Most misspelled English wordsspelling ills. Here are the 100 words most often misspelled. Each word has a mnemonic pill with it and, if you swallow it, it will help you to remember how to spell the word. Master the orthography of the words on this page and reduce the time you spend searching dictionaries by 50%.
o Several words made the list because of the suffix pronounced -êbl but sometimes spelled -ible, sometimes -able. Just remember to accept any table offered to you and you will spell this word OK.
o It is no accident that the test for adverbs on -ly is whether they come from an adjective on -al ("accidental" in this case). If so, the -al has to be in the spelling. No publical, then publicly.
o Remember, this word is large enough to accommodate both a double "c" AND a double "m".
o Try to acquire the knowledge that this word and the next began with the prefix ad- but the [d] converts to [c] before [q].
o See the previous discussion.
* a lot
o Two words! Hopefully, you won't have to allot a lot of time to this problem.
o Amateurs need not be mature: this word ends on the French suffix -eur (the equivalent of English -er).
o A parent need not be apparent but "apparent" must pay the rent, so remember this word always has the rent.
o Let's not argue about the loss of this verb's silent [e] before the suffix -ment.
o Lord help you remember that this word comprises the prefix a- "not" + the "god" (also in the-ology) + -ist "one who believes."
o You must believe that [i] usually comes before [e] except after [c] or when it is pronounced like "a" as "neighbor" and "weigh" or "e" as in "their" and "heir." Also take a look at "foreign" below. (The "i-before-e" rule has more exceptions than words it applies to.)
o Often misspelled "bellweather." A wether is a gelded ram, chosen to lead the herd (thus his bell) due to the greater likelihood that he will remain at all times ahead of the ewes.
o This word has an [e] between two [a]s. The last vowel is [a].
o This word is not in a category with "catastrophe" even if it sounds like it: the middle letter is [e].
o Don't let this one bury you: it ends on -ery—nary an -ary in it. You already know it starts on [c], of course.
o The verb "change" keeps its [e] here to indicate that the [g] is soft, not hard. (That is also why "judgement" is the correct spelling of this word, no matter what anyone says.)
o Another -ible word. You just have to remember.
o Silent final [e] is commonplace in English but a silent final [n] is not uncommon, especially after [m].
o If you are committed to correct spelling, you will remember that this word doubles its final [t] from "commit" to "committed."
o Don't let misspelling this word weigh on your conscience: [ch] spelled "sc" is unusual but legitimate.
o Work on your spelling conscientiously and remember this word with [ch] spelled two different ways: "sc" and "ti". English spelling!
o Try to be conscious of the "sc" [ch] sound and all the vowels in this word's ending and i-o-u a note of congratulations.
o The census does not require a consensus, since they are not related.
o Don't make yourself another daiquiri until you learn how to spell this funny word-the name of a Cuban village.
o This word definitely sounds as though it ends only on -it, but it carries a silent "e" everywhere it goes.
o A little discipline, spelled with the [s] and the [c] will get you to the correct spelling of this one.
o You would be surprised how many sober people omit one of the [n]s in this one.
o Even smart people forget one of the [b]s in this one. (So be careful who you call one when you write.)
o This one won't embarrass you if you remember it is large enough for a double [r] AND a double [s].
o This word is misspelled "equiptment" 22,932 times on the web right now.
o Remembering that [h] when you spell this word will lift your spirits and if you remember both [a]s, it will be exhilarating!
o Remember that this one is -ceed, not -cede. (To exceed all expectations, master the spellings of this word, "precede" and "supersede" below.)
o No word like this one spelled with an [a] is in existence. This word is a menage a quatre of one [i] with three [e]s.
o Don't experience the same problem many have with "existence" above in this word: -ence!
o The silent "e" on "fire" is also cowardly: it retreats inside the word rather than face the suffix -y.
o Here is one of several words that violate the i-before-e rule. (See "believe" above.)
o You must learn to gauge the positioning of the [a] and [u] in this word. Remember, they are in alphabetical order (though not the [e]).
o You should be grateful to know that keeping "great" out of "grateful" is great.
o I guarantee you that this word is not spelled like "warranty" even though they are synonyms.
o This word is too small for two double letters but don't let it harass you, just keep the [r]s down to one.
o English reaches the height (not heighth!) of absurdity when it spells "height" and "width" so differently.
o The i-before-e rule works here, so what is the problem?
o Humor us and spell this word "humorous": the [r] is so weak, it needs an [o] on both sides to hold it up.
o Don't show your ignorance by spelling this word -ence!
o The immediate thing to remember is that this word has a prefix, in- "not" which becomes [m] before [m] (or [b] or [p]). "Not mediate" means direct which is why "immediately" means "directly."
o Please be independent but not in your spelling of this word. It ends on -ent.
o Knowing that this word ends on -able is indispensable to good writing.
o This one sounds like a shot in the eye. One [n] the eye is enough.
o Using two [l]s in this word and ending it on -ence rather than -ance are marks of . . . you guessed it.
o The apostrophe marks a contraction of "it is." Something that belongs to it is "its."
o Sure, sure, it is made by a jeweler but the last [e] in this case flees the scene like a jewel thief. However, if you prefer British spelling, remember to double the [l]: "jeweller," "jewellery." (See also pronunciation.)
o Traditionally, the word has been spelled judgment in all forms of the English language. However, the spelling judgement (with e added) largely replaced judgment in the United Kingdom in a non-legal context. In the context of the law, however, judgment is preferred. This spelling change contrasts with other similar spelling changes made in American English, which were rejected in the UK. In the US at least, judgment is still preferred and judgement is considered incorrect by many American style guides.
* kernel (colonel)
o There is more than a kernel of truth in the claim that all the vowels in this word are [e]s. So why is the military rank (colonel) pronounced identically? English spelling can be chaotic.
o Yet another violator of the i-before-e rule. You can be sure of the spelling of the last syllable but not of the pronunciation.
o Another French word throwing us an orthographical curve: a spare [i], just in case. That's an [s], too, that sounds like a [z].
o It may be as enjoyable as a berry patch but that isn't the way it is spelled. That first [r] should be pronounced, too.
o Where does English get the license to use both its letters for the sound [s] in one word?
o Learning how to omit the [e] in this word should lighten the load of English orthography a little bit.
o The main tenants of this word are "main" and "tenance" even though it comes from the verb "maintain." English orthography at its most spiteful.
o Man, the price you pay for borrowing from French is high. This one goes back to French main + oeuvre "hand-work," a spelling better retained in the British spelling, "manoeuvre."
o The medieval orthography of English even lays traps for you: everything about the MIDdle Ages is MEDieval or, as the British would write, mediaeval.
o Why would something to remind of you of a moment be spelled "memento?" Well, it is.
o Here is another big word, large enough to hold two double consonants, double [l] and double [n].
o Since that [a] is seldom pronounced, it is seldom included in the spelling. This one is a "mini ature;" remember that.
o Since something minuscule is smaller than a miniature, shouldn't they be spelled similarly? Less than cool, or "minus cule."
o This mischievous word holds two traps: [i] before [e] and [o] before [u]. Four of the five vowels in English reside here.
o What is more embarrassing than to misspell the name of the problem? Just remember that it is mis + spell and that will spell you the worry about spelling "spell."
o The word "neighbor" breaks the i-before-e rule and invokes the silent "gh". This is fraught with error potential. If you use British spelling, it will cost you another [u]: "neighbour."
o The [e] is noticeably retained in this word to indicate the [c] is "soft," pronounced like [s]. Without the [e], it would be pronounced "hard," like [k], as in "applicable."
o Writers occasionally tire of doubling so many consonants and omit one, usually one of the [l]s. Don't you ever do it.
o Remember not only the occurrence of double double consonants in this word, but that the suffix is -ence, not -ance. No reason, just the English language keeping us on our toes.
o Since a pastime is something you do to pass the time, you would expect a double [s] here. Well, there is only one. The second [s] was slipped through the cracks in English orthography long ago.
o All it takes is perseverance and you, too, can be a (near-)perfect speller. The suffix is -ance for no reason at all.
o Funny Story (passed along by Bill Rudersdorf): The assistant Vice-President of Personnel notices that his superior, the VP himself, upon arriving at his desk in the morning opens a small, locked box, smiles, and locks it back again. Some years later when he advanced to that position (inheriting the key), he came to work early one morning to be assured of privacy. Expectantly, he opened the box. In it was a single piece of paper which said: "Two Ns, one L."
o Those who play right are right-players, not playwrights. Well, since they write plays, they should be "play-writes," wright right? Rong Wrong. Remember that a play writer in Old English was called a "play worker" and "wright" is from an old form of "work" (wrought iron, etc.)
o Possession possesses more [s]s than a snake.
o What follows, succeeds, so what goes before should, what? No, no, no, you are using logic. Nothing confuses English spelling more than common sense. "Succeed" but "precede." (Wait until you see "supersede.")
o The spelling principle to remember here is that the school principal is a prince and a pal (despite appearances)--and the same applies to anything of foremost importance, such as a principal principle. A "principle" is a rule. (Thank you, Meghan Cope, for help on this one.)
o According to the pronunciation (not "pronounciation"!) of this word, that middle vowel could be anything. Remember: two [i]s + two [e]s in that order.
o Nouns often differ from the verbs they are derived from. This is one of those. In this case, the pronunciation is different, too, an important clue.
o Let me publicly declare the rule (again): if the adverb comes from an adjective ending on -al, you include that ending in the adverb; if not, as here, you don't.
o The French doing it to us again. Double up on the [n]s in this word and don't forget the silent [e]. Maybe someday we will spell it the English way.
o I hope you have received the message by now: [i] before [e] except after . . . .
o I would recommend you think of this word as the equivalent of commending all over again: re+commend. That would be recommendable.
