Modelling the realities of research experience: collaboration against common and merciless foes

This paper describes a fourth-year undergraduate thesis-research course, the form of which has been changed in recent years to maximise the simulation aspect of under- graduate learning. It is suggested that both the "grudging slave"and "unconstrained- scientific-genius" are ineffective models of genuine research activity, and that an "adversary" model is more appropriate. The adversary model system uses a journal- submission analogue in which external judgement (the first "foe") is provided by having the thesis marked not by the supervisor but by other faculty in a complex, not perfect, but apparently fair, grading system. The other "foe" of the student is the deadline for submission of the thesis, a deadline which is rigidly enforced by means of very severe grade penalties for lateness. Responsibility for the thesis is thereby shifted completely to the student who, while contending against these "foes", is also engaged in a number of academically significant collaborative relationships. These relationships include that with the supervisor, with fellow students (in research seminars), and with the thesis co-ordinator, who has negligible influence on the final grade assigned, and can therefore function as a non-authoritarian, disinterested critic. Experience with this adversary model system has shown that it is necessary to provide "symbols of significance" for each component (e.g., the research seminar) of the course, in the form of (small) grades. The function of these grades is to ensure that each component is perceived by students as academically significant. The system inevitably produces sources of tension between the student, supervisor, other students, and co-ordinator. However, it is suggested that this feature is potentially beneficial inasmuch as it produces better simulation of real-life research experience, as well as increasing the student's sense of intellectual responsibility for his own work. Finally, the general applicability of the Toronto experience is discussed. It appears that such factors as departmental size, or research eminence of the faculty, are not critical for successful implementation. What is necessary is a general agreement on what constitutes good and bad research, and a commitment to disinterested enquiry and academic values by a sizeable majority of the faculty of the department in question.La présente étude décrit un programme de quatrième année universitaire des méthodes de recherches en vue du mémoire. La structure de ce cours s'est modifiée au cours des dernières années, pour tirer le maximum de l'aspect de simulation de l'enseignement des premières années universitaires. En tant qu 'activité authentique de recherches, n 'est-il pas vrai que "l'esclave-travaillant-à-contre-coeur" et "le génie-scientifique-libre " s'avèrent tous deux des modèles inefficaces. Un modèle dit "d'adversaire", s'apparentant aux pratiques pour évaluer une soumission à une revue, convient davantage. Le système du modèle d'adversaire admet une évaluation venant de l'extérieur (le premier "adversaire"). Il s'agit de l'évaluation du mémoire effectuée, non pas par le patron de celui-ci, mais plutôt par d'autres membres de la faculté qui accordent à la soumission de l'étudiant un résultat en vertu d'une échelle de cotes complexes, imparfaites, mais apparemment justes. L'autre "adversaire " de l'étudiant est la date limite pour la soumission du mémoire, date rigidement appliquée au moyen des baisses importantes du résultat de ceux qui remettent leur travail après cette date. L'étudiant se trouve alors seul responsable de son mémoire. Tout en faisant face à ces adversaires, il s'engage aussi à plusieurs relations académique-ment significatives et qui visent la collaboration. Il s'agit des rapports avec le conseiller de ses études, avec les autres étudiants (dans les séances d'étude sur les recherches), ainsi qu 'avec le coordonnateur du mémoire qui a peu d'influence sur la note finale accordée à l'étudiant et qui peut donc agir en tant que critique désintéressé et infor-mel. La mise en pratique du système du modèle d'adversaire a révélé qu 'il faut accorder à chaque composant du cours (ex. les séances d'étude sur les recherches) "des symboles de signification" - ces derniers en forme de notes. Ces notes ont été conçues pour assurer que l'étudiant perçoive la signification académique de chaque composant. Inhérents au système sont les tensions qui se manifestent entre l'étudiant, le conseiller, les autres étudiants et le coordonnateur. N'est-il pas toutefois possible que cet élément s'avère utile dans la mesure où il aide pour la création d'une meilleure simulation de la vie réelle dans les recherches et qu 'il active chez l'étudiant le sens de responsabilité intellectuelle envers son propre travail. En dernier lieu, il est question d'une évaluation de l'applicabilité de l'expérience effectuée à Toronto. Il paraît que des facteurs tels que l'importance du département, la distinction des recherches effectuées par un corps enseignant, ne s'avèrent pas primordiaux pour exécuter le modèle avec succès. Ce qu 'il faut c'est que tout le monde s'entend sur la nature de bonnes et de mauvaises recherches, et qu 'une majorité confortable du corps enseig-nant du département concerné s'engage d'une façon désintéressée à poursuivre leurs recherches et à s'adhérer aux valeurs académiques

