Training and Extension of a Memory Strategy: Evidence for Utilization Deficiencies in the Acquisition of an Organizational Strategy in High- and Low-IQ Children

143 9- and 10-year-old children were classified into high- and low-IQ groups and given 4 different sort/recall lists (baseline, training, near [immediate] extension, far [1-week] extension) to assess training and extension of an organizational memory strategy. All children received categorized items of moderate typicality for Phases 1, 3, and 4. For Phase 2, children were assigned to either a training or control group, with half of the children in each group receiving category typical items and the others category atypical items. Levels of recall, sorting, and clustering were greater in Phase 2 for high-IQ children, for the typical lists, and for trained children. Both the high- and low-IQ children trained with typical items continued to show high levels of recall on the near extension phase. No group of subjects maintained high levels of recall after 1 week, although levels of sorting and/or clustering on the extension trials remained high for all groups of subjects except the low-IQ control children. This latter pattern (elevated sorting/clustering with low levels of recall) is an indication of a utilization deficiency , a phase in strategy development when children use a strategy but gain little or no benefit in performance. The results provide evidence for IQ, training, and material effects in the demonstration of a utilization deficiency.     

Evaluative Conditioning and the Development of Attitudes in Early Childhood

Many attitudes are acquired in early childhood. However, due to a lack of experimental research, little is known about the processes of how they are acquired. Two experiments were therefore conducted with 153 German kindergarten children aged 3–6 years that provide first evidence for childhood attitude formation in terms of evaluative conditioning. Specifically, it was found that children preferred novel stimuli previously paired with liked stimuli over novel stimuli previously paired with disliked stimuli. This effect occurred independently of age, generalized toward similar novel stimuli, and did not depend on children's recollection of how stimuli were paired. The findings are discussed in terms of the processes underlying childhood attitude formation, and implications for related research areas are highlighted.     

Moderate level alcohol during pregnancy, prenatal stress, or both and limbic-hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis response to stress in rhesus monkeys

This study examined the relationship between moderate-level prenatal alcohol exposure, prenatal stress, and postnatal response to a challenging event in 6-month-old rhesus monkeys. Forty-one rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) infants were exposed prenatally to moderate level alcohol, maternal stress, or both. Offspring plasma cortisol and adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) were determined from blood samples before maternal separation and after separation. Behavioral observations were made repeatedly across separation. Moderate-level prenatal alcohol exposure was associated with significantly higher plasma ACTH response to maternal separation. Offspring exposed to prenatal alcohol, prenatal stress, and prenatal alcohol and stress showed reduced behavioral adaptation to stress compared with controls. Baseline, 2-hr, and 26-hr plasma ACTH levels were intercorrelated and predicted behavior during separation.     

An exploration of school communication approaches for newly arrived EAL students: applying three dimensions of organisational communication theory

This article explores the modes of school communication associated with language and cultural diversity, demonstrating how organisational communication theory can be applied to the analysis of schools’ communication responses to the presence of pupils who have English as an additional language (EAL). The article highlights three analytical dimensions: the external factors influencing school communication systems; communication models reflected in school structures; and the content of communication between stakeholders. An exploratory study of a primary and a secondary school in the East of England, involving 32 semi-structured interviews with school managers, teachers, EAL staff, parents and newly arrived Eastern European students, reveals the interactional and transactional models of communication in the primary school, while the secondary school frequently used a linear approach. Communication in both schools showed a lack of information on EAL students and their parents, hindering a sustained outreach and empowering partnership, and possibly placing these students at a disadvantage.     

Die Beziehungen Zwischen Schule,Eltren und Gemeinwesen am Beispiel der Hiberniaschule

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

虚拟全景中的交互设计与制作——“虚拟现实”系列之二

该文在学习虚拟全景的基础上介绍了如何掌握其交互设计的方法。主要包括文件的建立、背景图片的使用、节点的设立、节点间的链接等内容     

A propos de l'apprentissage du taux de variation instantane

Resume Cet article est composé de deux parties. Dans la première, nous analysons pourquoi les concepts de vitesse et de débit instantanés pâtissent d'un a priori négatif auprès d'un certain nombre d'élèves. S'attendant inconsciemment à ce que les mathématiques prolongent leur perception première du monde sensible, ces élèves leur dénieraient la possibilité de circonscrire avec précision quelque chose qui leur semble échapper jusqu'à un certain point aux sens et aux mesures. A cela s'ajoute des difficultés d'apprentissage inhérentes au processus de passage à la limite.Dans la seconde partie, nous relatons des réactions d'élèves à un problème mobilisant le concept de taux de variation instantané. Nous décrivons ensuite les caractéristiques de ce problème susceptibles d'expliquer son impact didactique. Il mobilise un débit et, qui plus est, un débit régi par un contexte porteur d'intuition physique. L'inconnue est un instant et non le débit lui-même, ce qui favorise une mise à l'épreuve du concept de débit moyen et un acte de passage à la limite.

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On learning the rate of instantaneous change

This article is divided into two parts. In the first one, we analyse why some pupils feel reserve about instantaneous velocities and instantaneous flows. They think that mathematics is inadequate to circumscribe something which is not determined completely by senses and measures because they regard mathematics as a pattern of the world known through the senses unconsciously. In addition, there are some difficulties of learning related to the concept of limit.In the second part, we relate reactions of pupils facing a problem which implicates the instantaneous rate of change. Then, we describe some characteristics of this problem which enables us to explain its didactical impact. It involves a flow, and moreover a flow specified by a context full of physical intuition. The unknown is a time and not the flow itself; consequently, this problem incites to test the concept of average flow and facilitates an effective calculation of limit.