o Final consonants are often doubled before suffixes (remit: remitted, remitting). However, this rule applies only to accented syllables ending on [l] and [r], e.g. "rebelled," "referred" but "traveled," "buffered" and not containing a diphthong, e.g. "prevailed," "coiled."
o Refer to the last mentioned word and also remember to add -ence to the end for the noun.
o The relevant factor here is that the word is not "revelant," "revelent," or even "relevent." [l] before [v] and the suffix -ant.
o 'Ey, you! Remember, these two words when you spell "restaurant." They are in the middle of it.
o Actually, "rime" was the correct spelling until 1650. After that, egg-heads began spelling it like "rhythm." Why? No rhyme nor reason other than to make it look like "rhythm."
o This one was borrowed from Greek (and conveniently never returned) so it is spelled the way we spell words borrowed from Greek and conveniently never returned.
o If perfecting your spelling is on your schedule, remember the [sk] is spelled as in "school." (If you use British or Canadian pronunciation, why do you pronounce this word [shedyul] but "school," [skul]? That has always puzzled me.)
o How do you separate the [e]s from the [a]s in this word? Simple: the [e]s surround the [a]s.
o The [a] needed in both syllables of this word has been pushed to the back of the line. Remember that, and the fact that [e] is used in both syllables, and you can write your sergeant without fear of misspelling his rank.
o This word supersedes all others in perversity. As if we don't have enough to worry about, keeping words on -ceed and -cede ("succeed," "precede," etc.) straight in our minds, this one has to be different from all the rest. The good news is: this is the only English word based on this stem spelled -sede.
o They're all pronounced the same but spelled differently. Possessive is "their" and the contraction of "they are" is "they're." Everywhere else, it is "there."
o This one can push you over the threshold. It looks like a compound "thresh + hold" but it isn't. Two [h]s are enough.
o Even if you omit the [f] in your pronunciation of this word (which you shouldn't do), it is retained in the spelling.
o If you are still resisting the tyranny of English orthography at this point, you must face the problem of [y] inside this word, where it shouldn't be. The guy is a "tyrant" and his problem is "tyranny." (Don't forget to double up on the [n]s, too.)
o I will never stop harping on this until this word is spelled with an extra [l] for the last time!
o If your head is not a vacuum, remember that the silent [e] on this one married the [u] and joined him inside the word where they are living happily ever since. Well, the evidence is suggestive but not conclusive. Anyway, spell this word with two [u]s and not like "volume."
o Whether you like the weather or not, you have to write the [a] after the [e] when you spell it.
o It is weird having to repeat this rule so many times: [i] before [e] except after...? (It isn't [w]!)


Unit Overview - This unit will enable learners to develop knowledge and understanding of Rudolf Steiner’s principles of human phasic development. It will also include his notion of the 12 senses and explore the importance of movement through the three planes of space in the context of working on a biodynamic holding and its therapeutic value within an educational curriculum.
1.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the 7 year rhythm in human development (400/500 words)
In his book written in 1907, 'The Education of the Child in the Light of Spiritual Science' Steiner sets out some very interesting and persuasive arguments relating to child development. Most fascinating, is his view regarding 7 year rhythms in child development. In this piece of writing, he clearly states the phases of human development; 0-7, 7-14, 14-21 and in doing so he sets out a method of education specifically designed to these phases. The insights he provides give educators firm principles for how education might be designed to suit and enrich the child across a range of disciplines.
I feel that the following quotation from the beginning of the book is a very important one:
'Life in its entirety is like a plant. The plant contains not only what it offers to external life; it also holds a future state within its hidden depths. One who has before him a plant only just in leaf, knows very well that after some time there will be flowers and fruit also on the leaf-bearing stem. In its hidden depths the plant already contains the flowers and fruit in embryo; yet by mere investigation of what the plant now offers to external vision, how should one ever tell what these new organs will look like? This can only be told by one who has learnt to know the very nature and being of the plant.'
'The Education of the Child in the Light of Spiritual Science' Rudolph Steiner 1907
In saying this, Steiner espouses that there are some universal principles that can be applied to human phasic development. These principles have been later developed and enhanced to form the basis of education for the child, and they have been adopted by the Steiner School movement as general guiding principles for the curriculum for every child.
Between the ages of 0 - 7 The Physical
'The foundation is laid for the development of a strong and healthy Will.'
'By a right application of the fundamental educational principles, during the first seven years of childhood, the foundation is laid for the development of a strong and healthy Will. For a strong and healthy will must have its support in the well-developed forms of the physical body.' Rudolph Steiner 1907
'There are two magic words which indicate how the child enters into relation with his environment. They are: Imitation, and Example.' Rudolph Steiner 1907
The students that I work with on a daily basis, are always over the age of 7, but it might be argued that many are occupying this 0-7 phase because some of their developmental stages have been missed as a result of their turbulent childhood experiences.
'Aristotle called man the most imitative of creatures. For no age in life is this more true than for the first stage of childhood, before the change of teeth. What goes on in his physical environment, this the child imitates, and in the process of imitation his physical organs are cast into the forms which then become permanent. ‘Physical environment’ must, however, be taken in the widest imaginable sense. It includes not only what goes on around the child in the material sense, but everything that takes place in the child's environment — everything that can be perceived by his senses, that can work from the surrounding physical space upon the inner powers of the child. This includes all the moral or immoral actions, all the wise or foolish actions, that the child sees.' Rudolph Steiner 1907
To my understanding, these passages speak of the critical role modelling in all aspects of our work with children. Role modelling is the single most powerful part of the teaching and guidance process. Creating a productive atmosphere and supportive ethos around the child allows them to blossom in their critical early phase. This is the main part of my work at Eyam Edge, providing productive and positive learning experiences that have the capacity to guide students towards mutual goals, with a myriad of learning opportunities along the way.
'Last but not least, there is the cultivation of the sense of beauty and the awakening of the artistic feeling. The musical element must bring to the etheric body that rhythm which will then enable it to sense in all things the rhythm otherwise concealed. A child who is denied the blessing of having his musical sense cultivated during these years, will be the poorer for it the whole of his later life.' Rudolph Steiner 1907
Rhythm and music I have found to be a source of fascination and enjoyment for the children I work with. The act of sitting and sharing a song can often be a very settling start to the day. I am of no doubt that it plays an essential role.
Between the ages of 7-14 The Imagination
'For this reason it matters above all that the boy and girl should have as their teachers persons who can awaken in them, as they see and watch them, the right intellectual and moral powers. As for the first years of childhood Imitation and Example were, so to say, the magic words for education, so for the years of this second period the magic words are Discipleship and Authority.' Rudolph Steiner 1907
From a craft and horticulture perspective, it is key that the child has the guidance of a skilled practitioner who can communicate the right messages about the subject and the spirit of learning. The culture of a place and the culture of a community is of vital importance. Thus the community becomes the 'village' where a collection of skills and insights helps to structure the education of the child.
'In the history lesson especially, the teacher should lead his teaching in the direction thus indicated. When telling stories of all kinds to little children before the change of teeth, our aim cannot be more than to awaken delight and vivacity and a happy enjoyment of the story. But after the change of teeth, we have in addition something else to bear in mind in choosing our material for stories; and that is, that we are placing before the boy or girl pictures of life that will arouse a spirit of emulation in the soul.' Rudolph Steiner 1907
Using various historical figures we can support learning and emulation through their achievements and we can communicate our reasons for our support of these individuals and nurture respect for the human attributes that we give value to in our learning community.
'Reprimands give at best but little help in the matter of habits and inclinations.' Rudolph Steiner 1907
Between the ages of 14-21 The Spirit
'With the age of puberty the astral body is first born.'
Much of what Steiner says about the age beyond puberty is also concerned with the importance of not
approaching this third phase of development too early. In other words In order to be ripe for thought, one must have learned to be full of respect for what others have thought.' Rudolph Steiner 1907. He further emphasises this thus:
'Man is not in a position to judge until he has collected in his inner life material for judgement and comparison. If he forms his own conclusions before doing so, his conclusions will lack foundation.' Rudolph Steiner 1907
In this phase 'Only now, therefore, can we approach the child from without with all that opens up the world of abstract ideas, the faculty of judgement and independent thought.' Rudolph Steiner
There is much less written about this phase of development, because there needs to be less prescription and more room for independent thought and independent action. This is mirrored in the Ruskin Mill Trust pedagodgy which culminates in 'self generated concious action'.
The child has stepped through the first two developmental phases and emerges - as if from a chrysalis - ready to take flight with free ideas and independence.
2.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the three planes of space and their relevance to a PSTE curriculum.
The signature crafts of the RMT method include some of the following:
“[...] the sagittal plane linked with the frontal (focus), the sagittal with the horizontal (grasp), and all three together – sagittal, frontal and horizontal (step). The result is nothing less than the vertical line of our ego-experience. This line lies in the sagittal place separating right and left and runs through our entire organism and our entire existence. Only when it is constantly experienced in focusing, grasping and stepping do I experience myself as an individual” (König, 1983, p. 49).
Each of the crafts offers the opportunity to move across the planes of space, in order to 'constantly experience' the meaning of being an individual. In my reflection for (3.1) below I describe the experience of making a greenwood stool with students and I link this to the 12 senses. The way that the planes of space have therapeutic value can be equally applied to green woodwork.
In particular, splitting wood, working on the shave horse, working on the pole lathe, each providing a constant linking of the planes of space.
3.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the 12 senses (with specific reference to the lower four senses) and their relevance to a PSTE curriculum.
Steiner's notion of the 12 senses is a powerful one. The RMT understanding of the importance of developing these senses through a sensory integrated curriculum delivered through PSTE is of fundamental importance to the student learning experience across the Trust. Eyam is no exception.
This is a reflection of how the four lower senses of balance, life, touch and movement are developed through the learning experience of making a greenwood stool from start to finish; from tree to seat.
