The associative nature of human associative learning

The extent to which human learning should be thought of in terms of elementary, automatic versus controlled, cognitive processes is unresolved after nearly a century of often fierce debate. Mitchell et al. provide a persuasive review of evidence against automatic, unconscious links. Indeed, unconscious processes seem to play a negligible role in any form of learning, not just in Pavlovian conditioning. But a modern connectionist framework, in which "cognitive" phenomena are emergent properties, is likely to offer a fuller account of human learning than the propositional framework Mitchell et al. propose

The construction of Scottishness in James Hogg's the Queen's wake : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University

James Hogg was a Scottish Romantic, born in 1770 at Ettrick Farm in the Scottish Lowlands. Hogg became known as "the Ettrick Shepherd" as he had worked on local farms from the age of six, having had only six months of formal education. He is probably best known for his novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, however, it is his most famous narrative poem, The Queen's Wake, that this thesis focuses on. This poem, published in 1813, is a successful continuation of the traditions of the eighteenth-century revival of Scottish poetry, following such notables as Ramsay, Fergusson and Burns. Near the beginning of The Queen's Wake, Hogg explains his desire to preserve traditional Scottish songs, through the persona of the Ettrick Shepherd: Alas! Those lays of fire once more Are wreck'd 'mid heaps of mouldering lore! And feeble he who dares presume That heavenly wake-light to relume. But grieved the legendary lay Should perish from this land for aye, While sings the lark above the wold, And all his flocks rest in the fold, Fondly he strikes, beside the pen, The harp of Yarrow's bracken glen. (347-56) The Queen's Wake is a nationalistic poem celebrating the return of Mary Stuart to Scotland from France in 1561. In the poem Hogg creates a narrative framework in which he sets twelve lays, each sung by a different bard, and hence representative of a different region. The poet contrasts these rugged, hardy Scots with an Italian competitor, Rizzio, "that gay and simpering man" (440). This thesis looks at the way in which Hogg uses images and motifs within his descriptions of these bards, and their regions, and within their lays themselves, to construct a national Scottish identity: Not only does Hogg provide appropriate materials for each of the minstrels depending on their regions and backgrounds, but he distinguishes among each singer in character and dress. Each becomes both a type and an individual. (Smith 93) Hogg's twelve minstrels present twelve different points-of-view on the Scottish condition, yet each part is related to the whole through careful repetitions, contrasts, and parallels. Hogg uses various themes such as patriotism, tradition, superstition, nature, fighting and humour throughout The Queen's Wake to indicate that the diverse parts presented by the bards contribute to a composite image of Scottishness

Methods and pitfalls in the study of uncoscious mental process

Many studies of unconscious processing involve comparing a performance measure (e.g., some assessment of perception, memory, etc.) with an awareness measure (such as a verbal report or a forced-choice response) taken either concurrently or separately. Unconscious processing is inferred when above-chance performance is combined with null awareness. Often, however, aggregate awareness is better than chance, and data analysis therefore employs a form of extreme group analysis focusing post hoc on participants, trials, or items where awareness is absent or at chance. The pitfalls of this analytic approach are described with particular reference to recent research on implicit learning and subliminal perception. Because of regression to the mean, the approach can mislead researchers into erroneous conclusions concerning unconscious influences on behaviour.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

A one line factoring algorithm

We describe a variant of Fermat’s factoring algorithm which is competitive with SQUFOF in practice but has heuristic run time complexity O(n1/3) as a general factoring algorithm. We also describe a sparse class of integers for which the algorithm is particularly effective. We provide speed comparisons between an optimised implementation of the algorithm described and the tuned assortment of factoring algorithms in the Pari/GP computer algebra package

Extreme multiplex spectroscopy at wide-field 4-m telescopes

We describe the design and science case for a spectrograph for the prime focus of classical 4-m wide-field telescopes that can deliver at least 4000 MOS slits over a 1 degree field. This extreme multiplex capability means that 25000 galaxy redshifts can be measured in a single night, opening up the possibilities for large galaxy redshift surveys out to z~0.7 and beyond for the purpose of measuring the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) scale and for many other science goals. The design features four cloned spectrographs and exploits the exclusive possibility of tiling the focal plane of wide-field 4-m telescopes with CCDs for multi-object spectroscopic purposes. In ~200 night projects, such spectrographs have the potential to make galaxy redshift surveys of ~6 million galaxies over a wide redshift range and thus may provide a low-cost alternative to other survey routes such as WFMOS and SKA. Two of these extreme multiplex spectrographs are currently being designed for the AAT (NG1dF) and Calar Alto (XMS) 4-m class telescopes. NG2dF, a larger version for the AAT 2 degree field, would have 12 clones and at least 12000 slits. The clones use a transparent design including a grism in which all optics are smaller than the clone square subfield so that the clones can be tightly packed with little gaps between the contiguous fields. Only low cost glasses are used; the variations in chromatic aberrations between bands are compensated by changing one or two of the lenses adjacent to the grism. The total weight and length is smaller with a few clones than a unique spectrograph which makes it feasible to place the spectrograph at the prime focus.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, to appear in proceedings of Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, SPIE conference, Marseille, 23-28 June, 200

Democracy in schools, Dewey and the referendum on Scottish independence

Peer reviewedPublisher PD