title: Technological practice in early childhood as a dispositional milieu

authors: Carr, Margaret

subjects: early childhood education

abstract: This study investigated the learning of a group of four-year-olds as they worked in the construction area of a sessional early childhood setting. The researcher participated and observed as the children constructed with cardboard, rolled painted marbles around in a box to make Jackson Pollock style paintings, added collage and paint to pictures and constructions, and screen-printed cut-out figures and shapes of various kinds. These were described as technological practices, and five of them were compared as contexts for learning dispositions.
Although the literature had provided discussion and definition of dispositions in early childhood, the connection between the psychological notion of disposition and an historically or socioculturally framed dispositional milieu had not been researched. The study investigated empirical evidence for a transactional model of the interface between learning disposition and dispositional milieu, and learning dispositions were located in discourse, narrative and technological practice. The affordance of the technology and the tools played an important part in the transaction between individual and environment, in particular the technology's transparency, challenge, and accessibility. The five technological practices were analysed as complex sociocultural worlds in which multiple discourses jostled for privileged positions, children made decisions about whether discourse membership was for display or for exploration, they tackled difficulty with enthusiasm or avoided it in imaginative ways, and they engaged with others from a range of positions of power and responsibility. These sequences of events were described as learning narratives: historically and socioculturally co­constructed event structures about goals, challenge, and agency. A learning narrative was defined, identified, and investigated. 
Learning dispositions have been defined but not specified for early childhood. This study suggests that dispositions can be interpreted as parts of a learning narrative, and for this study key dispositional domains were identified as privileged discourses, preferred responses to difficulty, and favoured patterns of responsibility. Four learning dispositions emerged from these domains: courage, mindfulness, perseverance, and responsibility. These learning dispositions find a parallel in the strands of the early childhood curriculum document for Aotearoa New Zealand, Te Whāriki. The researcher followed up the observations by interviewing the children for their viewpoint on preferred responses to difficulty using an interview that reflected their experiences back to them as a picture book. 
Although much of the learning appeared to be attached to the context, and the privileged meaning and intent for that context was a key element, the transactional nature of the learning revealed individual learning dispositions and narratives that were developing in the early years and that may be robust and enduring.

text: Technological practice in early childhood as a dispositional milieu This study investigated the learning of a group of four-year-olds as they worked in the construction area of a sessional early childhood setting. The researcher participated and observed as the children constructed with cardboard, rolled painted marbles around in a box to make Jackson Pollock style paintings, added collage and paint to pictures and constructions, and screen-printed cut-out figures and shapes of various kinds. These were described as technological practices, and five of them were compared as contexts for learning dispositions.
Although the literature had provided discussion and definition of dispositions in early childhood, the connection between the psychological notion of disposition and an historically or socioculturally framed dispositional milieu had not been researched. The study investigated empirical evidence for a transactional model of the interface between learning disposition and dispositional milieu, and learning dispositions were located in discourse, narrative and technological practice. The affordance of the technology and the tools played an important part in the transaction between individual and environment, in particular the technology's transparency, challenge, and accessibility. The five technological practices were analysed as complex sociocultural worlds in which multiple discourses jostled for privileged positions, children made decisions about whether discourse membership was for display or for exploration, they tackled difficulty with enthusiasm or avoided it in imaginative ways, and they engaged with others from a range of positions of power and responsibility. These sequences of events were described as learning narratives: historically and socioculturally co­constructed event structures about goals, challenge, and agency. A learning narrative was defined, identified, and investigated. 
Learning dispositions have been defined but not specified for early childhood. This study suggests that dispositions can be interpreted as parts of a learning narrative, and for this study key dispositional domains were identified as privileged discourses, preferred responses to difficulty, and favoured patterns of responsibility. Four learning dispositions emerged from these domains: courage, mindfulness, perseverance, and responsibility. These learning dispositions find a parallel in the strands of the early childhood curriculum document for Aotearoa New Zealand, Te Whāriki. The researcher followed up the observations by interviewing the children for their viewpoint on preferred responses to difficulty using an interview that reflected their experiences back to them as a picture book. 
Although much of the learning appeared to be attached to the context, and the privileged meaning and intent for that context was a key element, the transactional nature of the learning revealed individual learning dispositions and narratives that were developing in the early years and that may be robust and enduring.

year: 1997

title: A contrast-sensitive, redundancy reduction mechanism acting on MT neurons can explain global motion direction biases without the need for Bayesian priors

authors: Perrone, John A.

