In contemporary science education, the trend is to engage students in hands-on activities in which they must manipulate equipment and gather data in an effort to answer questions. Hands-on experiences may turn out to be meaningless unless the experiences are well designed, planned, and focused so that students are guided to construct accurate…

Presents a laboratory experiment that examines the aggressive behavior of male paradise fish. Students design the experiment, collect data, and analyze and interpret the results. This activity is appropriate for biology, ecology, and animal behavior classes and allows students to be involved in the entire scientific process. (Author/NB)

In earlier work we have shown that adults, infants, and cotton-top tamarin monkeys are capable of computing the probability with which syllables occur in particular orders in rapidly presented streams of human speech, and of using these probabilities to group adjacent syllables into word-like units. We have also investigated adults' learning of…

Mirror neurons, first described in the rostral part of monkey ventral premotor cortex (area F5), discharge both when the animal performs a goal-directed hand action and when it observes another individual performing the same or a similar action. More recently, in the same area mirror neurons responding to the observation of mouth actions have been…

The relation between the rate of a response ("B") and the rate of its reinforcement ("R") is well known to be approximately hyperbolic: B = kR/(R + R[subscript o]), where k represents the maximum response rate, and R[subscript o] indicates the rate of reinforcers that will engender a response rate equal to half its maximum value. A review of data…

Two experiments explored the behavior of 20 Asian elephants ("Elephas aximus") in simultaneous visual discrimination tasks. In Experiment 1, 7 Burmese logging elephants acquired a white+/black- discrimination, reaching criterion in a mean of 2.6 sessions and 117 discrete trials, whereas 4 elephants acquired a black+/white- discrimination in 5.3…

The behavioral economic concept of unit price predicts that consumption and response output (labor supply) are determined by the unit price at which a good is available regardless of the value of the cost and benefit components of the unit price ratio. Experiment 1 assessed 4 pigeons' consumption and response output at a range of unit prices. In…

Experiment 1 investigated the controlling properties of variability contingencies on choice between repeated and variable responding. Pigeons were exposed to concurrent-chains schedules with two alternatives. In the REPEAT alternative, reinforcers in the terminal link depended on a single sequence of four responses. In the VARY alternative, a…

These readings provide basic background information on urban integrated pest management and the development of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs for the control of rodents, cockroaches, and head lice. IPM is a decision-making process for deciding if pest supprssion treatments are needed, when they should be initiated, where they should be…

Integrated Pest Management (IPM), a decision-making approach to pest control, is designed to help individuals decide if pest suppression treatments are necessary, when they should be initiated, where they should be applied, and what strategy/mix of tatics to use. IPM combines a variety of approaches with which to manage pests, including human…

Designed for students in grades 4-6, the teaching unit presents illustrations and facts about snakes. Topics include common snakes found in the United States, how snakes eat, how snakes shed their skin, poisonous snakes, the Eastern Indigo snake, and the anatomy of a snake. A student page includes a crossword puzzle and surprising snake facts. A…

The experiments reported here investigated a developmental change in frequency generalization in the hatchling chicken. (Author)

Examines threatened extinction of birds and recommends agencies adopt policies which minimize the pace of extinctions through the setting aside of large preserves which protect natural vegetation formation and the animal life. (BR)

Classroom pets make science exciting and taking responsibility a part of school life. (Editor)

This article presented a few of the instances in which children have learned to cope with their emotions with a little help from little friends. (Author/RK)