'Fell Tree > Cut Branches > Make Pieces > Make Chair > Sit at Table'
RMT Practitoner's Guide
Sourcing the wood
There is a world of learning that can take place in understanding types of wood we might use, and in having a vision for the wood and a coherent plan of what to do with it. This also provides opportunities for sensory development and integration of the four lower senses in the student learning experience. Through the touching of the materials comes certainty. The process of making a functional item, in this case a stool, involves the sense of touch having a task. This might be expressed through touching the bark, through touching the split edges of the billet, through the feeling of angular edges becoming smooth on the shave horse.
Over time the life sense might become apparent through the physical sensations of the body. As the resistance of the material is met and overcome. There will be pain, which is the 'extreme manifestation of the life sense.' RMT Practitioner's Guide.
Movement occurs in the mind as we move from the larger picture and zoom into detail. What we going to do with the materials we have found/sourced? We have a plan and there is an intention and vision of an end product. This may involve discussion and modification of ideas.
When a plan is set and an intention is clear we have a path to follow. An achievable and supported task enhances the life sense because a problem occurs in that we have all the aspects and something to make and the will to make it. There is a purpose and clear incentive and goal which is supported by a tutor with the skills to make this happen. Balance is enhanced because the student has a role model to help them achieve something that otherwise is unachievable. Balance is also enhanced because there is an understanding of the elements needed to create a specific item in terms of tools and materials. In preparation of the stages of building the stool, the tutor prepares the students by role modelling the physical movements and aspects of touch and balance necessary to achieve the task.
Using the Tools
Through use of the tools we might ask questions around our muscle sense movements. In relation to the tools, can we be master of our entire body? Where in our body are we not in charge? We have a life sense of our own physical constitution. As the shaping of the stool components occurs we might reflect the difficulties and time consuming nature of the work. As stated in the RMT Practioner's Guide, 'Pain is learning, it is painful to learn.'
In terms of the 4 lower senses, it is not necessary to individualise them since all 4 work harmoniously together when a student is engaged in a process and supported by a role model.
With each aspect of the process, balance, touch and movement all work together with a strong vision and understanding to meet resistance within the materials while simultaneously allowing the student to encounter resistance within themselves.
When the student encounters and overcomes/acknowledges this resistance within themselves and can persevere, they experience a distance from aspects of themselves that might otherwise disturb the flow of the life sense. They become distracted from their daily personal disturbances and deeply engaged in a process that is both involving their self but at the same time giving them a rest from issues that normally causes anxiety or discomfort.
Since the process of making the stool is a staged and methodical experience, the student, if able to follow the process from start to finish, encounters a situation where they created a whole from parts- a successful and useful item from an idea or intention.
Each individual tool process can be whittled down to miniature versions of this whole idea. Therefore the entire process split down into individualised steps works to strengthen the overarching benefits to the lower senses.
If we think about the actual item: The wooden stool and its uses we can look at a collection of stools around a table for the use of a community or group. We begin to focus of being part of something bigger than ourselves which lends itself to enhancing the life sense and having balance between the inner world and outer worlds. In terms of touch, we use the stool to be part of a community or to take part in a community focused activity and by doing so, we are placing our body against a natural item that is supporting us. If we have made this item, we have essentially created an item that has the purpose to hold (touch), balance and create a resistance to our movement. From our sense of movement comes our sense for a goal.
If we look at all these aspects in relation to self propelled conscious actions- moving forward- in making the stool from scratch, the student has successfully created a purposeful item for the use of themselves and others. With all the skills involved in each step of the process, the student has moved closer towards stepping into a world where they are able to leave their internal world and use their skills to create something that will be useful and last a long time. The opportunities beyond this task become manifold as the student realises that their will and bodily action can be beneficial not only to themselves but to the larger world.
© Brantwood Specialist School
Created by Jim Hildyard


Mitigative archeological investigations were conducted in 1983 at the
southern end of the important Elk Creek site, 5GN204/205, within Curecanti
National Recreation Area prior to construction of a park apartment complex.
That portion of the site extended onto a rocky promontory overlooking Blue
Mesa Lake. Archeological activities undertaken at the site in 1982 focused
upon the western half of the promontory (Jones 1986), while the eastern
half of the point was investigated the following year. During the 1983
research, two small chipped-stone concentrations and an isolated projectile
point were identified and collected. Stylistic comparisons of several
diagnostic artifacts collected in 1983 suggest that an Early or Middle
Archaic component was represented.
The 1983 work at Elk Creek provided an opportunity to investigate the role
of natural erosion in the formation of the Curecanti archeological record.
A statistical analysis performed during the project confirmed an initial
field impression that the artifacts within one of the chipped-stone
concentrations were roughly size-sorted in the direction of the ground
surface slope. Based in part upon an analysis of local weather and
physical environmental data, that size distribution of artifacts is
believed to relate to a postdepositional restructuring of the material by
precipitation runoff in combination with deflation of the deposit by strong
western and southwestern winds. The study suggests that ongoing erosion by
water and wind operating under the particular environmental conditions of
the site area may dramatically affect contextual information given the
passage of sufficient time, an issue of importance to archeological
research elsewhere within Curecanti and other parks in semiarid settings.


Serialization Homework Help
It is a process of adapting an entity into a packets of bytes and save the object to communicate it into a memory.
We do serialization to save an entity to recreate the entity if needed. The entity is than streams into a serialized data information about the type of an entity and entity name.
It has an opposite process called deserialization. It is easy for the developer to copy the state of an entity and can reuse it anywhere. Serialization can give the benefits of sending and receiving streams. And also remotely access the computers through their IP addresses and can share the files or text.


You can most likely tell me how much money you made last year. But, I bet you cannot tell me how much you spent. A healthy knowledge of your finances and a strong budget can help you track and monitor your spending as well as help you plan for large, periodic expenses.
A budget is a plan that ensures your income will cover your expenses and map out a savings plan. If you find that your income cannot cover your expenses, budgets can aide you in determining where you can cut spending.
A Harvard bankruptcy expert, Elizabeth Warren and her daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi created the 50/30/20 rule that will guide you when creating your budget. This rule contains the below four steps:
Step One: Calculate your After-Tax Income
- After-Tax income is defined as the amount of money you have left over after all federal, state and withholding taxes have been deducted from your taxable income.
Step Two: Limit Your Needs to 50 Percent
- Items such as groceries, housing, utilities, health insurance, car insurance, etc. fall into the “needs” category.
- The amount you spend on your “needs” should be no more than 50% of your total after-tax income.
Step Three: Limit Your Wants to 30 Percent
- Items such as your unlimited text and data cell phone plan, your cable and internet bill, the tinted windows on your car, etc. fall into the “wants” category.
- The amount you spend on your “wants” should be no more than 30% of your total after-tax income.
Step Four: Spend at Least 20 Percent on Savings and Debt Payments
- This category includes saving money in your emergency fund and any retirement accounts.
- Your minimum payment on your credit card is a “need” that counts towards your 50%, but any payments beyond that is considered an additional debt payment, which falls into the 20% category.
This rule will help you get started on your budget and guide you through your finances. Here are some additional useful tips to help you get started:
- Know what bills you have and when they are due.
- Know your current spending and set goals that take into account your long-term financial plans.
- Track your spending to make sure you are meeting the goals and guidelines you set.
- Be aware of ATM withdrawals. If you notice your ATM visits being more than once a week, start tracking where that cash is being spent.
- Use budgeting software to save time and trouble. One of the top online budgeting tools can be found at www.Mint.com. This secure website is free and is a great tool for budgeting. Mint not only will help you create a budget, but it will also help you monitor your credit score and help you plan and reach any financial goal you wish.
Budgets are essential in life. Budgets enable you to make a behavioral change to your whole outlook and attitude toward your spending. The longer you keep at it, the easier it will become, and then it will eventually become your habit. Happy Budgeting!
“If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin
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In this, the final of three posts on features potentially relevant to invertebrate sentience, we assess 9 learning indicators, 4 navigational skills, and 7 mood state behaviors. Here are some high-level takeaways:
- Simple learning abilities, such as classical conditioning, sensitization, and habituation, do not appear to be good evidence of sentience.
- Contextual learning and long-term behavior alteration to avoid noxious stimuli are better evidence of sentience.
- It’s plausible that the evolutionary role of consciousness is to produce an integrated and egocentric spatial model of the world to guide an animal as it navigates a complex environment.
- It’s difficult to study emotions in invertebrates.
- Notwithstanding (4), it appears there are striking behavioral and neurochemical similarities between mammalian responses to stressful stimuli and the responses of certain arthropods.
Introduction and Project Overview
This post is the fifth in Rethink Priorities’ series on invertebrate welfare. In the first post we examine some philosophical difficulties inherent in the detection of morally significant pain and pleasure in nonhumans. In the second post we discuss our survey and compilation of the extant scientific literature relevant to invertebrate sentience, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of our approach to the subject. In the third post we explain some anatomical, evolutionary, and behavioral features potentially indicative of the capacity for conscious experience in invertebrates. In the fourth post we explain some drug responses, motivational tradeoffs, and feats of cognitive sophistication potentially indicative of the capacity for conscious experience in invertebrates. In this post we explain some learning indicators, navigational skills, and mood state behaviors potentially indicative of the capacity for conscious experience in invertebrates. In the sixth, seventh, and eighth posts, we present our summary of findings, both in narrative form and as an interactive database. In forthcoming work, to be published in late July, we analyze the extent to which invertebrate welfare is a promising cause area.
Also known as respondent or Pavlovian conditioning, this features refers to an organism learning to make an association between an unconditioned, inherently rewarding or punishing stimulus, and another, often neutral, stimulus. The prototypical example of this feature is a dog learning to salivate in response to a bell that has been used to signal the arrival of food. This feature is one of the most basic forms of learning.
Allen et al. 2009 demonstrates classical conditioning in the severed spinal cord of a rat exposed to shocks, thus showing this ability is possible without any connection to a brain at all. Though intact rats apparently have a greater response to the same stimuli, the fact that this can occur at all without interaction with a brain suggests that observing this behavior in isolation may not be much evidence for the capacity for valenced experience. Additionally, this type of conditioning often operates unconsciously in humans, further undermining its evidential force.
