Absence Of Learning Research Articles

The underlying mechanisms of alignment in error backpropagation through arbitrary weights

Understanding the mechanisms by which plasticity in millions of synapses in the brain is orchestrated to achieve behavioral and cognitive goals is a fundamental question in neuroscience. In this regard, insights from learning methods in artificial neural networks (ANNs) and in particular supervised learning using backpropagation (BP) seem inspiring. However, the implementation of BP requires exact matching between forward and backward weights, which is unrealistic given the known connectivity pattern in the brain (known as the “weight transport problem”). Notably, it has been shown that under certain conditions, error BackPropagation Through Arbitrary Weights (BP-TAW) can lead to a partial alignment between forward and backward weights (weight alignment or WA). This learning algorithm, which is also known as feedback alignment (FA), can result in surprisingly good degrees of accuracy in simple classification tasks. However, the underlying mechanisms and mathematical basis of WA are not thoroughly understood. In this work, we demonstrate the mathematical basis of WA and answer the question of why and in what conditions WA occurs. We show that the occurrence of WA in ANNs is induced by statistical properties of the output and error signals of neurons, such as autocorrelation and cross-correlation, and can happen even in the absence of learning or reduction of the loss function. Moreover, we show that WA can be improved significantly by limiting the norm of input weights to neurons and that such a weight normalization (WN) method can improve the classification accuracy of BP-TAW. The findings presented can be used to further improve the performance of BP-TAW and open new ways for exploring possible learning mechanisms in biological neural networks without exact matching between forward and backward weights.

Lived experiences of students with blindness in Orientation and Mobility (O&M) skills at Haramaya University, Ethiopia: A phenomenological study

Orientation involves understanding or comprehending the location of the desired destination, while mobility pertains to safe and efficient movement within the environment. This study examines the life experiences of students with blindness at Haramaya University, Ethiopia, in learning and using Orientation and Mobility (O&M) skills. The research used a descriptive phenomenological design, with five participants purposively chosen based on their severity of vision loss and willingness. Based on the findings, three main themes emerged: formal learning and use, informal learning and use, and absence of learning and non-use. The study recommends appropriate teaching aids and techniques to improve O&M skills for individuals with blindness and to enhance the lives of individuals with blindness.

Attending is not enough: Responding to targets is needed for across-trial statistical learning

Recent evidence shows that observers are able to learn across-trial regularities as indicated by faster responses to targets whose location was predicted by the target’s location on the preceding trial. The present study investigated whether responding to both targets of the pair, as was the case in studies thus far, was needed for learning to occur. Participants searched for a shape singleton target and responded to the line inside. There were two across-trial predicting-predicted regularities regarding target locations: if the target appeared at one specific location on a given trial, it would appear at another specific location on the next trial. Unlike previous experiments, for one of these regularity pairs a response was only needed on either the first or the second target in the pair. Experiment 1 showed that across-trial learning only occurred when responding was required to both targets of a pair. If the response to one target of a pair had to be withheld, no learning occurred. Experiment 2 showed that the absence of learning cannot be attributed to carry-over inhibition resulting from not having to respond. After learning across-trial contingencies, learning remained in place even when the response to the first target of the pair had to be withheld. Our findings show that the execution of the (arbitrary) simple key-press response for both trials of the pair was needed for across-trial statistical learning to occur, whereas solely attending target locations did not result in any learning.

Do private firms (mis)learn from the stock market?

Abstract This article examines whether and to what extent private firms learn from the stock market. Using a large panel data set for the UK, I find that private firms’ investment responds positively to the valuation of public firms in the same industry. The sensitivity increases with price informativeness. To further pin down the information channel, I construct a price noise measure based on public firms’ unrelated minor segments and show that it positively affects the investment of private firms in the major-segment industry. The results are consistent with models featuring learning from noisy signals and are not driven by alternative channels in the absence of learning. My findings suggest that the stock market can have real effects on private firms through an information-spillover channel, even when these firms do not list their shares on the stock exchanges.

Proactive and reactive cognitive control in the absence of learning and memory confounds: Evidence from a cross-modal trial-unique Stroop task.