Pavlov’s Methodological Behaviorism as a Pre-Socratic Contribution of the Melding of the Differential and Experimental Psychology

La distinción diferencial/experimental que especificó Cronbach es importante porque una explicación adecuada del fenómeno psicológico requiere que reconozcamos la validez de los dos enfoques, a la par que una combinación de los mismos. Este trabajo trata de mostrar que la obra de Pavlov en psicología, basada en las primeras tradiciones investigadoras que se remontan hasta los presocráticos, proporciona una posible forma de conseguir esta combinación, aunque se deban añadir métodos de observación sistemática frente a la meramente anecdótica. Se contrasta el enfoque conductual metodológico de Pavlov con el conductismo metafísico, ejemplificado explícitamente en Watson y Skinner e implícitamente en las explicaciones del procesamiento de la información o de la metáfora computacional, empleadas por la psicología “cognitiva” actual. Una característica del enfoque metafísico es que variables diferenciales individuales como el sexo son básicamente ignoradas o relegadas a categorías ideológicas, como ocurre cuando se considera el sexo como mera “construcción social”. Se presentan ejemplos de investigaciones, antes y después de la “revolución cognitiva”, en los que los métodos experimental y diferencial se combinan, apareciendo las diferencias individuales como fenómenos dignos de investigación más que como factores molestos que meramente acrecientan el error experimental.The differential/experimental distinction that Cronbach specified is important because any adequate account of psychological phenomena requires the recognition of the validity of both approaches, and a meaningful melding of the two. This paper suggests that Pavlov’s work in psychology, based on earlier traditions of inquiry that can be traced back to the pre-Socratics, provides a potential way of achieving this melding, although such features as systematic rather than anecdotal methods of observation need to be added. Pavlov’s methodological behaviorist approach is contrasted with metaphysical behaviorism (as exemplified explicitly in Watson and Skinner, and implicitly in the computer-metaphorical, informationprocessing explanations employed by current “cognitive” psychology). A common feature of the metaphysical approach is that individual-differences variables like sex are essentially ignored, or relegated to ideological categories such as the treatment of sex as merely a “social construction.” Examples of research both before and after the “cognitive revolution” are presented where experimental and differential methods are melded, and individual differences are treated as phenomena worthy of investigation rather than as nuisance factors that merely add to experimental error

Urban sustainability in the third world : a review of the literature

iii, 45 p., digital fileIn the extensive and rapidly expanding literature addressing environment and sustainability, relatively little has been written about cities, and even less about cities in the Third World. The urban environment is an emerging field of inquiry and is being addressed by researchers from diverse disciplinary viewpoints. Yet most writers, both from developed and developing countries, who have dealt with issues of urban sustainability in the Third World, agree on a common theme: the main concern is "development," which, in the context of the Third World city, denotes the attainment of a decent standard of living for all residents; and, if such development is to be sustainable, it has to deal with poverty in a way that does not irreparably degrade the environment

