HOW ELEMENTARY STUDENTS REFERRED FOR COMPENSATORY READING INSTRUCTION PERFORM ON SCHOOL‐BASED MEASURES OF WORD RECOGNITION,FLUENCY, AND COMPREHENSION

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine how elementary students referred for compensatory remedial reading services performed on several key reading process variables: total word recognition errors while reading brief passages, significant or meaning‐changing errors, comprehension, and reading rate. In order to maximize ecological validity, the students were assessed by the school‐based reading specialist/teacher using assessment materials normally used in diagnostic evaluations of students referred for compensatory reading instruction. Although performance across all variables was below instructional levels for students’ assigned grades, both word recognition variables and comprehension approached instructional levels. Reading rate alone was consistently and significantly below several previously identified standards of performance. We feel that poor performance in rate may be an indicator of fluency problems (including automaticity in word recognition and text phrasing). Suggestions for instruction to overcome difficulties in fluency were presented.     

MNEMONIC TEXT‐PROCESSING STRATEGIES: A TEACHING SCIENCE FOR SCIENCE TEACHING

This article reports on the development and evaluation of a two‐component mnemonic strategy for teaching botany concepts. One component, a pictorial “mnemonomy”, was targeted at learning a hierarchically organized plant‐classification system; and the second component, based on the mnemonic “keyword” method, was targeted at learning the specific defining characteristics of the various plant groups. It was hypothesized that this dual mnemonic approach would be more useful than the usual figural‐taxonomy approach in allowing college students to acquire both higher‐order structural and lower‐order detail information‐‐the “forest” andthe “trees”, as it were. The research results strongly support the hypothesis. Especially important to this conclusion was the finding that relative to traditional instruction, mnemonic instruction facilitated: (1) the acquisition of both classification and characteristic information; and (2) inferential thinking on a transfer (problem‐solving) task that required novel manipulations of the learned concepts. Performance gains associated with the mnemonic condition were long‐term, still being manifested on delayed‐test measures. A number of theoretical and educational implications of the research are considered     

"Brain-Specific" Nutrients: A Memory Cure?

Contents:
Nootropics, the Aging Brain, and Neural Bases of Learning and Memory, p.13
Phosphatidylserine, p.16
Choline, p.23
Piracetam, p.24
Vinpocetine, p.26
Acetyl-L-Carnitine, p.28
Antioxidants, p.30
Future Work and More Fine-Grained Analyses of Memory, p.32
Summary and Concluding Remarks, p.34     

PREFERENCE FOR A STIMULUS THAT FOLLOWS A RELATIVELY AVERSIVE EVENT: CONTRAST OR DELAY REDUCTION?

Several types of contrast effects have been identified including incentive contrast, anticipatory contrast, and behavioral contrast. Clement, Feltus, Kaiser, and Zentall (2000) proposed a type of contrast that appears to be different from these others and called it within-trial contrast. In this form of contrast the relative value of a reinforcer depends on the events that occur immediately prior to the reinforcer. Reinforcers that follow relatively aversive events are preferred over those that follow less aversive events. In many cases the delay reduction hypothesis proposed by Fantino (1969) also can account for such effects. The current experiments provide a direct test of the delay reduction and contrast hypotheses by manipulating the schedule of reinforcement while holding trial duration constant. In Experiment 1, preference for fixed-interval (FI) versus differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior (DRO) schedules of reinforcement was assessed. Some pigeons preferred one schedule over the other while others demonstrated a position (side) preference. Thus, no systematic preference was found. In Experiment 2, a simultaneous color discrimination followed the FI or DRO schedule, and following training, preference was assessed by presenting the two positive stimuli simultaneously. Consistent with the contrast hypothesis, pigeons showed a significant preference for the positive stimulus that in training had followed their less preferred schedule.     

“DAMAGED HUMANITY”: THE CALL FOR A PATIENT-CENTERED MEDICAL ETHIC IN THE MANAGED CARE ERA

Edmund Pellegrino claims that medical ethics must be derived from a perception of the patient's “damaged humanity,” rather than from the self-imposed duties of professionals. This essay explores the meaning and examines the challenges to this patient-centered ethic. Social scientific and bioethical interpretations of medicine constitute one kind of challenge. A more pervasive challenge is the ascendancy of managed care, and especially investor-owned, for-profit managed care. A list of questions addressed to patients, physicians and organizations is offered as one means of assessing this threat and moving toward morally trustworthy relationships.     

SEARCHING FOR HOUSING AS A BATTERED WOMAN: DOES DISCRIMINATION AFFECT REPORTED AVAILABILITY OF A RENTAL UNIT?

