From seggiolini to discussione: the generation and extension of peer culture among Italian preschool children

In this paper the origins and development of peer culture are charted through the identification and analysis of children's peer routines in the Italian asilo nido and scuola matema. In the asilo nido the children produced several primarily nonverbal play routines which had identifiable participant structures and were produced consistently over the course of the school year. In the scuola matema the children produced a variety of both verbal and nonverbal routines. The authors give a detailed analysis of one routine, the children's construction and participation in verbal debate or discussione. They then compare features of the routines in the asilo nido and scuola matema in an attempt to capture the origins and development of peer culture in the Italian preschool educational system.     

Computer-aided searching of bibliographic data bases: Online estimation of the value of information

The study presents and synthesizes the results of a series of five experiments on human information-seeking behavior in three different information-seeking environments. The first three experiments utilized a highly-controlled, simulated information-seeking task developed to study human search strategies in citation networks. Emphasis in the fourth and fifth experiments was placed on assessing the value of information for humans in realistic search environments. Subjects search on a topic of their own choice in a data base of fiction in Experiment Four and a data base of technical literature in Experiment Five. After summarizing the experimental results, a conceptual model of how humans value information is presented. The model is then used as a basis for a broad interpretation of the empirical results. Implications of both the empirical and modeling results are considered for the areas of information retrieval logic, system flexibility, retrieval methods, types of aiding, online estimation of information value, and computerizing versus computer-aiding.