Operant conditioning, also known as instrumental conditioning, is a type of associative learning in which the frequency of a particular behavior is increased or decreased by pairing the behavior with a punishment or a reward. Operant conditioning differs from classical conditioning in that operant conditioning governs voluntary behavior and classical conditioning governs involuntary behavior. For example, in a laboratory setting a rat might be trained to depress a lever by pairing depression of the lever with a food pellet. Conversely, the rat might be trained to avoid the lever by pairing lever contact with an electrical shock. Pressing a lever to receive a food reward is a voluntary action. However, if the rat began to salivate at the sight of the lever, that would indicate that it had been classically conditioned as well, because salivation is involuntary.
Operant conditioning is a basic form of learning and is widely observed throughout the animal kingdom. Most forms of behavior alteration require at least an element of operant conditioning. Any time an organism learns a new action or learns to perform an old action differently, operant conditioning is probably at work. Thus, we should only expect organisms whose behavior is completely hardcoded or innately determined to lack this feature.
In addition to mere operant conditioning, we also investigated operant conditioning with an unfamiliar action. An organism satisfies this feature just in case it is capable of being operantly conditioned to perform an action it would not perform in its natural environment, such as depressing a lever. Operant conditioning with an unfamiliar action demonstrates some degree of behavioral plasticity and thus is slightly better evidence for conscious experience than mere operant conditioning.
Sensitization is a type of non-associative learning in which an organism amplifies its response to a stimulus, often a noxious stimulus, as a result of repeated exposure to the stimulus. The classic example of sensitization was studied in the sea hare Aplysia californica. If an electric shock to the tail is paired with a touch to the siphon, the sea hare will withdraw its gill. After sensitization has been established, even a light touch of the siphon will initiate a rapid gill withdrawal. Sensitization is one of the most basic forms of learning. It has been demonstrated in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and the unicellular protist Spirostomum. As such, possession of this feature probably does not constitute much evidence for the capacity for valenced experience.
Habituation is a type of non-associative learning in which an organism becomes accustomed to a stimulus. Organisms which are habituated to a given stimulus take longer to respond to the stimulus and ultimately may not react to the stimulus at all. Habituation occurs when an organism is frequently exposed to a stimulus, such as a loud noise, with no biological consequence. An animal might initially react to a loud noise with a startle response, but if the loud noise is repeated frequently and without additional consequence, the startle response will begin to weaken and eventually disappear altogether. Habituation has been observed in some species of plant and even single-celled organisms, and in humans, it is an automatic, unconscious response. Thus, habituation probably involves relatively simple mechanisms and does not provide much evidence of consciousness.
Contextual learning is the ability to discriminate between different contexts in a sophisticated way. More formally, contextual learning is “learning that in context 1 stimulus A is rewarded while stimulus B is not (AC1+ and BC1−), whereas it is the opposite in context 2 (AC2− and BC2+).” For example, honey bees are capable of multimodal associative learning. They can recognize that when one color is presented to them, odor A predicts a sucrose reward and odor B does not, but when a different color is presented odor B predicts a sucrose reward and odor A does not. (This finding reflects the fact that when foraging, a single modality by itself can’t parse beneficial flower species from non-beneficial species. Bees rely on a combination of color, shape, and odor to distinguish good flowers from useless ones.) Contextual learning contributes to behavioral plasticity. According to some researchers, behavioral plasticity is a hallmark of consciousness. For example, Paula Droege, a philosopher at Penn State, argues that “animals capable of flexible responses are conscious animals, animals that feel conscious pain.” Animals that cannot engage in contextual learning must rely on behaviors that are more rigid, reflexive, and programmatic.
Observational or social learning
The ability to learn by observing the behavior of one’s conspecifics is widespread in animals. This phenomenon is known as “social learning,” and it stands in contrast to “asocial learning,” in which an animal learns by personal trial and error. The extent to which an animal can learn complex behavior by observing the behavior of others is often taken to be an indicator of cognitive sophistication. Like other forms of learning, social learning is not direct evidence for the capacity for valenced experience. It is rather a rough guide to a certain sort of intelligence. If that type of intelligence is positively correlated with the capacity for valenced experience, and we don’t have reason to think the correlation is spurious, then the presence of social learning in an animal may be indirect evidence that that animal is capable of valenced experience.
Social learning has been demonstrated in invertebrates. Alem et al. 2016 shows that bumblebees are capable of so-called “cultural transmission.” The authors trained bees to pull a string in order to receive a reward. By observing this practice in trained bees, untrained bees acquired the skill. The skill eventually spread to a majority of the colony’s foragers. The skill then persisted in the colony far longer than the lifespans of the initial trained bees.
More so than other features, it must be emphasized that the ability to learn by observation comes in degrees. Great apes are capable of acquiring elaborate novel skills such as termite fishing or potato washing merely by observing and imitating other apes. In other taxa, social learning is less complex and is mediated by relatively simple learning mechanisms. Thus, it is important to understand the precise nature of the social learning in question before one can judge how it bears on the issue of valenced experience.
Taste aversion behavior
Taste aversion is a type of behavior in which an organism exhibits ‘disgust responses’ to a particular flavor. In humans disgust responses include retching, clutching at the stomach, and vomiting. Disgust responses vary among nonhumans. Rats, which are incapable of vomiting, display disgust by gaping, chin rubbing, and paw treading. Chickens putatively display disgust by head shaking and beak clapping. Cuttlefish will quickly release a food source coated in quinine (a bittering agent) and withdraw to a corner of their tank, which has been interpreted as a disgust response.
Taste aversion is importantly distinct from taste avoidance. Taste avoidance occurs when an organism consumes a smaller amount than usual of a food with a certain taste. The levels of the two phenomena can vary independently of each other. For example, some organisms will consume large amounts of a substance that has a psychoactive effect even if they show signs of nausea while consuming it. Similarly, an organism might avoid a particular taste even if the taste does not make it nauseous, such as when that taste is associated with a fearful event.
Taste aversion is potentially important because disgust behavior, like pain behavior, is modest evidence of valenced experience. A natural explanation of disgust behavior is that the organism exhibiting the behavior experiences a negatively valenced gustatory sensation. In the absence of defeaters, such an explanation is to be preferred to alternative explanations.
One obvious barrier to using taste aversion as evidence for valenced experience is that it is not always clear what constitutes a disgust response. Even where it exists, our ability to detect taste aversion may be limited by anatomy. For example, insects have hard exoskeletons, and so they are not be able to form facial expressions associated with nausea or disgust. Conversely, what looks like a disgust response in vertebrates may be something else entirely in invertebrates. Flies and other insects routinely vomit on food as a form of extra-oral digestion. The vomit contains digestive juices and enzymes that help liquefy the food, making feeding easier, but it is not a disgust response.
Pain-relief learning is a type of associative conditioning in which the subject comes to associate the stimulus that immediately follows a noxious event with relief from the aversive effects of the noxious event. (Importantly, pain-relief learning is not merely a type of operant conditioning in which an organism learns a specific active response that relieves pain.) In an electric shock paradigm, if a stimulus, such as an odor or tone, is consistently experienced just prior to the shock, eventually the stimulus alone will induce a negatively valenced state. The opposite is also true. If a stimulus is consistently introduced just after the shock, that stimulus alone will eventually acquire a positive valence due to its association with the relieving cessation of pain. This phenomenon is well-documented in humans, rats, and, crucially, fruit flies. Fruit flies are able to distinguish cases in which a stimulus precedes a noxious event from cases in which a stimulus follows a noxious event. Indeed, fruit flies can be systematically conditioned to either avoid or approach an odor merely by altering the timing of the release of the odor relative to an electric shock.
An organism that did not satisfy this feature would seem to either have a reward system that differed from ours in important respects or to have an affective or cognitive system not complex enough to register the association. Differences in reward systems weakens the analogy between other conscious animals and these beings, and so this would represent evidence against them being conscious.
Long-term behavior alteration to avoid noxious stimuli
Some short-lived animals are so well-adapted to their evolutionary and ecological niche that automatic, instinctive responses alone are sufficient to keep the animals safe from harm. Animals in more complex situations (either ecologically or socially) need more plastic responses to keep them safe. One evolutionary function of conscious pain experiences—perhaps the evolutionary function of conscious pain experiences—is to promote long-term bodily integrity through behavior modification. Although not all damaging injuries are painful and not all pain experiences result from damaging injuries, there is nonetheless a fairly tight correlation between tissue damage and pain sensation. This correlation allows animals to learn from pain experiences. Sneddon et al. 2014 argues that the “key function [of pain] appears to be that the aversive experience of pain creates a strong and lasting motivation that enables the animal to avoid getting into a similar situation in the future.”
Mere nociception is unlikely to be an efficient response to noxious stimuli in the long-term. Nociception is fast and reflexive, but it is not normally associated with a lasting memory. On the other hand, conscious pain experiences, with their attendant felt badness, tend to leave a memorial imprint. Because pain experiences are often stored in long-term memory, pain can induce long-term behavioral and motivational changes. For long-lived animals in complex environments, pain is potentially more effective at protecting the animal from damage than mere nociception. Again in the words of Sneddon et al. 2014: “while nociception typically allows for an immediate reduction of tissue damage, pain typically allows for longer-term protection.” Thus, insofar as invertebrates exhibit long-term behavior alterations in response to noxious stimuli, that is evidence that they experience the noxious events as painful.
Unfortunately, the evidential status of long-term behavioral alteration has recently been complicated by new studies of nociceptive systems. Such systems can be enormously complex, and in some instances nociceptive systems exhibit a degree of plasticity. For example, Smith and Lewin 2009 discuss the process of nociceptive sensitization, a phenomenon that “manifests as either non-responsive neurons becoming responsive, or neurons responding at reduced threshold and/or producing responses of greater magnitude.” If nociception can produce long-lasting effects without the involvement of conscious experience, then the evidential weight of long-term behavioral alteration is undercut.
