Analysing novices analysing Prolog: what stories do novices tell themselves about Prolog?

Informal observations of Prolog learners showed that, despite being presented with correct information and models, students still tended to construct their own idiosyncratic explanations of events, and, characteristically, they defended these ‘stories’ fiercely when tutorial intervention was attempted. Although the stories were often so flawed that the student's future progress was potentially hampered, it was nevertheless true that learning could not have proceeded at all without them. It seems that if we are to understand the novice Prolog programmer, we need to know about these stories, their source, and what, if anything, they have in common from one learner to another. Pain and Bundy (1987) posed the question “What stories should we tell novice Prolog programmers?” in order to teach them Prolog. In our research, we ask: “What stories do novices Prolog programmers tell themselves?” in order to learn Prolog. Observational studies undertaken showed that students used tacit knowledge of human discourse processes both to interpret the language used to communicate with the computer and to interpret the behaviour of the machine. Students did not appreciate the fundamental differences between natural discourse (as takes place amongst humans) and formal discourse (as takes place between humans and machines), and confused elements of the discourse levels. This can be an effective initial learning strategy, but unless its limitations are recognised, programs are inevitably incomplete at some level. Examples from these studies are reported here with illustrative protocol fragments.     

Development and formative evaluation of multimedia case studies for Instructional Design and Technology students

This study describes the development of three case studies that included a combination of multimedia production and instructional design skills within a particular setting. These case studies incorporated real-life incidents from 47 professional instructional designers. These instructional designers described a total of 146 activities involving instructional design and/or multimedia production activities. Employing an emergent theme analysis approach, nine distinct themes developed from these activities and were included in the case studies. These themes included: Collaboration; Diffusion of Innovations; Formative Evaluation; Instructional Design; Interactive Instruction; Learner Analysis; Online Instruction; Technical Infrastructure; and Video Solutions. Fifty-seven Instructional Design and Technology graduate students evaluated the effectiveness of these case studies and considered the case studies as being valuable in furthering their understanding of related multimedia production and instructional design activities. The intent of these case studies was to enable Instructional Design and Technology students to comprehend the relationship between multimedia production and instructional design activities.     

Comparative performance in discrimination learning tasks in two New World primates (Saimiri sciureus andCallicebus moloch)

Squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) and titi monkeys (Callicebus moloch) were tested in three two-choice visual discrimination experiments. Although, on average, squirrel monkeys performed more accurately than titis, the range of response accuracies in the two species overlapped considerably in all three experiments and changes in response accuracy over test sessions and across experiments were similar in the two species. Thus, the species shared several behavioral characteristics expected of New World primates in this setting. Squirrel monkeys’ performance appeared to be more affected than titis’ by task difficulty, and squirrel monkeys were individually less consistent than titis. These differences were associated with higher activity levels and briefer overt attentiveness to the repetitive task in squirrel monkeys and, conversely, with lower activity levels, slower working speeds, and sustained interest in the task in titis. The associated differences are discussed in relation to each species performance in other laboratory settings and the characteristic patterns of foraging and use of space in nature.     

Symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and home learning environment (HLE): findings from a longitudinal study

The concept of “Home Learning Environment” (HLE) covers activities in a family providing intellectual stimulation for a child, such as reading to him or her or visiting libraries. Numerous studies have shown an association between HLE and children's cognitive development. In this longitudinal study, we focus on HLE as a predictor for children's behavioral development, namely, for later symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), controlling for relevant aspects like socioeconomic status (SES), or television viewing behavior. We analyzed the development of ADHD symptoms from kindergarten to the end of grade 2 and possible associations with HLE, SES, and television exposure, using a German community sample (N?=?924). Results indicated that ADHD symptoms were negatively and significantly correlated to HLE for all five measurement points as well as to SES (except T4) and to television exposure for T1 to T4. Observing later development, only early HLE but not SES or television exposure served as a significant predictor for ADHD symptoms at school, when age, sex, and ADHD symptoms in kindergarten were controlled for. A structural equation model showed that HLE acted as a mediator between SES and later ADHD symptoms. Our results highlight the importance of the concept of home learning environment also for children's behavioral development. As a consequence, parents should be supported in offering their children a more favorable learning environment.     

