Accumbens D2: Raters of the Loss Outcome

Zalocusky et al. (Nature 531:642–646, 2016) recently showed that activity in D2R+ cells in the nucleus accumbens is associated with loss sensitivity to prior outcomes and reduced subsequent risky choice, and that optogenetic stimulation of these cells decreased risky choices in risk-prone rats. While their findings are important for understanding trait-level risk-taking, future research should aim to examine the neuronal mechanisms of a broader range of facets of gain and loss processing with respect to different potential reference points.     

Workplace‐based Learning Degrees: a new business venture,or a new critical business?

There is increasing emphasis in higher education on preparing students for the workplace and recognising the learning that occurs in the workplace. Workplace learning has been exemplified in aspects of traditional courses by work experience, practicum, sandwich courses and practice‐based courses. Recently, however, academic attention has focused on the development of subjects and degree programs that are entirely workplace‐based. Such programs are negotiated with organisations to meet their own learning needs and promote the learning of individual company employees in the performance of their everyday work. Workplace‐based courses have developed in response to employer demand, restricted government funding for higher education and the need for universities to appeal to new markets. These factors have created a context of considerable tension between traditional academic practice and beliefs, and those that accompany this new approach. These tensions present challenges for universities as they attempt to respond in ways that maintain rigour and integrity while meeting the demands created by contemporary economic, political and social pressures.     

My experience with academic intolerance

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, formerly a United States representative to the United Nations and a member of the Cabinet. She is also senior research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. This article is adapted from a keynote address given at the first national conference of the National Association of Scholars, held in New York City from November 11 through November 13, 1988.     

Preservation activities and needs in U.S. biomedical libraries: a status report

A national sample of health sciences and other types of libraries having significant holdings of biomedical literature was studied to determine the status of library preservation programs. Findings pertaining to 134 basic health sciences libraries and to ninety-seven resource libraries in the Regional Medical Library Program network are reported and discussed. Basic health sciences libraries participating in the study were primarily hospital libraries; resource libraries were primarily academic health sciences center libraries. Findings include information on topics perceived to be of greatest need for staff training and for informational or educational materials; on levels of preservation activity, staffing, and funding; and on capabilities for participating in a national cooperative preservation program. Efforts to identify general and special biomedical collections of potential importance to a national preservation program met with limited success.     

Planning text structure as a way to improve students' writing from sources in the compare–contrast genre

The aim of this study was to improve 7th- and 8th-grade students' (N = 83) compare–contrast reports when writing from sources. An instructional unit was designed and implemented for this purpose. It focused on increasing students' knowledge of compare–contrast text structure and on having students memorize and use a table to plan the structure of their reports. There was a large effect size of instruction, such that students in the instruction group made far greater gains in the holistic and structural quality of their writing (from pretest to posttest) than students in the control group.     

A Twin and Adoption Study of Reading Achievement: Exploration of Shared-Environmental and Gene-Environment-Interaction Effects

Existing behavior-genetic research implicates substantial influence of heredity and modest influence of shared environment on reading achievement and reading disability. Applying DeFries-Fulker analysis to a combined sample of twins and adoptees (N = 4,886, including 266 reading-disabled probands), the present study replicates prior findings of considerable heritability for both reading achievement and reading disability. A simple biometric model adequately described parent and offspring data (combined N = 9,430 parents and offspring) across differing types of families present in the sample Analyses yielded a high heritability estimate (around 0.70) and a negligible shared-environmentality estimate for both reading achievement and reading disability. No evidence of gene × environment interaction was found for parental reading ability and parental educational attainment, the two moderators analyzed.     

An Examination of Two Procedures for Identifying Consequential Item Parameter Drift

The purpose of the present study was to develop and evaluate two procedures flagging consequential item parameter drift (IPD) in an operational testing program. The first procedure was based on flagging items that exhibit a meaningful magnitude of IPD using a critical value that was defined to represent barely tolerable IPD. The second procedure was based on flagging items in which the D² statistic was more than two standard deviations from the mean. Both procedures were implemented using an iterative purification approach to detect IPD. A simulation study was implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of both detection procedures in flagging non-negligible IPD. Both procedures were able to identify IPD and the iterative purification method provided useful information regarding the consequences of excluding or including a flagged item. The advantages and disadvantages of both procedures as well as possible modifications intended to improve the procedures’ effectiveness are discussed in the article.     

Interpretation of emotion from facial expressions in children with and without learning disabilities

The accuracy and time required for children with and without learning disabilities to interpret emotions when restricted to information from facial expressions, and the accuracy of those interpretations, were investigated. Ninety-six children participated; an equal number of males and females were included in both learning categories and age levels. Accuracy and response time on a modified version of Pictures of Facial Affect were recorded for the emotions of fear, sadness, surprise, anger, happiness, and disgust, as well as for the entire task. Three-way ANOVAs revealed children with learning disabilities to (a) be less accurate interpreters of emotion and (b) spend more time identifying specific emotions. Both age and sex influenced response time: Younger subjects required more time to interpret the emotions of fear and anger; males spent more time interpreting happiness. Younger females with learning disabilities displayed difficulty in interpretation, and older children with learning disabilities (particularly males) were rapid, but often inaccurate, interpreters of emotion.