Note also that “long-term” is a predicate that comes in degrees. Furthermore, what counts as a “long-term” behavior modification is plausibly relative to the lifespan of the creature modifying its behavior. For lifespans measured in weeks, remembering a phenomenon for several days may confer the same fitness advantage as a longer-lived creature remembering a phenomenon for months. Thus, what qualifies as “long-term” for a fruit fly may not qualify as “long-term” for a cow. In response to these problems, we have introduced two versions of this feature. The first measures whether behavior alteration persists more than 24 hours. The second measures whether behavior alteration persists more than 30 days. We realize this is an imperfect solution to the problem, but given our constraints, it was the best we could do. When an animal clearly exceeds the 24 hour threshold but falls just shy of the 30 day threshold (as is the case with sea hares), we have noted as much in the comments.
Navigate known paths/areas
An organism possesses this ability if it can navigate to a destination within an area that is already known to the organism. This is a very basic navigational skill, exhibited by most motile animals, some amoeboid protists, and many robots. As such, possession of this ability does not provide much evidence for the capacity for valenced experience.
Navigate unknown paths/areas
An organism possesses this ability if it can navigate to a destination within an area that is unknown to the organism. In general, navigational skills are relevant for the detection of valenced experience in virtue of their possible connection to conscious experience more generally. According to some researchers, the evolutionary function of consciousness is to produce an integrated and egocentric spatial model to guide an animal as it navigates a complex environment. If consciousness evolved specifically to aid motile animals in complex environments, then various navigational feats could plausibly be interpreted as evidence of consciousness in evolved creatures.
There is at least circumstantial evidence that navigating novel environments requires conscious input whereas navigating known environments does not. In humans, conscious awareness seems to be required to maneuver through the unknown but not the known. Unconscious sleepwalkers can navigate familiar landscapes (moving from the bedroom to the kitchen, say), but they are generally unable to successfully traverse unfamiliar areas.
In laboratory settings the ability to navigate unknown areas is often tested with mazes. The strength of this ability is measured along at least two axes: the efficiency with which the organism can solve a novel maze and the complexity of the maze used in the experiment. However, there may be limits to this methodology. There is a sense in which unicellular slime molds can “solve” relatively complex mazes. It is not clear exactly what to make of this result, or even if it is intelligible to speak of unicellular organisms navigating at all. The slime mold case is a useful reminder that lab results can be interpreted in multiple ways. As is normally the case, evidence for consciousness in one species may not be as compelling for another species.
Spatial memory is the faculty animals use to return to rewarding locations (e.g., dens, foraging sites, food caches, watering holes, nesting beaches). A variety of different cues can form the basis of this type of memory, including visual or olfactory landmarks, distances, and cardinal directions. Spatial memory has been demonstrated in a large range of animals, including invertebrates. Many species of bee, for example, engage in trapline nectaring: the establishment of regular routes for visiting flowers in a precise repeated order. Other insects engage in patrolling behavior: repeated loops or back-and-forth routes to defend resources from conspecifics. Cephalopods are also known to have a good working memory of recent foraging areas.
Spatial memory is potentially relevant to consciousness because of its relationship to what Michael Trestman, a philosopher of biology at Indiana University, calls a “complex active body” (CAB). A CAB is capable of independent, perceptually-guided, powered-motion (e.g., swimming, flying, crawling). According to Trestman, the evolution of CABs requires the capacity for integrated, embodied spatial cognition, including spatial memory. If one adopts a “global workspace” theory of consciousness, a sophisticated, integrated form of cognition (of which spatial memory forms a part) of this sort is evidence for phenomenal consciousness.
One complication merits discussion. Memory in general, and spatial memory in particular, need not be internal. Many organisms effectively externalize part of their memory by storing and retrieving information about past events in a physical medium outside their bodies. Humans, of course, utilize Post-It notes and iPhones, but external memory is not unique to us. The pheromone trails deposited by many species of ants have been described as a form of external memory. Even very simple organisms, such as the brainless slime mold Physarum polycephalum employ a form of external memory. As the mold moves, it leaves behind a coating of nonliving, extracellular slime. As the mold explores, it tends to avoid contact with the extracellular slime. Reid et al. 2012 reports that this “avoidance behavior is a ‘choice’ because when no previously unexplored territory is available, the slime mold no longer avoids extracellular slime. The slime mold’s behavioral response strongly suggests that it can sense extracellular slime upon contact, and uses its presence as an externalized spatial memory system to recognize and avoid areas it has already explored.” Because it’s not always easy to distinguish external memory from internal memory, we have opted not to make this distinction in our investigations. Thus, according to our methodology, any organism that displays the telltale behavioral indicators of spatial memory counts as possessing this feature, even brainless slime molds. As with many other features, the context in which this ability is observed matters a great deal, and hence the importance of this feature probably ought to be adjudicated on a species-by-species basis.
Detour behavior occurs when, in order to reach a goal, an organism navigates around a barrier that temporarily blocks sensorial contact with the goal. Detour behavior often requires backtracking, the ability of an organism to retrace its movement. Detour behavior also requires an organism to possess a working memory capable of representing an object outside sensorial contact, retaining that representation over time as the organism moves. Among invertebrates, detour behavior has been observed in jumping spiders, desert ants, and octopuses.
At least some researchers believe that an animal’s navigational skills can tell us something about the organization of that animal’s mind. For instance, Peter Carruthers, a philosopher and cognitive scientist at the University of Maryland, writes, “at least some invertebrates (speciﬁcally honey bees and jumping spiders) possess a belief-desire-planning cognitive architecture much like our own, as revealed by their sophisticated navigation abilities.” If it’s true that navigation abilities can provide insight about cognitive architecture, then detour behavior, as the most sophisticated navigational skill systematically studied across diverse taxa, is an important feature to consider.
Mood State Behaviors
Anhedonia is a loss of interest in activities previously found to be rewarding. In humans, anhedonia is a common symptom of depression. In nonhuman animals, external symptoms of anhedonia may include “behavioral deficits consistent with a loss of responsiveness to reward, such as decreased sucrose consumption, decreased ability to associate rewards with a distinctive environment, and decreased sensitivity to rewarding electrical brain stimulation.” In the absence of defeaters, anhedonia-like behavior in a nonhuman animal is modest evidence that the animal is capable of experiencing a negatively valenced emotional state. Anhedonia-like behavior can be induced in fruit flies by exposing them to aversive, uncontrollable vibrations over several days. The shaken flies show reductions in various voluntary behaviors, although reflexive behavior remains unchanged. In particular, shaken flies consume much less glycerol (commonly used as a reward in fruit fly studies) than non-shaken controls, suggesting that the shaken flies have lost their taste for sweets.
Learned helplessness behavior
Learned helplessness is a condition in which a human or nonhuman animal adopts an overly passive reaction profile that disrupts important voluntary behavior. A creature in the throes of learned helplessness will often neglect basic survival needs, ignoring food, water, predators, and potential mates. Learned helplessness is triggered by repeated, uncontrollable exposure to traumatic stimuli, and it can be reliably reproduced in a number of nonhuman animals. For example, if dogs are subjected to repetitive and unavoidable electric shocks, the dogs will eventually stop trying to evade the shocks, sitting passive and still even if later explicitly given the opportunity to escape. Learned helplessness is a major symptom of depression in humans, and thus the presence of learned helplessness behavior in nonhuman animals is, in the absence of defeaters, modest evidence that those animals are capable of experiencing a negatively valenced emotional state.
One potential defeater is worth flagging right away. Although it may appear that learned helplessness is a relatively sophisticated cognitive condition, the basic characteristics of learned helplessness have allegedly been demonstrated in an isolated ganglion of a decapitated insect. A single cockroach leg connected to its isolated thoracic ganglion can be operantly trained to remain lifted. However, if the leg-ganglion system is subjected to uncontrollable electric shocks before the conditioning, acquisition takes much longer. Summarizing this research, as well as similar research on the severed spines of rats, Eisenstein et al. 1997 reports, “The brain is evidently not essential either in mammals or in invertebrates for demonstrating [learned helplessness].” If that is true, then learned helplessness is almost certainly mediated at least in part by mechanisms much simpler than conscious experience.
Displacement behavior is a behavioral response to stress. Common examples of displacement behavior include pacing, fidgeting, grooming, scratching, and object manipulation (such as twirling a pen). Displacement activities are thought to occur when an organism is caught between conflicting motivations. They are thought, and some experimental evidence suggests, to be a ‘comfort’ activity that reduces anxiety in the organism. Displacement behavior often occurs rapidly, incompletely, and out-of-context. For instance, a bird unable to decide whether it ought to flee or attack an opponent might instead quickly preen or peck the ground. Displacement behavior is often exhibited in socially tense situations like these, and in social hierarchies lower-ranking animals exhibit displacement behavior more often than higher-ranking animals. Notably, displacement behavior is increased in a dose-dependent way when an organism is given anxiety-provoking drugs and decreased in a dose-dependent way when an organism is given anxiety-relieving drugs. Displacement behavior is thus modest evidence for the presence of a negatively valenced emotional state.
Adverse effects of social isolation
A wide variety of animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, live in groups. These groups range from loose aggregations of ten or fewer animals to massive ant supercolonies containing millions of animals. The adverse effects of social deprivation in group-living vertebrates is well documented. When raised in isolation, such animals are less able to appropriately process social and environmental stimuli. For example, rat pups reared in isolation exhibit a wide range of long-term behavioral and physiological abnormalities, including “neophobia [fear of new things], impaired sensorimotor gating, aggression, cognitive rigidity, reduced prefrontal cortical volume and decreased cortical and hippocampal synaptic plasticity.” Group-living animals display their preference for social contact in a number of ways. Bull calves actively seek out companion animals. Young chicks increase their peeping calls when isolated. The effects of social deprivation in eusocial insects have also been well-studied. Social isolation increases aggression in honeybees and drastically reduces lifespan in ants. More recently, social isolation has been studied in group-living non-eusocial insects. In some species of cockroach, individuals reared in isolation show “stronger exploration-avoidance, reduced foraging activity, reduced willingness to interact socially, and reduced ability to assess mating partner quality compared to peers raised in groups.”
