title: An Investigation of Suboptimal Choice by Possums

authors: Hill, Stephanie Anne

subjects: Suboptimal choice

abstract: This study addressed the question of whether an overall preference for a suboptimal choice, previously found in pigeons (Stagner and Zentall, 2010), would be replicated with five brushtail possums. In Part One of this experiment possums responded on a concurrent-chain procedure where both alternatives had fixed-ratio 1 schedules in the initial link and a fixed-interval 10s in the terminal link. Two stimuli outcomes (four line orientations) are presented on the alternatives based on a probability of 0.20 or 0. 80. The left produced a discriminative stimulus with the right reinforcing on half of trials (20:50). Three of the five possums showed a consistent preference for the optimal alternative (50%), while the others showed a preference for the suboptimal (20%). When data was averaged possums showed a preference for the optimal alternative, which was not consistent with Stagner and Zentall’s (2010) earlier findings. Part Two of this investigation replicated Gipson, Alessandri, Miller and Zentall (2009), probabilities of stimuli appearing were changed to 50/50, with a discriminative stimulus on the left alternative and the probability of reinforcement on the optimal alternative increased to 75% (50:75). The discriminative stimuli were now more predictable than previously, when this was not present all possums showed a preference for the suboptimal alternative. When discriminative stimuli were associated with both alternatives (20:50), replicating Stagner, Laude and Zentall (2012), all possums showed all possums optimal preferences. An overall preference for the optimal alternative, seen during this study, is consistent with the findings reported in a more recent study by Trujano and Orduña’s (2015) with rats. This overall optimal preference is somewhat consistent with optimal foraging theory, however, this does not account for the suboptimal choices made by some possums. The suboptimal preferences seen by two possums in Part One and all in Part Two also loosely support previous findings that pigeons are under the control of discriminative stimuli.

text: An Investigation of Suboptimal Choice by Possums This study addressed the question of whether an overall preference for a suboptimal choice, previously found in pigeons (Stagner and Zentall, 2010), would be replicated with five brushtail possums. In Part One of this experiment possums responded on a concurrent-chain procedure where both alternatives had fixed-ratio 1 schedules in the initial link and a fixed-interval 10s in the terminal link. Two stimuli outcomes (four line orientations) are presented on the alternatives based on a probability of 0.20 or 0. 80. The left produced a discriminative stimulus with the right reinforcing on half of trials (20:50). Three of the five possums showed a consistent preference for the optimal alternative (50%), while the others showed a preference for the suboptimal (20%). When data was averaged possums showed a preference for the optimal alternative, which was not consistent with Stagner and Zentall’s (2010) earlier findings. Part Two of this investigation replicated Gipson, Alessandri, Miller and Zentall (2009), probabilities of stimuli appearing were changed to 50/50, with a discriminative stimulus on the left alternative and the probability of reinforcement on the optimal alternative increased to 75% (50:75). The discriminative stimuli were now more predictable than previously, when this was not present all possums showed a preference for the suboptimal alternative. When discriminative stimuli were associated with both alternatives (20:50), replicating Stagner, Laude and Zentall (2012), all possums showed all possums optimal preferences. An overall preference for the optimal alternative, seen during this study, is consistent with the findings reported in a more recent study by Trujano and Orduña’s (2015) with rats. This overall optimal preference is somewhat consistent with optimal foraging theory, however, this does not account for the suboptimal choices made by some possums. The suboptimal preferences seen by two possums in Part One and all in Part Two also loosely support previous findings that pigeons are under the control of discriminative stimuli.

year: 2016

title: Audiovisual installation as ecological performativity: A creative research practice.

