Self-control in the monkeymacaca fascicularis

Two experiments tested two cynomolgus monkeys’ self-control—choice of a longer, more delayed reinforcer over a shorter, less delayed reinforcer. In Experiment 1, subjects exhibited significant selfcontrol in a procedure in which reinforcer amounts and delays were held constant throughout a condition. In Experiment 2, subjects exhibited significantly greater sensitivity to variation in reinforcer amount than to variation in reinforcer delay in a procedure in which the reinforcer delay associated with the self-control alternative was adjusted until each macaque was indifferent between the two alternatives. Both experiments indicated that, in laboratory paradigms in which humans show self-control and pigeons and rats show impulsiveness, macaques show self-control. These results are inconsistent with the hypothesis that species differences in self-control are a function of language ability or of specific types of prior training. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that species differences in self-control are related to the ratio of brain size to body weight (a possible indicator of general cognitive ability) or to shared phylogeny.     

A Review of Get Out: On White Terror and the Black Body

This essay provides a review of Jordan Peele's film, Get Out. The author argues that Peele's Get Out illustrates the protracted terrorism that is whiteness and the concomitant objectification and utilization of the black body for white survival, accumulation, and pleasure. The film challenges those in education to consider how anti-blackness operates within schools and education policy. More specifically, those in education should challenge longstanding inequities that foreclose the presents and futures of black youth.     

Computer-graphics and the literary construct: a learning method

This paper describes a third-year undergraduate module, Text Through Images (TTI; known at first as Texts with Computers) which ran for some years in the School of English, University of Exeter, UK. Instead of using only words, TTI students made their own computer graphics both to discover and to describe literary structures in texts of their choice. The results were surprising: whatever their “academic” ability, students on this course regularly produced genuinely original literary perceptions, and their natural creativity was released. The module's innovative methods are eminently transferable to other disciplines. This paper is designed to be read in conjunction with a website: for further details, go to http://www.blackwellpublishers.co.uk/asp/journal.asp?ref=0007-1013 presenting a selection of students' graphics produced on the course; these appear by generous permission of their makers, who hold copyright. The reasons for the module's success are elusive. Perhaps students feel unfettered by the attitudes associated with traditional verbal expression, the absence of preconceptions about the new process enabling them to bypass old habits of thought. Perhaps the interplay of word and image is particularly fruitful because images and words activate different areas of the brain. It may be that the computer creates the illusion of distance between design and designer, so that the latter feels less personally exposed than when drawing on paper. Perhaps success lies in the combination of individual freedom and on-screen group work, or on the way in which students are enabled to make small but publishable original discoveries. Educational psychologists may be able to explain why the mix works (it has been suggested that it represents a “constructivist/generative learning strategy that Dave Jonassen terms ‘elaboration’”) but more importantly, teachers may find the model useful. What interests me about the module is not the structure of the teaching, but the way in which the use of diagramming apparently enables the learner productively to bypass previous mental conditioning about how literature works, and what is acceptable in analysing it.     

Two Roads Diverged: Young Children's Ability to Judge Distance

In the present studies, we investigated 4- and 5- to 6-year-olds' ability to compare the distances covered by a direct route to a location and an indirect route to the same location. The distances ranged between 16 and 22 feet. The routes were visible from a single vantage point, and objects serving as landmarks were sometimes located along the routes. We found clear demonstrations of the two classic Piagetian distance errors—the direct-indirect error , in which children judge that a direct route and an indirect route cover the same distance, and the interposed object error , in which children judge that a route is shorter when it is segmented by an object located somewhere along the route. The interposed object error occurred because children focused on only one segment of the route, which was consistent with Piaget's explanation of the error. However, in contrast to Piaget, we found that about 40% of 4-year-olds could successfully avoid the direct-indirect error, and in addition, when the routes were visually displayed, they could also avoid the interposed object error. It is important that they also gave correct explanations for why the indirect route was longer, by referring to the fact that it was not straight. For these children at least, the interposed object error was due to difficulty they had representing routes, rather than to a misconception of distance. We suggest that future research should examine whether that may also be true for younger children.     

Promoting Parents' Social Capital to Increase Children's Attendance in Head Start: Evidence From an Experimental Intervention

Improving children's attendance is a high priority for Head Start and other early childhood education programs serving low-income children. We conducted a randomized control trial in a major northern city to evaluate the impact of a low-cost intervention designed to promote parents' social capital as a potential influence on children's attendance in Head Start centers. The intervention assigned children to treatment group classrooms based on (a) neighborhood of residence (geography condition) or (b) the geography condition plus the opportunity for parents to form partnerships in support of their children's attendance, or to control group classrooms according to Head Start guidelines only. We did not find impacts on average attendance throughout the year. However, the intervention did lead to increased attendance during the winter when average center attendance was lowest. There were no impacts on fall or spring attendance. Follow-up exploratory analyses of focus groups with parents and staff suggested that parents' level of connection and trust, self-generated partnership strategies, and commitment to their children's education may be factors by which parents' social capital expands and children's attendance improves.