Perceptual context effects on line discriminations by monkeys as measured by choice response accuracy and eye movements

Stumptailed monkeys (Macaca arctoides) were given two two-choice line-discrimination problems in which the lines were presented either alone or embedded in a patterned context that was the same in all cases. When the stimuli were a left- and a right-tilting line, the addition of the context significantly improved performance, as measured by frequency of correct choice responses. It also decreased choice response latency, duration of visual fixations, and frequency of scanning back and forth between the two stimuli. When the stimuli were a horizontal and a vertical line, the addition of the context had the opposite effect on all the performance measures. These results are very similar to those found with adult and infant humans when given the same stimuli. They suggest that the pattern perception of monkeys, like that of humans, involves top-down or holistic processing of incoming visual information.     

Anxiety and cueing in a visual concept learning task

This study investigated the relationship of two anxiety measures to performance on a visual concept acquisition task. Criterial information was embedded at two levels for the noncued treatment group and made salient by color cues for the cued treatment group. Two-way analyses of variance were used and indicated a significant interaction between cueing treatment andState-Trait Anxiety Inventory (stai) anxiety scores for the heavily embedded figures. Further research is suggested utilizing different populations and cueing techniques. The addition of cues is suggested for deeply embedded criterial information for use with high-anxiety students.     

Taxisin Aplysia dactylomela (Rang, 1828) to water-borne stimuli from conspecifics

Sixteen reproductively matureAplysia dactylomela were observed in a unidirectional stream under each of four conditions: sea water only, one sea hare, six sea hares, and a copulating sea hare pair. Streams containing conspecific stimulation were significantly more effective in eliciting a positive taxis towards the stimulus source. A copulating pair was not different from one or six animals in producing the approach. The sea hares showed a distinct final head orientation to six sea hares when compared with sea water only; final orientation did not differ in any other comparison.     

Participation patterns of Korean adolescents in school-based career exploration activities

Variations in the school-based career exploration activities of Korean high school students were examined. Data represented 5,227 Korean adolescents in Grade 11 contained in the Korean Education Longitudinal Study of 2005, a nationally representative longitudinal database administered by the Korean Educational Development Institute. Latent class analysis identified four classes or approaches reflecting some combination of school availability and student use of career-related activities, including minimal-, limited-, moderate-, and high-activity groups. Multiple-group analysis revealed that curriculum track (i.e., vocational or academic emphasis) was an important determinant in classification.     

Critical Issues in Teaching a Multicultural Counseling Course

A Multicultural Counseling course (MCC) brings unique challenges and rewards to both instructors and students. Given its unique challenges, the process of teaching a MCC is as important as, or even more important than, the content. Drawing from extant literature and the authors’ experiences, this paper discusses such topics as what to teach, how to teach, classroom dynamics, instructors’ issues, and students’ issues to provide a concise, practical, and comprehensive framework for teaching such difficult but essential courses.     

Strength vs. temporal-order information in delayed-matching-to-sample performance by monkeys

The usual procedure in delayed-matching-to-sample (DMTS) experiments is that the most recently presented sample stimulus is correct on choice tests. The present paper reports two experments in which the first of two samples was always correct. Theories based on trace strength, such as the Roberts and Grant trace strength competition model, predict that such a procedure will yield below chance performance, because on the average the more recently presented stimulus will have the greater trace strength. In contrast, D’Amato and others have proposed that DMTS performance is mediated by a temporal discrimination process and, since either stimulus may act as S+ in a discrimination problem, monkeys should be capable of learning to choose either the secondor the first of two sample stimuli. Performance did not exceed chance in either experiment. The generality of these results is tentatively explored.     

Behavioral inhibition induced by ingestion in sea anemones (Anthopleura elegantissima)

Following tests for initial responsiveness, the suppressive effect of ingestion ofArtemia salina on the contraction response of the sea anemone,Anthopleura elegantissima, was assessed. During testing, repeated presentations of a water-stream stimulus occurred over a period of 70 min. All subjects also underwent control testing in which the water-stream sequence was presented in the absence of priorArtemia ingestion. Significant suppression of oral disk contraction to the water stream was observed followingArtemia ingestion with and without water exchange during testing. The relationship of this finding to similar results obtained withHydra is discussed.     

