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A preliminary investigation and discussion of effective methods of staff development as identified by a sample of teachers from international schools. Discusses the nature and purpose of staff development, and the views of teachers on the most effective methods of staff development. Identifies the importance of staff development by colleagues from within a school as one of the most effective methods, and also the development of local school groups as a means of enhancing development for both the individual and the institution. Develops a list of questions that both teachers and administrators may wish to address when evaluating the role and effectiveness of staff development within their own schools.

Performance was examined on three variants of the spontaneous object recognition (SOR) task, in 5-month old APPswe/PS1dE9 mice and wild-type littermate controls. A deficit was observed in an object-in-place (OIP) task, in which mice are preexposed to four different objects in specific locations, and then at test two of the objects swap locations (Experiment 2). Typically more exploration is seen of the objects which have switched location, which is taken as evidence of a retrieval-generated priming mechanism. However, no significant transgenic deficit was found in a relative recency (RR) task (Experiment 1), in which mice are exposed to two different objects in two separate sample phases, and then tested with both objects. Typically more exploration of the firstpresented object is observed, which is taken as evidence of a self-generated priming mechanism. Nor was there any impairment in the simplest variant, the spontaneous object recognition (SOR) task, in which mice are preexposed to one object and then tested with the familiar and a novel object. This was true regardless of whether the sample-test interval was 5 minutes (Experiment 1) or 24 hours (Experiments 1 and 2). It is argued that SOR performance depends on retrieval-generated priming as well as self-generated priming, and our preliminary evidence suggests that the retrieval-generated priming process is especially impaired in these young transgenic animals . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 The aim of our research has been to identify early cognitive signs of AD in one specific genetic model, the double-transgenic APPswe/PS1dE9 mouse. This may be the best-characterised transgenic model of AD to date, co-expressing the mutated Swedish APP gene and also the exon-9 deleted variant of the PS1 gene [5]. Elevated levels of oligomeric Aβ in the cortex and hippocampus have been observed at 3.5 months of age in these mice; these changes are accompanied by synaptic deficits [6,7], and are also closely associated with swollen dystrophic cholinergic neurites [8].Although the amyloid plaques characteristic of AD have been reported at 4 months of age in these mice, it is only from 6 months that they are consistently observed [9]. Aβ deposition is paralleled by progressive degeneration of monaminergic [10,11] and striatal [12] neurons, and neuroinflammatory reactions [13] which mirror human AD pathology. These animals also recapitulate the age-related cognitive decline characteristic of AD [14], which is thought to depend on these neuropathological changes.The neuropathology that develops in AD in general, and in this mouse model in particular, is well specified. But precisely which aspects of this brain pathology underlie the cognitive deficits that are such a central feature of AD is still under debate [15]. In this particular mouse line, some...

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This study tests the predictions of a novel analysis of recognition memory based on a theory of associative learning, according to which recognition comprises two independent underlying processes, one relying on the to-be-recognised item having been experienced recently (self-generated priming), and the other on it being predicted by some other stimulus (retrieval-generated priming). A single experiment examined recognition performance in the APPswe/PS1dE9 (APP/PS1) mouse, a double-transgenic model of Alzheimer's disease, and wild-type (WT) littermates.Performance on two variants of the spontaneous object recognition (SOR ) was compared in 5-month-old APPswe/PS1dE9 (APP/PS1) mice, a double-transgenic model of Alzheimer's disease, and their wild-type (WT) littermates, using junk objects. In the relative recency task animals were exposed to object A, and then object B, followed by a test with both A and B. In the object-in-place task the mice were exposed to both A and B, and then tested with two copies of A, occupying the same positions as the preeexposed objects. The WT mice showed a preference for exploring the first-presented object A in the relative recency task, and the copy of A in the 'wrong' position (i.e. the one placed where B had been during the preexposure phase) in the object-in-place task. The APP/PS1 mice performed like the WT mice in the relative recency task, but showed a selective impairment in the object-in-place task. We interpret these findings in terms of Wagner's (1981) theory of associative learning, SOP, as a selective deficit in retrieval-generated priming.

Paul Armstrong: co-designed and conducted the experiments, data analysis, interpretation of results, manuscript preparation. Marie-Christine Pardon: interpretation of results, critical revision of the article.