Higher order occasion setting

Higher order occasion setting with serially presented stimuli was investigated in an appetitively motivated, discrete-trial operant study with rats. Reinforcement of barpressing during an occasion-setting light (a discriminative stimulus) was contingent on immediately preceding second-order occasion setters (i.e., a click train or a buzzer served as a conditional discriminative stimulus). Moreover, the meanings of the clicks and buzzer were themselves indicated by a third-order occasion setter that preceded them (i.e., a white noise acted as a second-order conditional discriminative stimulus). Subjects responded more frequently and had shorter latencies to the first response in the presence of the light on trials during which barpressing was reinforced than on trials during which barpressing was not reinforced. The likelihood that the subjects solved the problem by responding to unique compound stimuli was minimized by the insertion of a 5-sec gap between the different controlling stimuli presented on each trial. Thus, these subjects appear to have mastered a second-order conditional discrimination, which is equivalent to third-order occasion setting if the discriminative stimulus (light) is viewed as a first-order occasion setter. Although the subjects learned to respond appropriately to each of the compound stimuli, differences in responding to specific stimuli were consistent with a higher order feature-positive effect. Some implications of higher order occasion setting are discussed, including the issue of independence between the different levels of occasion setting signaled by a single stimulus.     

Contrasting predictive and causal values of predictors and of causes

Three experiments examined human processing of stimuli as predictors and causes. In Experiments 1A and 1B, two serial events that both preceded a third were assessed as predictors and as causes of the third event. Instructions successfully provided scenarios in which one of the serial (target) stimuli was viewed as a strong predictor but as a weak cause of the third event. In Experiment 2, participants’ preexperimental knowledge was drawn upon in such a way that two simultaneous antecedent events were processed as predictors or causes, which strongly influenced the occurrence of overshadowing between the antecedent events. Although a tendency toward overshadowing was found between predictors, reliable overshadowing was observed only between causes, and then only when the test question was causal. Together with other evidence in the human learning literature, the present results suggest that predictive and causal learning obey similar laws, but there is a greater susceptibility to cue competition in causal than predictive attribution.     

Temporal coding in conditioned inhibition: Retardation tests

Two lick suppression experiments with rats were conducted in order to determine the nature of the temporal information that is encoded as a result of Pavlovian conditioned inhibition training (conditioned stimulus {CS} A→unconditioned stimulus {US}/AX→noUS). After inhibition training, the conditioned inhibitor (X) was paired with the US in order to measure inhibition, as assessed through retarded behavioral control by CS X. Three temporal relationships were manipulated: the A-US interval, the X-A interval of inhibition training, and the X-US interval of the retardation test pairings. Retardation was greatest when the X-US temporal relationship matched the time at which the US was expected (but not delivered) on the X-A inhibition training trials. Thus, the present experiments provide evidence with retardation tests that, during conditioned inhibition training, subjects encode the temporal location of the omitted US relative to the inhibitory CS. These findings complement those of previous studies using summation tests of conditioned inhibition (Barnet & Miller, 1996; Denniston, Blaisdell, á Miller, 1998; Denniston, Cole, & Miller, 1998).     

A Crisis in Staffing Rehabilitation Agencies: Compensation,Training, Retention or What? A Canadian Perspective

Maintaining a team of skilled and concerned personnel will be a major challenge of rehabilitation agencies in the 1990s. During the affluent 1970s programs were established in Canada and other countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and New Zealand to prepare personnel for work in community agencies; often they replaced nurses and untrained staff who had been the primary caregivers. The new educational models successfully produced many skilled and competent personnel. However, dramatic changes in the international economic climate and budget pressures on local governments are forcing rehabilitation agencies to change the mix of employees they recruit and the ways that staff are trained. Discussed are ways that employers and post‐secondary institutions are working together in Western Canada to respond to the changing personnel training needs within this new environment.     