Goal-directed behaviour is typically conceptualized as striking a balance between two antagonistic cognitive control states such as proactive and reactive control, as demonstrated by conflict phenomena such as the list-wide proportion congruency and congruency sequence effects. However, control-based explanations for these phenomena have come under criticism due to low-level associative regularities that are frequently confounded with conflict manipulations within these experimental designs. In the present study, a novel Stroop paradigm referred to as the "trial-unique Stroop task" was developed to examine whether these effects could be observed in the absence of low-level associative regularities. On each trial, participants typed a word they heard spoken aloud while ignoring a word visually displayed on the screen. Importantly, each word only appeared in a single trial throughout the experiment, and because stimuli and responses were never repeated, there were no low-level associative regularities across trials. Using this paradigm, we observed both congruency sequence (Experiment 1) and list-wide proportion congruency (Experiment 2) effects, providing the strongest evidence to date for control-based explanations of these phenomena. Split-half analyses revealed much higher reliability than traditional colour-word Stroop tasks for the congruency effect (rSB = .98), the congruency sequence effect (rSB = .42), and the list-wide proportion congruency effect (rSB = .85). Moreover, the methodological advantages of the trial-unique Stroop task allow for the independent manipulation of task features related to control, learning, and memory processes. The promising results of this study support the application of the trial-unique Stroop task in this context and open new avenues for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

EXPLORING MISSING LEARNING PHENOMENON IN PRESCHOOL SETTINGS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC: TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES

Purpose –This study aims to explore the missing learning phenomenon due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic in preschool settings from teachers’ perspectives in Selangor, Malaysia. Related studies have shown that missing learning phenomena from different settings leads to delayed literacy development and raises the risk of dropping out among children. There is a lack of in-depth documentation on the missing learning phenomenon among preschoolers exploring the socioecology of preschool settings in a local context. Methodology –This research employed a case study approach. In-depth interviews were conducted with six preschool teachers from Selangor, Malaysia, using an inductive approach for a holistic understanding of the missing learning phenomenon during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were analyzed using Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS), NVivo version 12 software, which mapped the findings to understand further the ecosystem behind the preschoolers’ absence of learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings – Three major themes were revealed from the data: the missing learning demographic, socioecological factors, and mitigation plans. Several sub-themes (the compensative learning solutions, the demographic of impacted people, the delayed progress, teachers’ readiness to facilitate online learning, engagement towards online learning, revised syllabus, personalized learning, and parental involvement) are classified under the respective major themes. Several main categories also emerged from the themes: lack of experiences and technology-pedagogical knowledge, unavailable online modules, low readiness to utilize online learning, unsupportive family climate, and accessibility. Learning intervention and online engagement with pupils during the pandemic are crucial in ensuring a successful continuous education. Significance – There is also a need for comprehensive remote instructional modules that consider socioecological actors – parentsand home climate; in the future and the enhanced instructional technology competency among preschool teachers.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Signatures of Pavlovian and Instrumental Valuation Systems during a Modified Orthogonalized Go/No-go Task.

Motivational (i.e., Pavlovian) values interfere with instrumental responding and can lead to suboptimal decision-making. In humans, task-based neuroimaging studies have only recently started illuminating the functional neuroanatomy of Pavlovian biasing of instrumental control. To provide a mechanistic understanding of the neural dynamics underlying the Pavlovian and instrumental valuation systems, analysis of neuroimaging data has been informed by computational modeling of conditioned behavior. Nonetheless, because of collinearities in Pavlovian and instrumental predictions, previous research failed to tease out hemodynamic activity that is parametrically and dynamically modulated by coexistent Pavlovian and instrumental value expectations. Moreover, neural correlates of Pavlovian to instrumental transfer effects have so far only been identified in extinction (i.e., in the absence of learning). In this study, we devised a modified version of the orthogonalized go/no-go paradigm, which introduced Pavlovian-only catch trials to better disambiguate trial-by-trial Pavlovian and instrumental predictions in both sexes. We found that hemodynamic activity in the ventromedial pFC covaried uniquely with the model-derived Pavlovian value expectations. Notably, modulation of neural activity encoding for instrumental predictions in the supplementary motor cortex was linked to successful action selection in conflict conditions. Furthermore, hemodynamic activity in regions pertaining to the limbic system and medial pFC was correlated with synergistic Pavlovian and instrumental predictions and improved conditioned behavior during congruent trials. Altogether, our results provide new insights into the functional neuroanatomy of decision-making and corroborate the validity of our variant of the orthogonalized go/no-go task as a behavioral assay of the Pavlovian and instrumental valuation systems.

