The 2003 Benjamin Franklin medal in electrical engineering presented to Bishnu S. Atal

Dr. Atal was chosen for his fundamental contributions to speech coding in digital cellular telephony—specifically for pioneering work in linear predictive coding (LPC) and use of analysis-by-synthesis leading to multi-pulse excited linear predictive coding and code excited linear predictive coding (CELP). These are the basis of time-division and code-division cellular systems (TDMA & CDMA), the Nextel system, and the global system for mobile communications (GSM).     

Reading-Writing Connections: the Importance of Interactive Discourse

Margaret Meek (1988) has described how children borrow ideas from literature through ‘unteachable’ lessons. In this article, I examine how children's written work is enhanced through ‘teachable’ lessons, where the teacher draws attention explicitly to aspects of literary texts and where children explore and evaluate literature through group reading and discussion. The ways in which children transfer the knowledge of literary devices, gained through group discussion, to their own writing are examined. The relationship between group evaluations of texts and children's writing development is explored with reference to the work of Year 6 children. This illustrates how critical reading and group discussion can raise primary children's metalinguistic awareness and develop their understanding of the stylistic features of narrative texts.     

Bourdieu on Education and Social and Cultural Reproduction

Bourdieu's work has attracted considerable interest and, not withstanding criticism of his style and obscure theoretical formulations, has introduced some powerful concepts into social theory. This paper examines Bourdieu's contribution to the sociology of education and especially his account of socially differentiated educational attainment. Particular attention is given to issues of structure, agency and habitus, the cultural autonomy of the school, arbitrary and necessary school cultures, and the distinction between primary and secondary effects on educational differences. Some specific criticisms, for example Elster's charge of a double account of domination, are also addressed. Bourdieu's concentration on habitus as the most significant generator of practice is held to be a theory of socialisation and the paper examines the nature of the explanation of social practice provided by such theories. The argument concludes with a plea for critical tolerance with respect to Bourdieu's work but with a suggestion that his account of socially differentiated educational attainment in terms of habitus is finally inadequate.     

The influence of group size on children's competitive behavior

The present research was designed to test the hypothesis that children would compete more in tetrads than in dyads. Twenty-two pairs of male and 14 pairs of female target children (N = 72) played a competitive game in both tetrads and dyads. Consistent with the hypothesis, male target children competed more in tetrads than in dyads. This hypothesis was not supported for females, however. Analyses of the dynamics of tetrads and dyads further demonstrated that based on a global measure of smiling, the emotional atmosphere was less positive in tetrads than in dyads. The causes and consequences of interaction in different sized social groups are discussed.     

Polydipsia and autoshaping: Drinking and leverpressing as substitutes for eating

Three experiments delivered food at fixed or random intervals independently of the rat’s behavior, always less than the amount eaten with food freely available. The results revealed a Polydipsie response to this experimental suppression of eating, and total drinking decreased as total eating increased. When we added a lever that signaled each food delivery, leverpressing and drinking rose far above their baseline levels; both responses decreased as total eating increased. When a similar schedule presented lever and food independently, rats still became Polydipsie, but showed no sign of autoshaped leverpressing. A fourth experiment revealed a hypophagic response to schedules that suppressed drinking; total eating increased with total drinking. As mutual substitutes in the economic sense, one behavior falls as the other rises; as mutual complements in the economic sense, the two behaviors rise or fall together. We discuss polydipsia and autoshaping in terms of drinking as an intrinsic substitute for eating, and leverpressing as a learned substitute for eating. The results suggest a revision of conservation theory, which views drinking and eating as substitutes when the schedule suppresses eating but as complements when the schedule suppresses drinking.