Grading the ‘cultural literacy’ project

The essay examines the argument advanced by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., for instituting ‘cultural literacy’ as a fundamental priority of schools. A number of confusions and equivocations in Hirsch's reasoning are identified, and the propensity of his project to indoctrinate is exposed. Among the features of Hirsch's argument shown to be troubling are his shifting construal of ‘language’, his inconsistency about the requirements of cultural literacy, and his uncritical relation to traditional images of the American past and present. The upshot is to raise the question why Hirsch's project has elicited wide support and praise.     

The predictive validity of teacher nominations: A five-year followup of at-risk youth

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive validity of a teacher nomination procedure for identifying at- risk children. Two hundred and twenty-five children were nominated by their teachers as well- adjusted (n= 75), socially withdrawn (n=76), or socially aggressive (n=74) during the fourth grade. Five years later, 198 of these children (88%) were located and their adjustment evaluated. Significant differences among the nominated children were found on a variety of measures, including academic grades, sociometric status, and social behavior. In addition, differences in school dropout and delinquent offenses were noted. Results are discussed in terms of the validity of teacher nomination procedures and their utility in identifying at- risk youth.     

Men as success objects and women as sex objects: A study of personal advertisements

A study was made of 328 personal advertisements sampled from a major daily Canadian newspaper. It was found that gender differences for desired companion attributes were consistent with traditional sex role stereotypes. Relative to the opposite sex, women emphasized employment, financial, and intellectual status, as well as commitment, while men emphasized physical characteristics. Physical characteristics were the most desired, regardless of sex. Secondary findings were that, for this sample, considerably more men than women placed ads, and that the mean age for both sexes was relatively high. The main findings were similar to those from earlier studies.The author was formerly a psychiatric social worker employed by the Greater Vancouver Mental Health Service in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He is presently a doctoral candidate at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. The author would like to thank Dr. Ted Palys for his comments.     

Directed forgetting in pigeons resulting from the reallocation of memory-maintaining processes on forget-cue trials

When procedural artifacts are controlled, it has been difficult to demonstrate directed forgetting in pigeons. However, previous research with pigeons has not allowed for the reallocation of working memory (from forget items to remember items) on forget-cued trials as is possible in human directed forgetting experiments. In the present experiment, directed forgetting was found while controlling for procedural artifacts and allowing the pigeons to reallocate memory resources on forget trials. The results indicate that under these conditions, pigeons have active control over memory processing.     

Whose Gene Is It? A Case Discussion About Familial Conflict over Genetic Testing for Breast Cancer

A multidisciplinary group of genetic and other professionals discuss a complex case of familial conflict over access to genetic information. One twin wishes to know the results of her deceased mother's tests for BRCA1 mutations; a second twin objects to researchers making this information available. As the case discussion unfolds, the apparent facts of this case are called into question and the lines of ethical certainty become less clear.     

Reversal of Relative Thresholds for Synaptic Facilitation and Increased Excitability Induced by Serotonin and Tail Nerve Stimulation inAplysiaSensory Neurons

Tail shock induces reflex sensitization inAplysiaand, in parallel, induces a number of modulatory effects in central neurons, such as increased excitability in tail sensory neurons (SNs) and facilitation of synaptic transmission from SNs to motor neurons. Both of these modulatory effects are mimicked by exogenous application of serotonin (5HT) or electrical stimulation of the tail nerve P9. In the present study we examined the activation thresholds for increased excitability and synaptic facilitation induced by either 5HT or P9 stimulation. We found that the concentration of 5HT sufficient to produce a significant increase in excitability produced no significant synaptic facilitation and, conversely, that the intensity of nerve stimulation sufficient to produce significant synaptic facilitation produced no excitability changes. This reversal of relative thresholds for these modulatory effects may reflect the differential access of exogenous 5HT and endogenous 5HT (released by tail nerve stimulation) to the SN cell body and synaptic terminals, respectively.