Studies have shown that rats' rates of lever pressing for low-concentration liquid-sucrose reinforcers in the first half of an experimental session are higher if food-pellet, rather than the same sucrose, reinforcement will be delivered in the second half. Experiment 1 investigated whether this induction effect would be altered if subjects were…

Studies of category-based induction using different methods have found somewhat contradictory results for whether typical items are a stronger basis for induction. Typical category items are generally more similar to other category items than are atypical ones, and they are also more likely to be categorized into the category in question. We…

Previous studies have shown that, after being trained on A-B and A-C matching tasks, subjects match not only functionally-same B and C stimuli (stimulus equivalence), but also BC compounds with same-class elements and BC compounds with different-class elements (equivalence-equivalence). Similar performances are required in classical analogies (a :…

Situated within the framework of the systemic-functional linguistics (Halliday, 1994) and language-based theory of learning (Halliday, 1993), this article examines a shift toward a more objectified and "scientific" representation of reality in texts written by foreign language (FL) learners at various levels of acquisition. It argues that…

This empirical study examined changes in beginning teachers' pupil control ideologies (PCI). Quantitative analyses were conducted with regard to shifts in PCI that may be associated with internal beliefs about education and with external factors such as mentorship, induction programs, and school leadership style. Follow-up interviews facilitated a…

In the history of mankind three important philosophical and scientific revolutions have taken place. The first of these revolutions was the mathematical-axiomatic revolution in ancient Greece, when the philosophers from Thales of Miletus to Archimedes built up the abstract deductive method used in pure mathematics. The second took place in the…

Are new school administrators prepared for the surprises, obstacles, and opportunities they are likely to encounter during the first-year in their new role? Sadly enough, too many new leaders do not feel prepared to meet the challenges of their new role as an administrator. In 2006, the National Center for Education Statistics (2006) reported that…

Environmental interpretation is a key tool for integrated management of tourism, with potential for greater use in managing visitor numbers, behavior and impacts, and enhancing experience. Evaluation is necessary to determine whether interpretation is achieving its goals. It is vital for park managers to know if their management is effective in…

A relatively universal observation in aging studies is that cognitive functions inevitably decline across the adult life span. More specifically, executive functions decline substantially with age, as do the frontal and prefrontal brain regions that support them. Indeed, these regions are subject to important neurological modifications with…

Logical analyses of legislative texts show that the root cause for the huge controversy elicited by the issue of reasonable returns for China's privately run schools lies in the fact that legislators have confused public benefit versus non-public benefit and profit making versus non-profit making, concepts that pertain, respectively, to two…

The acquisition of lever pressing by rats and the occurrence of unreinforced presses at a location different from that of the reinforced response were studied using different delays of reinforcement. An experimental chamber containing seven identical adjoining levers was used. Only presses on the central (operative) lever produced food pellets.…

Since electrical field concepts are usually unfamiliar, abstract, and difficult to visualize, conceptual analogies from familiar gravitational phenomena are valuable for teaching. Such analogies emphasize the underlying continuity of field concepts in physics and support the spiral development of student understanding. We find the following four…

Inductive learning is impossible without overhypotheses, or constraints on the hypotheses considered by the learner. Some of these overhypotheses must be innate, but we suggest that hierarchical Bayesian models can help to explain how the rest are acquired. To illustrate this claim, we develop models that acquire two kinds of…

Interest in students who exhibit characteristics with difficulties in learning can be traced as far back as 1800. In order to better understand the complexities and causes of learning disabilities, many researchers (Bannatyne, 1968, 1974; Rugal, 1974) have investigated ways to better identify learners who struggle with academics. A strong argument…

This project was designed to test Mayer's multimedia theory in an elementary school to improve students' mathematics learning for low-income children. The study designed and developed two multimedia mathematics experiments in 3rd grade: 9's multiplication experiment and geometric solids experiment. The two experimental lessons were implemented in…