Training reinforcement rates,resistance to extinction,and the role of context in reinstatement

Behavior reduced as a consequence of extinction or intervention can relapse. According to behavioral momentum theory, the extent to which behavior persists and relapses once it has been eliminated depends on the relative training reinforcement rate among discriminative stimuli. In addition, studies of context renewal reveal that relapse depends on the similarity between the training stimulus context and the test stimulus context following disruption by extinction. In the present experiments with pigeons, we arranged different reinforcement rates in the presence of distinct discriminative stimuli across components of a multiple schedule. Following extinction, we attempted to reinstate responding in the presence of those target components with response-independent food presentations. Importantly, we arranged the reinstating food presentations either within the target components or in separate components, either paired with extinction (Experiment 1) or reinforcement (Experiment 2) during baseline. Reinstatement increased with greater training reinforcement rates when the reinstating food presentations were arranged in the target components and the separate components paired with reinforcement during training. Reinstatement was smaller and was not systematically related to training reinforcement rates in the target components when reinstating food presentation occurred in separate components paired with extinction. These findings suggest that relapse depends on the history of reinforcement associated with the discriminative stimuli in which the relapse-inducing event occurs.     

Racially liberatory pedagogy: a Black Lives Matter approach to education

Abstract

In this study, we sought to understand how Black lives matter (BLM) epistemology, as displayed through six months of social media content from official accounts, can inform a racially liberatory pedagogy in higher education for Black and other racially minoritized students. We found BLM, through Facebook and Twitter, situated intersectional Black culture in the contemporary struggle for liberation. BLM also offered information that can raise its followers’ intersectional critical consciousness. Additionally, BLM content highlighted actions that can support Black liberation. Lastly, BLM content supported the building of relationships and naming of emotions as Black people work toward their liberation. In this sense, BLM connected with elements of a racially liberatory pedagogy and offered nuances that advanced the framework. We discuss the implications of this framework for teaching in higher education.     

Using collaborative two‐stage examinations to address test anxiety in a large enrollment gateway course

Large enrollment foundational courses are perceived as “high stakes” because of their potential to act as barriers for progression to the next course or admittance to a program. The nature of gateway courses makes them ideal settings to explore the relationship between anxiety, pedagogical interventions, and student performance. Here, two‐stage collaborative examinations were implemented to improve test‐taking skills and address widespread test anxiety in an introductory human anatomy course. Test anxiety data were collected (using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire) before the first examination and last examination. Most students experienced decreased test anxiety over the course of the semester; however, some students may have experienced performance limiting conditions due to test anxiety at the end of the semester based on academic ability in the course (in “C” students when compared to “A” students: P < 0.00006 and “B” students: P < 0.05), overall academic ability (in academically weaker students: P < 0.025), and demographic factors (in women: P < 0.025). The strongest performances on examinations were primarily observed in already academically strong students (mean individual performance: P < 0.000, mean group performance: P < 0.000). Furthermore, changes in test anxiety were not significantly associated with the group portion of the examinations. Patterns of changes in test anxiety over the course of the semester underscore a complex interaction between test anxiety, student background, and student performance. Results suggest that pathways for test anxiety in “high stakes” courses may be separate from the mechanisms responsible for the benefits of collaborative testing. Anat Sci Educ 10: 409–422. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

The Contest of Faculties: On Discerning the Politics of Social Engagement in the Academy

McLuhan: Hot and Cool. Edited by Gerald Emanuel Stearn. New York: Dial, 1967; pp. xxii+312. $6.95.

Politics and Television. By Kurt Lang and Gladys Engel Lang. Chicago: Quadrangle, 1968; pp. 315. $6.95.

The Image Candidates: American Politics in the Age of Television. By Gene Wyckoff. New York: MacMillan, 1968; pp. xiv+274. $6.95.     

Banking on the Present: The Ontological Rhetoric of Neo-Classical Economics and Its Relation to the 2008 Financial Crisis

This essay performs a rhetorical criticism of neo-classical economics, with particular attention to its methodological influence on a number of faulty mathematical models that lay at the epicenter of the 2008 financial crisis. Going beyond Goodnight and Green's mimetic conception of economic rhetoric, which positions rhetoric as a site of mediation between symbolic and material spirals, we argue that the rhetoric of neo-classicism is best understood as an “apparatus” that attempts to suture two ontologically incommensurable conceptions of time that we term intensive and extensive. We further argue that the hinge of this rhetorical apparatus centers on a kairotic tactic of arbitrage, which theoretically posits, at the same time that it negates, ontological market failure. We end by exploring rhetorical alternatives to neo-classical economics that take the internally contradictory structure of arbitrage to its emergent conclusions.     

Confronting Physical Activity Programming Barriers for People with Disabilities: The Empowerment Model

Community-based physical activity programs for people with disabilities have barriers that are unique to their program leader qualifications and the population they serve. Moran and Block (2010) argued that there is a need for practical strategies that are easy for communities to implement, maximize resources, and minimize the impact of barriers on each individual. The purpose of this article was to build upon the work of Moran and Block by identifying and systematically addressing barriers to physical activity for people with disabilities in ways that target their sources of self-efficacy. The Empowerment Model is introduced, along with its multi-tiered empowerment continuum of training, support, and programming strands. The goal of the tiered empowerment continuum is to progressively move populations to more independent levels of training, support, and programming.