Cognitive and Neural Development of Individuated Self-Representation in Children

Processing the self-relevance of information facilitates recall. Similarly, processing close-other-related information facilitates recall to a lesser degree than processing self-relevant information. This memory advantage may be viewed as an index of the degree to which the representation of self is differentiated from representations of close others. To test developmental hypotheses concerning the self, this study examined the relation of memory for self- and mother-referentially processed information in participants age 7–13 years (Experiment 1: N  = 37; Experiment 2: N  = 14). Memory for words encoded with reference to oneself increases with age, relative to memory for words encoded with reference to one's mother. When used as an individual difference measure, the difference in self versus mother memory correlates with regions of the rostral anterior cingulate associated with affective salience.     

Consistent occupational preferences and academic adjustment

This study explored the differences in academic adjustment variables between students who made congruent, incongruent, and undecided college major choices. The academic adjustment variables were operationally defined by the College Inventory of Academic Adjustment. Congruent, incongruent, and undecided college major choice groups were defined operationally using the Vocational Preference Inventory. The analysis of variance revealed the main effect of groups (congruent, incongruent, and undecided) to be significant for two academic adjustment variables. The test for the main effect of sex was found to be significant for one adjustment variable. The test for interaction was found to be significant for one variable. The findings suggest that students in the congruent female and male groups tend to be more academically adjusted than students in the undecided male group.     

A quiet revolution – International influence,domestic elites and the transformation of higher technical education in Ireland 1959–72

The upgrading of higher technical education which began in the 1960s marked the most influential intervention by the Irish government in the third-level sector since the establishment of the independent Irish state. A series of reforming initiatives extended educational opportunity and transformed the status of technical education at higher level. International pressures undoubtedly proved influential in stimulating policy change. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) encouraged far-reaching reforms through its critical evaluation of educational facilities for technical training in Ireland. But educational reform was not imposed by international agencies on a reluctant corps of national politicians and officials. International influences dovetailed with changing attitudes toward technical education within the Irish political and official elite. Leading politicians and public officials showed an increasing awareness that the previous neglect of technical education was untenable in an era of economic development and educational expansion. It was a timely combination of international scrutiny and domestic political re-appraisal, which triggered a radical restructuring and expansion of higher technical education in Ireland.     

Continuous Assessment and Staff Development

This article examines the nature of choice that is inherent in delegated forms of school finance. While it is often assumed that choosing between the cost of undertaking one activity and the cost of another is a rational activity, the author puts forward the view that both the nature of cost and choice are subjective. As a result, management attention should be given not only to the mechanics of the process but also the subjective nature of ‘choice influencing’ factors if efficiency in resource use is to be achieved.     

Some determinants of second-order conditioning

In a Pavlovian conditioning situation, an initially neutral stimulus may be made excitatory by nonreinforced presentations in compound with an established conditioned excitor [i.e., second-order conditioning (SOC)]. The established excitor may be either a punctate cue or the training context. In four conditioned suppression experiments using rats, we investigated whether SOC phenomena parallel other cue interaction effects. In Experiment 1, we found that the response potential of a target stimulus was directly related to the intertrial interval when SOC was mediated by a punctate cue, and inversely related to the intertrial interval when SOC was mediated by the training context. Experiment 2 demonstrated that punctate- and context-mediated SOC are oppositely affected by posttraining context extinction, and Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that context- and punctate-mediated SOC are differentially affected by conditioned stimulus (Experiment 3) and unconditioned stimulus (Experiment 4) preexposure treatments. These findings parallel phenomena in conditioned inhibition and cue competition situations.     

Effects of reinforcer delay and variability in a successive-encounters procedure

Pigeons responded in a successive-encounters procedure that consisted of a search period, a choice period, and a handling period. The search period was either a fixed-interval or a mixed-interval schedule presented on the center key of a three-key chamber. Upon completion of the search period, the center key was turned off and the two side keys were lit. A pigeon could either accept a delay followed by food (by pecking the right key) or reject this option and return to the search period (by pecking the left key). During the choice period, a red right key represented the long alternative (a long handling delay followed by food), and a green right key represented the short alternative (a short handling delay followed by food). The experiment consisted of a series of comparisons for which optimal diet theory predicted no changes in preference for the long alternative (because the overall rates of reinforcement were unchanged), whereas the hyperbolic-decay model predicted changes in preference (because the delays to the next possible reinforcer were varied). In all comparisons, the results supported the predictions of the hyperbolic-decay model, which states that the value of a reinforcer is inversely related to the delay between a choice response and reinforcer delivery.     

Logics,rhetoric and ‘the blob’: Populist logic in the Conservative reforms to English schooling

A lot has been written about the lasting implications of the Conservative reforms to English schooling, particularly changes made by Michael Gove as Education Secretary (2010–2014). There is a lot less work, however, on studying the role that language, strategy and the broader political framework played in the process of instituting and winning consent for these reforms. Studying these factors is important for ensuring that any changes to education and schooling are not read in isolation from their political context. Speeches particularly capture moments where intellectual and strategic political traditions meet, helping us to form a richer understanding of the motives behind specific reform goals and where they fit into a political landscape. This article analyses speeches and policy documents from prominent politicians who led the Conservative education agenda between 2010–2014 to illustrate how politicians mobilised a deliberate populist strategy and argumentation to achieve specific educational goals, but which have had broader social and political implications. Concepts from interpretive political studies are used to develop a case analysis of changes to teacher training provision and curriculum reform, illustrating how politicians constructed a frontier between ‘the people’ (commonly teachers or parents) and an illegitimate ‘elite’ (an educational establishment) that opposed change. This anti-elite populist rhetoric, arguably first tested in the Department for Education, has now become instituted more widely in our current British politics.     

A science need: Designing tasks to engage students in modeling complex data

In this information age, the capacity to perceive structure in data, model that structure, and make decisions regarding its implications is rapidly becoming the most important of the quantitative literacy skills. We build on Kaput’s belief in a Science of Need to motivate and direct the development of tasks and tools for engaging students in reasoning about data. A Science of Need embodies the utility value of mathematics, and engages students in seeing the importance of mathematics in both their current and their future lives. An extended example of the design of tasks that require students to generate, test, and revise models of complex data is used to illustrate the ways in which attention to the contributions of students can aid in the development of both useful and theoretically coherent models of mathematical understanding by researchers. Tools such as Fathom are shown as democratizing agents in making data modeling more expressive and intimate, aiding in the development of deeper and more applicable mathematical understanding.