the method depends minimally upon the immediate feedback provided by student performance on a quiz and more critically upon student perceptions of how it has enhanced their PS. There is also shown to be a strong carryover effect in satisfaction with the method in successive uses. The results suggest that student attitudes are shaped by multiple, high‐level goals, and not just scholastic performance. The study also evidences the need to study learning interventions over multiple uses rather than through a one‐shot design.     

The ecological footprint as an educational tool for sustainability: A case study analysis in an Israeli public high school

Education is widely acknowledged to be a means for advancing environmental sustainability. Many schools have recently introduced the idea of sustainability into their educational agenda and curriculum. This study uses an innovative method of communicating the principle of sustainability, the ‘Ecological Footprint’ Analysis, which illustrates the impact of community lifestyles upon the natural environment. This paper describes the process of integrating the concept of the ecological footprint at the high school level, analyzes the school's ecological footprint, and discusses its contributions to education for sustainability in schools.     

Question Bias and Violations of Comparability in Intraparty Debates: Iowa and New Hampshire, 2004

Televised political debates are highly effective tools for familiarizing prospective voters with the field of candidates during primary campaigns. However, the questions journalists ask in such debates often diminish the degree to which viewers can truly compare one candidate to the next. An analysis of questions asked in two debates at the height of the 2004 primaries finds the standard of comparability repeatedly violated as well as a clear pattern of inequity in the distribution of questions among candidates. Questions asked in these crucial debates imposed labels and domains on the candidates, through a particularly hostile line of questioning directed at the viable contenders. This article provides a tool for identifying question bias and emphasizes the need to address this understudied aspect of debates in light of its importance.     

Towards an explanatory and computational theory of scientific discovery

We propose an explanatory and computational theory of transformative discoveries in science. The theory is derived from a recurring theme found in a diverse range of scientific change, scientific discovery, and knowledge diffusion theories in philosophy of science, sociology of science, social network analysis, and information science. The theory extends the concept of structural holes from social networks to a broader range of associative networks found in science studies, especially including networks that reflect underlying intellectual structures such as co-citation networks and collaboration networks. The central premise is that connecting otherwise disparate patches of knowledge is a valuable mechanism of creative thinking in general and transformative scientific discovery in particular. In addition, the premise consistently explains the value of connecting people from different disciplinary specialties. The theory not only explains the nature of transformative discoveries in terms of the brokerage mechanism but also characterizes the subsequent diffusion process as optimal information foraging in a problem space. Complementary to epidemiological models of diffusion, foraging-based conceptualizations offer a unified framework for arriving at insightful discoveries and optimizing subsequent pathways of search in a problem space. Structural and temporal properties of potentially high-impact scientific discoveries are derived from the theory to characterize the emergence and evolution of intellectual networks of a field. Two Nobel Prize winning discoveries, the discovery of Helicobacter pylori and gene targeting techniques, and a discovery in string theory demonstrated such properties. Connections to and differences from existing approaches are discussed. The primary value of the theory is that it provides not only a computational model of intellectual growth, but also concrete and constructive explanations of where one may find insightful inspirations for transformative scientific discoveries.