Spontaneous recovery of instrumental discriminative responding

In six experiments, rats received discriminative training in which making a response (R) during a stimulus (S) produced a particular outcome (O). In Experiment 1, that outcome was replaced by a second outcome and responding was tested either immediately or after a delay. More substantial responding was observed with the delayed test. In Experiment 2, a test of transfer to new responses suggested that the growth in performance was not attributable to greater use of particular S-O associations. However, in Experiment 3, the growth in responding was found to be specific to particular S-R combinations. Experiment 4 replicated that specificity and demonstrated the importance of using two different outcomes for obtaining the growth in responding with time. Experiments 5 and 6 repeated these observations for the case of extinction, in which O was replaced by nonreinforcement. These results are interpreted as suggesting that an outcome-independent inhibitory S-R process develops, both with extinction and with the use of a second outcome, but dissipates with time.     

Measuring poly-victimization using the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire

OBJECTIVE: Children who experience multiple victimizations (referred to in this paper as poly-victims) need to be identified because they are at particularly high risk of additional victimization and traumatic psychological effects. This paper compares alternative ways of identifying such children using questions from the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ). METHODS: The JVQ was administered in a national random digit dial telephone survey about the experiences of 2,030 children. The victimizations of children 10-17 years old were assessed through youth self-report on the JVQ and the victimizations of children 2-9 assessed through JVQ caregiver proxy report. RESULTS: Twenty-two percent of the children in this sample had experienced four or more different kinds of victimizations in separate incidents (what we term poly-victimization) within the previous year. Such poly-victimization was highly associated with traumatic symptomatology. Several ways of identifying poly-victims with the JVQ produced roughly equivalent results: a simple count using the 34 victimizations screeners, a count using a reduced set of only 12 screeners, and the original poly-victimization measure using follow-up questions to identify victimizations occurring during different episodes. CONCLUSION: Researchers and clinicians should be taking steps to identify poly-victims within the populations with which they work and have several alternative ways of doing so.     

Teaching Text Design

A growing body of literature defines a rhetoric of visible text based on page layout, typography, and the various design features afforded by page composition tools buitt into word processors and page design programs. Little has been written, however, about what a wriier needs to know about design and in what order. This article describes and demonstrates a scope and sequence of learning that encourages writers to develop their skills as text designers. It introduces relevant liierature that is helpful for such learning and it does so in an evolving format that displays visually what the essay discusses verbally.     

Teaching multiplication facts to students with learning problems

The present study investigated the effectiveness of a constant time delay procedure in teaching multiplication facts to fifth- and sixth-grade students identified as learning disabled, behavior disordered, or educable mentally handicapped. Four students were taught oral responses to 30 multiplication facts using a constant 5-second (s) delay procedure. Data on the number of minutes of direct instruction time, as well as the number and percent of errors, trials, and sessions to criterion, were collected. Results indicated that the near-errorless learning procedure was effective in teaching multiplication facts to students placed in special education.     

浅析预科教学中维吾尔族大学生心理

本文从对预科教学过程中维吾尔族大学生心理探讨的必要性、大学生心理特点和心理问题之对策三个方面入手,指出新疆的大学教育中对少数民族心理应给予重视,为求培养高素质的创新型人才奠定基础.     

Combinatorial proofs and algebraic proofs — II

In Part I of this article we considered some binomial identities and also some identities involving the Fibonacci numbers, and proved them using methods which we described as ‘largely’ combinatorial. Now we shift our focus to number theory and to prime numbers in particular, and showcase some proofs having a strong combinatorial element. Throughout this article, p denotes an odd prime.