The Influence of Canva Application on the English Language Learning Outcomes Students of SMA Muhammadiyah Rappang

The research entitled " The Influence of Canva Application on the English Language Learning Outcomes Students of SMA Muhammadiyah Rappang" was motivated by the absence of learning using the Canva application applied to Indonesian subjects, so there is a need for innovation in the use of learning media to create a pleasant learning atmosphere for students. This study aims to determine the effect of using the canva application on the learning outcomes of students of SMA Muhammadiyah Rappang. The instrument in this study used a multiple-choice test of 20 numbers. The sample in this study was 23 students of grade XI SMA Muhammadiyah. For data analysis techniques in this study using the mean formula. Based on the results of the study, in accordance with hypothesis testing through data analysis, the initial test score (Y) results were lower than the final test score (X), namely Y = 75.65 < X = 86.73. The difference in the results of these scores proves that the working hypothesis that states there is an influence on the use of canva on Indonesian the learning outcomes students of grade XI SMA Muhammadiyah Rappang is "accepted". While the null hypothesis that states "there is no effect of using canva on Indonesian the learning outcomes students of grade XI SMA Muhammadiyah Rappang is "rejected". Thus, it can be concluded that the use of canva in learning affects the Indonesian learning outcomes students of grade XI SMA Muhammadiyah Rappang.

Revisiting the influence of learning in predator functional response, how it can lead to shapes different from type III.

Predator/parasitoid functional response is one of the main tools used to study predation behavior, and in assessing the potential of biological control candidates. It is generally accepted that predator learning in prey searching and manipulation can produce the appearance of a type III functional response. Holling proposed that in the presence of alternative prey, at some point the predator would shift the preferred prey, leading to the appearance of a sigmoid function that characterized that functional response. This is supported by the analogy between enzyme kinetics and functional response that Holling used as the basis for developing this theory. However, after several decades, sigmoidal functional responses appear in the absence of alternative prey in most of the biological taxa studied. Here, we propose modeling the effect of learning on the functional response by using the explicit incorporation of learning curves in the parameters of the Holling functional response, the attack rate (a), and the manipulation time (h). We then study how the variation in the parameters of the learning curves causes variations in the shape of the functional response curve. We found that the functional response product of learning can be either type I, II, or III, depending on what parameters act on the organism, and how much it can learn throughout the length of the study. Therefore, the presence of other types of curves should not be automatically associated with the absence of learning. These results are important from an ecological point of view because when type III functional response is associated with learning, it is generally accepted that it can operate as a stabilizing factor in population dynamics. Our results, to the contrary, suggest that depending on how it acts, it may even be destabilizing by generating the appearance of functional responses close to type I.

Optimal plasticity for memory maintenance during ongoing synaptic change.

Synaptic connections in many brain circuits fluctuate, exhibiting substantial turnover and remodelling over hours to days. Surprisingly, experiments show that most of this flux in connectivity persists in the absence of learning or known plasticity signals. How can neural circuits retain learned information despite a large proportion of ongoing and potentially disruptive synaptic changes? We address this question from first principles by analysing how much compensatory plasticity would be required to optimally counteract ongoing fluctuations, regardless of whether fluctuations are random or systematic. Remarkably, we find that the answer is largely independent of plasticity mechanisms and circuit architectures: compensatory plasticity should be at most equal in magnitude to fluctuations, and often less, in direct agreement with previously unexplained experimental observations. Moreover, our analysis shows that a high proportion of learning-independent synaptic change is consistent with plasticity mechanisms that accurately compute error gradients.

Problematic social media use is associated with the evaluation of both risk and ambiguity during decision making.

Background and aimsPeople can engage in excessive, maladaptive use of social media platforms. This problematic social media use mirrors substance use disorders with regard to symptoms and certain behavioral situations. For example, individuals with substance use disorders demonstrate aberrations in risk evaluations during decision making, and initial research on problematic social media use has revealed similar findings. However, these results concerning problematic social media use have been clouded by tasks that involve learning and that lack a clear demarcation between risky and ambiguous decision making. Therefore, we set out to specifically determine the relationship between problematic social media use and decision making under both risk and ambiguity, in the absence of learning.MethodsWe assessed each participant's (N = 90) self-reported level of problematic social media use. We then had them perform the wheel of fortune task, which has participants make choices between a sure option or either a risky or ambiguous gamble. In this way, the task isolates decisions made under risk and ambiguity, and avoids trial-to-trial learning. Results: We found that the greater an individual's problematic social media use, the more often that individual choses high-risk gambles or ambiguous gambles, regardless of the degree of ambiguity.Discussion and conclusionsOur findings indicate that greater problematic social media use is related to a greater affinity for high-risk situations and overall ambiguity. These findings have implications for the field, specifically clarifying and extending the extant literature, as well as providing future avenues for research.