subjects: Bayesian observer model

abstract: Introduction: The perceived global direction of moving objects can be influenced by the contrast of the object (Weiss, Simoncelli & Adelson, Nature Neuroscience, 2002). There is currently no detailed, neural-based explanation for how this could occur. Weiss et al., proposed an ideal Bayesian observer model that included a physiologically unspecified ‘low speed’ prior. We have recently developed a new velocity code for extracting image velocity from small groups of MT neurons (Perrone & Krauzlis, VSS 2011). The code includes a stage of local spatial inhibition between MT neurons designed to reduce the amount of redundant signals passed onto the global motion integration stage (MST). The inhibition is made dependent upon the contrast of the stimulus by exploiting the fact that some MT neurons change their speed tuning (V shifts to ∼ .5V) at low contrast (Krekelberg et al., J. Neurosci., 2006). An inhibitory signal based on the difference in output from two such MT units tuned to V and 2V will be high at high contrast, but will switch off at low contrast when the input speed is V.
Methods: We tested our velocity code using high- and low-contrast rhombus stimuli that have been shown to produce contrast dependent biases in global motion estimates (Weiss, et al., 2002).
Results: The model produced contrast dependent estimates of global motion direction that match the perceptual results. Low contrast rhomboids tended to produce estimates orthogonal to the major axis of the rhombus whereas high contrast rhomboids produced estimates closer to the veridical direction. Our simulations indicate that at low contrast the spatial inhibitory mechanisms between MT neurons may be switching off causing an increase in the density of responses signalling motion orthogonal to the edges.
Conclusion: Our model provides a biologically plausible mechanism by which the Weiss et al., Bayesian prior could be implemented.

text: A contrast-sensitive, redundancy reduction mechanism acting on MT neurons can explain global motion direction biases without the need for Bayesian priors Introduction: The perceived global direction of moving objects can be influenced by the contrast of the object (Weiss, Simoncelli & Adelson, Nature Neuroscience, 2002). There is currently no detailed, neural-based explanation for how this could occur. Weiss et al., proposed an ideal Bayesian observer model that included a physiologically unspecified ‘low speed’ prior. We have recently developed a new velocity code for extracting image velocity from small groups of MT neurons (Perrone & Krauzlis, VSS 2011). The code includes a stage of local spatial inhibition between MT neurons designed to reduce the amount of redundant signals passed onto the global motion integration stage (MST). The inhibition is made dependent upon the contrast of the stimulus by exploiting the fact that some MT neurons change their speed tuning (V shifts to ∼ .5V) at low contrast (Krekelberg et al., J. Neurosci., 2006). An inhibitory signal based on the difference in output from two such MT units tuned to V and 2V will be high at high contrast, but will switch off at low contrast when the input speed is V.
Methods: We tested our velocity code using high- and low-contrast rhombus stimuli that have been shown to produce contrast dependent biases in global motion estimates (Weiss, et al., 2002).
Results: The model produced contrast dependent estimates of global motion direction that match the perceptual results. Low contrast rhomboids tended to produce estimates orthogonal to the major axis of the rhombus whereas high contrast rhomboids produced estimates closer to the veridical direction. Our simulations indicate that at low contrast the spatial inhibitory mechanisms between MT neurons may be switching off causing an increase in the density of responses signalling motion orthogonal to the edges.
Conclusion: Our model provides a biologically plausible mechanism by which the Weiss et al., Bayesian prior could be implemented.

year: 2012

title: Is there evidence that traditional mōteatea (Māori laments) were composed from a common stock of oral formulae?

authors: Roa, Raukura

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: Oral formulaic composition, which involves the use of communally owned formulae of various kinds, is a common feature of verbal arts produced in many different languages. It is particularly associated with pre-literate cultures and tends to be gradually replaced by more individualistic verbal art forms when societies become literate. There are very few publications in which the analysis of mōteatea (Māori laments) is linked explicitly to oral formulaic theory. Nevertheless, there is sufficient evidence in published sources to indicate that traditional mōteatea (defined here as mōteatea that are not fundamentally influenced by European cultural beliefs and practices) exhibit evidence of regularly recurring, conventional themes (such as death, separation, loss and travel) and motifs (such as the setting sun, the presence of rain or mist and sleeplessness). The research reported here set out to test the hypothesis that traditional mōteatea were made up of verbal formulae, that is, of the same or very similar groups of words derived from a common store of poetic resources. Based on the analysis of the mōteatea included in Ngā mōteatea, a collection initially established by Sir Apirana Ngata, I conclude that this hypothesis must be rejected.

text: Is there evidence that traditional mōteatea (Māori laments) were composed from a common stock of oral formulae? Oral formulaic composition, which involves the use of communally owned formulae of various kinds, is a common feature of verbal arts produced in many different languages. It is particularly associated with pre-literate cultures and tends to be gradually replaced by more individualistic verbal art forms when societies become literate. There are very few publications in which the analysis of mōteatea (Māori laments) is linked explicitly to oral formulaic theory. Nevertheless, there is sufficient evidence in published sources to indicate that traditional mōteatea (defined here as mōteatea that are not fundamentally influenced by European cultural beliefs and practices) exhibit evidence of regularly recurring, conventional themes (such as death, separation, loss and travel) and motifs (such as the setting sun, the presence of rain or mist and sleeplessness). The research reported here set out to test the hypothesis that traditional mōteatea were made up of verbal formulae, that is, of the same or very similar groups of words derived from a common store of poetic resources. Based on the analysis of the mōteatea included in Ngā mōteatea, a collection initially established by Sir Apirana Ngata, I conclude that this hypothesis must be rejected.

year: 2007