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Synesthesia literally means a “union of the senses” whereby two or more of the five senses that are normally experienced separately are involuntarily and automatically joined together in experience (1, 2, 3). For example, some synesthetes experience a color when they hear a sound, although many instances of synesthesia also occur entirely within the visual sense. In this paper, I first mainly engage critically with Sollberger’s view that there is reason to think that at least some synesthetic experiences can be viewed as truly veridical perceptions, and not as illusions or hallucinations (4). Among other things, I explore the possibility that many forms of synesthesia can be understood as experiencing what I will call “second-order secondary properties,” that is, experiences of properties of objects induced by the secondary qualities of those objects. In doing so, I shed some light on why synesthesia is typically one-directional and its relation to some psychopathologies such as autism.

The cholinergic heat-labile neurotoxin produced by Clostridium species is primarily responsible for the clinical manifestations of botulism. The classic phenotypic presentation of botulism consists of subacute descending flaccid paralysis with intact sensory function. Traditionally, it is classified into 3 main forms (foodborne, wound-related, and infantile) on the basis of primary site of toxin entry into the human nervous system. Toxemia is the common pathophysiology in all forms of botulism. Adult intestinal toxemia botulism is an extremely rare form of the disease with pathogenesis similar to that of infant-type botulism. Symptomatic adults usually have an anatomic abnormality in the gastrointestinal tract leading to changes in normal gut flora. The current case is an addition to the growing literature on this unusual clinical variant of botulism.

Tier II bag limit regulations were developed to lessen constraints to participation by new duck hunters. By opting for the three-duck bag limit, hunters would not be subject to the species and sex-specific regulations of the six-duck limit. We surveyed hunters in Nebraska and South Dakota to gain an understanding about how Tier II regulations would be received by the current waterfowl-hunting population. We found that less experienced hunters stated they had greater difficulty identifying ducks and were more likely to use Tier II than experienced hunters. A significant proportion of new waterfowl hunters may make use of Tier II, and these regulations may relieve hunting constraints in a meaningful way. Wildlife agencies may want to consider how hunters transition between bag-limit regulations from year-to-year and consider means to integrate Tier II into hunter R3 efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to Thomas Kuhn, the work of Ludwik Fleck, a Polish-born physician, microbiologist, and epistemologist, is conspicuously absent from the science education literature. His originally obscure monograph first published in German in 1935, "Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact," anticipates a number of views explicated by contemporary philosophers of science, cognitive psychologists, and learning theorists, and Fleck's main thesis is, is many respects, strikingly similar to the oft-cited thesis developed later by Kuhn in "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." Fleck's work is perhaps the best example of the social influence on scientific commitment and thinking and is one of the first works to suggest different scales or varieties of change in science. At the same time as Fleck's work gains recognition, momentum, and force in philosophical circles, some educators are calling for a critical appraisal of Kuhn's impact on science education. This climate provides an ideal opportunity to assess (or perhaps in some cases reassess) the value of Fleck's work in a science education context. The primary aim of this article, therefore, is to introduce educators in general, and science educators in particular, to the main ideas developed by Fleck in his "Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact." Throughout this article, Fleck's ideas are compared and contrasted to those of Thomas Kuhn--arguably one of the most popular referents in nature of science studies over the past decade. As will be discussed, many of the ideas developed by Fleck anticipate central issues and perspectives in philosophy, epistemology, sociology, education, and cognitive psychology.

Background: Extending Merton's (1936) work on the consequences of purposive social action, the model, theory and taxonomy outlined here incorporates and formalizes both anticipated and unanticipated research findings in a unified theoretical framework. The model of anticipated research findings was developed initially by Carifio (1975, 1977) and was followed by the addition of the unanticipated findings component by Perla (2006). This is the first formal model, theory and synthesis of anticipated and unanticipated research findings developed to date. The wide-ranging consequences and implications of the model are discussed. Purpose: To the extent that educational researchers, philosophers and scholars reduce unanticipated findings solely to chance, whimsy, or inspiration they declare these occurrences impossible to effectively predict, model or understand. This article provides a way to conceptualize and formally model anticipated and unanticipated research findings. Many concrete examples from the history of science and research and evaluation methodology are provided to illustrate the model as well as various details of an application of the model in developing instructional materials. Setting: Nature of science instructional materials development effort. Intervention: Not applicable. Research Design: Theory and model development using quantitative and qualitative methods including literature review and original model evaluations. Data Collection and Analysis: Content analysis and modified Q-sorts of research related documents, journals, logs, literature and emails as well as various theory construction and modification techniques. Findings: This article demonstrates that a formal model and theory of anticipated and unanticipated research findings can be developed and that such models should inform a broad range of research and evaluation efforts that are conducted daily worldwide. Nine key research and evaluation principles were derived to supplement the formal model and its operations that should be helpful to novice as well as experienced researchers regardless of the research methodology or strategies they are employing. (Contains 5 figures and 2 tables.)