In humans, the adverse effects of social isolation are correlated with negatively valenced emotional experiences. In the absence of defeaters, the presence of similar adverse effects in nonhuman animals is evidence that they experience similar negatively valenced states. Of course, we should not expect animals that do not live in groups to be adversely affected by social isolation. Octopuses, for instance, lead mostly solitary lives and for that reason do not exhibit any noticeable differences when kept in isolation. One should not conclude on that basis that octopuses cannot experience stress from other sources.
Stereotypies are a type of repetitive behavior that is unvarying and apparently purposeless. Stereotypies are most commonly observed in captive animals. They are usually considered abnormal and are often taken to be evidence of welfare problems. Examples include excessive grooming leading to self-mutilation, swimming in circles, pacing, mouthing cage bars, and chewing without anything in the mouth (so-called “sham-chewing”). Although stereotypic behavior is probably caused by impoverished states, especially situations where the normal functional response of an animal is blocked, stereotypic activities might actually serve to reduce stress, by releasing morphine-like endorphins.
Stereotypic behavior is well documented in captive chickens and cows. Caged hens unable to find or even seek an appropriate nest site engage in stereotypic pacing, while broiler chickens unable to forage engage in stereotypic spot-pecking. Confined cows engage in stereotypic tongue-rolling and often engage in a repeated pattern of getting up and then immediately lying down over long periods of time.
Only recently has stereotypic behavior been observed in invertebrates. Huber et al. 2018 reports that giving crayfish methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) "triggers repetitive stereotypies in which only the last pair of walking legs stabilizes the body, while all other walking legs, claws, and mouthparts sway back and forth continuously." Andrews et al. 2013 identified stereotypic “pacing” activity in the Giant Pacific octopus, Enteroctopus dofleini, which stopped when environmental enrichment was provided.
According to one estimate, approximately 91% of confined sows, 82% of broiler breeders, and 50% of laboratory mice will engage in some form of stereotypic behavior over a six month period.
All animals react to perceived danger. In humans, one type of reaction to perceived danger is conscious fear. The experience of fear is associated with certain physiological and behavioral responses. Behavioral markings of fear include fleeing, hiding, freezing, and suspending unnecessary bodily functions. Physiological reactions to fear can include elevated heart rate, hyperventilation, increased muscle tension, constriction of blood vessels, nausea, and dizziness. Insofar as other animals display relevantly similar physiological and/or behavioral responses, that is evidence that they too experience conscious fear.
Anxiety is related to but distinct from fear. Anxiety is sometimes said to be the result of danger that is perceived to be unavoidable or situations in which the threat is ambiguous or unknown. Anxiety is often considered a secondary emotion, that is, an emotion in response to another emotion. For example, in humans, generalized fear often leads to anxiety. In addition to physiological and behavioral reactions, anxiety is also associated with certain cognitive changes. For example, anxiety is correlated with pessimistic cognitive biases and generalizability. (In this context, generalizability means that fear or anxiety is not specific to one triggering stimulus; when a creature experiences anxiety, it becomes more afraid of other potential threats as well.) Although the three are phenomenologically and conceptually distinct, fear, anxiety, and pain are all negatively valenced. Thus, the experience of fear or anxiety directly entails the capacity for valenced experience.
Two worries are worth noting with respect to the detection of fear and anxiety in invertebrates. The first is that by applying emotional terms to phylogenetically distant animals, we may be resorting to problematic anthropomorphizing. Both crayfish and honeybees exhibit many of the behaviors associated with human fear and anxiety, but, because those terms come loaded with anthropocentric connotations, applying those terms to those animals may inevitably be misleading.
The other worry runs in the opposite direction. Because the lifestyle and environment of phylogenetically distant animals is so alien to us, we should not expect negative emotional states to be expressed in precisely the same manner. Gibson et al. 2015 reminds us that “distantly related species may express emotion states through behaviors that have no obvious homology to human behaviors.” They advocate for an “alternative approach to identifying instances of emotional expression, which does not depend on anthropocentric homologies” by establishing “general features of emotion states, or ‘emotion primitives,’ which apply both to different emotions in a species and to emotions across phylogeny. One can then search for behaviors that exhibit evidence of such emotion primitives in model organisms.”
Play behavior is difficult to define but easy to recognize. Play behavior is characteristically voluntary, spontaneous, and repetitive (though not stereotypic). Generally only healthy animals in low-stress environments engage in play, and it is most widely observed in juveniles, peaking around puberty. Play behavior is not aimed directly at immediate survival needs or reproduction, but many skills needed for survival and reproduction are practiced during play. Play behavior is commonplace among socially complex animals. It facilitates the acquisition of motor skills, teaches social competence, prepares the animal for unexpected situations, and in general stimulates brain development.
Play is biologically expensive. When playing, animals expend energy, forgo foraging opportunities, and draw (potentially predatory) attention to themselves while in a distracted state. Play behavior even reduces growth rate. Play also appears to be intrinsically pleasurable. Dopaminergic pathways in the brain light up during play. Rat pups ‘chirp’ when playing in the same way as when they are presented with a food reward.
Some researchers believe that play behavior is good evidence for the capacity for valenced experience because, they allege, play behavior plausibly requires the experience of pleasure. Whether or not this is so, play behavior does seem to require a relatively high degree of cognitive sophistication. Play behavior is most common among mammals, and across mammalian orders brain size is positively correlated with playfulness. Play behavior is in general not found in birds, with the exception of the highly intelligent corvid family. Octopuses appear to be the only invertebrate that exhibits play behavior. (Play behavior probably evolved independently in octopuses because the last common ancestor of mammals, birds, and cephalopods almost certainly lacked the cognitive sophistication to engage in play behavior.) Thus, it’s possible that play behavior is a reasonably accurate proxy for overall intelligence.
This essay is a project of Rethink Priorities. It was written by Jason Schukraft with contributions from Max Carpendale. Thanks to Kim Cuddington, Marcus A. Davis, Peter Hurford, and Daniela Waldhorn for helpful feedback. If you like our work, please consider subscribing to our newsletter. You can see all our work to date here.
Vertebrates constitute a subphylum in the phylum Chordata. Cladistically, it would be more precise to speak of ‘chordates’ and ‘non-chordates.’ In using the terms ‘vertebrates’ and ‘invertebrates’ we defer to common usage. However, the number of invertebrates in the phylum Chordata is trivial compared to the number of invertebrates outside Chordata, so common usage is not wholly inaccurate. ↩
We use the terms ‘sentience,’ ‘phenomenal consciousness,’ and ‘subjective experience’ interchangeably. An organism is sentient just in case there is something it is like to be that organism. ‘Valenced experience’ denotes a proper subset of conscious experience in which experiences take on a positive or negative affect. All creatures with the capacity for valenced experience are necessarily sentient, but not all sentient creatures necessarily have the capacity for valenced experience. Note: ‘sentience’ gets used in different ways by different philosophical communities. In philosophy of mind, the term is normally used in its broad sense, to mean ‘phenomenal consciousness.’ (See, inter alia, this SEP article on animal consciousness.) In moral philosophy, the term is normally used in its narrow sense, to mean ‘valenced experience.’ (See, inter alia, this SEP article on the grounds of moral status.) We have adopted the philosophy of mind usage. ↩
Colin Allen, James W. Grau, and Mary W. Meagher. 2009. “The Lower Bounds of Cognition: What Do Spinal Cords Reveal?” In J. Bickle (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Neuroscience (pp. 129–142). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ↩
Robert E. Clark and Larry R. Squire. 1998. “Classical Conditioning and Brain Systems: The Role of Awareness” Science 280 (5360): 77–81. ↩
W. N. Frost and E. V. Megalou. 2009. “Learning and Memory in Invertebrate Models: Tritonia.” Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, Academic Press: 401-404. ↩
Harold M. Pinsker, Wayne A. Hening, Thomas J. Carew, and Eric R. Kandel. 1973. “Long-Term Sensitization of a Defensive Withdrawal Reflex in Aplysia.” Science 07 Dec 1973: Vol. 182, Issue 4116: 1039-1042. Kandel won a Nobel Prize in 2000 for subsequent work on this topic. ↩
Humans often experience a similar phenomenon at the dentist. Near the end of a particularly invasive and painful dental procedure, patients will reflexively withdraw from even light contact to the gums, contact that would not have evoked a withdrawal reflex at the beginning of the procedure. ↩
Koutarou D. Kimura, Kosuke Fujita and Isao Katsura. 2010. “Enhancement of Odor Avoidance Regulated by Dopamine Signaling in Caenorhabditis elegans.” Journal of Neuroscience 30 (48): 16365-16375. ↩
E.M.Eisenstein, D.G.Brunder, and H.J.Blair. 1982. “Habituation and sensitization in an aneural cell: Some comparative and theoretical considerations.” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 6: 183-194. ↩
Catharine H. Rankin, Thomas Abrams, Robert J. Barry, Seema Bhatnagar, David F. Clayton, John Colombo, Gianluca Coppola et al. 2009. “Habituation revisited: an updated and revised description of the behavioral characteristics of habituation.” Neurobiology of learning and memory 92, no. 2 : 135-138. ↩
Monica Gagliano, Michael Renton, Martial Depczynski, Stefano Mancuso. 2014. "Experience teaches plants to learn faster and forget slower in environments where it matters". Oecologia. 175 (1): 63–72. ↩
D.C. Wood. 1988. “Habituation in Stentor produced by mechanoreceptor channel modification.” Journal of Neuroscience. 8 (7): 2254–2258. ↩
Clint J. Perry, Andrew B Barron, and Ken Cheng. 2013. “Invertebrate Learning and Cognition: Relating Phenomena to Neural Substrate.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science 4: 561–82: 566. ↩
Theo Mota, Martin Giurfa, and Jean-Christophe Sandoz. 2011. “Color Modulates Olfactory Learning in Honeybees by an Occasion-Setting Mechanism.” Learning and Memory 18: 144-155. ↩