Effectiveness of Hazardous Attitudes Mitigation in Pilot Training

One of the minimum levels of flight training required to fly within the US includes obtaining the necessary skills to acquire a Private Pilot Certificate. Further training requirements are needed depending on whether one desires to operate under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) or Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). It has been stated by the FAA that Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM) training for pilots has been effective in reducing in-flight errors by up to 50 percent. Hazardous attitudes and their associated antidotes are currently discussed as part of the FAA’s ADM training for pilots. The purpose of this study is to add to the understanding of decision making differences and the effectiveness of instructing students on mitigating hazardous attitudes throughout their pilot training programs, in both male and female students using the New Hazardous Attitudes Survey. Results of this study discovered that only two of the six hazardous attitudes, Resignation and Self Confidence, were significantly lower in students who had advanced levels of flight training, as compared to those with only basic levels. Another significant result demonstrated that female’s overall hazardous attitudes scores were higher in the more advanced levels of flight training while males scores were lower

Thoughts on Poverty from a South Asian Rubbish Dump:

Summaries The author reflects on the interlocking circuits of accumulation and consumption that characterise the management of household solid waste or garbage in two South Asian cities. She examines the multiple axes of inequality and interdependence that characterise the social relations of residential waste work. Interactions are explored among household members, and between them and paid waste workers such as domestic workers, sweepers and pickers. The article challenges gender stereotypes of women having a special affinity with the environment, at least in the context of the urban environment and solid waste management. It also rejects any essentialist linking of particular social groups to waste and dirty work, arguing that in the case of both gender and caste relations, association with waste is socially constructed. It is argued that women's responsibility for waste management in the household gender division of labour is mediated by both wealth and poverty. Equally, that particular groups of waste workers have occupational niches in different areas of waste work is mediated by gender and caste?like relations. A case is made for recognising the micro?politics of household and residential solid waste management in policy formulation and planning. The article proposes that this has implications both for effective waste management and for policies concerned to integrate anti?poverty strategies in efforts to improve the managment of urban services

Urban Poverty:

Summaries The article describes how and why the scale of urban poverty in much of Africa, Asia and Latin America seems to have been underestimated, its nature misunderstood (or for political reasons, misrepresented) and the best means for reducing it rarely acted upon. It suggests that the income level needed to avoid poverty in most urban areas has been underestimated, largely because too little consideration is given to the cost of essential non?food items. It also suggests that most low?income groups in urban areas face a health burden from their housing whose physical, social and economic costs have been underestimated. This is because the only housing they can afford is of poor quality, usually too small in relation to household size, lacking in basic services and often built on a dangerous site. The article also outlines different measures through which urban poverty can be reduced. These measures include not only increasing incomes and enhancing assets for low?income households, but also upholding their right to justice and legal protection and responding to their needs and priorities for adequate housing and basic services. The final section discusses the relative balance between action at national, city and community level, and the most appropriate form of intervention for any agency that seeks to support poverty reduction at a community level

Chicago: Birthplace of Modern Polygraphy

"The city of Chicago apparently got its name from the Miami-Illinois Indian word “shikaakwa,” meaning ‘smelly leek (garlic/onion)’. The leeks were prevalent along the river that flowed through the area (now the city of Chicago) and the Indian name for them also referred to the ‘striped skunk’, a smelly critter. Th at bit of history has no real relevance here other than to note that what happened in Chicago produced an exotic aroma that still today hangs in the air and continues to infl uence what is known about and what is done in the field of Polygraphy. Smelly? Well, maybe to critics. Not to those who know and understand Polygraphy."(...

A review of the polygraph: history, methodology and current status

The history of research into psychophysiological measurements as an aid to detecting lying, widely known as the ‘lie detector’ or polygraph is the focus of this review. The physiological measurements used are detailed and the debates that exist in regards to its role in the investigative process are introduced. Attention is given to the main polygraph testing methods, namely the Comparative Question Test and the Concealed Information Test. Discussion of these two central methods, their uses and problems forms the basis of the review. Recommendations for future research are made specifically in regards to improving current polygraph technology and exploring the role of the polygraph in combination with other deception detection techniques