Cues Associated with Alternative Reinforcement can Attenuate Resurgence of an Extinguished Instrumental Response

In resurgence, a target behavior (R1) is acquired in an initial phase and extinguished in a second phase while an alternative behavior (R2) is reinforced. When reinforcement for the second response is removed, however, R1 behavior returns or “resurges.” The resurgence paradigm may have implications for understanding relapse after behavioral interventions in humans such as contingency management, or CM, in which (for example) drug users can earn vouchers contingent upon drug abstinence. The present experiments examined the effectiveness of a putative retrieval cue for treatment in attenuating the resurgence effects and determined the likely mechanism by which this cue functions. Experiment 1 established that a 2-second cue associated with delivery of the alternative reinforcer in Phase 2 can attenuate R1 resurgence and promote R2 behavior during testing. Experiment 2 demonstrated that this effect occurs regardless of whether the cue is delivered contingently or noncontingently on responding during the resurgence test, and Experiment 3 demonstrated that for the cue to be effective in reducing resurgence, it must be paired with alternative reinforcement during Phase 2. This might mean that pairing the cue with reinforcement serves to maintain attention to the cue. Experiment 4 suggested that a cue paired with alternative reinforcement did not serve as a conditioned reinforcer in that making it contingent on a new behavior did not increase the likelihood of that behavior. Experiment 5 demonstrated that the cue must be experienced in sessions that also include the extinction of R1. Experiment 6 found that a cue produced by R1 during the second phase of a resurgence paradigm (analogous to a conditioned inhibitor) does not attenuate resurgence of an extinguished instrumental response. Together, the results suggest that a neutral cue can serve as an effective cue that attenuates resurgence if it is first paired with alternative reinforcement and presented in sessions in which R1 is extinguished. One way to view the results is that creating greater generalization between the extinction context and the testing context results in less resurgence

Preservice Teachers’ Creation Of And Beliefs About Culturally Responsive And Critical Mathematics Tasks, And Their Beliefs About The Students For Whom Their Tasks Were Intended

In this study, case study methodology was used to explore secondary mathematics preservice teachers (PSTs) attempts to construct tasks for lower income, predominantly African American students at a cultural immersion site who PSTs encountered frequently and interviewed. PST beliefs about their tasks and their students were also investigated. The first research aim of this study was to investigate PSTs’ attempts to create culturally responsive mathematics tasks for themselves and for the students. PSTs incorporated students’ personal and cultural details in tasks for the students. However, they had greater difficulty integrating cultural backdrops into the primary mathematics activities of tasks they created for their students than integrating cultural backdrops into tasks they created for themselves. Additionally, they distorted students’ cultural contexts by filtering student details through their own lenses. The second research aim was to investigate PSTs’ attempts to create critical mathematics tasks for the students, as well as PSTs’ beliefs about the tasks they created. Most PSTs identified a social justice issue in their tasks, but did not require students to question the fairness of the disparate treatment of the disenfranchised. Also, most tasks explicitly related to social class issues. Despite expressing critical consciousness and agency benefits, PSTs believed that their tasks were inappropriate for middle school-aged students because of the tasks’ “uncomfortable” or “controversial” nature. The study’s final aim was to investigate micro-transformations, or shifts, in PSTs’ beliefs about the students. All of the four PSTs chosen for this part of the examination experienced micro-transformations in their beliefs about the students. PSTs with past encounters with lower income or minority students experienced micro-transformations earlier than other PSTs. The study identified a need for professional development that allows PSTs to learn about cultural others and disenfranchised people from culturally different and disenfranchised students, critical educators, and critical friends, and a need for instrument development that assesses PST tasks and determines appropriate support for PSTs in the construction of tasks for culturally different and disenfranchised students

Gravity and Other Minor Obstructions

This thesis traces the beginnings and growth as a writer, of the author. The following is an excerpt from the thesis, which will serve as an abstract: Inspiration for a particular piece of work, whether it be short fiction, poetry, or something else entirely, usually comes to me in the form of a single or couple lines. Sometimes these lines will come from nowhere, sometimes they will come from conversation, but most often they will come from objects or things I see during the day. For instance, the third story in this collection, titled “Wearing Thin,” begins with the line “The red, cyclopean eye at the top of the radio tower winks at me as I pass, almost furtively.” This came from a night when, while driving home with a friend, I spotted a large wind turbine that was being used to power a factory complex beneath it. As I looked up at it, I noticed the red light blinking at the top, and the line was born. I took out my phone and jotted it into a note, and, once home, I began work on what would become the story, based purely around the light on the top of the turbine. This collection is really about trying to put those moments into words that can’t be. When I started, I didn’t think any of the stories would have a common theme at all, and I was fine with that. I figured that was all right, as long as it displayed my creative ability and all that jazz. But once each story was in varying levels of completion, I noticed that the pieces did, in fact, have a lot in common. Without providing any sort of plot summary or anything of that nature, they all seemed to become about loneliness. Sure, there’s a bit about depression thrown in, a bit about the madness that seems to dwell just beneath the surface of the mind, and other things, but I feel that the three pieces, as a whole, are about being lonely. I felt that this topic, this feeling, is something a lot of people my age contend with, especially in college. It’s a difficult time, figuring out what you’re doing with your life and who else is going to be around in it. I wanted to do my best to capture that in these stories

Toward Mutual Recognition: An Investigation of Oral Tradition Evidence in the United States and Canada

United States (“U.S.”) courts have long failed to recognize the value of oral traditional evidence (“OTE”) in the law. Yet, for Indigenous peoples, OTE forms the basis of many of their claims to place, property, and political power. In Canada, courts must examine Indigenous OTE on “equal footing” with other forms of admissible evidence. While legal scholars have suggested applying Canadian precedent to U.S. law regarding OTE, scholarship has generally failed to critically examine the underlying ethos of settler courts as a barrier to OTE admission and usefulness. This essay uses the work of political philosopher, James Tully, to examine OTE not just as evidence, but as an exercise of Indigenous self-determination. By recognizing the inherent political nature of OTE, U.S. courts may expand on Canadian law to build a “just relationship” with Indigenous peoples