authors: Connors, Teresa Marie

subjects: Audiovisual installation as ecological performativity

abstract: Audiovisual Installation as Ecological Performativity lies in the fields of sonic arts and audiovisual practice, which experiment with developing non-linear installations from a temporally dynamic aesthetic. The project was initiated by my recent shift in artistic practice away from fixed-media audiovisual formats to non-linear procedures and by recent ecological discourses of human and nonhuman agency. The research aims to locate an ecology of practice that, rather than being autonomous and reductive, is directly affected by the specificity and proximity of connections made in practice and process on a relational level.
The submitted non-linear installations resulted from three field recording projects carried out between June 2014 and December 2015, spanning the west coast of North America from the Salton Sea in Southern California, to the northern regions of western Canada. From initial processes with practitioners from the fields of moving image, my iterative creative practice developed and applied computational methods to tease out co-creative apparatuses from the audiovisual material gathered. These techniques came to include convolution, data sonification, computer vision and improvisation as a means to explore nonlinear processes. Barry Truax, Damian Keller, R. Luke Dubois, Andrea Polli and Jean-Marc Pelletier provided useful insights to contemplate these computational processes as co-creative devices.
The work Undercurrent incorporates material gathered from the Y alakom River in British Columbia, Canada, using visual material by media artist Shannon Harris. The remaining works-Flight Variant, Cathedral and Piano at the End of a Poisoned Stream-emerged from two audiovisual collection journeys through the south-western regions of the United States with filmmaker Andrew Denton.
My research was guided by the belief that non-linear creative processes exploring co-creative devices from the agency of material can elicit different sensibilities and lines of communication, providing an alternative way in which to be in creative practice and experience the world-one that is emergent, contingent and performative. Thus my project was drawn to concepts of material agency and performativity in the writings of Karen Barad, Jane Bennett, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, Andrew Pickering, and Timothy Morton. In addition, the philosophical provocations of Timothy Ingold, Erin Manning, Brian Massumi, Isabelle Stengers, and Thon Van Dooren were enlisted to locate my ecology of practice in a relational mode of experience that emphasized an ecological awareness.
From the position of creative research, attention to these theoretical discourses provided an opportunity to reconceptualise and ask new questions from the core of artistic practice. The result evolved into what I have come to call Ecological Performativity. This is a mode of practice that considers-in act and thought-the context and formative creative process, and the resulting artefacts, as a responsive embodiment of larger structures of phenomena. The outcome is a reorientation of my creative thinking-making procedures. The notion of creativity shifts from an anthropocentric understanding to a relational and performative ontology where the interactions between people, places and things constitute a dynamic mode of artistic practice.
Ultimately, my practice-based research is a multimodal endeavour deeply entangled in the mesh of the world: matter, materials, and modes of thinking. In line with the discussions on agency and performativity, this research considers the complex, emergent and dynamic encounters available through situated experience and experimentation. By considering the world as a network of phenomena that are fundamentally interconnected and interdependent, the result is a performative engagement and attunement with the world that functions as an aid to the imagination. Human activity is placed into a larger environmental context as it intersects with forces greater than those of human design, providing a multilayered point of creative enquiry. This, I believe, works towards an artistic philosophy that purposes the way we imagine the world and how we act in it reciprocally inform one another. As such, the concept of Ecological Performativity developed alongside the iterative creative practice.
The creative and written components of this dissertation are two expressions of the practice, process and outcome and should be considered holistically. Documentation films and the creative code accompany all resulting artefacts, and are located on the external flash drive as indicated in the Appendix.
Aspects of my research have been published internationally during the course of my research.

text: Audiovisual installation as ecological performativity: A creative research practice. Audiovisual Installation as Ecological Performativity lies in the fields of sonic arts and audiovisual practice, which experiment with developing non-linear installations from a temporally dynamic aesthetic. The project was initiated by my recent shift in artistic practice away from fixed-media audiovisual formats to non-linear procedures and by recent ecological discourses of human and nonhuman agency. The research aims to locate an ecology of practice that, rather than being autonomous and reductive, is directly affected by the specificity and proximity of connections made in practice and process on a relational level.
The submitted non-linear installations resulted from three field recording projects carried out between June 2014 and December 2015, spanning the west coast of North America from the Salton Sea in Southern California, to the northern regions of western Canada. From initial processes with practitioners from the fields of moving image, my iterative creative practice developed and applied computational methods to tease out co-creative apparatuses from the audiovisual material gathered. These techniques came to include convolution, data sonification, computer vision and improvisation as a means to explore nonlinear processes. Barry Truax, Damian Keller, R. Luke Dubois, Andrea Polli and Jean-Marc Pelletier provided useful insights to contemplate these computational processes as co-creative devices.
The work Undercurrent incorporates material gathered from the Y alakom River in British Columbia, Canada, using visual material by media artist Shannon Harris. The remaining works-Flight Variant, Cathedral and Piano at the End of a Poisoned Stream-emerged from two audiovisual collection journeys through the south-western regions of the United States with filmmaker Andrew Denton.
My research was guided by the belief that non-linear creative processes exploring co-creative devices from the agency of material can elicit different sensibilities and lines of communication, providing an alternative way in which to be in creative practice and experience the world-one that is emergent, contingent and performative. Thus my project was drawn to concepts of material agency and performativity in the writings of Karen Barad, Jane Bennett, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, Andrew Pickering, and Timothy Morton. In addition, the philosophical provocations of Timothy Ingold, Erin Manning, Brian Massumi, Isabelle Stengers, and Thon Van Dooren were enlisted to locate my ecology of practice in a relational mode of experience that emphasized an ecological awareness.
From the position of creative research, attention to these theoretical discourses provided an opportunity to reconceptualise and ask new questions from the core of artistic practice. The result evolved into what I have come to call Ecological Performativity. This is a mode of practice that considers-in act and thought-the context and formative creative process, and the resulting artefacts, as a responsive embodiment of larger structures of phenomena. The outcome is a reorientation of my creative thinking-making procedures. The notion of creativity shifts from an anthropocentric understanding to a relational and performative ontology where the interactions between people, places and things constitute a dynamic mode of artistic practice.
Ultimately, my practice-based research is a multimodal endeavour deeply entangled in the mesh of the world: matter, materials, and modes of thinking. In line with the discussions on agency and performativity, this research considers the complex, emergent and dynamic encounters available through situated experience and experimentation. By considering the world as a network of phenomena that are fundamentally interconnected and interdependent, the result is a performative engagement and attunement with the world that functions as an aid to the imagination. Human activity is placed into a larger environmental context as it intersects with forces greater than those of human design, providing a multilayered point of creative enquiry. This, I believe, works towards an artistic philosophy that purposes the way we imagine the world and how we act in it reciprocally inform one another. As such, the concept of Ecological Performativity developed alongside the iterative creative practice.
The creative and written components of this dissertation are two expressions of the practice, process and outcome and should be considered holistically. Documentation films and the creative code accompany all resulting artefacts, and are located on the external flash drive as indicated in the Appendix.
Aspects of my research have been published internationally during the course of my research.