Challenges for the National Education System in the COVID19 Era

The Covid19 pandemic interrupted the normal teaching process all over the world. Some countries, including the G7-member countries, were better prepared for facing the new challenges of the Distance Learning paradigm. In our country, the effect of Covid19 in the education system was close to a disaster as our system was unprepared for facing such a sudden paradigm shift. The Ministry of Education informed that the teaching will take place using a new, never used paradigm referred to as Distance Learning. 2 In these circumstances, it was necessary to organize a study to understand what were the feelings of students and professors using distance learning. To undertake the study, the technology of Mind Genomics was used. Mind Genomics uses statistical models, data mining, and clustering techniques to evaluate important patterns of thinking of students and professors as well. Four pillars (or silos) were defined to be the focus of the study; Effectiveness, Interaction, Feasibility, and the Future of the new teaching paradigm. Among the data collected from students are age, gender, and the reasons 1) Looking for: Fast learning through tutorial services 2) Looking for: Every time and everywhere learning, and 3) Looking for: Learning while working. Results show that 37% of respondents (the value of intercept) are inclined to use distance learning in absence of any other information about elements. This is a rather encouraging result. In general, most of the students and professors, 49.41% of them, use distance learning for the reason any time and everywhere learning. This result reinforces the idea that 37% of respondents are in favor of this learning paradigm in absence of any other information. Next, 27.06% of respondents use distance learning for Learning through tutorial services. Learning while working is the least appreciated reason, 23.53%. The study shows that the effectiveness and the interactivity of this new paradigm are very important and any further developments of distance learning should provide strong support for these components. The position of the professor is indispensable as the guide to the entire process, suggesting that at least at the time of this writing (2020) distance learning approach is perceived only to be an intermittent complementary path to in-person interactions.

Registered Replication Report of Weissman, D. H., Jiang, J., & Egner, T. (2014). Determinants of congruency sequence effects without learning and memory confounds

The congruency sequence effect (CSE) refers to the finding that the effect of cognitive conflict is smaller following conflicting, incongruent trials than after non-conflicting, congruent trials in conflict tasks, such as the Stroop, Simon, and flanker tasks. This is typically interpreted as an upregulation of cognitive control in response to conflict. Weissman, Jiang, & Egner (2014) investigated whether the CSE appears in these three tasks and a further variant where task-irrelevant distractors precede the target (prime-probe task), in the absence of learning and memory confounds in samples collected online. They found significant CSEs only in the prime-probe and Simon tasks, suggesting that the effect is more robust in tasks where the distractor can be translated into a response faster than the target. In this Registered Replication Report we collected data online from samples approx. 2.5 times larger than in the original study for each of the four tasks to investigate whether the task-related differences in the magnitude of the CSE are replicable (Nmin = 115, Nmax = 130). Our findings extend but do not contradict the original results: Bayesian analyses suggested that the CSE was present in all four tasks in RT but only in the Simon task in accuracy. The size of the effect did not differ between tasks, and the size of the congruency effect was not correlated with the size of the CSE across participants. These findings suggest it might be premature to conclude that the difference in the speed of distractor- vs target-related response activation is a determinant of the size of cross-trial modulations of control. The practical implications of our results for online data collection in cognitive control research are also discussed.

Leviathan for Sale: The Fallacy of Trusting in People Instead of Institutions

We experimentally test Hume’s hypothesis that people underappreciate the value of cooperation-enforcing institutions in impersonal interactions by relying on personal trust. Subjects played a game in groups of two or six. Each subject could defect at any time, leaving the others with zero payoff by unilaterally appropriating an amount of money that grew over a period of 5 ​minutes. All players received the maximum payoff only if nobody defected. Before the game, subjects could purchase a cooperation-enforcing institution. Their willingness to pay for this institution fell short of the loss caused by failed cooperation under institution-free play. This was even true for the best-off subject in an institution-free society. In the absence of learning, people indeed fell prey to the atavistic fallacy of trusting in people instead of institutions. Understanding this bias might help people in complex societies to acknowledge the value of institutions intellectually.

