Successive acquisition and extinction in a runway with the domestic Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata)

Twenty domestic Muscovy ducks were trained to traverse a runway for food reward. Subjects were then randomly assigned to treatments. In one treatment, subjects received six nonrewarded trials followed by six rewarded trials every day for 12 days; and, in the other treatment, subjects received six rewarded trials followed by six nonrewarded trials every day for 12 days. These successive acquisition and extinction (SAE) treatments were selected because different extinction rates on the nonrewarded trials are expected on the bases of previous research performed with rats. Analyses of variance revealed the former treatment yielded significantly greater resistance to extinction than did the latter treatment. It was concluded that ducklings performed similarly to rats in the above SAE situation.     

Self-punitive responding in rats with goal shock and color change

After acquisition avoidance training, rats were assigned on the basis of matched run speed to the following groups: (1) maintenance of avoidance training, (2) extinction procedures with the addition of a brief shock in the goalbox, and (3) regular extinction procedures. Each group was further divided into two minor groups which experienced either change or no change in goalbox color. The results indicated : (1) that self-punitive responding was increased by goal shock, (2) that self-punitive responding was reduced by goalbox color change, and (3) that generalization of goal shock to the startbox and runway areas is a factor in self-punitive responding.     

A developmental analysis of the relationship between response strength and punishment

Two levels of training (100 vs. 500 trials) and two ages of rats (young and adult) were used in a developmental analysis of the relationship between response strength and the effects of punishment. The apparatus was a Y maze with three discriminably different arms. After 100 or 500 reinforced trials, subjects were shocked each time they responded in one arm. The recovery sessions followed the punishment session. Results from the punishment day indicated that: (a) young rats received a greater amount of shock, and (b) additional training increased the amount of shock received by the young but decreased it in the adults. The recovery data showed that: (a) the suppressive effects of punishment were greater for the adults than for the young, and (b) the recovery scores were not influenced by degree of overtraining. The Age by Overtraining interaction suggested that the relationship between response strength and punishment is age dependent. The age differences found with the amount-of-shock and recovery measures provided additional support for the position that younger rats are less competent than adult rats in inhibiting responses.

     

Maximizing responses to a nationwide faculty survey

Using on-campus facilitators to distribute and retrieve an 11-page questionnaire administered to a nationwide sample of humanities faculty and nonhumanities department chairmen in two-year colleges resulted in an 84% return rate. The 2,000 subjects were drawn from 156 junior/community colleges selected on the basis of geographic locale and type of control. Secondary stratification variables included college size, organization, and curriculum emphasis. Accurate rosters of full-time and part-time faculty were generated from class schedules. Pilot procedures, selection of the college and faculty samples, and the use of facilitators are described.     

Academic attachment: Predicting students' affective reactions to the university

In attempting to develop a predictive model of student attachment to the university, this research concentrates on four variable sets: perceptions of university goals, perceptions of university academic climate, perceptions of university academic environment, and feelings of academic alienation. Using a sample of 460 university students, multiple discriminant analytic results indicate that of these four variable sets, perceptions of the academic climate and feelings of academic alienation exert more influence on students' attachment to the university than do perceptions of university goals and perceptions of the academic environment. These findings are discussed within the context of a model of the university student operating very much as a democratic citizen in the university political system.     

A distributed system of educational administration: An international viewpoint

Any educational service is provided through a large number of separated institutions and many decisions are necessarily taken by individual schools, and, indeed, by individual teachers. However, these day-to-day decisions are taken within a framework laid down elsewhere. Power and responsibility in an educational system relate chiefly to the extent and nature of the resources provided, the curriculum and teaching methods, the character and purpose of individual institutions and the internal organization of those institutions. Significant decisions may be taken at national, state, local authority and individual school levels. Cutting across such patterns are employer-employee relationships and agreements negotiated with trade unions. The system of governance and administration of schools in England is seen as a triangle of tension, the three points being central government, local government and individual schools. Reference is made to patterns of curriculum, examinations, supervision and finance, the English approach being compared with practices elsewhere. It is argued that within the constraints imposed by the controlling authority individual schools shouls possess a great deal of flexibility in making their own decisions, including questions of student-staff ratios, allocation of teachers and expenditure of finance. Power and responsibility should not be divorced, but related; this is the logical development of a system of distributed administration.

