Stability of Intelligence from Preschool to Adolescence: The Influence of Social and Family Risk Factors

Intelligence scores of children in a longitudinal study were assessed at 4 and 13 years and related to social and family risk factors. A multiple environmental risk score was calculated for each child by counting the number of high-risk conditions from 10 risk factors: mother's behavior, mother's developmental beliefs, mother's anxiety, mother's mental health, mother's educational attainment, family social support, family size, major stressful life events, occupation of head of household, and disadvantaged minority status. Multiple risk scores explained one-third to one-half of IQ variance at 4 and 13 years. The stability between 4- and 13-year environmental risk scores ( r = .77) was not less than the stability between 4- and 13-year IQ scores ( r = .72). Effects remained after SES and race, or maternal IQ, were partialled; multiple risk was important in longitudinal prediction, even after prior measurement of child IQ was accounted for; the pattern of risk was less important than the total amount of risk present in the child's context.     

Prior activities and progress in MBA programs

Many graduate business programs encourage, and even require, postbaccalaureate work experience as a criterion for program admission. In this research we use data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 to examine the extent to which MBA students actually experience a hiatus in their educational careers, and whether their work/education profiles differ from those of other graduate students in the United States. We also address whether this emphasis on educational discontinuity in the formal sense has any effect on how the student progresses through the MBA program. Our results suggest that interrupting school between the BA and MBA leads to a higher likelihood of part-time enrollment, and a consequent lower probability of completing the degree program in a timely fashion.     

Dissimilarity of mechanisms for evocation of escape and avoidance responding in dogs

Two groups of dogs were compared on the ability of an aversive Pavlovian CS to evoke a negatively reinforced instrumental response. For one group, the instrumental training was avoidance; for the other, escape. When presented alone, the CS evoked the instrumental response only from the avoidance group. Failure of the CS to evoke the response from the escape group poses difficulties for theories which characterize the initiation of avoidance responses as “escapes” from CS.     

Towards teaching science for social responsibility: An examination of flaws in science,technology and society

In this paper we continue our search for a socially responsible science education by an examination of the trends in the Science, Technology and Society movement. These trends reflect differing ideological perspectives and result in courses which serve different ends. We identify two major flaws in the movement that inhibits the realization of a schooling in science dedicated to democracy. We propose skills necessary for citizens to participate in debate over issues surrounding the impact of science and technology on society and a teaching stategy to help develop them. Specializations: social responsibility and the curriculum, ideology and comparative science education.     

Remembering in California sea lions: Using priming cues to facilitate language-like performance

Two sea lions(Zalophus californianus) were trained to respond to relational commands fey bringing the last designated object (transport item, or TI) to the earlier designated object (goal item, or GI). Most errors on this task involved forgetting of the GI due to interference from memory for the TI. We reasoned that instructing the animals to act directly on the same object several times in single-object commands immediately before a relational command that included the same object as the GI should make the GI associative episode less prone to interference by the TI associative episode. Results confirmed that prior cuing or prompting in this manner did enable the sea lions to perform significantly better on relational commands when no cuing was given.     

Keeping excitement in teaching

It is imperative for those of us who teach to find ways to stay renewed and refreshed over the long term. There are at least five ways through which most of us can find new energy and excitement in our teaching. One is to focus more genuinely on our students and learn more about them as persons and as colleagues- and to listen more carefully to what they say. Another is to inform them of the important objectives of a course and allow students to assume more of the responsibility for learning. A third tip is to use a greater variety of teaching methods, particularly ones that get students more actively involved in learning. Two additional ways to add excitement to teaching are to teach new courses and to plan periodic activities away from teaching. As John Gardner has recently stated so eloquently, it is our faith in human possibilities that is the generative element in such activities as leading, teaching, and guiding students.His office offers a wide range of instructional and professional services for faculty and academic administrators in the University's thirteen schools and colleges.