Effect of Suppression Width in Spontaneous Detection of Numerosity

Number sense is the spontaneous ability of human adults, infants, newborns, and other animals to process approximate numbers. However, how number sense can emerge in the absence of learning and fine-tuning has not been elucidated. On the basis of the treatment of visual pathways as an information processor, we developed two computational models for numerosity detection with single and dual suppression values. The information processor transforms the visual information of numerosities into input information of neurons in the parietal and prefrontal cortex via suppression and visuotopic mapping without the need for the construction of neural networks, training, and fine-tuning. In the single suppression model, the suppression width is a more fundamental determinant than numerical quantity in numerosity detection. Our dual suppression model clarifies the effect of suppression width values in two visual regions on spontaneous numerosity detection. It also predicts innate and acquired training behavior in humans and animals. Results suggest that the range of the lateral inhibition of neurons at successive stages in visual pathways is the neural basis of human number sense that ultimately gives rise to number theory and mathematics.

The relationships between eating disorder pathology and relative reinforcing value of food, delay discounting, and related constructs in adolescents

Food is a primary reinforcer that motivates behavior in the absence of learning or conditioning. Both the relative reinforcing value (RRV) of food and delay discounting are associated with weight status. While dietary restraint and disinhibition have been shown to influence the RRV of food, limited work has examined the relationships between eating disorder pathology and RRV of food and delay discounting. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how eating disorder pathology predicts RRV of food, proportion of food consumed, delay discounting, reinforcement pathology (i.e., high motivation to eat and high delay discounting), and sensitization of high energy dense food (HED; i.e., increases in RRV of HED food after daily repeated exposure). Participants were 167 adolescents ages 12–14 without obesity participating in a longitudinal study examining predictors of weight change who completed a series of laboratory assessments assessing the RRV of food of HED food, delay discounting, reinforcement pathology, sensitization of HED food, and a questionnaire assessing eating disorder pathology. Eating disorder pathology was not related to the RRV of food or delay discounting, but did predict reinforcement pathology and the sensitization of HED food. When explored by weight status, these relationships were only observed for those with overweight. There were no other significant relationships for either adolescents with normal weight or overweight. Given that weight status appeared to moderate some of the relationships between eating disorder pathology and reinforcement-related constructs, future work should examine how reinforcement pathology and eating disorder pathology are related to changes in weight status over time.

An Analysis of Decision under Risk in Rats

In 1979, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky published a ground-breaking paper titled "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk," which presented a behavioral economic theory that accounted for the ways in which humans deviate from economists' normative workhorse model, Expected Utility Theory [1, 2]. For example, people exhibit probability distortion (they overweight low probabilities), loss aversion (losses loom larger than gains), and reference dependence (outcomes are evaluated as gains or losses relative to an internal reference point). We found that rats exhibited many of these same biases, using a task in which rats chose between guaranteed and probabilistic rewards. However, prospect theory assumes stable preferences in the absence of learning, an assumption at odds with alternative frameworks such as animal learning theory and reinforcement learning [3-7]. Rats also exhibited trial history effects, consistent with ongoing learning. A reinforcement learning model in which state-action values were updated by the subjective value of outcomes according to prospect theory reproduced rats' nonlinear utility and probability weighting functions and also captured trial-by-trial learning dynamics.

Intrinsically regulated learning is modulated by synaptic dopamine signaling.

We recently provided evidence that an intrinsic reward-related signal-triggered by successful learning in absence of any external feedback-modulated the entrance of new information into long-term memory via the activation of the dopaminergic midbrain, hippocampus, and ventral striatum (the SN/VTA-Hippocampal loop; Ripollés et al., 2016). Here, we used a double-blind, within-subject randomized pharmacological intervention to test whether this learning process is indeed dopamine-dependent. A group of healthy individuals completed three behavioral sessions of a language-learning task after the intake of different pharmacological treatments: a dopaminergic precursor, a dopamine receptor antagonist or a placebo. Results show that the pharmacological intervention modulated behavioral measures of both learning and pleasantness, inducing memory benefits after 24 hr only for those participants with a high sensitivity to reward. These results provide causal evidence for a dopamine-dependent mechanism instrumental in intrinsically regulated learning and further suggest that subject-specific reward sensitivity drastically alters learning success.

