Instrumental responding by rats on free-operant schedules with components that schedule response-dependent reinforcer omission: Implications for optimization theories

In two experiments, we assessed whether rats optimize the number of reinforcers per response. In Experiment 1, one group of rats was trained to leverpress for food reinforcement on a simple variable-interval (VI) 60-sec schedule. For another group, a negative fixed-ratio component was imposed on the VI schedule to produce a conjoint contingency in which reinforcement became available on the VI schedule but was omitted when the ratio criterion was satisfied. In Experiment 2, one group of rats responded on a VI schedule and also received response-independent food. For another group, responding above a certain rate canceled the response-independent food. Despite the negative contingency experienced by the groups in Experiments 1 and 2, responding was maintained at a level at which the number of obtained reinforcers was reduced substantially below the maximum number possible. In addition, in both experiments, the groups that experienced the negative contingency responded at a lower rate than did a yoked control group that experienced the same frequency of reinforcement but lacked the negative component. These results demonstrate that although rats do not optimize their behavior with respect to reinforcement, they are nevertheless sensitive to some aspect of the instrumental contingency in operation.     

Creating a “third space” in student teaching: Implications for the university supervisor’s status as outsider

The work of teacher education during student teaching typically takes place in two distinct “spaces”: placement sites and college/university settings. The program featured in this article is structured in ways that clearly mark out those two spaces. Yet this configuration led our university supervisors, whose work primarily took place in the field, to feel like “outsiders.” To redress this concern, a third learning space was incorporated into our student teaching seminar. We suggest that “third spaces” in combination with return-to-campus courses not only mitigates the peripherality of university supervisors, but also amplifies the influence of a teacher preparation program.     

Assisting secondary support teachers to work in the recommended service delivery model: introducing the concept of a subculture of learning support

The original concept of a subculture of learning support in secondary schools developed from a study of ‘Support Teachers, Learning Difficulties’ in New South Wales, Australia. The study examined the influence of school culture on the service delivery model used by these support teachers in three case studies, one of which is reported in this article. Both research and policy recommend consultation and co‐teaching with a minimum of withdrawal of students with learning difficulties for intensive instruction. To employ the recommended service delivery model it was found that support teachers need to be immersed in a subculture of learning support within the school, which involves interacting with others who share similar values and beliefs about the education of students with learning difficulties. If such a subculture does not exist the support teacher must play a major role in its development. The use of the recommended service delivery model will enhance the education provided for students with learning difficulties.     

Selected schedules of reinforcement in the black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus)

Wild black-tailed prairie dogs were run on FR, FI, VR, and VI schedules for Noyes pellet reinforcement. Cumulative barpress responses, postreinforcement pause lengths, and responses per second were recorded. The highest response rates occurred in the VR schedules, with the lowest response rates coming in the FI schedules. Fixed-ratio schedules had the longest postreinforcement pauses, VI schedules had the shortest. At the upper levels of the fixed-ratio schedules (FR 90–100), the animals ceased to respond consistently. Generally, data from prairie dogs were consistent with data reported in studies from other mammalian species.     

Back to our beginnings: information utilization, Bertram Brookes and the fundamental equation of information science

This analytical paper is in three parts. Firstly, it provides a brief review of the terrain of information utilization, a fundamental concept in the discourse of information seeking and use behavior. This review identifies dominant conceptualizations of information utilization, and identifies a research gap in relation to the cognitive dimensions of information utilization. Secondly, against this backdrop, it posits and examines Bertram Brookes' fundamental equation of information science as a theoretical framework for furthering our understanding of, and research into, the cognitive aspects of information utilization. Thirdly, it discusses some methodological aspects for investigating Brookes' equation in order to build a cumulative knowledge of the cognitive dimension of information utilization.     

Culturally reimagining education: Publicity,aesthetics and socially engaged art practice

Abstract

This paper sets out to reimagine education through a cultural perspective and explores education as a performative practice that establishes certain borders of ‘public’ belonging. Wide-spread debates about the public dimension of schools and universities have focused on how economic rationales need to be replaced with alternative visions of education. This paper seeks to contribute to this revisioning of the public in education by reclaiming education as a specifically cultural endeavour, one tied to practices that are at once both performative and aesthetic. To this end, I draw on theoretical notions of publicity that highlight its performative character. I then offer a reading of a socially engaged art project in order to suggest ways in which this performative character of publicity can be seen to be educational. This paper argues that education itself emerges through various cultural enactments that delineate the contours of who counts as a public and who does not.     

Curriculum-Based Measurement in the Content Areas: Validity of Vocabulary-Matching as an Indicator of Performance in Social Studies

In this study, we examined the reliability and validity of two curriculum-based measures as indicators of performance in a content-area classroom. Participants were 58 students in a 7th-grade social studies class. CBM measures were student- and administrator-read vocabulary-matching probes. Criterion measures were knowledge pre- and post-tests, the social studies subtest of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, and student grades. Results revealed moderate alternate-form reliability for both vocabulary-matching measures. Reliability of the measures was increased by combining scores across two testing sessions. Correlations between the predictor and criterion variables were moderate to moderately strong, with the exception of those between vocabulary-matching and student grades. Observed scores for students with LD were lower than for students without LD on both student- and administrator-read vocabulary-matching measures. Few differences in reliability and validity coefficients were found between the student- and administrator-read measures. Results are discussed in terms of the use of CBM as a system for monitoring performance and designing interventions for students with learning disabilities in content-area classrooms.     

Diurnal variation in cycling performance: influence of warm-up

We examined the effects of time of day on a cycling time trial with and without a prolonged warm-up, among cyclists who tended towards being high in "morningness". Eight male cyclists (mean +/- s: age = 24.9 +/- 3.5 years, peak power output = 319 +/- 34 W, chronotype = 39 +/- 6 units) completed a 16.1-km time trial without a substantial warm-up at both 07:30 and 17:30 h. The time trial was also completed at both times of day after a 25-min warm-up at 60% of peak power. Power output, heart rate, intra-aural temperature and category ratings of perceived exertion (CR-10) were measured throughout the time trial. Post-test blood lactate concentration was also recorded. Warm-up generally improved time trial performance at both times of day (95% CI for improvement = 0 to 30 s), but mean cycling time was still significantly slower at 07:30 h than at 17:30 h after the warm-up (95% CI for difference = 33 to 66 s). Intra-aural temperature increased as the time trial progressed (P < 0.0005) and was significantly higher throughout the time trials at 17:30 h (P = 0.001), irrespective of whether the cyclists performed a warm-up or not. Blood lactate concentration after the time trial was lowest at 07:30 h without a warm-up (P = 0.02). No effects of time of day or warm-up were found for CR-10 or heart rate responses during the time trial. These results suggest that 16.1-km cycling performance is worse in the morning than in the afternoon, even with athletes who tend towards 'morningness', and who perform a vigorous 25-min warm-up. Diurnal variation in cycling performance is, therefore, relatively robust to some external and behavioural factors.