The neuropsychology of Down syndrome: evidence for hippocampal dysfunction

This study tested prefrontal and hippocampal functions in a sample of 28 school-aged (M = 14.7 years, SD = 2.7) individuals with Down syndrome (DS) compared with 28 (M = 4.9 years, SD = .75) typically developing children individually matched on mental age (MA). Both neuropsychological domains were tested with multiple behavioral measures. Benchmark measures of verbal and spatial function demonstrated that this DS sample was similar to others in the literature. The main finding was a significant Group x Domain interaction effect indicating differential hippocampal dysfunction in the group with DS. However, there was a moderate partial correlation (r = .54, controlling for chronological age) between hippocampal and prefrontal composite scores in the DS group, and both composites contributed unique variance to the prediction of MA and adaptive behavior in that group. In sum, these results indicate a particular weakness in hippocampal functions in DS in the context of overall cognitive dysfunction. It is interesting that these results are similar to what has been found in a mouse model of DS. Such a model will make it easier to understand the neurobiological mechanisms that lead to the development of hippocampal dysfunction in DS.     

Quality and Equality in Internet-Based Higher Education: Benchmarks for Success

As technology changes what higher education is and how it is delivered, it is critical to learn from existing case studies and research about the strengths and weaknesses of this delivery approach. This article reviews research published in the United States and case studies of Internet-based degree programmes to gain a better understanding of the impact of IT on student equity and overall standards of quality. Based on this review of prior experience, several policy recommendations are offered. These recommendations suggest that governmental strategies related to on-line education should be limited in scope and promote two key goals: (i) equal opportunity for educationally disadvantaged populations, and (ii) standards of quality that are based on proven models of success.     

Exploring the Co‐Development of Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension: A Twin Study

This study explores the co‐development of two related but separate reading skills, reading fluency and reading comprehension, across Grades 1–4. A bivariate biometric dual change score model was applied to longitudinal data collected from 1,784 twin pairs between the ages of 6 and 10 years. Grade 1 skills were influenced by highly overlapping genetic and environmental factors. Growth in both skills was influenced by highly overlapping shared environmental factors. Cross‐lagged parameters indicated bidirectional effects, with stronger effects from fluency to comprehension change than from comprehension to fluency change.     

Teachers' beliefs about the effects of child abuse

OBJECTIVE: Teachers' expectations about the effects of physical and emotional abuse on children's classroom behaviors were examined in this study. Not only do teachers have to decide if a particular child is the victim of abuse, they may also have to contend with changes in that child's classroom behavior. METHOD: Teachers generated what they thought were typical outcomes of physical and emotional abuse on children's classroom behavior. RESULTS: Responses generally fell into the following categories: lowered self-esteem, heightened aggression, academic difficulties, and poor social interaction skills. Teachers who mentioned lowered self-esteem were more likely to generate it as the result of emotional abuse rather than physical abuse. CONCLUSIONS: Teachers' expectations generally mirrored research findings as to the actual effects of child abuse. Suggestions are made to incorporate the results in training programs designed to increase teachers' self-confidence in reporting potential cases of child abuse.     

Conductor of public feelings: An affective-emotional rhetorical analysis of Obama’s national eulogy in Tucson

We argue that one important role of the contemporary president is to be a conductor of public feelings. To demonstrate, we analyze U.S. President Barack Obama’s national eulogy speech delivered on January 12, 2011 in Tucson, Arizona. We show how Obama acts as a musical or energy conductor, redirecting a soundscape of boisterous enthusiasm to be in concert with discordant feelings of national pain and anger and moving them toward social love that is non-partisan and at times civic-centered. This essay has implications for public policy, racial registers of feeling, and writing the bodies of rhetorical scholars into criticism.     

Specific Reading Comprehension Disability: Major Problem,Myth, or Misnomer?

The goal of the present study was to test three competing hypotheses about the nature of comprehension problems of students who are poor in reading comprehension. Participants in the study were first, second, and third graders, totaling nine cohorts and over 425,000 participants in all. The pattern of results was consistent across all cohorts: Less than 1 percent of first‐ through third‐grade students who scored as poor in reading comprehension were adequate in both decoding and vocabulary. Although poor reading comprehension certainly qualifies as a major problem rather than a myth, the term specific reading comprehension disability is a misnomer: Individuals with problems in reading comprehension that are not attributable to poor word recognition have comprehension problems that are general to language comprehension rather than specific to reading. Implications for assessment and intervention are discussed.     

From in loco parentis to Student-Citizens: The 1964 Berkeley Protests as Détournement

By employing one kind of a materialist rhetorical analysis, this article demonstrates that the 1964 Berkeley student protests functioned as détournement, resituating college students from a life governed by in loco parentis to becoming “student citizens.” This study has implications for the political activism of American college students today and rhetorical studies of materiality.