Paula Droege. 2017. “The Lives of Others: Pain in Non-Human Animals,” in Jennifer Corns (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Pain: 196. She adds, “distinguishing flexible from fixed response is not a simple matter. The basic idea behind flexibility is that an animal no longer simply acts based on past associations; it generalizes on past learning to anticipate which sort of action is best” (ibid.). ↩
Bennett G. Galef and Kevin N. Laland. 2005. “Social Learning in Animals: Empirical Studies and Theoretical Models.” BioScience 55: 489-499. ↩
Sylvain Alem et al. 2016. “Associative Mechanisms Allow for Social Learning and Cultural Transmission of String Pulling in an Insect.” PLOS Biology 14(12): e1002589. ↩
See Crickette Sanz, Josep Call, and David Morgan. 2009. “Design complexity in termite-fishing tools of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).” Biology Letters 5, no. 3: 293-296 and Nicolas Claidière and Dan Sperber. 2009. “Imitation explains the propagation, not the stability of animal culture.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 277, no. 1681: 651-659. ↩
In rats, nausea seems to play the role of motivating them to engage in pica, the deliberate ingestion of nonfood substances to neutralize toxins. Linda A. Parker. 2003. “Taste avoidance and taste aversion: Evidence for two different processes.” Animal Learning and Behavior 31: 165-172. ↩
Parker 2003 ↩
Judith R. Ganchrow, Jacob E. Steiner, and Atida Bartana. 1990. “Behavioral reactions to gustatory stimuli in young chicks (Gallus gallus domesticus).” Developmental Psychobiology 23: 103-117. ↩
Anne-Sophie Darmaillacq, Ludovic Dickel, Marie-Paule Chichery, Véronique Agin, and Raymond Chichery. 2004. “Rapid taste aversion learning in adult cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis.” Animal Behaviour 68 ( )6: 1291-1298. ↩
Parker 2003 ↩
Konstantin G Iliadi. 2009. “The Genetic Basis of Emotional Behavior: Has the Time Come for a Drosophila Model?” Journal of Neurogenetics 7063. ↩
We use the phrase “pain relief learning” only because it is the accepted nomenclature in the literature. The term is meant to be used in a strictly neutral sense. Read literally, any organism capable of relief from pain is also capable of pain, and thus satisfying this condition would directly entail the capacity for valenced experience. Obviously, we don’t intend to use the term in that way. ↩
Gerber, B., A. Yarali, S. Diegelmann, C. T. Wotjak, P. Pauli, and M. Fendt. 2014. “Pain-Relief Learning in Flies, Rats, and Man: Basic Research and Applied Perspectives.” Learning & Memory 21: 232–52. ↩
Reto Bisaz, Alessio Travaglia, and Cristina M. Alberini. 2014. “The neurobiological bases of memory formation: from physiological conditions to psychopathology.” Psychopathology 47, no. 6: 347-356. ↩
Sneddon et al. 2014: 202. ↩
Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Ryo Kobayashi, Yasumasa Nishiura, and Tetsuo Ueda. 2004. “Obtaining multiple separate food sources: behavioural intelligence in the Physarum plasmodium.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 271, no. 1554: 2305-2310. ↩
Voemir Kunchev, Lakhmi Jain, Vladimir Ivancevic, and Anthony Finn. 2006. “Path planning and obstacle avoidance for autonomous mobile robots: A review.” In Gabrys B., Howlett R.J., Jain L.C. (eds) Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg: 537-544. ↩
Andrew B. Barron and Colin Klein. 2016. “What Insects Can Tell Us about the Origins of Consciousness.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 113 (18): 4900-4908. ↩
Shreeya Popat and William Winslade. 2015. “While you were sleepwalking: science and neurobiology of sleep disorders & the enigma of legal responsibility of violence during parasomnia.” Neuroethics 8, no. 2: 203-214. ↩
Michael Trestman. 2013. “The Cambrian Explosion and the Origins of Embodied Cognition.” Biological Theory 8: 80-92. ↩
Duncan E. Jackson, Stephen J. Martin, Mike Holcombe, and Francis LW Ratnieks. 2006. “Longevity and detection of persistent foraging trails in Pharaoh's ants, Monomorium pharaonis (L.).” Animal Behaviour 71, no. 2: 351-359. ↩
Chris R. Reid, Tanya Latty, Audrey Dussutour, and Madeleine Beekman. 2012. “Slime mold uses an externalized spatial “memory” to navigate in complex environments.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109, no. 43: 17490-17494. ↩
Thus, detour behavior may require an organism to possess the concept object permanence. ↩
M.S. Tarsitano and Robert R. Jackson. 1994. “Jumping spiders make predatory detours requiring movement away from prey.” Behaviour 131, no. 1-2: 65-73. ↩
Rudiger Wehner. 2003. “Desert ant navigation: how miniature brains solve complex tasks.” Journal of Comparative Physiology A 189, no. 8: 579-588. ↩
Peter Carruthers. 2007. “Invertebrate Minds: A Challenge for Ethical Theory.” The Journal of Ethics 11: 275-297. It should be noted that Carruthers does not believe that spiders and bees (or any other invertebrates) are moral patients. ↩
Paul Willner, Richard Muscat, and Mariusz Pap. 1992. “Chronic Mild Stress-Induced Anhedonia: A Realistic Animal Model of Depression.” Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 16.4: 525–34 . ↩
Jean-Luc Moreau. 2002. “Simulating the anhedonia symptom of depression in animals.” Dialogues in clinical neuroscience 4, no. 4: 351-360. ↩
Ariane-Saskia Ries, Tim Hermanns, Burkhard Poeck, and Roland Strauss. 2017. “Serotonin modulates a depression-like state in Drosophila responsive to lithium treatment.” Nature Communications 8: 15738. ↩
Learned helplessness was first described in dogs. The classic study on learned helpless is J. Bruce Overmier and Martin E. Seligman. 1967. “Effects of inescapable shock upon subsequent escape and avoidance responding.” Journal of comparative and physiological psychology 63, no. 1: 28-33. ↩
Martin E. Seligman. 1968. “Chronic fear produced by unpredictable electric shock.” Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 66, no. 2: 402-411. ↩
Meredith Root-Bernstein. 2010. “Displacement Activities during the Honeybee Transition from Waggle Dance to Foraging.” Animal Behaviour 79 (4) : 935–38. ↩
Alfonso Troisi. 2002. “Displacement Activities as a Behavioral Measure of Stress in Nonhuman Primates and Human Subjects.” Stress 5 (1): 47-54. ↩
Root-Bernstein 2010 ↩
E. Sunamura et al. 2009. “Intercontinental Union of Argentine ants: Behavioral Relationships among Introduced Populations in Europe, North America, and Asia.” Insectes Sociaux 56: 143-147. ↩
Kevin C.F. Fone and M. Veronica Porkess. 2008. “Behavioural and Neurochemical Effects of Post-Weaning Social Isolation in Rodents—Relevance to Developmental Neuropsychiatric Disorders.” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 32: 1087-1102. ↩
Luc Mounier et al. 2006. “Mixing at the Beginning of Fattening Moderates Social Buffering in Beef Bulls.” Applied Animal Behaviour Science 96: 185-200. ↩
Kenneth J. Sufka and Richard A. Hughes. 1991. “Differential Effects of Handling on Isolation-Induced Vocalizations, Hypoalgesia, and Hyperthermia in Domestic Fowl.” Physiology and Behavior 50: 129-133. ↩
M.D. Breed. 1983. “Correlations Between Aggressiveness and Corpora Allata Volume, Social Isolation, Age and Dietary Protein in Worker Honeybees.” Insectes Sociaux 30: 482-495. ↩
Raphaël Boulay et al. 1999. “Social isolation in ants: Evidence of its impact on survivorship and behavior in Camponotus fellah (Hymenoptera, Formicidae).” Sociobiology 33: 111-124. ↩
Mathieu Lihoreau, Loïc Brepson, and Colette Rivault. 2009. “The Weight of the Clan: Even in Insects, Social Isolation Can Induce a Behavioural Syndrome.” Behavioural Processes 82: 81-84. ↩
GJ Mason and NR Latham. 2004. “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: Is Stereotypy a Reliable Animal Welfare Indicator?” Animal Welfare 13, S57-69. ↩
Robert Huber, Adebobola Imeh-Nathaniel, Thomas I. Nathaniel, Sayali Gore, Udita Datta, Rohan Bhimani, Jules B. Panksepp, Jaak Panksepp, and Moira J. van Staaden. 2018. “Drug-sensitive Reward in Crayfish: Exploring the Neural Basis of Addiction with Automated Learning Paradigms.” Behavioural Processes 152: 47-53. ↩
Paul L.R. Andrews, Anne-Sophie Darmaillacq, Ngaire Dennison, Ian G. Gleadall, Penny Hawkins, John B. Messenger, Daniel Osorio, Valerie J. Smith, and Jane A. Smith. 2013. “The identification and management of pain, suffering and distress in cephalopods, including anaesthesia, analgesia and humane killing.” Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 447: 46-64. ↩
Mason and Latham 2004: 58. ↩
Arne Öhman. 2000. "Fear and Anxiety: Evolutionary, Cognitive, and Clinical perspectives.” in M. Lewis & J.M. Haviland-Jones (eds.). Handbook of Emotions. pp. 573–93. New York: The Guilford Press. ↩
Catherine Belzung and Pierre Philippot. “Anxiety from a Phylogenetic Perspective: Is there a Qualitative Difference between Human and Animal Anxiety?” Neural Plasticity Volume 2007, Article ID 59676, 17 pages ↩
Such as elevated heart rate, rapid breathing, increased perspiration, increased motor tension, changes in sleeping patterns, and/or changes in food intake. There are many different types of anxiety (e.g., acute versus chronic) and different types of anxiety produce different symptoms. ↩
Pascal Fossat, Julien Bacqué-Cazenave, Philippe De Deurwaerdère, Jean-Paul Delbecque, and Daniel Cattaert. 2014. “Anxiety-Like Behavior in Crayfish Is Controlled by Serotonin.” Science 344: 1293-1297. ↩
Melissa Bateson et al. 2011. “Agitated Honeybees Exhibit Pessimistic Cognitive Biases.” Current Biology 21: 1070-1073. ↩
William T. Gibson et al. 2015. “Behavioral Responses to a Repetitive Visual Threat Stimulus Express a Persistent State of Defensive Arousal in Drosophila.” Current Biology 25: 1401. ↩
ibid. The authors add that “such emotion primitives may include the following features or dimensions: persistence following stimulus cessation, scalability (a graded nature of the response), valence, generalization to different contexts, and stimulus degeneracy (different stimuli can evoke the same behavior by induction of a common emotion state).” According to the authors, many of these emotion primitives have been identified in fruit flies. ↩
Andreas Berghänel, Oliver Schülke, and Julia Ostner. 2015. “Locomotor play drives motor skill acquisition at the expense of growth: A life history trade-off.” Science Advances 1, no. 7: e1500451. ↩
Full body tickling induces the same sort of chirping. Marek Spinka , Ruth C. Newberry, and Marc Bekoff. 2001. “Mammalian play: training for the unexpected.” The Quarterly review of biology 76, no. 2: 141-168. ↩
Andrew N. Iwaniuk, John E. Nelson, and Sergio M. Pellis. 2001. “Do big-brained animals play more? Comparative analyses of play and relative brain size in mammals.” Journal of Comparative Psychology 115, no. 1: 29-41. ↩
Michael J. Kuba, Ruth A. Byrne, Daniela V. Meisel, and Jennifer A. Mather. “When do octopuses play? Effects of repeated testing, object type, age, and food deprivation on object play in Octopus vulgaris.” Journal of Comparative Psychology 120, no. 3: 184-190. ↩


A biography is a publication about the life of a genuine person. This can be a person who lives today, an individual that lived centuries back, a distinct group of people, or an unsung hero. It is an account of an individual’s life from birth to death, typically highlighting essential occasions and minutes in the life of the topic. In addition to informing the tale of a real-life event, biographers will commonly highlight childhood experiences, coming-of-age events, and also failures.