year: 2017

title: A reflective account of successful leadership: Māori special character secondary boarding schools.

authors: McAllister, Theresa

abstract: This thesis explores the leadership and Māori student achievement in Māori boarding schools taking into account cultural contexts, environments and the leadership ideologies around educational leadership. What are the leadership practices in Māori boarding schools that have made a difference for Māori student achievement? I argue that, Māori secondary boarding schools continue to offer an educational framework whereby Māori students achieve as Maori.
In order to better understand the philosophies and goals of those early Māori boarding school leaders through to the present time I have researched a sample of current leaders within those boarding schools. This research interest arose many years ago when I first realised that there was a significant gap in Māori student educational achievement compared to non-Māori. What was also realised was that few people understood the contribution that Māori boarding schools have played in Māori student achievement and success over many decades. While some people had heard of Māori boarding schools, not a great deal was really known about what Māori boarding schools delivered in terms of education for Māori and Māori culture. What is apparent from an historical perspective is that Māori boarding schools have contributed to the retention of Māori culture, language and identity resulting in student achievement. This is a result of what successful leadership has provided for Māori students to achieve.
Student achievement is a direct result of leadership. In a Māori boarding school setting, achievement is multifaceted. For Māori secondary boarding schools, achievement is taken from three perspectives: Christian, Māori and Academic. Flowing down from those three perspectives is the holistic wellbeing of students’, mind, body and soul, while recognizing and including whānau, hapū and iwi. Therefore, this research investigates the leadership practices in Māori boarding schools that have made a difference for Māori student achievement.

text: A reflective account of successful leadership: Māori special character secondary boarding schools. This thesis explores the leadership and Māori student achievement in Māori boarding schools taking into account cultural contexts, environments and the leadership ideologies around educational leadership. What are the leadership practices in Māori boarding schools that have made a difference for Māori student achievement? I argue that, Māori secondary boarding schools continue to offer an educational framework whereby Māori students achieve as Maori.
In order to better understand the philosophies and goals of those early Māori boarding school leaders through to the present time I have researched a sample of current leaders within those boarding schools. This research interest arose many years ago when I first realised that there was a significant gap in Māori student educational achievement compared to non-Māori. What was also realised was that few people understood the contribution that Māori boarding schools have played in Māori student achievement and success over many decades. While some people had heard of Māori boarding schools, not a great deal was really known about what Māori boarding schools delivered in terms of education for Māori and Māori culture. What is apparent from an historical perspective is that Māori boarding schools have contributed to the retention of Māori culture, language and identity resulting in student achievement. This is a result of what successful leadership has provided for Māori students to achieve.
Student achievement is a direct result of leadership. In a Māori boarding school setting, achievement is multifaceted. For Māori secondary boarding schools, achievement is taken from three perspectives: Christian, Māori and Academic. Flowing down from those three perspectives is the holistic wellbeing of students’, mind, body and soul, while recognizing and including whānau, hapū and iwi. Therefore, this research investigates the leadership practices in Māori boarding schools that have made a difference for Māori student achievement.

year: 2016