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Zusammenfassung Jedes Bildungssystem besteht aus einer grossen Zahl separater Institutionen, und viele Entscheidungen müssen von den einzelnen Schulen und sogar den einzelnen Lehrern selbst getroffen werden. Der Rahmen für diese täglich notwendigen Entscheidungen wird jedoch an anderer Stelle festgelegt. Entscheidungsbefugnis und Verantwortung in einem Bildungssystem beziehen sich in der Hauptsache auf den Umfang und die Art der verfügbaren Mittel, auf Curricula und Lehrmethoden, den Charakter und Zweck der einzelnen Institutionen und ihre interne Organisation. Wichtige Entscheidungen können auf Staats-, Landes-, Bezirks- und Einzelschul-Ebene gefällt werden. Über diesen gazen Aufbau hinweg gehen Arbeitgeber-Arbeitnehmer-Beziehungen und Vereinbarungen mit Gewerkschaften. Das Leitungsund Verwaltungssystem für Schulen in England wird als ein Spannungsdreieck dargestellt, dessen drei Ecken die Zentralregierung, die örtlichen Behörden und die Schulen selbst bilden. Verschiedene englische Muster von Lehrplänen, Examen, Aufsich und Finanzen werden aufgezeigt und mit denen anderer Länder verglichen. Dabei wird betont, dass die einzelnen Schulen innerhalb der von der zuständigen Behörde gesetzten Grenzen ein grosses Mass von Entscheidungsfreiheit besitzen sollten, auch in Fragen wie Klassenstärke, Einsatz von Lehrern und Verwendung der Finanzmittel. Machtbefugnis und Verantwortung sollten nicht getrennt, sondern miteinander verbunden sein. Das ist die logische Entwicklung eines Systems aufgeteilter Verwaltung.

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Résumé Tout service d'éducation est doté d'un grand nombre d'institutions distinctes, et, de ce fait, de nombreuses décisions sont prises individuellement par chacune des écoles, aussi bien que par chacun des enseignants. Quoiqu'il en soit, ces décisions prises au jour le jour, le sont dans les limites d'un cadre venant d'ailleurs. Dans un système d'éducation, pouvoir et responsabilité sont surtout liés à l'étendue et à la nature des ressources disponibles, du programme et des méthodes d'enseignement, du caractère et des objectifs de chaque institution, ainsi que de l'organisation interne de ces institutions. Les décisions importantes puevent être prises au niveau des autorités nationales, régionales ou locales, aussi bien qu'à celui de chacun des établissements scolaires. Les relations employeurs-employés, de même que les accords négociés avec les syndicats sont taillés sur le même modèle. En Angleterre, le système de gestion et d'administration des écoles apparait comme un triangle de tension dont les trois sommets sont constitués par le gouvernement central, le gouvernement local et les établissements scolaires eux-mêmes. Il est fait référence à d'autres modèles de programmes, d'examens, de contrôle et de finances, le système anglais étant comparé à ce qui ce fait ailleurs. Il est exposé que dans le cadre des contraintes imposées par l'autorité de contrôle, chaque école devrait posséder une grande marge de flexibilité pour prendre ses propres décisions, comprenant les questions des rapports d'associations d'élèves, les affectations des enseignants et les dépenses financières. Pouvoir et responsabilité ne devraient pas être séparés mais associés, tel est l'évolution logique d'une administration scolaire fonctionnant suivant un système de répartition.

     

A DEFENSE OF "RATIONAL" PERSONNEL SELECTION, AND TWO NEW METHODS

This paper presents two new techniques for use in personnel selection. One is a simple graphical technique which non-technical personnel can use to help in deciding how many minority applicants to admit to an institution. The other is a large-scale computer technique which an institution can use to increase personnel diversity on many variables (including culture) simultaneously. Both techniques appear to have major advantages over the particular technique this author advocated previously (1971). However, the new techniques are based on the same general view the author has expressed earlier (1971, 1973): that personnel selection questions concerning culture must be handled rationally—that is, by human judgment—rather than by mechanical formulas. Early sections of the paper summarize and defend that view.     

Differential development of 24-h retention capacities for two components of T-maze escape learning by infant mice

At 9 or 11 days of age, separate groups of Swiss-Webster mice received 12, 24, or 40 training trials to the goal opposite their first-trial choice in a shock-escape T-maze task. All groups were retested to the same goal for 25 trials 24 h following training, while maturation controls without prior exposure were trained to the goal opposite their first choice. All groups demonstrated increased escape proficiency during original training on two separate escape components: reaching the choice point and making the correct turn at the choice point. During retention testing, all groups at both ages exhibited better escape performance in terms of reaching the choice point than their maturation controls. However, when escape was measured in terms of choice, none of the groups trained at 9 days of age differed significantly from maturation controls when retested at 10 days of age. In contrast, retention of correct choice point turn varied directly with number of original training trials for mice trained at 11 days of age.