The biography style started in the late 18th century and also can be traced completely back to Old Greece and also Rome. Very early Roman biographers, such as Cornelius Nepos, released their Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae in 44 BCE. In the late 18th century, Plutarch published Parallel Lives, which gathered 48 bios of well-known men. Suetonius created De vita Caesarum (On the Lives of the Caesars), which details the life of Julius Cesar as well as the initial eleven emperors of the Roman Realm. This is an example of how the bio kind progressed over the centuries.
The biography layout is an usual style in western literary works. It is a kind of writing that seeks to introduce visitors to the life of a subject and also to reveal their inspirations. It is a third-person narrative account, and also the writer is frequently eliminated from the subject, enabling them to assess their personality. The goal of a bio is to offer a more contemporary variation of a person’s life.
Creating a bio needs some skill and initiative on the part of the author. Along with relating the life of a person, a biographer needs to recreate the topic’s globe. The author has to define the features and also aspects of the subject’s life that are relevant to the visitor’s life. An unstructured life does not create an entertaining read. For that reason, it is very important to compose a biographies that is structured to maintain the viewers interested.
The format of a bio is necessary. It should be true. While a biographer is expected to be unbiased, he might compose information or miss out on essential realities. A bio is written in the first person, yet the author’s point of view, course, gender, and time are not the very same. Additionally, a biographer needs to be objective to level. Otherwise, the book won’t be an exact representation of the topic.
A biographer must be objective in their job. For example, in an autobiography, the author defines their experiences and also exactly how they influenced them. A biographer should make certain the information are appropriate. A biographer needs to likewise be able to provide the life of a subject in such a way that is engaging for readers. This will help the viewers to establish a deeper understanding of the subject. So, just how do biographies differ from other types of creating?
A bio can be either fictional or historical. For instance, Saint Augustine composed his memoir in 400. A biographer’s autobiography is an account of the life of a person. It explains a person’s life in detail, from birth to death. A biographer’s job can be helpful, or it can be a reference overview for readers. There are also other kinds of biographies: anachronistic and also apocryphal. For example, Saint Augustine’s autobiography is a brief and also comprehensive tale of Saint Augustine’s life.
A bio can be both essential and preferred. A preferred bio is created for a basic audience, such as the memoirs of Jon Krakauer. On the other hand, a vital bio takes a look at the relationship in between the topic’s life and also their job, like “Unpresidented: A Biography of Donald Trump” by David Foster as well as the Billionaire That Had Not Been” by Richard Donaghy. Although the latter is a lot more prominent than the former, both are similarly important.
A biographer’s work is to depict the subject’s personality and situations. They have to define the person’s life as well as his or her activities, along with his or her mental supports. They must answer the viewers’s questions about the topic’s life as well as why he or she did what they did. A biography is a kind of nonfiction, as well as is sometimes based on an actual person’s fatality.
Biographies might be partial or sympathetic accounts of the life of an individual. They might likewise be unbiased or take an objective approach. While bios should constantly be written in the first person, they are not objective by nature. Authors create from their own perspective, class, sex, or time. They are commonly thinking about the personality and also actions of their subject, as well as may try to understand the inspirations as well as activities of that person. Sometimes, biographers pretend to be psychologists or psychoanalysts in order to offer their subjects a much better understanding of just how they were as a person.
Pupils should first produce a timeline of the subject’s life. It can be a relative for practice. After research, students must assemble vital occasions that took place throughout the topic’s life. Relying on the sort of bio, they can include photos and also subtitles. Lastly, pupils can offer their timelines to the course to offer the target market a more clear picture of the topic. Nonetheless, it is vital to bear in mind that a bio is a job of fiction as well as is not a historic document.
When a student is ready to compose a biography, he or she ought to make a timeline of the topic’s life. A member of the family can be a great technique topic. Pupils must investigate the crucial events that occurred in the individual’s life as well as arrange them on a timeline. They can also consist of photos with an inscription. Once completed, trainees can present their timelines to the course. Ideally, the trainees will have a good time while learning the process of writing a bio! Homepage
A biographical work is a work of fiction. It is not just a retelling of a minute in an additional person’s life. It is a comprehensive description of the topic’s life, from childhood to retirement. The visitor will be fascinated by the subject’s life, which is what a biographer’s task is all about! It’s not a very easy job, and it must be challenging and also fulfilling. This is specifically true when the topic is somebody you enjoy.


This course will provide an overview of U.S. social policy and will explore how the government and states respond to inequalities. It will review the development of American social welfare programs and policies from the New Deal to the War on Poverty, declared by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, to the present. The class will also explore the role and impact of race, class, and gender on persistent inequalities and social policy. Considerable attention will be paid to the structural and institutional forces that shape inequalities and inform social policy; the impact of public attitudes and representation on policy outcomes; and other environmental factors and actors affecting policy analysis and modes of reasoning.
|Summer 2009||C. Nicole Mason||Syllabus|


This week, we looked at some unusual animal combinations and used our imaginations to develop our own mythical animal. For example, an animal with a giraffe neck, elephant ears, and the tail of a fish!
Through creating and drawing these wonderful creatures in Art, we did lots of 'talking for writing' with partners. We learnt lots of new descriptive words and phrases, created some facts about our mythical animals, and even considered how we could best display them in an information text.
We then used our pictures to help us with our 'Big Writing' which was to write an information text all about our newly created animal.
This week we have been learning all about the features of information texts and how they differ from other types of texts that we're more familiar with like stories.
We've looked through loads of different books to and come up with our own ideas as to what makes a good information text such as…titles and subtitles, contents and index, pictures, diagrams, fact and question boxes and many other features. Hopefully we will be able to write our own in the near future.
In Science, we've also used information texts to learn that humans and animals have babies, learnt what different baby animals are called, and learnt that they grow into adults and age.
We looked through our class library to find features of information texts. Everybody worked really well in groups and shared their ideas to put the books into as many different categories as possible. Please enjoy the photos.
This week in the elephants we learnt all about 'Instructions'... How to follow instructions, how to give instructions and even how to write instructions to look after a pet. This has tied in really well with our science lessons this week because, as well as learning about the human body we've also been learning all about what humans and animals need to live!
Following instructions for making Moon cakes
We would like to say a massive thank you to Adrian's mum, Luyee, who came into class with the fun activity of making our own moon cakes. We all thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival and at the same time practiced our listening skills by following instructions!
We hope you enjoy the photos below. :)
A massive hello from the Elephant herd!
It's been 3 weeks so far and we've already been really busy working as a herd to make our classroom and the corridors outside look a little more 'WILD' with wonderful displays.
To start off the term and our new topic 'Into The Wild', we've been learning all about the other class animals that we share our corridor with... Tigers, Pumas, Jaguars, Giraffes, and Rhinos! We've been filling our giant elephant memories with lots of new facts that we've learned through some excellent questions, activities, videos and animal discussions.
Elephants Studying Rhinos Photos
First, we thought of questions about what we wanted to know about Rhinos. Then, we went on an fact treasure hunt around the classroom to find out the answers to our questions. After that, we put the new facts that we had learnt into categories.
Welcome to the Elephant herd!
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