The beast within:Winnie-the-Pooh reassessed

Claudia Nelson is soon to be managaing editor ofCollege Literature. Her most recent article, Sex and the Single Boy: Ideals of Manliness and Sexuality in Victorian Literature for Boys, appeared in the Summer 1989 issue ofVictorian Studies.     

Does Watching Television Actually Make One Nicer? The Use of Conflict Management Message Styles

A telephone survey of 122 respondents was conducted to examine whether exposure to television predicted the use of certain conflict management message styles. Television exposure was not a significant predictor of using a “self-oriented” or “issue-oriented” approach. However, it was a significant predictor of using an “other-oriented” approach to conflict management. Viewers with greater exposure to television were more likely to report using positive message responses when dealing with conflict than their lighter-viewing counterparts.     

Discussion strategies and learning science principles

Post-Sputnik science curricula stress the importance of teaching science as scientists might practice it. This has been vividly illustrated in the laboratory-oriented curricula generated in the past ten years. Even more important has been the emphasis on applying learning theories to their construction. The American Association for the Advancement of Science has implemented the ideas of Robert Gagné in order to develop Science—A Process Approach. Jean Piaget's theory of intellectual development has been integrated into the Science Curriculum Improvement Study. It has been the investigator's observation that many teachers who use the newer science curricula fail to utilize to the fullest the methods implicit in a development theory; consequently, the objectives which include the products as well as the processes of science may not be achieved. This paper will report on an investigation of two types of postlaboratory discussion strategies and their effects on sixth grade children's learning of some science principles. The effects these discussion strategies had on the learning of four science processes are reported elsewhere.     

Development of Preterm and Full-Term Infant Ability on AB, Recall Memory, Transparent Barrier Detour, and Means-End Tasks

10 preterm and 10 full-term infants were tested longitudinally from 28 to 60 weeks of age on a modified version of the AB task, a nonreaching AB task, a Barrier Detour task, a Means-End task, and Perseveration in the Means-End task. Results show that age-corrected (age since conception) premature infants tolerated longer delays than full-term infants on the modified and nonreaching AB tasks. However, when compared by chronological age (age since birth), there were no group differences on either the reaching or nonreaching AB task. No group differences were found on Barrier Detour, Means-End, or Perseveration in either the age-corrected or chronological age comparisons. The results suggest that the function that mediates modified AB performance is one of memory and not of perseveration or means-end ability. Further, these findings suggest that current proposals about brain development based on single samples of infants may be tenuous. Finally, the results of this study suggest that development of the brain structure(s) that mediate modified AB performance is strongly influenced by experience in the postnatal environment.     

Electrophysiological correlates of infant recognition memory

Event-Related Potentials were recorded from 6-month-old infants in order to examine the electrophysiological correlates of recognition memory. In 1 study, infants were shown 1 face briefly, followed by the same face presented with high probability, and a novel face presented with low probability. 2 components were observed that distinguished between the novel and familiar events. Differences between these components in latency, polarity, and scalp topography led to the suggestion that 2 processes were involved in recognizing the stimuli. In a second study infants were again presented with 1 face briefly, followed by the same face and a novel face presented with equal probability. 1 component at central scalp distinguished between the novel and familiar events. In a third study, infants were simply presented with 2 previously unseen faces equally often. Infants responded as if the faces were identical, suggesting that previous experience with 1 stimulus directs infants' attention to the novel stimulus during the test portion of the task. The extent to which the observed responses reflect the updating of working memory is discussed, as is the extent to which infants' electrophysiological response to stimulus novelty and uncertainty resembles the adult's.     

Reading skills in extended discourse in English as a foreign language

Are there different reading skills (Davis, 1944; 1968; 1972) or is there just one‘basic’(Spearitt, 1972) or‘common’(Thorndike, 173) reading skill? Tests designed to measure some posited reading comprehension skills were given to advanced students of English as a Foreign Language. There were five tests: I) Vocabulary Recognition as measured by a multiple-choice test, 2) Extraction of Meaning during reading as measured by open-end questions, 3) Extraction of Meaning during and after reading as measured by a question-cued recall test, 4) Fast and accurate reading as measured by a Word Intrusion Test, and 5)‘Overall reading proficiency’as measured by a modified cloze test. Results indicate the existence of two factors: Factor I which is connected with‘receptive’reading skills, and Factor 2 which is connected with‘productive’reading skills. It is suggested that reading comprehension tests of extended discourse in English as a Foreign Language which do not tap‘productive’reading skills, such as are required in recall (and in real life), are only partial tests of reading comprehension.