Temperament,tympanum, and temperature: four provisional studies of the biobehavioral correlates of tympanic membrane temperature asymmetries

Previous research in both humans and nonhuman primates suggests that subtle asymmetries in tympanic membrane (TM) temperatures may be related to aspects of cognition and socioaffective behavior. Such associations could plausibly reflect lateralities in cerebral blood flow that support side-to-side differences in regional cortical activation. Asymmetries in activation of the left and right frontal cortex, for example, are correlates of temperamental differences in child behavior and markers of risk status for affective and anxiety disorders. Tympanic membrane temperatures might thus reflect the neural asymmetries that subserve individual differences in temperament and behavior. This report merged findings from four geographically and demographically distinctive studies, which utilized identical thermometry methods to examine associations between TM temperature asymmetries and biobehavioral attributes of 4- to 8-year-old children (N = 468). The four studies produced shared patterns of associations that linked TM temperature lateralities to individual differences in behavior and socioaffective difficulties. Warmer left TMs were associated with "surgent," affectively positive behaviors, whereas warmer right TMs were related to problematic, affectively negative behaviors. Taken together, these findings suggest that asymmetries in TM temperatures could be associated with behavior problems that signal risk for developmental psychopathology.     

Order and duration of stimuli are important determinants of reactivation

Prior cuing treatments intended to alleviate the forgetting of a conditioned avexsion-to an odor were tested with 18-day-old rats. Previous experiments had shown that when such pups were conditioned with the use of a CS?/CS+ procedure, pretest presentation of the CS? or US, but not the CS+, alleviated the forgetting otherwise seen after a 3-h retention interval. In Experiment 1, it was determined that the forgetting was not alleviated if the GS? was either preceded or followed by presentation of the CS+, despite the fact that the CS?/CS+ ordering mimicked that of original conditioning. Experiment 2 was an examination of the balance of extinction and reactivation effects caused by presenting the CS+ for varying durations following the 3-h retention interval. The forgetting over this interval was alleviated if the CS+ was presented for 5 or 15 sec, but not 30 sec. With an increase in duration of exposure from 15 to 30 sec, the consequences of the CS+ as a prior cuing treatment apparently shifted from reactivation to extinction. Experiment 3 was a test of the interaction between the consequences of different lengths of CS+ exposure and the effectiveness of adding CS? to the CS+ as a reactivation treatment. The varied effectiveness of reactivation treatments is discussed interms of a change in stimulus conditions from training to reactivation.     

Effect of social setting,self‐concept,and relative age on the social status of moderately and highly gifted students

This study compares the social status of highly gifted (N=42) and moderately gifted (N=86) students across academic (classroom) and social (dormitory) settings. Giftedness was not significantly related to social status in either setting. Two social statuses, popular and rejected, were significantly stable across settings. Furthermore these statuses were related to peer nominations for getting along, fighting, and being shy, to social and academic measures of self‐concept, and to age relative to the peer group. These findings are examined in light of other research on gifted‐ness and social status.     

Long-term Strategic Incrementalism: An Approach and a Model for Bringing About Change in Higher Education

Innovation and reform are crucial to progress, but higher education institutions are by nature highly resistant to change. This article describes long-term strategic incrementalism, an approach to change advocated by L. Cuban, How scholars trumped teachers: Change without reform in university curriculum, teaching, and research, 1890–1990, Teachers College Press, New York, NY, 1999, and proposes a model based on this approach as a proven way of successfully carrying out change within higher education. The approach and model are illustrated through two cases involving reforms—one at the department level and another at the institutional level. Norman Evans  (Ed.D., University of Southern California) is a member of the Linguistics and English Language Department at Brigham Young University. He is the former chair of the English Language Teaching and Learning Department at Brigham Young University Hawaii. Lynn Henrichsen  (Ed.D., University of Hawaii) is a member of the Linguistics and English Language Department at Brigham Young University. He is the former chair of that department.     

Improving science teachers' conceptions of nature of science: a critical review of the literature

This paper aimed to review, and assess the 'effectiveness' of the attempts undertaken to improve prospective and practising science teachers' conceptions of nature of science (NOS). The reviewed attempts could be categorized into two general approches: implicit and explicit. Implicit attempts utilized science process-skills instruction or engagement in science-based inquiry activities to improve science teachers' conceptions of NOS. To achieve the same goal, explicit attempts used instruction geared towards various aspects of NOS and/or instruction that utilized elements from history and philosophy of science. To the extent that teachers' NOS conceptions were faithfully assessed by the instruments used in the reviewed studies, the explicit approach was relatively more effective in enhancing teachers' views. The relative ineffectiveness of the implicit approach could be attributed to two inherent assumptions. The first is that developing an understanding of NOS is an 'affective', as compared to a 'cognitive', learning outcome. The second ensuing assumption is that learners would necessarily develop understandings of NOS as a by-product of engaging in science-realated activities. However, despite the relative 'effectiveness' of the explicit approach, much is still required in terms of fostering among science teachers 'desired' understandings of NOS. The paper emphasizes that explicitness and reflectivness should be given prominence in any future attempts aimed at improving teachers' concepts of NOS.