An Aid to Intuitively Understanding Bias and Consistency

Students often find the concepts of bias and consistency hard to understand intuitively. This article presnts means of demonstrating these concepts using a computer so that students, once they have seen them in action, can more readily grasp their meanings and imlications.     

The functional equivalence of operant behavior and foraging

Many researchers have used the controlled procedures of operant methodology to test the predictions of foraging theory on the assumption that foraging is operant behavior and operant behavior is foraging. This experiment tested the assumption that leverpressing is functionally equivalent to search effort. Four rats were exposed to two situations: a naturalistic foraging situation (a “patch”) and a standard operant chamber. Each condition represented a different prey density on the patch and a corresponding change in the probability of reinforcement in the chamber. The average number of presses per pellet was linearly related to the density of pellets on the patch. This result indicates that leverpresses were functionally equivalent to search effort.     

Novelty versus retrieval cue value of visual contextual stimuli in pigeons

Learning & Behavior - Thomas and Empedocles (1992) proposed that in a retention test, the relative enhancement of responding when the context that had accompanied training is again present...     

Competency and training issues related to the integration of career counseling and mental health counseling

Summary Career counseling cannot be neatly separated from the counseling that affects the remainder of clients' lives, and mental distress cannot be considered independent of the career which encompasses so much of an individual's world. Life is complex and includes many facets which counselees bring to the counseling relationship. Counselors must be able to deal with the major issues in clients' lives including career issues and issues of mental health. Minimum skill for counselors would include the ability to assist a range of clients and the knowledge to effectively refer others. For too long career counseling and mental health counseling have been viewed as separate entities. This view of career and mental health counseling as separate is inconsistent with the development of counseling as a profession and does not serve potential clients well.Spencer G. Niles, D.Ed. is an Assistant Professor of Counselor Education and Robert H. Pate, Jr., Ph.D. is a Professor of Counselor Education and Chair of the Department of Human Services in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia.     

Faculty Perspectives on Course and Teacher Evaluations

Student ratings of instruction have been the subject of numerous studies with much of the research focusing on the validity and reliability of the ratings themselves. Comparatively little empirical investigation has been devoted to the perceptions of the individuals who are the subjects of the ratings, that is, the faculty. The current study explored faculty perspectives on the usefulness of student ratings for formative and summative purposes, and the actual use of student ratings for summative purposes. Contrary to what might have been deduced from the anecdotal literature, the results of this study do not portray a great deal of resistance to student ratings in general or to their use for formative and summative evaluation. It was also found that student ratings are actually being used for the latter purpose. The usefulness of the student feedback was viewed differentially by the faculty, with feedback on their interaction with students seen as most useful, followed by feedback on their grading practices, global ratings of instructor and course, and finally structural issues of the course.     

Age of Uncontrolled Information Flow

We are heading into an era of uncontrolled and uncontrollable information flow. In the past, the tools of information flow required large investments, and the persons controlling them were easily identifiable. Now, effective long-range communication with large numbers of people can be done using tools that are easily affordable to the average citizen. Moreover, it can be done in ways that make monitoring and control virtually impossible. This is not a worrisome future change that can be averted by prompt action; it is a fait accompli and there is no reversing it. However, this is not necessarily clear to those interested in monitoring and control. Unfortunately, the bulk of electronic communication is still relatively exposed to monitoring and control, and is likely to remain so for a while. The danger is that the authorities, trying to retain a grip on a situation that is irretrievably slipping away, will react to the extremes of the problem in ways that leave ordinary users' privacy unprotected. The best approach is to adapt traditional solutions rather than inventing new ones. The safeguards built into the traditional solutions may not be precisely appropriate, but they are far better than nothing.     

The Efficacy of Preschool Developmental Indicators as a Screen for Early Primary School-Based Literacy Interventions

Literacy success lays the foundation for children's later educational, health, and well-being outcomes. Thus, early identification of literacy need is vital. Using data from New Zealand's national preschool health screening program for fiscal years 2010/2011–2014/2015, demographic and health variables from 255,090 children aged 4 years were related to whether they received a literacy intervention in early primary school. Overall, 20,652 (8.1%) children received an intervention. Time-to-event analysis revealed that all considered variables were significantly related to literacy intervention (all p < .01), but the full model lacked reasonable predictive power for population screening purposes (Harrell's c-statistic = .624; 95% CI [.618, .629]). Including more direct literacy measures in the national screening program is likely needed for improvement.     

Temperamental Emotionality Attributes as Antecedents of Children's Social Information Processing

This study examined temperament dimensions of emotion as precursors of children's social information processing (SIP) of stressful peer events. Two hundred and forty-three preschool children (M = 4.60 years) and their primary caregivers participated in two measurement occasions spaced 2 years apart. Observations of temperamental anger, fearful distress, positive affect, and effortful control were assessed in multiple laboratory tasks across two visits at Wave 1. SIP assessments from vignettes of peer challenges were repeated across two waves and included: eye tracking measures of attention to peer emotion displays, hostile attribution bias, hostile solutions, and subjective distress. Findings from structural equation models with inclusion of autoregressive controls indicated that effortful control, fear, and anger predicted subsequent changes in specific SIP dimensions.