Autoshaping of initial feeding and drinking reactions in newly hatched chicks

Newly hatched chicks were force-fed food and water throughout rearing, and food, water, or sand reinforcers during exposure to an omission-training procedure. The chicks were thus prevented from performing approach and contact responses to the reinforcer at any time in their lives. Nevertheless, the subjects displayed approach and species-specific feeding or drinking reactions directed toward an illuminated key paired with food or water, but not with sand. Illumination of a key either uncorrelated or negatively correlated with food or water did not engender appreciable responding. Feeding and drinking reactions were topographically distinct, determined by the type of reinforcer, but were not elicited by the reinforcer. These findings support a “learned release” view of autoshaping, according to which phylogenetically preorganized behavior patterns are triggered by distal stimuli paired with biologically significant proximal stimulation, and suggest a close relationship between autoshaping and primitive instances of visual object recognition.     

心的中心地位:道家之间的论战

心与身体其他感觉器官的关系问题,备受先秦两汉所有重要思想流派的争议。众所周知,传统儒家认为心是主"情"的器官,并具有分析其他感官之间差异的能力1。对于孟子来说,"四端"学说就是关于"心"的内容,最为显著的是恻隐之心,它能促进人们德性的成长2。对于儒家来说,与其他自然的感觉器官相比,"心"是较为高级的。因为它不仅具有思考的能力,而且能评估人们所遇之事;而其他感知器官,仅仅是在于接触其他事物3。"心"比其     

Child Maltreatment and Children's Developmental Trajectories in Early to Middle Childhood

Associations between experiencing child maltreatment and adverse developmental outcomes are widely studied, yet conclusions regarding the extent to which effects are bidirectional, and whether they are likely causal, remain elusive. This study uses the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a birth cohort of 4,898 children followed from birth through age 9. Hierarchical linear modeling and structural equation modeling are employed to estimate associations of maltreatment with cognitive and social‐emotional well‐being. Results suggest that effects of early childhood maltreatment emerge immediately, though developmental outcomes are also affected by newly occurring maltreatment over time. Additionally, findings indicate that children's early developmental scores predict their subsequent probability of experiencing maltreatment, though to a lesser extent than early maltreatment predicts subsequent developmental outcomes.     

Growing Pains: The Dearing Report from a European Perspective

The United Kingdom, like most of its European partners has achieved 'mass' higher education and Dearing has tried to come to terms with the implications of this and move the debate a stage forward from mass higher education to the learning society, embracing a much wider range of clients and forms of post school education and training. The responsibilities of individual students to manage their own learning experiences are much nearer the centre of the picture than has hitherto been normal in UK universities and colleges. There are similarities between the proposed qualification structure with stopping off points at the end of each full time year and the arrangements which have been in operation in France for some years. There are other examples of proposed convergence with continental models, not least the increase in class size and the assimilation into higher education of casual lecturers.
In contrast the paper also draws attention to the growing role of the state (disguised as the nation) in higher education and the associated 'juridification' which seems to be on the wane in Europe. Britain seems well set to discover that feature once decried as quintessential of the overmighty European State, namely the avalanche of ministerial circulars and decrees which ensured cohesion and compliance but also imposed heavy burdens on university managers.     

Adolescents’ Friendships,Academic Achievement,and Risk Behaviors: Same-Behavior and Cross-Behavior Selection and Influence Processes

This study examined to what extent adolescents’ and their friends’ risk behaviors (i.e., delinquency and alcohol use) hinder or promote their academic achievement (grade point average [GPA]), and vice versa. Longitudinal data were used (N = 1,219 seventh- to ninth-grade adolescents; M_age = 13.69). Results showed that risk behaviors negatively affected adolescents’ GPA, whereas GPA protected against engaging in risk behaviors. Moreover, adolescents tended to select friends who have similar behaviors and friends’ behaviors became more similar over time (same-behavior selection and influence). Furthermore, although same-behavior effects seemed to dominate, evidence was found for some cross-behavior selection effects and a tendency in seventh grade for cross-behavior influence effects. Concluding, it is important to investigate the interplay between different behaviors with longitudinal social network analysis.     

Motivation and students’ use of learning strategies: Evidence of unidirectional effects in mathematics classrooms

Considerable evidence indicates that student motivation and use of learning strategies are related. There is insufficient understanding, however, about their reciprocal effects—whether motivation affects strategy use, the converse, or whether the effects are bidirectional—and which components of motivation and strategies are involved. A two-wave longitudinal design was used to examine this issue among 9th grade students (N = 306) enrolled in high school mathematics classes during an academic term. A cross-lagged structural model found that students’ self-efficacy in mathematics and value predicted their reported use of learning strategies. There was no evidence, however, that learning strategy use predicted motivation and, thus, support for unidirectional effect of motivation during that time interval. Implications for models of self-regulated learning and instruction are discussed.     

“That’s a Big Bad Wolf!”: Learning through Teacher-Child Talk During Shared Reading of a Story Book App

Early Childhood Education Journal - Touch screen tablets and story book apps provide opportunities for teachers to support young children’s shared reading experiences. Much research has...     

Taking a Different Route: Contribution of Articulation and Metacognition to Intervention With At-Risk Third-Grade Readers

This study compared the impact of 2 types of small-group interventions targeting below-level 3rd-grade students. The study compared WordWork decoding and spelling instruction (Calfee, Miller, Norman, Wilson, &; Trainin, 2006 Calfee, R. C., Miller, R. G., Norman, K., Wilson, K., &; Trainin, G. (2006). Learning to do educational research. In M. A. Constas &; R. J. Sterenberg (Eds.), Translating theory and research into educational practice: Developments in content domains, large scale reform, and intellectual capacity (pp. 77–103). New York, NY: Routledge. [Google Scholar]; Calfee &; Patrick, 1995 Calfee, R. C., &; Patrick, C. L. (1995). Teach our children well: Bringing K–12 education into the 21st Century. Stanford, CA: Stanford Alumni Assoc. [Google Scholar]), which includes attention to articulation and metacognition, with a more traditional phonological awareness program (Torgesen &; Bryant, 1993 Torgesen, J. K., &; Bryant, B. R. (1993). Phonological awareness training for reading. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed. [Google Scholar]). University education students delivered the interventions with equal instructional time and fidelity, to both groups. Students in both intervention groups engaged in repeated readings of connected text to promote transfer. The impact of training was assessed through decoding, spelling, and oral reading fluency measures. Results indicated that WordWork produced more positive results in decoding, spelling, and fluency, and had significantly fewer treatment resisters.