Virtual Serendipity: Preserving Embodied Browsing Activity in the 21st Century Research Library

As academic library collections are moved off site to make room for learning commons-type collaboration spaces, exploratory research processes (e.g. stacks browsing activities) are threatened. Given the range of benefits associated with chance information encounters in the physical book stacks, the disappearance of accessible collections is problematic. Fortunately, by focusing on embodied aspects of the physical browsing experience we can leverage emerging technologies to preserve instances of serendipitous information retrieval. Virtual reality, in this case, provides a browsing platform that allows for the type of search activity typically associated with research in the physical books stacks and preserves the benefits thereof.     

Divergent production in gifted adolescents using timed vs. untimed stimuli with creative prompting

Although creativity and expertise are related, they are nonetheless very different things. Expertise does not usually require creativity, but creativity generally does require a certain level of expertise. There are similarities in the relationships of both expertise and creativity to domains, however. Research has shown that just as expertise in one domain does not predict expertise in other, unrelated domains, creativity in one domain does not predict creativity in other, unrelated domains. People may be expert, and people may be creative, in many domains, or they may be expert, or creative, in few domains or none at all, and one cannot simply transfer expertise, or creativity, from one domain to another, unrelated domain. The domain specificity of creativity matters crucially for creativity training, creativity assessment, creativity research, and creativity theory. The domain specificity of creativity also means that interdisciplinary thinking, interdisciplinary collaboration, and interdisciplinary creativity are even more important than one would assume if creativity were domain general.     

Concept learning by pigeons: Matching-to-sample with trial-unique video picture stimuli

Pigeons were trained to match-to-sample with several new methodologies: a large number of stimuli, computer-drawn color picture stimuli, responses monitored by a computer touch screen, stimuli presented horizontally from the floor, and grain reinforcement delivered onto the picture stimuli. Following acquisition, matching-to-sample concept learning was assessed by transfer to novel stimuli on the first exposure to pairs of novel stimuli. One group (trial-unique), trained with 152 different pictures presented once daily, showed excellent transfer (80% correct). Transfer and baseline performances were equivalent, indicating that the matching-to-sample concept had been learned. A second group (2-stimulus), trained with only two different pictures, showed no evidence of transfer. These results are discussed in terms of the effect of numbers of exemplars on previous failures to find concept learning in pigeons, and the implications of the positive finding from this experiment on abstract concept learning and evolutionary cognitive development.     

Layered Literacies: A Theoretical Frame for Technical Communication Pedagogy

This article proposes a theoretical frame for technical communication peda- gogy based on six layered literacies: basic, rhetorical, social, technological, ethical, and critical. The layered literacies frame advocates diverse instruction in technical communication programs, ranging from the ancient art of rhetoric to the most contemporary of technologies, from basic reading and writing skills to ethical and critical situational analyses. The article also suggests how the frame can be applied to a program of study or individual course in order to establish teaching objectives; develop course and lesson activities; and assess pedagogical materials, students, and programs.     

User library service expectations in health science vs. other settings: a LibQUAL+ Study

Objectives: To explore how the library service expectations and perceptions of users might differ across health‐related libraries as against major research libraries not operating in a medical context; to determine whether users of medical libraries demand better library service quality, because the inability of users to access needed literature promptly may lead to a patient who cannot be properly diagnosed, or a diagnosis that cannot be properly treated. Methodology: We compared LibQUAL+® total and subscale scores across three groups of US, Canadian and British libraries for this purpose. Results: Anticipated differences in expectations for health as other library settings did not emerge. Conclusions: The expectations and perceptions are similar across different types of health science library settings, hospital and academic, and across other general research libraries.     

The relative efficacy of vestibular-proprioceptive stimulation and the upright position in enhancing visual pursuit in neonates.

48 healthy neonates born to multiparae were randomly assigned to view a moving stimulus either in the horizontal or the upright position, with or without added vestibular stimulation and with or without pacifier sucking. The infant was shown a moving black line inside a strictly controlled visual environment provided by an apparatus which permitted horizontal and upright positioning and displacement of the infant. Visual tracking was recorded by a concealed TV camera positioned at a constant distance and angle from the infants' eyes in both positions. Quality of tracking during each of 4 trials was scored on a 7-point scale. Results indicate that vestibularproprioceptive stimulation provided to the infant either horizontally or semivertically significantly enhanced his visual tracking, whereas the upright position did not. Pacifier sucking also improved his performace.