Identifying alternative conceptions is a vital part of teaching and learning in science because it provides information about students' ideas to both themselves and their teachers. In this context, the purpose of the current study is twofold. The first aim is to examine high school students' alternative conceptions about general characteristics…

Kindergarten students have an amazing capacity for wonder and inquisitiveness--two important characteristics for future scientists. Much of what young students "know" about the natural world stems from their daily interactions with peers, adults, the outdoors, and the media. What can be especially challenging to uncover and redirect are…

The inclusion of animals in therapeutic activities, known as animal-assisted intervention (AAI), has been suggested as a treatment practice for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This paper presents a systematic review of the empirical research on AAI for ASD. Fourteen studies published in peer-reviewed journals qualified for inclusion. The…

The association of parental social status with multiple health and achievement indicators in adulthood has driven researchers to attempt to identify mechanisms by which social experience in childhood could shift developmental trajectories. Some accounts for observed linkages between parental social status in childhood and health have hypothesized…

Despite international attention and attempts to preserve the environmental diversity of the Amazon, it is an accepted fact that those who inhabit the forest must be the ones who preserve it. This article presents an analysis of how children in small rural riverine communities along the Amazon understand the importance of environmental preservation…

Despite the ubiquitous use of anthropomorphic language to describe biological change in both educational settings and popular science, little is known about how anthropomorphic language influences children's understanding of evolutionary concepts. In an experimental study, we assessed whether the language used to convey evolutionary concepts…

The goal of the present study was to explore domain differences in young children's expectations about the structure of animal and artifact categories. We examined 5-year-olds' and adults' use of category-referring generic noun phrases (e.g., "Birds fly") about novel animals and artifacts. The same stimuli served as both animals and artifacts;…

In rodents, the novel object recognition task (NOR) has become a benchmark task for assessing recognition memory. Yet, despite its widespread use, a consensus has not developed about which brain structures are important for task performance. We assessed both the anterograde and retrograde effects of hippocampal lesions on performance in the NOR…

By recognizing opportunities to engage in outdoor experiences, provide subsistence, and foster an environmental ethic, all in their own communities, students might become more inclined to advocate for environmentally sustainable activities in their own regions. This author believes that fishing can aid in fostering a certain ethical view of the…

Spatial pattern separation (SPS) and spatial pattern completion (SPC) have played an increasingly important role in computational and rodent literatures as processes underlying associative memory. SPS and SPC are complementary processes, allowing the formation of unique representations and the reconstruction of complete spatial environments based…

Rats administered the cannabinoid agonist WIN55,212-2 or the antagonist SR141716A exhibit marked deficits during acquisition of delay eyeblink conditioning, as noted by Steinmetz and Freeman in an earlier study. However, the effects of these drugs on retention and extinction of eyeblink conditioning have not been assessed. The present study…

Dissociating motoric and motivational effects of pharmacological manipulations on operant behavior is a substantial challenge. To address this problem, we applied a response-bout analysis to data from rats trained to lever press for sucrose on variable-interval (VI) schedules of reinforcement. Motoric, motivational, and schedule factors (effort…

Persistent, bidirectional changes in synaptic signaling (that is, potentiation and depression of the synapse) can be induced by the precise timing of individual pre- and postsynaptic action potentials. However, far less attention has been paid to the ability of paired trains of action potentials to elicit persistent potentiation or depression. We…

Structural synaptic changes occur in medial prefrontal cortex circuits during remote memory formation. Whether extinction reverts or further reshapes these circuits is, however, unknown. Here we show that the number and the size of spines were enhanced in anterior cingulate (aCC) and infralimbic (ILC) cortices 36 d following contextual fear…

We used giant African pouched rats ("Cricetomys gambianus") as land mine-detection animals in Mozambique because they have an excellent sense of smell, weigh too little to activate mines, and are native to sub-Saharan Africa, and therefore are resistant to local parasites and diseases. In 2009 the rats searched 93,400 m[superscript 2] of…