Conjunctive differentiation of gape during food-reinforced keypecking in the pigeon

The pigeon’s keypecking response includes both a head-transport (peck) and a jaw-movement (gape) component. Because the two components are mediated by different effector systems, they may potentially be viewed as orthogonal responses. A response differentiation procedure was used to bring gape amplitude under operant control. The procedure employed a conjunctive response requirement in which reinforcement was contingent upon both gaping and key contact. The key-contact requirement was held constant, while the gape contingency was systematically varied to reinforce either decreases or increases in gape amplitude with respect to baseline. The procedure was effective in shifting the gape distributions in both the upward and downward directions and in inducing new gape values that deviated from the baseline in the reinforced direction. These observations indicate that gape may be brought under operant control. However, subjects showed a bias in the differentiation of the gape response, such that larger gapes were more readily differentiated than smaller gapes. The results are discussed in relation to the methodological utility of the paradigm, the problem of biological constraints on learning, and the heuristic utility of a response components analysis.     

Personality Traits Are Associated With Cortical Development Across Adolescence: A Longitudinal Structural MRI Study

How personality traits relate to structural brain changes in development is an important but understudied question. In this study, cortical thickness (CT) and surface area (SA), estimated using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), were investigated in 99 participants aged 8–19 years. Follow‐up MRI data were collected after on average 2.6 years for 74 individuals. The Big Five personality traits were related to longitudinal regional CT or SA development, but limited cross‐sectional relations were observed. Conscientiousness, emotional stability, and imagination were associated with more age‐expected cortical thinning over time. The results suggest that the substantial individual variability observed in personality traits may partly be explained by cortical maturation across adolescence, implying a developmental origin for personality–brain relations observed in adults.     

Testing Factorial Invariance With Unbalanced Samples

In testing the factorial invariance of a measure across groups, the groups are often of different sizes. Large imbalances in group size might affect the results of factorial invariance studies and lead to incorrect conclusions of invariance because the fit function in multiple-group factor analysis includes a weighting by group sample size. The implication is that violations of invariance might not be detected if the sample sizes of the 2 groups are severely unbalanced. In this study, we examined the effects of group size differences on results of factorial invariance tests, proposed a subsampling method to address unbalanced sample size issue in factorial invariance studies, and evaluated the proposed approach in various simulation conditions. Our findings confirm that violations of invariance might be masked in the case of severely unbalanced group size conditions and support the use of the proposed subsampling method to obtain accurate results for invariance studies.     

The Role of Orthographic and Semantic Learning in Word Reading and Reading Comprehension

We tested the theoretically driven hypotheses that children’s orthographic and semantic learning are associated with their word reading and reading comprehension skills, even when orthographic and semantic knowledge are taken into account. A sample of 139 English-speaking Grade 3 children completed a learning task in which they read stories about new inventions. Then they were tested on their learning of the spelling and meaning of the inventions (i.e., orthographic and semantic learning, respectively). Word reading and reading comprehension were assessed with standardised tasks, and orthographic and semantic knowledge were assessed with choice tasks targeting the spelling and meaning of existing words. The results of our structural equation modeling indicated that orthographic learning predicted word reading directly and reading comprehension indirectly via word reading. We also found that semantic learning predicted reading comprehension directly. These findings support integration of the self-teaching hypothesis and the lexical quality hypothesis.     

Algunos límites de la evaluación

La revisión que se hace aquí de toda una serie de limitaciones y de errores habituales en la evaluación educativa ayudará sin duda a los lectores a tomar conciencia del problema y, como propone el autor, a concebir la evaluación más como un método para posibilitar oportunidades que como vía para establecer categorías.     

Improving the Use of a Group Counseling Scale and Related Model to Teach Theory and Skills Integration

This study tested the Skilled Group Counseling Training Model (SGCTM) and a related instrument, the Skilled Group Counseling Scale. Retraining of raters and later rescoring of data from a previous study resulted in an improvement of interrater reliability; a factor‐analytic study of the scale revealed a single, global factor; and students in a group counseling class who were trained in the model used at least 80% of the SGCTM skills during three videotaped, simulated group counseling sessions. During these sessions, the students adhered to one of three counseling theories (Person‐Centered, Gestalt, and Rational‐Emotive Behavioral Therapy).     

Comparison of a behavioral model of physicians' drug product choice decision with pharmacists' product choice recommendations: A study of the choice for the treatment of panic disorder

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the decision process for physicians and pharmacists when considering medications to treat patients with panic disorder. A second‐order confirmatory factor analysis modeling physicians' prescribing influences revealed high factor loadings for efficacy considerations and side effects in conjunction with patient characteristics. A multisample analysis using the physician model revealed that pharmacists also consider the same factors important. Both health care professionals were concerned about the patient's quality of care, recovery, and medication efficacy.     

3D finite element analysis of the residual stresses in butt-welded plates with modeling of the electrode-movement

In this paper the residual stresses in a butt-welded plate of2.25Cr 1Mo has been analyzed using a 3D and transient finite element （FE） model. Also the effect of the welding-electrode speed has been studied using death and birth of FEs. For this purpose, a coupled thermo-mechanical FE solution has been used to obtain the temperature distribution and the resulting residual stresses. Also, the variations of the physical properties of the material with temperature have been taken into account. Results show that the residual stresses in the heat affected zone （HAZ） are maximum and change along the weld and also in the plate-thickness. It has been shown that use of the 3D and transient model will lead to more accurate and realistic results which are well compared with the experimental test data.     

YOU CAN TOUCH THIS: SIMULATION EXERCISES FOR AGING AND DISABILITY

Materials and exercises that may be used to simulate some of the deficits that occur in vision, hearing, mobility, and manual dexterity with increased age or disability are described. How arthritis, stroke, glaucoma, cataracts, and yellowing of the lens of the eye may be simulated is explained. The demonstrations are appropriate for educating health care professionals in gerontology and geriatrics and have been used with students of all ages.