Potentiation of delayed matching with variable delays

In a delayed matching-to-sample procedure, pigeons chose a comparison stimulus that matched a sample stimulus presented earlier in the trial. The duration of the delay between sample-stimulus presentation and comparison-stimulus presentation was either varied over five values within each session or held constant within each session but varied over five blocks of sessions. Accuracy of matching to sample was higher overall with variable delays than with delays fixed within sessions. The result indicates that remembering depends on the temporal context provided by delay intervals.     

THE RELIGIOUS DAY SCHOOL

Reflection on the Holocaust is still critical today to help all educators teach their students about good and evil in the world today. In particular, reflection on the Holocaust is crucial for religious educators to help people know and name God, as well as help them deal with questions of theodicy, within their everyday life experiences. This article examines the role of religious education in this post-Holocaust context. Because of the Holocaust, Christians ought to be educated in ways that free them from biased and slanderous views of people and their religions, and open them to more inclusive and hospitable ways of coexisting with all types of people in the world today.     

Consultation outcome as a result of in-service resource teacher training

The effects of learning disabilities teacher training for consultation with classroom teachers were investigated. Twelve learning disabilities resource teachers and 60 elementary school classroom teachers within one school system served as subjects. Four learning disabilities resource teachers received communication skills training, and four resource teachers received conceptual assumptions training. In addition, four resource teachers served as a control group for the study. Each resource teacher conducted three 20- to 30-minute conferences with each of five elementary school teachers. Following the third conference, information was collected concerning: (a) classroom teacher ratings of satisfaction with services, (b) joint ratings of the child's progress toward goals set during the first conferences, (c) the percentage of recommendations implemented, and (d) classroom teacher ratings of joint responsibility, and of resource teacher respect, empathy, and congruence. There were three findings in this study. First, no differences resulting from either type of training were found at posttest for classroom teacher respect, resource teacher congruence, joint responsibility, or joint ratings of the child's progress. Second, training resource teachers in communication skills resulted in significantly higher classroom teacher ratings of resource teacher empathy. Finally, significant differences due to resource teacher experiences prior to this study were noted with classroom teacher ratings of the child's progress, and the number of recommendations implemented.     

Biased sampling activity: an investigation to promote discussion

The statistical concept of sampling is often given little direct attention, typically reduced to the mantra “take a random sample”. This low resource and adaptable activity demonstrates sampling and explores issues that arise due to biased sampling.