AIM-TWX service at the University of Virginia: a review and evaluation

The paper reviews the highlights of a four-week trial period (November 19-December 18, 1970) during which the Medical Library of the University of Virginia experimented with a new remote-access bibliographical control and retrieval system via its TWX machine. The system, called AIM-TWX, was sponsored by the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications and utilizes a timeshared IBM 360/67 computer in Santa Monica, California. Citations from 109 clinically-oriented journals from 1966 to date, including those currently included in the Abridged Index Medicus, may be retrieved either on- or off-line.Various aspects of this service are described, including problems of staffing, training, and record keeping, as well as the role of the MeSH vocabulary which is the principle "language" of the man-computer dialog.The statistical results indicated that the system was used for approximately 200 minutes on nineteen days and that an average of sixteen searches were run on any given day, or about 4.6 searches per hour of use. In spite of an inexperienced staff who had little knowledge of the MeSH vocabulary and whose training schedule was limited to one four-hour session, the experiment was highly successful in terms of searches and citations.At the end of the period, 298 searches had been run for 114 requestors, and 5,343 citations had been produced. Only fifty-five searches yielded no citations. The experiment generated a great deal of excitement and interest among the staff of the Library and of the Medical Center. Moreover, a large number of medical practitioners in large and small communities of Virginia participated in this experiment, indicating that there exists a great demand for this type of literature searching which AIM-TWX is able to provide with great rapidity.     

Advanced displays and natural user interfaces to support learning

Advanced displays and natural user interfaces (NUI) are a very suitable combination for developing systems to provide an enhanced and richer user experience. This combination can be appropriate in several fields and has not been extensively exploited. One of the fields that this combination is especially suitable for is education. Nowadays, children are growing up playing with computer games, using mobile devices, and other technological devices. New learning methods that use these new technologies can help in the learning process. In this paper, two new methods that use advanced displays and NUI for learning about a period of history are presented. One of the methods is an autostereoscopic system that lets children see themselves as a background in the game and renders the elements in 3D without the need for special glasses; the second method is a frontal projection system that projects the image on a table in 2D and works similarly to a touch table. The Microsoft Kinect^© is used in both systems for the interaction. A comparative study to check different aspects was carried out. A total of 128 children from 7 to 11 years old participated in the study. From the results, we observed that the different characteristics of the systems did not influence the children's acquired knowledge, engagement, or satisfaction. There were statistically significant differences for depth perception and presence in which the autostereoscopic system was scored higher. However, of the two systems, the children considered the frontal projection to be easier to use. We would like to highlight that the scores for the two systems and for all the questions were very high. These results suggest that games of this kind (advanced displays and NUI) could be appropriate educational games and that autostereoscopy is a technology to exploit in their development.     

Double Dissociation Between Reading and Spelling Deficits

In two studies dissociations between reading and spelling skills were examined. Study 1 reports equally high prevalence rates for isolated deficits in reading (7%) or spelling (6%) in a representative sample (N = 2,029) of German-speaking elementary school children. In Study 2, children with isolated deficits were presented with the same words to read and spell. The double dissociation was replicated. Good readers/poor spellers named pseudohomophones as quickly as their corresponding words, and their phonological awareness skills were adequate, suggesting that their reading might be based on highly efficient decoding procedures. Poor readers/good spellers showed slow word naming and a clear slowing when reading pseudohomophones suggesting a reliance on intact orthographic representations in word reading. A deficit in rapid automatized naming in this group suggests problems in fast visual–verbal access. The profile of poor readers/poor spellers fits the double-deficit group in Wolf and Bowers's (1999) Wolf, M. and Bowers, P. G. 1999. The double-deficit hypothesis for the developmental dyslexias. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91: 415–438. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] dyslexia theory.     