Short-term retention in rats: The effect of goal-arm confinement on delayed alternation performance

Gordon and his associates (e.g., Gordon & Feldman, 1978,Learning and Motivation,9, 164–178; Feldman & Gordon, 1979,Learning and Motivation,10, 198–210; Gordon, Taylor, & Mower, 1981,American Journal of Psychology,94, 309–322) have reported that a reactivation treatment significantly enhances memory for prior forcings in delayed alternation using rats. The reactivation treatment consisted of placing the rat in the goal arm to which it had been forced previously on that trial. The confinement occurred in the absence of food and was 5 sec in duration. The present experiments explored the possibility that the treatment might influence performance by affording an opportunity for new information to be acquired during the confinement period. Evidence consistent with this view was found in that (1) accuracy was reduced on trials in which the initial event was a 5-sec confinement to the arm opposite that of the target forcing and (2) increasing the duration of the confinement from 5 to 15 to 45 sec increased the magnitude of this effect. It was concluded that the effectiveness of goal-arm confinement as a reactivation treatment does not necessarily implicate processes of retrieval in delayed alternation behavior.     

Team-Based Learning: Moderating Effects of Metacognitive Elaborative Rehearsal and Middle School History Content Recall

Promoting Acceleration of Comprehension and Content through Text (PACT) and similar team-based models directly engage and support students in learning situations that require cognitive elaboration as part of the processing of new information. Elaboration is subject to metacognitive control, as well (Karpicke, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 138(4):469–485, 2009)—successful learners use metacognitive elaborative rehearsal to process and make sense of incoming information even in the absence of structured opportunities or instructional prompts for elaborating. Levels of processing and cognitive load theories suggest that students in PACT classrooms may outperform students in comparison classes because PACT engages and supports deep cognitive processing (via elaboration and discussion) at the time of learning, allowing participants to better conserve and more consistently reallocate cognitive and metacognitive resources (compared to students in the non-treated group) for encoding content. In other words, PACT may moderate the relationship of metacognitive elaborative rehearsal and content retrieval. Extant data from years 1 (n?=?419) and 2 (n?=?704) of the PACT/RFU project suggests such an effect. As hypothesized, there were no mean differences in reported metacognitive rehearsal use across the groups because metacognitive elaborative rehearsal was not taught. However, regression coefficients for content recall on metacognitive elaboration were greater in the treatment group in both samples suggesting that an instructional emphasis on deep processing leads to better content recall. The findings are discussed in the context of the Common Core State Standards and the large-scale testing programs in place currently across the USA.     

Spatial strategies of oriented travel inCallicebus moloch andSaimiri sciureus

The behavior of 9 titi monkeys (Callicebus moloch) and 12 squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) was examined with respect to three categorical strategies of spatial orientation: direction, turn, and place strategies. Individual animals were initially trained to travel to a fixed location from a constant release point. Following the initial training, each animal was tested by releasing it a number of times from three other release points and analyzing its travel paths. During testing, most individual subjects tended to be highly consistent in their spatial behavior, typically following travel paths consistent with one of the three spatial strategies. No one spatial strategy, however, characterized the behavior of either species.     

The development and maintenance of odor-based double-alternation responding under conditions of Thorazine and Elavil injection

Two experiments investigating odor production and utilization in rats under the effects of Thorazine and Elavil injections, respectively, are reported. In Experiment 1, significantly slower speeds shown by the Thorazine-injected subjects indicated that this drug depressed performance. It is felt that depressed performance allowed these subjects to attend and respond to odor cues earlier in Phase 1 than did saline-injected control animals. Reversing the injection conditions (Phase 2) failed to disrupt already-established patterning. During the first phase of Experiment 2, Elavil-injected subjects failed to establish patterned responding, whereas such responding was readily established by saline-injected subjects. Reversing the injection conditions (Phase 2) resulted in the rapid development of double-alternation patterning by the subjects that were shifted from Elavil to saline and in the maintenance of such responding by the animals shifted from saline to Elavil.     

Oxygen deprivation as a drive state in an aquatic insect: Family Dytiscidae

Thirty aquatic diving beetles,Rhantus atncolor, of the family Dytiscidae, were subjected to 1-, 5-, 10-, 15-, 20-, and 25-min levels of oxygen deprivation. The level of deprivation was procured by submerging the Ss under water for the allotted period of time. A control group receiving no oxygen deprivation was also tested. The results clearly established oxygen deprivation as a drive state capable of increasing the general level of activity in aquatic Coleoptera as measured by swimming speed in the runway. Significant differences were also found between these deprivation levels.