Behavioral control by stimulus components of an imprinting object

In the first of three experiments, ducklings that had received prolonged exposure to the visibly moving imprinting object subsequently suppressed ongoing distress vocalization both during brief presentations of the moving object and during brief presentations of its initially neutral stimulus components (i.e., its auditory and static visual features). Only presentations of the moving object were followed by priming aftereffects (namely, enhancement of distress vocalization over a baseline rate). In Experiment 2, weak, but reliable, priming effects were detected after very long presentations of the auditory and static visual features. Experiment 3 found that these features strongly suppressed low, but not high, rates of distress vocalization, while the visibly moving object strongly suppressed both high and low rates. These studies suggest that initially neutral features of an imprinting object acquire the same sort of behavioral control as is exerted by the object when it is in motion, but that this control is somewhat weaker.     

Copyright and you

Educators and their attorneys must evaluate the merits of filing a federal lawsuit and the potential recovery available in litigation against the more expeditious and less costly arbitration procedure when domain name disputes are involved. Since complex intellectual property law pervades both proceedings, it is important to work with an experienced intellectual property attorney     

The role of speed of processing, rapid naming, and phonological awareness in reading achievement

This study investigated the role of speed of processing, rapid naming, and phonological awareness in reading achievement. Measures of response time in motor, visual, lexical, grammatical, and phonological tasks were administered to 279 children in third grade. Measures of rapid object naming, phonological awareness, and reading achievement were given in second and fourth grades. Reading group comparisons indicated that poor readers were proportionally slower than good readers across response time measures and on the rapid object naming task. These results suggest that some poor readers have a general deficit in speed of processing and that their problems in rapid object naming are in part a reflection of this deficit. Hierarchical regression analyses further showed that when considered along with IQ and phonological awareness, speed of processing explained unique variance in reading achievement. This finding suggests that a speed of processing deficit may be an "extraphonological" factor in some reading disabilities.     

Development and validation of a brief screening version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to develop and validate a short form of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (the CTQ-SF) as a screening measure for maltreatment histories in both clinical and nonreferred groups. METHOD: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the 70 original CTQ items were used to create a 28-item version of the scale (25 clinical items and three validity items) and test the measurement invariance of the 25 clinical items across four samples: 378 adult substance abusing patients from New York City, 396 adolescent psychiatric inpatients, 625 substance abusing individuals from southwest Texas, and 579 individuals from a normative community sample (combined N=1978). RESULTS: Results showed that the CTQ-SF's items held essentially the same meaning across all four samples (i.e., measurement invariance). Moreover, the scale demonstrated good criterion-related validity in a subsample of adolescents on whom corroborative data were available. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the viability of the CTQ-SF across diverse clinical and nonreferred populations.     

Confidence Intervals for the Proportion of Mastery in Criterion-Referenced Measurement

A relatively simple method is developed to obtain confidence intervals for a student's proportion of domain mastery in criterion-referenced or mastery measurement situations. The method uses the binomial distribution as a model for the student's scores under hypothetically repeated assessments. Though the use of this model is not a new idea, the method of implementation has not been proposed previously. The technique makes use of widely available F tables and hence does not require elaborate computer equipment or proprietary computer programs.     

The importance of processing automaticity and temporary storage capacity to the differences in comprehension between skilled and less skilled college-age deaf readers

The prevalence of low comprehension among deaf readers has been documented for decades, yet the problem persists. Progress has been hampered by uncertainty regarding which aspects of reading competence ought to be the primary focus of concerted instructional efforts. This article examines whether temporary storage capacity and/or processing automaticity may explain the difference in comprehension between skilled and less skilled adult deaf readers. Temporary storage capacity is the ability to maintain separate bits of information in current memory while they are being processed. Processing automaticity is the ability to complete certain basic operations of reading, such as recognizing individual words and chunking sets of words into meaningful phrases, with a minimum of intentional mental effort. In this study one group of deaf adults reading at the college level and another reading at the 5th-grade level completed a battery of experimental tasks that generated multiple indicators of storage capacity and automaticity. These included the reading span task of Daneman and Carpenter (1980), an analogous addition span task, two measures of phonological processing, and a sentence-reading task that varied the demands on temporary storage and processing automaticity. Results suggest that skilled readers do not command an exceptionally large temporary storage capacity, nor do less skilled readers suffer from deficient storage capacity. The indicators of processing automaticity suggest, however, that less skilled readers must invest significantly more conscious mental effort than skilled readers to complete basic operations of reading. These findings are applied to theory related to (a) the nature of the breakdowns in comprehension faced by readers with low automaticity, (b) the interaction of low automaticity with other obstacles to comprehension, and (c) the design of practice experiences to increase the automaticity and ultimately the comprehension of deaf readers.     

International student teaching: Linkage for change

This article explores the extent to which an overseas student teaching practicum avoids the problem of assimilation inherent in traditional programs of school practice for preservice teachers. Overseas programs of student teaching may be effective vehicles for cross-fertilization of pedagogical ideas and for fostering innovation and change.     

Counselor Selection: A Critical Event in Program Management and Development

A coordinated process for selection of school counselors is presented. Responsibility for counselor selection is shared by central office and school building administrators. District personnel developed a selection instrument which is used to assess strengths and limitations of counselor candidates. Counselor profiles are then evaluated by the selection committee in light of district needs.     

A map of postsecondary assessment

Although most discussions of postsecondary assessment focus on students' knowledge and skills, these cannot be fully understood without assessing the wasy they are influenced by other aspects of postsecondary education. These aspects are described in a map consisting of 20 points which depicts the flow of students through institutions and experiences from precollege to adulthood. Consideration of the map identifies areas where better assessments and models are needed, particularly the areas of adult learners, graduate and professional education, and the characteristics and plans of college seniors.