Individual battered women have reported experiencing housing discrimination, but the extent of this problem has not been examined. This research used two experiments and a survey to determine if landlord discrimination could keep women from accessing rental units. In Study 1, a confederate asked 181 landlords about the availability of a rental unit in one of three living conditions (shelter, friends, no mention of current living conditions) and across two scenarios (does or does not have a child). Rental units were almost 10 times more likely to be available in the control condition compared to the shelter condition, χ²(1,  N  = 181) = 8.624,  p  = .003, and these results were not affected by whether or not the caller had a child, χ²(1,  N  = 181) = 0.214,  p  = .644. In Study 2, the confederate was employed and left a message on 92 landlords' answering machines in the same three living conditions. The hypothesized comparison between the shelter and the other two conditions combined was significant, χ²(1,  N  = 92) = 4.602,  p  = .032. Finally, in a telephone survey of 31 landlords, a substantial minority (23%) said they would not rent to a hypothetical battered woman. The results of our studies suggest that discrimination against battered women by landlords is a real problem that is likely contributing to the difficulties that women experience in finding safe and affordable long-term housing.     

A CULTURAL EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH TO MODERNITY: WHAT MIGHT IT MEAN FOR CHRISTIAN FAITH?

This essay introduces, for theological consideration, some recent work in the field of cultural evolutionary theory, specifically the kin-influence hypothesis. This theory holds that, following the beginnings of industrialization and economic growth, a nation's fertility rate commences a decline, which is further abetted by the consequent and increasing imbalance in the relative influence of kin versus nonkin influences on individuals in favor of the latter. It is further proposed that this process is itself a major independent factor in the emergence of many of the features of what is called modernity, among which is that of secularization. Extending further this work, I argue that, given the historic alignment of family and religious values in Christian nations, a loss of religious belief and practice is, at least in part, the spill over effect of the opposing influence of values emerging from ever more dominant nonfamily social interaction. I conclude with some reflections on possible theological implications.     

NON‐RELATIVE REASONS AND HUMEAN THOUGHT: IF WHAT IS A REASON FOR YOU IS A REASON FOR ME,WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE THE HUMEAN?

Abstract: A variety of strategies have been used to oppose the influential Humean thesis that all of an agent's reasons for action are provided by the agent's current wants. Among these strategies is the attempt to show that it is a conceptual truth that reasons for action are non‐relative. I introduce the notion of a basic reason‐giving consideration and show that the non‐relativity thesis can be understood as a corollary of the more fundamental thesis that basic reason‐giving considerations are generalizable. I then consider the relationship between the generalizability thesis and the Humean thesis that all of an agent's reasons for action are provided by the agent's current wants. I argue that, contrary to a common assumption, there is a subtle and clearly motivated version of the Humean thesis that does not deny, and so is not threatened by, the generalizability thesis.     

PROBLEM‐SOLVING SCHEMATA FOR TEXT TYPES: A COMPARISON OF NARRATIVE AND EXPOSITORY TEXT STRUCTURES

In this paper we argue that comprehension is a problem solving activity and that different problem solving schemata exist for different types of texts, both narrative and expository. When processing the text, the reader uses these problem solving schemata to construct meaning of the context and to satisfy personal reading goals. For instance, comprehension of a text, such as a short story, a folk tale, or even a passage from a science book, can be viewed as a problem solving activity. Bransford and Stein's (1984) IDEAL model identifies the problem solver as one who (I) identifies problems, (D) defines and represents problems, (E) explores possible strategies for solving the problem, (A) acts on those strategies, and (L) looks back and evaluates the effects of those strategies. This problem solving model aptly describes what readers as problem solvers do when comprehending a text. The reader as a problem solver identifies and defines specific reading goals. To understand the content of the passage, the reader as a problem solver uses domain‐specific knowledge about the topic, prior experience in reading that type of text to explore a multitude of strategies. While reading the text, the reader uses those strategies to construct meaning about the text. After reading a passage, the proficient reader as a problem solver evaluates what has been read and checks to see if one's reading goals have been met.     

A Review of: “A Limbo of Shards”

The following interview began as a family conversation over the Christmas holidays in 1987 at the home of Jane and Joseph (Jo) Wheelwright on the Hollister Ranch in Santa Barbara County, California. Betty, the Wheelwrights' daughter-in-law and a writer and teacher, was curious about their thoughts on gender differences. With the tape recorder running, they agreed to answer some questions.

The Wheelwrights both worked personally with C. G. Jung and have been Jungian analysts for 50 years. They, with others, founded the C. G. Jung Institute of San Fmncisco in 1943. Dr. Joseph Wheelwright is Emeritus Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco and a former faculty member of the University of California in Berkeley. He has published about 50 articles in various psychological journals in the US. and abroad. Jane Hollister Wheelwright has written about gender issues in Women and Men (San Francisco Jung Institute, 1978) and in For Women Growing Older: The Animus (C. G. Jung Educational Center of Houston, Texas, 1984). She grew up in the wilderness, an experience that has influenced many of her preceptions.     

A Review of: “Treating Chronic Illness: A Biosocial Therapy Approach”

Abstract

This article suggests that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is frequently misdiagnosed, even overdiagnosed, and provides an alternative way of viewing such problem behaviors in children. It presents a framework, based on systems and attachment theory, that views children's behaviors within the context of the parent-child attachment patterns, and it suggests interventions that shift the focus from the child to the parent-child interaction.