Reminder treatments do not alleviate cue-to-consequence deficits

Using rats in a conditioned lick suppression preparation, six experiments were conducted in which the subjects were exposed to a single tone-LiCl pairing. Despite evidence from tone-shock conditioning that the tone was an adequate conditioned stimulus and evidence from taste-LiCl conditioning that the LiCl was an adequate unconditioned stimulus, no suppression to the tone was observed following the tone-LiCl pairing, a finding consistent with prior cue-to-consequence research. In each experiment, subjects receiving a tone-LiCl pairing were subsequently exposed to either the tone or LiCl outside the conditioning context in an attempt to reactivate a potentially latent tone-LiCl association. The parameters of these reminder treatments were chosen on the basis of their previously proven effectiveness in reversing such performance deficits as blocking, overshadowing, latent inhibition, and experimental amnesia. Although a variety of stimulus parameters were used in an effort to reverse the cue-to-consequence deficit, none of the experiments detected any tendency towards suppression by reminded subjects exposed to a tone-LiCl pairing. This uniform lack of reminder-induced recovery suggests that cue-to-consequence deficits reflect true acquisition failure rather than poor retrievability.     

Between kudzu and killer apps: Finding human ground between the monoculture of MOOCs and online mechanisms for learning

Although MOOCs have not lived up to previously breathless predictions of disruption, they have had an outsized influence on university administrators who see online learning as a “savior solution” for ever-shrinking budgets. Despite lower student persistent rates, faculty skepticism, and burdensome faculty workloads, the general public and administrative embrace of online learning has been enthusiastic, which may be explained in part using Foucault’s concept of the episteme to view the convergence of the parallel tracks of educational and technological development--the idea of a kind of mechanism for learning. While MOOCs once promised “best professors,” other institutions now promise the “best designed” mechanisms for learning, certified through corporatized quality assurance programs and learning management systems. While this may be appropriate for shopping educational products in a neoliberal marketplace, it seldom addresses human needs. Moreover, the temporal and human constraints that online promises to banish, in fact, continue to exist. Therefore, a more realistic examination of psychological and social factors, pedagogical tools, and the nature of online communication, is needed in order to create a more humane way of teaching, and learning.     

Reflective Practice through Critical Friendship: some possibilities

This paper examines a ‘critical friendship’ over a period of one school term. A secondary English teacher and a university lecturer in education came together in school to consider the possibilities for mutual professional development. They drew upon a belief that both their practices could be improved through mutual critical discussion. Here they present illustrations from their experience as a means towards a discussion of some principles for the development of participative reflective practice based on working partnerships. This experience and the lessons derived from it may be of relevance to others considering possibilities for forging stronger links between schools and higher education institutions. A general conclusion is that there are important practical constraints to come to terms with. Moreover, even in a relatively confident and relaxed working relationship there are great sensitivities on both sides. These need to be acknowledged, rather than submerged in mechanical routines.     

Temporal integration and temporal backward associations in human and nonhuman subjects

Two experiments are reported that demonstrate temporal integration of independently acquired temporal relationships, including backward associations, in both human (Experiment 1) and nonhuman (rats, Experiment 2) subjects. The experiments were designed and analyzed in the framework of the temporal coding hypothesis (e.g., Matzel, Held, & Miller, 1988; Savastano & Miller, 1998) as a strategy toward illuminating the use of temporal information and assessing the existence of temporal backward associations. Both experiments provided evidence of retrieval of associations to an event that was expected to occur prior to the moment in time at which a stimulus was presented (i.e., backward associations). In addition, Experiment 1 constitutes the first controlled demonstration of temporal integration by human subjects.     

Kindergarten Educational Policies: Separating Myth From Reality

The critical question facing school districts today is, “What policies should we pursue to improve both the quality and accessibility of early educational programs for all children?” Toward the goal of maximizing the academic growth and development of all children, this article (1) profiles kindergarten policies and practices currently implemented in district schools, (2) reviews and analyzes the research supporting the major policy alternatives for six common kindergarten and school entry age issues that all school districts must address, and (3) identifies the optimum policy option alternative for each issue based on these analyses. Collectively, the policy alternatives recommended provide a model for early childhood education for schools and districts. These policies define a more developmentally appropriate kindergarten curriculum which should optimize the early learning and future achievement levels of all children.