This article presents a critical review and analysis of key studies that have been done in science education and other areas on the effects and effectiveness of using diagrams, graphs, photographs, illustrations, and concept maps as "adjunct visual aids" in the learning of scientific-technical content. It also summarizes and reviews those studies that have students draw diagrams, graphs, maps, and charts to express their understandings of the concepts and relationships that are present in the text they read or/and empirical data provided (i.e., student-generated "adjunct visual productions"). In general, the research and theory on instructional aids is fragmented and somewhat unsystematic with several flaws and a number of key uncontrolled variables, which actually suppress and mask effects in the studies that have been done. The findings of these studies are compared to relevant literature and empirical research and findings in the areas of cognitive psychology, computer science, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence that help to clarify many of the inconsistencies, contradictions, and lack of effects found for visual (e.g., diagrams and graphs) instructional aids in the science education literature currently and in the past 20 years. A model and a set of criteria and goals for improving research in this area is then described, as visuals are a first step in the process of learning formal (scientific) models, which are most often visually represented. Understanding how students learn formal models is one the outstanding research challenges in the next 20 years, both within and outside of science education.

This paper addresses an important problem that may really be a pseudoproblem perpetuated by a current artificial or even political need to isolate researchers, evaluators, and theorists and put them in conceptual-methodological boxes. In this paper, we argue that scholars of all kinds should focus on the nouns (i.e., research, evaluation, theory) versus the adjectives (i.e., quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods) used to qualify these nouns and core constructs. In a word, researchers, evaluators, measurement professionals, and theorists of all persuasions should strive to be neither qualitative nor quantitative, as that is like striving to be a single leg in a triangle. Following Hacking (1965), our view is that all forms of research methodology and evaluation methodology represent a "patchwork quilt" that is essentially "one fabric" with two connected but often unacknowledged sides to the quilt and that all methodology, analysis, and evaluations are essentially "qual-quantification" and "quant-qualification" and usually both at the same time. This general and unified or "one fabric" view of these debates and issues is discussed from a historical-philosophical perspective, and the need for a more general and inclusive evaluation and research epistemology is elucidated. Having outlined an epistemic framework and argument for a more comprehensive and complete view and model of evaluation and research that transcends a specific research paradigm, the paper concludes by outlining eight general key points that most (if not all) researchers and evaluators should consider. (Contains 1 note.)

Princeton University Press recently published the American moral philosopher Harry Frankfurt's book "On Bullshit", which quickly made the New York Times best seller list. Originally published in the journal "Raritan" in 1986, Frankfurt's book has been heralded as an important theoretical development in the study of what he (and society) colloquially refer to as "bullshit." Frankfurt formally defines BS as a situation where ones inclination and obligation to speak about a topic or concept far exceeds one's knowledge of the topic, which most certainly has been a rising problem for a number of reasons over the past 20 years. However, Frankfurt's book, which purports to be a moral victory of sorts, and despite its popularity, is not only severely flawed and outdated from an educational, cognitive, and philosophical perspective, but it is also highly oppressive in several different but very important ways. Because this book and its main arguments are being cited favorably in a number of different academic circles (including the science education community), this paper highlights the limitations and flaws of this book and develops a counter-argument and model of BS that has important implications for science, mathematics, philosophy, and educational theory and research.

In sharp contrast to the early positivist view of the nature of science and scientific knowledge, Kuhn argues that the scientific enterprise involves states of continuous, gradual development punctuated by comparatively rare instances of turmoil and change, which ultimately brings about a new stability and a qualitatively changed knowledge base. Although this discontinuous or nonlinear view of scientific knowledge is shared by a number of philosophers of science and science educators currently, Kuhn's description of how progress in science occurs has never been formally modeled from a nonlinear mathematical perspective. In this article, we represent aspects of Kuhn's main thesis and ideas as stated in his classic work "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" using catastrophe theory, which is a particular instantiation of chaos theory capable of describing discontinuous phenomenon. Through this catastrophe theory representation we attempt to depict and develop a formal nonlinear model of scientific change. The pedagogical implications of the model developed and presented are discussed.