Rats remember not wisely but too well

Rats were trained in a three-alternative spatial delayed matching-to-sample task in a starburst maze. Samples consisted of rewarded forced choices of one arm, and retention was indicated by rats’ returning to that arm after a 90-sec delay. If a rat made an error on its first choice, it was returned to the start compartment and allowed a second choice. Unlike in previous experiments with this task, all three arms were available during the animals’ second choices. The rats tended to perseverate in their second choices by returning to the arm that they had erroneously visited on their first choice. In Experiment 1, the accuracy of second choices following first-choice errors was below chance during the first block of sessions, when a 90-sec delay intervened between the first choice and the second choice, and at chance during the second block of sessions, when a short (5–6 see) delay intervened between first and second choices. In Experiment 2, long-delay and short-delay sessions were randomly presented to naive subjects. Similar results were obtained. In both experiments, the tendency to repeat the erroneous first choice was greater when long delays separated the two choices than when short delays were used. The results suggest that rats make their first-choice errors because they erroneously encode or remember the location of the sample and that they base their second choices on the same erroneous-memory. The increase in perseveration at long delays implies some kind of rehearsal-like mechanism that slows forgetting of the memory controlling the first choice.     

WHAT IS AV DOING IN A HUMANITIES DEGREE?

The Communication module of the B.A. (Hons) Humanities modular degree at Bristol Polytechnic involves non‐Art & Design students in practical audio‐visual media work through ‘live’ projects undertaken for ‘clients’ in the community ‐‐ schoolteachers, social workers, charities, etc. ‐‐ the work being carried out in teams of between 2 and 5.

The theoretical base of the course is face‐to‐face interaction in real‐life situations such as the classroom and the television interview. The method of assessment here is to present examinees with selected communicative events on videotape and call for analysis and comparison, and evaluation of the theoretical approaches employed. This places a premium on students being able to apply theory directly to real‐life situations, rather than rehearse those theories in essay form.

The course is both intended by the staff and perceived by the students to be distinctly different from the other modules of an otherwise book‐based degree in providing for the essentially practical application of ideas and a basic introduction to alternative modes of communication. By means of the projects, drawn from a variety of sources far removed from the degree course and the institution, the analytical, research, and design skills of the students are applied in a realistic way to broaden their own perspectives and to be of lasting benefit within the community.     

Phonemic awareness and reading skill in hyperlexic children: A longitudinal study

Children with hyperlexia who learn to readspontaneously before the age of five are impaired inreading and listening comprehension but have wordrecognition skills well above their measured cognitiveand linguistic abilities. In a previous study, theauthor administered a battery of cognitive, academicachievement, and phonemic awareness tests to threechildren classified as hyperlexic. The findingsshowed that the levels of phonemic awareness of thesechildren were low and not commensurate with their wordreading skill. In the present study, the authorreevaluated the three children approximately 7–8 yearslater with the same battery of cognitive, academicachievement, and phonemic awareness tests as well asseveral additional measures of phonemic awareness. The results showed that all three childrens' levels ofphonemic awareness were still low and not commensuratewith their word reading skill. Other findings showedthat two of the children, both of whom had remained inspecial education classes since the previous study,continued to be voracious readers. The other child,who had always been in regular education classes, hadnot read very much for several years. Findings alsoshowed that the word recognition skills of two of thechildren, including the child who had always attendedregular education, had decreased by one to twostandard deviations.     

Competence-based blended learning in building automation: towards a EU curriculum in ‘Domotica’

A competence-based approach was applied to a blended learning on line distance training in the Euroinno EU project aimed at vocational training in building automation. The current paper describes the experience gathered during the learning process and the definition of the curriculum. A number of issues emerged during the sessions concerning regional differences among the various European partners involved in the learning. Refusal to accept e-learning approaches has been considerable among teachers and students in piloting building automation courses, and mainly related to four factors in the tradition of adult education: curriculum tradition, oral tradition, lack of confidence in technical solutions to educational matters and lack of experience with the media.