Transfer of a taste aversion from food to water under various states of deprivation

The importance of ingestive contexts (feeding and drinking) and deprivation states to rats’ transfer of a taste aversion were examined, In Experiments 1 and 2, rats were trained with novel saccharin-treated foods while either food deprived or food and water deprived, They were then tested with a 1,0% saccharin solution while either water deprived or food and water deprived, Comparable aversions to the solution were displayed regardless of deprivation states, Two further experiments examined transfer to a .1% saccharin solution in conjunction with deprivation state change, When both stimulus properties and deprivation were widely discrepant from training to test, reduced transfer was noted. The results suggest that stimulus similarity was a stronger controlling variable than deprivation state similarity in facilitating the transfer of an aversion from a feeding context to a drinking context, The results were viewed as being consistent with the known parameters affecting generalization gradients.     

Coherence: the comprehension and production abilities of college writers who are normally achieving, learning disabled, and underprepared

The ability to understand and produce coherent text structure was assessed across three groups of college writers, normally achieving, learning disabled, and underprepared. It was found that college writers with learning disabilities were more like the normally achieving writers on an assessment of comprehension of text structure. On the production of a coherent text, normally achieving writers performed better than either of the other groups, but the writers with learning disabilities (LD) performed better than the underprepared writers. These results suggest that the writers with LD demonstrate greater discrepancies between their comprehension and production of written form than either of the other groups. The writers with LD appear to understand text structure like normally achieving writers but, like the underprepared writers, they experience difficulty in the production processes.     

The perceived benefits and problems associated with teaching activities undertaken by doctoral students

Postgraduate students involved in delivering undergraduate teaching while working toward a research degree are known as graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). This study focused upon the problems and benefits arising from this dual role as researchers and teachers, as perceived by GTAs at the University of Cambridge. To this end, GTAs at Cambridge were invited to participate in an online survey (n?=?153). Teaching is seen to offer a wide range of benefits to GTAs, including benefits to the GTAs’ own research, transferable skills development, career development and teaching skills. Time pressures emerged as the principal problem associated with the role. The data are consistent with findings from previous studies, while also providing further detail about the nature of the benefits and problems. In particular, additional insights are offered relating to benefits and problems associated with different teaching activities, and disciplinary differences.     

Understanding adult education in community contexts: A critical realist perspective

Third-sector community organisations are important sites for learning, especially for the most excluded groups in society. However, scant attention has been paid to the various factors shaping educational provision in community contexts, and how these interact to shape the provision available to marginalised populations. This article presents new evidence addressing this gap, through drawing on interview data from practitioners working in the UK homelessness sector. It identifies a range of factors shaping educational provision in these community contexts. These are: service user need and demand; staff roles and capacity; organisational purpose and structures; national policies; support from other adult education providers; non-governmental finance; and volunteers. With some modification, and placed within an overarching critical realist framework, it is argued that these findings are consistent with Boeren’s comprehensive lifelong learning participation model. The article concludes that so long as government policy and related funding continues to ignore and fails to support educational provision in these settings, it will remain piecemeal and highly contingent on the contribution of volunteers and short-term funding.     

Timed essay writing: implications for high-stakes tests

The majority of high-stakes tests from elementary school through postsecondary education include the timed impromptu essay as a measure of writing performance. For adolescents with writing disorders, this type of evaluation often presents a significant barrier. The purpose of the current study was twofold. First, we investigated the influence of handwritten, typed, and typed/edited formats of an expository essay on the quality scores received by students with (n = 65) and without (n = 65) dyslexia. Second, we examined the contribution of spelling, handwriting, fluency, and vocabulary complexity to the quality scores that students with and without dyslexia received on the same writing task. Analyses indicated that vocabulary complexity, verbosity, spelling, and handwriting accounted for more variance in essay quality scores for writers with dyslexia than for their typically achieving peers. Both group and individual student outcomes are reported to better understand the needs of struggling writers with dyslexia. Implications for assessment, instruction, and accommodations are discussed with an eye toward reform efforts that target improved teaching and learning.     

Like Father, Like Son: Young Children's Understanding of How and Why Offspring Resemble Their Parents

4 studies investigated the broad claim that preschoolers understand biological inheritance. In Study 1, 4–7-year-old children were told a story in which a boy was born to one man and adopted by another. The biological father was described as having one set of features (e.g., green eyes) and the adoptive father as having another (e.g., brown eyes). Subjects were asked which man the boy would resemble when he grew up. Preschoolers showed little understanding that selective chains of processes mediate resemblance to parents. It was not until age 7 that children substantially associated the boy with his biological father on physical features and his adoptive father on beliefs. That is, it was not until age 7 that children demonstrated that they understood birth as part of a process selectively mediating the acquisition of physical traits and learning or nurturance as mediating the acquisition of beliefs. In Study 2, subjects were asked whether, as a boy grew up, various of his features could change. Children generally shared our adult intuitions, indicating that their failure in Study 1 was not due to their having a different sense of what features can change. Studies 3 and 4 replicated Study 1, with stories involving mothers instead of fathers and with lessened task demands. Taken together, the results of the 4 studies refute the claim that preschoolers understand biological inheritance. The findings are discussed in terms of whether children understand biology as an autonomous cognitive domain.