Innovation and natural resource-based development: case of natural rubber sector in Kerala, India

ABSTRACTIt has long been held that natural resource abundance retards economic growth. Studies using innovation system perspectives, however, suggest that natural resource abundance per se need not stand in the way of evolving a growing and diversified economy while the absence of learning and innovation could. In this context, the present study explores why Kerala has not been successful in evolving new production and industries linked to established natural resource industries. This issue has been addressed by taking the case of natural rubber known for its R&D-led output growth and productivity enhancement. Analytically, it draws insights from the ongoing discourse in the innovation system literature that distinguishes between narrow and broad approaches to innovation processes. It is argued that while the narrow approach to innovation could lead to increased productivity and growth of natural rubber under tariff protection, it could not help in evolving a vibrant rubber-based industrial sector by harnessing backward and forward linkages. In sync with the studies that underline the complementary role of science-based learning and experience-based learning in accomplishing innovation-led long-term development, the paper makes the case for evolving broad innovation strategy in natural rubber to build linkages among various actors and heterogeneous knowledge bases.

Schooling in the Antebellum South: The Rise of Public and Private Education in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama by Sarah L. Hyde

Reviewed by: Schooling in the Antebellum South: The Rise of Public and Private Education in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama by Sarah L. Hyde Hilary N. Green (bio) Schooling in the Antebellum South: The Rise of Public and Private Education in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. By Sarah L. Hyde. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2016. Pp. 240. Cloth, $42.50.) Sarah Hyde’s Schooling in the Antebellum South is a refreshing intervention in the understanding of public education across the antebellum Gulf South states. Previous scholarship has often misconstrued a lack of pre-collegiate institutions in those states as an absence of learning and a sign that white southerners did not place cultural value on education. By examining Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, Hyde reveals that formal and informal learning was common in the region. White southerners utilized a range of private and public options, and their popular support of education prompted the statewide implementation of public schools before the Civil War. Over six chapters, Hyde argues that “the history of education in the Gulf South prior to the Civil War shows that people there valued education and made considerable progress in developing school systems that most white children could access. The story of these developments offers important insight into the worldview of the people inhabiting the region and deserves inclusion in the larger narrative of southern history” (6). Hyde begins her work with an in-depth discussion of the two most prevalent modes of learning: home instruction and private schooling. Chapter 1 explores the daily instruction that was undertaken within the home by private tutors, parents, and other family members. Although this form of schooling was often underappreciated by early scholars, Hyde takes seriously how home education allowed white southerners to overcome the obstacle of scattered settlement patterns to provide their children and other relatives with an education at a relatively low cost. Mothers, older siblings, and even white northern male tutors provided generations of children with an education ranging from the basic rudiments to the most [End Page 134] advanced curriculum. More important, home education allowed southern families to benefit from their children’s labor and life in the agricultural South. Hyde concludes that the robust nature of home instruction demonstrates neither an absence of learning nor a lack of cultural importance placed on education by white southerners. In chapter 2, Hyde moves her discussion to private schools, which she shows provided the most consistent mode of instruction in the three states under review. State legislatures, local governments, and even white planters relied on these private institutions “to carry the burden for educating the majority of southern children” (25). Even when state legislatures created public school systems, Hyde contends that private institutions remained essential. Though politics and the effects of the Panic of 1837 dictated the ability of the Gulf South states to financially support schools, Hyde demonstrates how the urban centers of New Orleans, Mobile, and Natchez functioned as the “genesis of public education” (69). Of the three cities, Hyde contends that New Orleans served as the model for the other two, as well as for the Gulf Coast states, region, and nation as a whole. All three, though, served as models for their respective states. Hyde successfully weaves quantitative charts with qualitative analyses of the typical school day, teacher salaries, curriculum, and local officials’ ability to secure both city and private funding to show how urban schools thrived before the Civil War. Collectively, white popular support of home instruction, private schools, and urban schools convinced state legislatures to establish public school laws and the necessary infrastructure once the states had recovered from the Panic of 1837. Tension between state and local control influenced the widespread expansion of public schools throughout the respective states over the following two decades. As an early pioneer, the Louisiana legislature modified the bureaucratic operational system and funding models to the detriment of most parish districts, with New Orleans being an exception. Strong local leadership and additional funding streams allowed that city’s schools to overcome the legislature’s interference. Yet the modifications made by the Alabama and Mississippi legislatures enabled a more efficient system in those states and increased civic pride in...