Research Design in the Experimental Study of Intellectual Disability

SOME significant problems in the design of research with subjects having an intellectual disability are identified. A lack of agreement on the nature of intellectual disability in relation to brain impairment, and discrepancies in the interpretation of deficits in relation to information processing concepts create problems in the definition of subject groups and interpretation of results. Much of the research uses normal subject groups for comparison, matched with disabled groups for either mental age, chronological age, or both, and this has led to further problems in the criteria and procedures used for matching, particularly for mental age. Further difficulties are encountered in variability both within and between subject groups, affecting reliability of results and making replication of studies difficult. In addition, task demands, particularly in relation to variables other than those under immediate investigation, are not always equivalent for all subject groups. Some suggestions are made for reducing or eliminating the effects of some of these problems in experimental research, and the use of alternative designs which take subject variability into account is recommended.     

Personal development in teacher education programmes

The study demonstrates the effectiveness of personal growth workshops for trainee teachers. The experimental group of trainee teachers manifested significant improvements in self-esteem, personal warmth, and positive thinking, and became less anxious, more internal in locus of control, and reported fewer stress symptoms than the control group. These changes held over a long teaching practice a context that usually creates stress and lowered self-confidence. Such workshops would appear to be a necessary inclusion in professional training programmes to facilitate performance on the job and well-being in those whose duties involve them in a network of close human relationships with colleagues and clients.     

Higher Education of Single and Married Mothers

This paper describes an Australian sample of 78 single and 107 partnered mothers who entered or re‐entered tertiary study as mature age students. 27% were early school leavers; of those who had matriculated, early marriage and/or early pregnancy were major reasons for non‐continuance with study, and this was particularly the case among those who subsequently became single mothers. Both partnered and single were enrolled in more traditionally female courses of study than were younger female students attending the same institutions. Some four‐fifths of the sample felt they were managing their time, work, relationships, finances and overall coping poorly or very poorly. However their academic performance was well above average. The single mothers felt they were coping rather better than the married, especially with regard to money (despite being poorer), relationships and time. Overall satisfaction with university life was very high, with the main benefits reported by both single and partnered mothers being self‐esteem, knowledge, intellectual interests and intelligence. Career benefits and financial potential were mentioned less often as main benefits and only slightly more frequently by the single mothers. The question is raised of whether mature age women students, as well as female school leavers, should be encouraged to enter non‐traditional courses of study.     

Effects of sequences of sucrose reward magnitudes with short ITIs in rats

Two experiments assessed the role of aftereffect learning in rats rewarded with sucrose solutions. In Experiment 1, rats were trained in a single straight runway for two trials on each of 18 days, each trial terminating with either large (20% scurose) or small (3% sucrose) reward. The ITI was 3–5 min. The sequence of daily rewards for each of four groups was small-small (SS), small-large, (SL), large-small (LS), or large-large (LL). Response patterning and a simultaneous negative contrast effect were observed in LS and SL relative to the consistently rewarded controls. During 10 massed extinction trials, resistance to extinction was greatest for Group SL, followed in order by Groups SS, LL, and LS. Experiment 2 examined single alternation of large and small rewards administered for 10 trials on each of 31 days with an ITI of 60 sec. Reward for one group was 20% or 3% sucrose while another received 1 or 10 45-mg Noyes pellets. Appropriate patterning developed only in the food-pellet rewarded animals. The overall results suggest that sucrose rewards may produce high-amplitude and long-duration aftereffects which interfere with learning in designs employing several massed daily trials, but which may facilitate learning—relative to food-pellet rewards—with longer intertrial intervals and fewer daily trials.     

Six Leadership Models for Professional Development in Science and Mathematics

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Ordinal position in the serial learning of rats

Rats were runway trained on each of two, three-trial series consisting of different varieties of reward (X, Y, and Z) and nonreward (N) serving as trial outcomes. The two series are represented as XNY and ZNN. Distinguishing the two series were different brightness and texture cues on the runway floor. Transfer tests, conducted after the rats had developed faster running for rewarded trials than for nonrewarded trials and slower running on Trial 2 of ZNN than on Trial 2 of XNY, provided evidence that trial position, rather than item memories, was controlling the discriminations. In Experiment 1, reversing the floor cues completely reversed the discriminations. In Experiment 2, transfer to NNN did not change the routine patterns of approach that had been established.     

The Me in Memory: The Role of the Self in Autobiographical Memory Development

This article tests the hypothesis that self-development plays a role in the offset of childhood amnesia; assessing the importance of both the capacity to anchor a memory to the self-concept, and the strength of the self-concept as an anchor. This research demonstrates for the first time that the volume of 3- to 6-year old's specific autobiographical memories is predicted by both the volume of their self-knowledge, and their capacity for self-source monitoring within self-referencing paradigms (N = 186). Moreover, there is a bidirectional relation between self and memory, such that autobiographical memory mediates the link between self-source monitoring and self-knowledge. These predictive relations suggest that the self-memory system is active in early childhood.