Socially transmitted food preferences can be used to study long-term memory in rats

Immediately after a recently fed rodentdemonstrator interacts with a conspecificobserver, the observer shows a substantially enhanced preference for whatever food its demonstrator ate. Here we show that (1) influence of a single, 30-min interaction with a demonstrator on an observer’s food preference lasts for at least 1 month, and (2) observers interacting on 2 successive days with a demonstrator fed a different diet on each day show significantly enhanced preferences for both diets a month later. Such enduring effects of single, brief interactions between a demonstrator rat and its observer provide an efficient means for studying physiological and behavioral substrates of long-term memory in rodents. Together with the results of previous studies of social influences on food choices of rats, the present results also suggest that rats may use information acquired from conspecifics to identify both toxic and safe foods for many weeks after they have acquired this information.     

Identifying and Nurturing Gifted Children in Israel

The article describes Israel’s approach to the education of gifted and talented children. It describes the programs for gifted and talented children in Israel and the process for selecting students for these programs. The method of selecting students for programs is consistent with the Ministry of Education’s definition of giftedness, the goals of the giftedness programs, and the characteristics of these programs. The selection method is affected by the standards required of the instruments as well as other constraints, such as the constraints on funding for this purpose.The author of this article is the director of the Szold Institute program for identifying gifted children. The project is funded by the Israeli Ministry of Education     

Narratives as Tools in Designing the School Chemistry Curriculum

This article is based on results from a research project which focused on chemistry teachers and student narratives from lived experience. The purpose was to find a way to make abstract chemistry more meaningful. The project began with six experienced teachers who used narratives and stories as a didactic tool. These narratives stemmed from the teachers individual lived experience and thus were designed differently. Later, interviews with students showed that five adult students and six younger students all appreciated the use of narratives as ameaning-making activity to help them grasp the abstract subject. The most interesting finding was that the students revealed several narratives from their own lives where the theories of chemistry played an important role in explaining events that otherwise had been mysterious to them. Thus the teachers and students showed that the ancient human method of sharing experience through narrative is still alive and useful in chemistry education.     

Educational Research Expenditure in Switzerland: Overview and Analysis

Switzerland spends about 6% of its GDP on education. In the past few years, there have been carrying out important reforms in the educational field, for example introducing a vocational high school diploma and creating specialized higher vocational institution (hautes écoles). What is the extent of educational research in this context? There are very little data on this subject. To meet the need of information, we carried out a study examining expenditure on Swiss educational research from 1998 to 2000 and the link between sources of funding and research centres. The results of the above-mentioned study show that expenditure on educational research is modest compared with the overall cost of the educational system. It also reveals a distinct distribution of tasks amongst the institutions directly dependent on state educational administrations and universities. Although there are also other sources of funds, educational research relies mainly on public funding. This is disconcerting, as public budgets have been facing cuts in recent years, and new requirements for research needs will arise (future research is likely to involve such activities as evaluating reforms and participating in international survey). We conclude new funding strategies have to be found and researchers need to communicate their results more effectively.     

Guidance Policies: The Trojan Horse

Guidance policies are often formulated in general terms. The recent European Union Resolution on Lifelong Guidance, for example, runs along two main lines. One line pursues the policy goal of creating a more inclusive society with active citizens. The other line pursues global competitiveness. These two pursuits may seem to present conflicting policy goals. The dilemmas that guidance practitioners encounter in this context are typically for individual guidance practitioners to resolve on their own. This article points to some of the issues at stake in terms of policy-making against social exclusion, and it suggests three possible guidance strategies: solving, preventing and coping.

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Résumé. Politiques d’orientation: le cheval de Troie Les politiques d’orientation sont souvent formulées en termes généraux. La récente Résolution de l’Union Européenne des syndicats concernant l’orientation tout au long de la vie, par exemple, trace deux axes principaux. L’un de ces axes correspond à un but politique de création d’une société qui comprenne davantage de citoyens actifs. L’autre axe correspond à un objectif de compétitivité globale. Ces deux axes peuvent sembler correspondre à des buts politiques contradictoires. La résolution des dilemmes que rencontrent les praticiens de l’orientation dans ce contexte est en général laissée à leur libre appréciation. Cet article pointe certains des problèmes en jeu en termes de définition d’une politique contre l’exclusion sociale et suggère trois stratégies possibles d’orientation: résolution, prévention et adaptation.Zusammenfassung. Berufsberatungs-Politiken: Das Trojanische Pferd Berufsberatungpolitiken sind häufig auf der Grundlage allgemeiner Leitlinien formuliert. Die aktuelle Europäische Resolution zur lebenslangen Berufsberatung beispielsweise orientiert sich an zwei Hauptlinien. Eine Linie verfolgt das politische Ziel, mit aktiven Bürgern eine Gesellschaft zu entwickeln, die stärkere Beteiligung ermöglicht. Die andere Linie betont die globale Konkurrenzfähigkeit. Diese beiden Zielsetzungen könnten auf den ersten Blick als konkurrierende politische Ziele aufgefasst werden. Die Dilemmata, denen Berufsberaterinnen in diesem Zusammenhang ausgesetzt sind, sind typischerweise für das Feld der Berufsberatung von den BeraterInnen alleine aufzulösen. Dieser Artikel weist im Sinne einer Politik gegen sozialen Ausschluss auf einige Aspekte hin, die auf dem Spiel stehen, und er schlägt drei mögliche Beratungsstrategien vor: Lösung, Vermeidung und Anpassung.Resumen. Políticas de Orientación: el Caballo de Troya Las políticas de orientación se suelen formular en términos generales. La reciente Resolución de la Unión Europea sobre el Aprendizaje a lo Largo de la Vida, por ejemplo, se plantea en torno a dos ejes o líneas principales. La primera tiene como objetivo la política de crear una sociedad más inclusiva con ciudadanos activos. La otra línea promueve la competitividad global. Parece que estas dos finalidades podrían llevar a metas políticas contradictorias. Los dilemas que se les presenta a los orientadores en este contexto normalmente tienen que resolverlos por su cuenta. Este artículo pone de manifiesto algunas cuestiones que están en juego en relación a las políticas contra la exclusión social, y sugiere tres estrategias de orientación posibles: resolución, prevención, y manejo de la situación.

     

Resistance to interference in complex negative patterning

Resistance to interference was examined in rats that received a complex negative patterning discrimination in which XA and XB were followed by food reinforcement and XAB was not. Retention of the discrimination was evident after separate reinforcement of both A and B (Experiment 3), but not after reinforcement of either AB (Experiments 1 and 3) or XAB (Experiments 2 and 3). These data suggest that complex negative patterning discriminations are acquired configurally and that the relative similarity of the original discrimination and subsequent interference trials dictates the final degree of retention observed.     

Between Scientific Ideas and Christian Religious Beliefs

Science & Education - Despite the importance of evolution to understand living phenomena, evolution teaching confronts several tensions, especially with respect to teachers’ and...     

Chebyshev polynomial solutions of systems of higher-order linear Fredholm-Volterra integro-differential equations

A Chebyshev collocation method, an expansion method, has been proposed in order to solve the systems of higher-order linear integro-differential equations. This method transforms the IDE system and the given conditions into the matrix equations via Chebyshev collocation points. By merging these results, a new system which corresponds to a system of linear algebraic equations is obtained. The solution of this system yields the Chebyshev coefficients of the solution function. Some numerical results are also given to illustrate the efficiency of the method. Moreover, this method is valid for the systems of differential and integral equations.