Cowboys, scientists, and fossils: the field site and local collaboration in the American West

Even as the division between professional scientists and laypeople became sharper by the end of the nineteenth century, the collaboration of local people remained important in scientific fieldwork, especially in sciences such as vertebrate paleontology that required long-term extractive access to research sites. In the North American West, the competition between museums and universities for the best fossil quarry sites involved negotiations with locals. The conflict over differing conceptions of the field site is vividly demonstrated through an examination of one site on the High Plains of western Nebraska in the early twentieth century. This case offers a rare opportunity to see not only how professionals regarded such sites but also how the resident ranching family, the Cooks, attempted to exercise leverage over the scientific fieldwork that took place there. While the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh became mired in protracted conflict with the Cooks over discovery claims and the ongoing control of the site, the University of Nebraska and the American Museum of New York developed more harmonious relations with the site's resident ranching family.     

ANALYZING MATH‐TO‐MASTERY THROUGH BRIEF EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

The current study evaluated the effectiveness of individualized math‐to‐mastery (MTM) interventions, selected though brief experimental analysis (BEA), at increasing math fluency skills for three elementary‐aged females. As MTM has only been investigated as a multicomponent intervention, the present study utilized BEA to identify those specific components that led to math skills gains in the most efficient manner possible. BEA results indicated that for two of three participants only a partial MTM intervention was necessary to prompt fluency gains, while the entire intervention was the most effective for the third. During extended analysis all three participants displayed math skills gains above those seen during repeated baseline assessments. Results are discussed in terms of further refining MTM through BEA procedures so as to individually target math skill deficits by considering both intervention effectiveness and efficiency.     

Learning Disability Identification Criteria and Reporting in Empirical Research: A Review of 2001–2013

This review documents the learning disabilities (LD) identification criteria and procedures utilized in empirical research including students with LD published from 2001 to 2013 in three journals dedicated to the study of LD. Results reveal several troublesome findings related to transparency in reporting and the coherence of the LD construct. Nearly one‐third of all empirical studies investigating LD did not describe who identified the participants as having LD or how they were identified. Information on the specific area of LD was similarly lacking. Across studies, identification criteria varied widely. Moving forward, we contend that greater transparency and consistency with regard to the definition and operationalization of the construct of LD in empirical research is necessary if solidification of the scientific construct of LD is to be achieved.