Integrated Circuits and Microminiaturization

The meanings of the words microcircuits, molecular electronics, integrated circuits, and functional devices are examined with the conclusions that, as generally used, the only sensible definitions are as follows: a microcircuit is one in which connections are made between circuit elements on a microscopic scale. Molecular electronics, integrated circuits, and functional devices all have essentially the same meaning, which is that connections are made between circuit elements inside a single block of material without bringing leads out. The next order of miniaturization that is required for space vehicles and large-scale computers will use a microeletronic or molecular electronic technology in combination with conventional miniature techniques. The feasibility of very large components of systems being made by a molecular or microelectronic technique depends on the combination of many orders of magnitude reduction in manufacturing shrinkage combined with the design of circuits to tolerate unreliable or defective elements.     

Same Same,but Different: Word and Sentence Reading in German and English

The current study compared eye fixation patterns during word and sentence processing in a consistent and an inconsistent alphabetic orthography. German and English children as well as adults matched on word reading ability read matched sentences while their eye fixation behavior was recorded. Results indicated that German children read in a more small-unit plodder-like style with more diligent first-pass reading and less rereading. In contrast, English children read in a more large-unit explorer-like style with a greater tendency to skip words, and more regressions. It is important that these cross-linguistic processing differences largely persisted in the adult readers. Orthographic consistency thus influences both local word recognition and global sentence processing in developing and skilled readers.     

Challenging claims of cultural deprivation as a career-long goal

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an overview of some of Michael Cole’s work, starting with his pioneering research in Liberia with the Kpelle (and later, with Sylvia Scribner, studies of literacy with the Vai, 1981), which was formative of his version of a cultural-historical psychology, his translation and interpretations of the work of L. S. Vygotsky and finally his development of the 5th Dimension after-school programs, which in various ways build on the insights from the previous work. I discuss how contesting notions of cultural and intellectual deprivation or inferiority have been a central preoccupation in Cole’s work, spanning practically his entire career, and was already on display as a central concern in his early work in Liberia.     

Staff Preferences in Children with Mental Retardation

Staff at a residential facility for children with mental retardation rated their most‐preferred and least‐preferred children on a list of child characteristics. Staff‐perceived characteristics that differed significantly between the most‐ and least‐preferred children were subjective traits involving physical attributes, mood, behaviour, and social qualities. The remaining characteristics comprised objective developmental traits that did not differentiate the two groups. Small children were more likely to be rated most‐preferred, and large children least‐preferred. Staff tended to discount positive traits in their least‐preferred children and tolerate negative attributes in their most‐preferred children. Some children were rated as both most‐ and least‐preferred by different caregivers. These findings add to the understanding of staff perceptions and attitudes and have implications for intervention.     

Is Statistical Learning Ability Related to Reading Ability,and If So,Why?

ABSTRACT

Previous studies found a relationship between performance on statistical learning (SL) tasks and reading ability and developmental dyslexia. Thus, it has been suggested that the ability to implicitly learn patterns may be important for reading acquisition. Causal mechanisms behind this relationship are unclear: Although orthographic sensitivity to letter bigrams may emerge through SL and facilitate reading, there is no empirical support for this link. We test 84 adults on two SL tasks, reading tests, and a bigram sensitivity task. We test for correlations using Bayes factors. This serves to test the prediction that SL and reading ability are correlated and to explore sensitivity to bigram legality as a potential mediator. We find no correlations between SL tasks and reading ability, SL and bigram sensitivity, or between the SL tasks. We conclude that correlating SL with reading ability may not yield replicable results, partly due to low correlations between SL tasks.     

New Opportunities or Closing Doors? How Correctional Facility Tours Impact Students’ Thoughts about Correctional Careers

Children may say they want to grow up to be a police officer, but we typically do not hear children saying they want to work in a prison or jail when they grow up. Given negative media attention of correctional facilities, it may not be surprising that many students enter criminal justice programs uninterested in correctional careers. Correctional facility tours can be useful for exposing criminal justice students to careers they may not have previously considered or ones about which they held negative stereotypes. Drawing on the premises of Experiential Learning Theory and using student essays, we address the following research questions: (1) Does attending a jail or prison tour influence how students think of correctional officers and correctional careers? (2) What perceptions do students have of correctional officers prior to attending a jail or prison tour and what do students think of correctional officers after the tour?