Acquisition of the same/different concept by an African Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus): Learning with respect to categories of color,shape, and material

An African Grey parrot, previously taught to use vocal English labels to discriminate more than 80 different objects and to respond to questions concerning categorical concepts of color and shape, was trained and tested on relational concepts ofsame anddifferent. The subject, Alex, replied with the correct English categorical label (“color,” “shape,” or “mah-mah” [matter]) when asked “What’s same?” or “What’s different?” about pairs of objects that varied with respect to any combination of attributes. His accuracy was 69.7%–76.6% for pairs of familiar objects not used in training and 82.3%–85% for pairs involving objects whose combinations of colors, shapes, and materials were unfamiliar. Additional trials demonstrated that his responses were based upon the question being posed as well as the attributes of the objects. These findings are discussed in terms of his comprehension of the categories of color, shape, and material and as evidence of his competence in an exceptional (non-species-specific) communication code.     

An Examination of a Small‐Group Decoding Intervention for Struggling Readers: Comparing Accuracy and Automaticity Criteria

In this study, we compared methods to improve the decoding and reading fluency of struggling readers. Second‐grade poor readers were randomly assigned to one of the two practice conditions within a repeated reading intervention. Both interventions were in small groups, were 20–28 min long, took place 2–4 days per week, and consisted of phonemic awareness training, letter sound practice, and practice in word families. Students in the accuracy condition (n= 27) practiced each page until they reached 98 percent accuracy while students in the accuracy + automaticity condition (n= 29) practiced until they reached rate (30–90 cwpm) and accuracy criteria. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed no differences between practice conditions in decoding accuracy, reading comprehension, and grade‐level text reading fluency. Significant differences favoring the accuracy + automaticity group were found in measures of decoding automaticity.     

Teaching Students with Moderate Intellectual Disability Who Are Emergent Readers to Comprehend Passages of Text

A modified system of least intrusive prompting was used to teach middle school students with moderate intellectual disability who were emergent readers to comprehend short passages of text. Text passages were summaries of the chapters of age-appropriate novels rewritten for a beginning reading level. Time delay was used to teach the participants to pair WH words to their definition. A modified system of least intrusive prompting was used to teach strategies for answering comprehension questions. All participants improved the number of correct responses for both rules definitions and comprehension responses from baseline to intervention. Additionally, probes collected during the session prior to the introduction of a new book indicated comprehension skills generalized to new untaught books.     

同学聚会,你参加吗?

"同学聚会"——多么令人兴奋的字眼,有多少人曾经为了那个可以一叙旧情的日子高兴得睡不着觉?但是,也有越来越多的人表示,离校园生活越远,"同学聚会"也越发变味,因为聚会变得越来越像是一个炫富、晒幸福、比成就的场合,日子过得滋润的人会     

Predictive value of coaches’ early technical and tactical notational analyses on long-term success of female handball players

ABSTRACT

Despite the importance of technique and tactics for athlete performance, there has been surprisingly little research on the value of these skills in talent identification and development. This study investigated the relationship between coaches’ early notational analyses of female youth handball players and the long-term success of these athletes. Participants included sixty-eight female handball players involved in a talent selection camp in Germany when they were between 12 and 14 years of age (mean = 14.42, SD = 0.42). All subsequently ended up as non-, semi- or professional adult players. During the initial selection camp, participants were evaluated on a range of quantitative and qualitative measures of technical and tactical skill. Results indicated significant differences between the groups, but only for the number of actions taken, not for the quality of those actions. While this seems counterintuitive, it may reflect the likelihood that more skilled and/or talented players take more actions. Further work is necessary to explore the validity and implications of these findings.