School-based bullying experiences as reflected by adults with visual impairments

The purpose of this study was to describe the reflections of adults with visual impairments regarding bullying experiences during their school-based education. An interpretative phenomenological analysis research approach was used and 11 participants (aged 20–35 years; seven women, four men) participated in this study. The sources of data were semi-structured audiotaped telephone interviews and reflective field notes. Thematic development was undertaken utilizing a three-step analytical process guided by the research approach. Based on the data analysis, three interrelated themes were constructed: (a) “It would be when they knew there weren't teachers watching”: bullying experiences in unowned and unstructured spaces; (b) “Going through the motions”: feelings about verbal, social, and physical victimization; and (c) “They had their own insecurities”: understanding the bullies and bystanders. The emerged themes provide a unique insight into the way in which those with visual impairments experienced bullying in schools and the meaning they ascribed to those experiences.     

Conditioning of simultaneous and serial feature-positive discriminations

Three experiments with rat subjects examined the development of simultaneous and serial feature-positive discriminations in appetitive conditioning. In Experiment 1, reinforced presentations of a simultaneous light-tone compound were intermixed with nonreinforced presentations of either the light or the tone. The compound stimulus acquired conditioned behaviors of a form characteristic of the predictive feature alone; the element common to reinforced and nonreinforced trials did not evoke conditioned behavior. In Experiment 2, reinforced presentations of a serial light-trace-tone compound were intermixed with nonreinforced tone-alone presentations. The light feature stimulus acquired conditioned behaviors characteristic of visual CSs. The tone stimulus, common to reinforced and nonreinforced trials, evoked conditioned behaviors characteristic of auditory CSs, but only when preceded by the light. In Experiment 3, variations in the interval between the light and tone on reinforced trials had little effect on responding to the light CS but substantially altered the pattern of responding to the tone CS. These results suggested that simultaneous and serial feature-positive discriminations may be solved differently. Performance in simultaneous feature-positive discriminations may be determined solely by associations between the feature stimulus and the reinforcer, but performance in serial discriminations may also involve the acquisition of a conditional cue function to the feature.     

Child Language Difficulties and Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms: A Meta-Analysis

This study conducted two meta-analyses to synthesize the association between children’s language skills and two broad-band dimensions of psychopathology: internalizing and externalizing. Pooled estimates across 139 samples (externalizing k = 105; internalizing k = 90) and 147,305 participants (age range: 2–17 years old; mean % males: 53.75; mean % White participants: 55.59; mean % minority participants: 43.12) indicated small but significant associations between child language skills and externalizing problems (Hedges’ g = .22) and between language skills and internalizing problems (Hedges’ g = .23). The association between language difficulties and externalizing problems was stronger amongst males and in children with low versus high sociodemographic risk. Implications of the results for theory and practice are discussed.     

Balancing Institutional Demands with Effective Practice: A Lesson in Curricular and Professional Development

ABSTRACT

Online writing courses have developed in importance to meet student learning and institutional expectations; over time, a controversy about training online instructors and building sustainable programs has emerged. This article relates training demands within the University of Arizona’s Writing Program and development of an online professional & technical writing certificate. The article proposes training instructors with master courses and building a sustained program through a participatory design to create a professional and integrated environment.     

Sense of Belonging as a Predictor of Intentions to Persist Among African American and White First-Year College Students

This study investigates the role of students’ sense of belonging to their university in college student retention. Using individual growth curve modeling, we examined (a) whether sense of belonging predicts intentions to persist, and (b) the effects of an intervention designed to enhance students’ sense of belonging. African American and white first-year students completed surveys three times throughout the academic year. Students were randomly assigned to a group that received an intervention to enhance students’ sense of belonging or to one of two control groups. Sense of belonging was found to predict intentions to persist, controlling for background variables and other predictors of persistence. Overall, sense of belonging and intentions to persist declined over the academic year. However, the decline in sense of belonging was smaller for students in the intervention group. Implications for the development of college retention programs and for existing models of student persistence are discussed.     

Trial and intertrial durations in appetitive conditioning in rats

The effects of trial (T) and intertrial (I) durations were examined in two Pavlovian conditioning experiments with rats, in which a noise conditioned stimulus (CS) was paired with food delivery. In Experiment 1,T was either 10 or 20 sec, andI ranged from 15 to 960 sec, in separate groups of rats. The acquisition rate and final level of conditioned responding showed ratio invariance: They were better predicted by theI/T ratio than byI orT alone. In Experiment 2, theI/T ratio was 6.0 in all the groups, andT was 20, 40, 80, or 160 sec. Ratio invariance was not observed: Despite the commonI/T ratio, the rate of acquisition, final level of conditioned responding, and the ability of the CS to block conditioning of another stimulus differed among the groups. At the same time, the temporal distribution of conditioned responding withinT was similar in all the groups throughout conditioning and extinction and showed superpositioning when normalized acrossT. Many but not all aspects of the data were consistent with scalar timing theory.