Academic achievement following childhood brain disease: implications for the concept of learning disabilities.

The present study examined three hypotheses regarding the consequences of early brain damage for academic achievement: First, early brain insults will have a negative impact on achievement, even in children with normal intelligence. Second, underachievement in these children will be at least partially independent of IQ (i.e., not fully accounted for by a lowering of IQ within the average range). Third, normally intelligent children with histories of brain insult will also manifest selective cognitive dysfunctions. To test these hypotheses, we compared two groups of children who had recovered from Haemophilus influenzae type b meningitis. The "complicated" group consisted of children who, as a consequence of having sustained neurologic complications during their illness, were more likely to have had brain insults. Children in the "uncomplicated" group did not have complications with their illness and were regarded as having escaped significant central nervous system (CNS) pathology. Only children with normal hearing and a prorated Full Scale IQ of at least 80 (WISC-R) were considered. Group differences on the Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised were consistent with the first two hypotheses. Although the two groups had similar Verbal IQs, the complicated group also had a lower mean Performance IQ and performed less well on perceptually demanding neuropsychological tasks. Findings suggest that learning disabilities may have selective, brain-related cognitive antecedents; but they challenge the practice of using IQ criteria for clinical diagnosis.     

现行的有约束力的多样化的博物馆道德公约——国际博协1970年以来对道德准则不断深入的关注

任何一门专业都有其用于行业自律的职业道德规范,博物馆也不例外。自1986年国际博协布宜诺斯艾利斯大会通过《博物馆职业道德准则》以来,已被世界上许多国家的博物馆及其专业人员所接受,成为国际博物馆界除《国际博协章程》之外一个最重要的文件。本文作者曾亲自参与该文件的讨论、起草和修订。在文章中,她对上个世纪70年代以来博物馆职业道德形成的社会背景、哲学体系、核心关注、道德与法律的关系以及近年来的最新修订作了较全面的回顾和分析。