Effects of achievement goals on self-control

Recent research has shown that achievement goals differ in their effects on working memory capacity and the metacognitive judgment of learning as part of the self-regulatory process. To extend this line of inquiry, we examined the effects of achievement goals on self-control, arguably the most critical subset of self-regulation. In three experiments, adolescent and early-adult learners were randomly assigned to mastery goal, performance-approach goal, and performance-avoidance goal conditions and performed self-control tasks in ego-depleting contexts. Students in the mastery goal condition demonstrated significantly better performance than students in the performance-approach goal condition on a task that required attentional control (Experiment 1) and inhibitory control after negative feedback (Experiments 2 and 3). The performance of students in the performance-avoidance goal condition did not differ significantly from that of students in the mastery goal or the performance-approach goal conditions. Planned-comparison ANCOVAs nonetheless revealed that, across all three experiments, the self-control performance of the students in the mastery goal condition was significantly better than that of the students in the two performance goal conditions combined. Mediation analysis further suggested that performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals evoked more task-irrelevant thoughts than mastery goals did, which subsequently interrupted students’ self-control performance (Experiment 3). We discuss the implications of the mechanisms underlying motivational influences on self-control for adolescents, who experience frequent self-regulation failures in learning contexts.     

Student effort response to shifts in university admission policies

Policies which change the incentives students face are important levers for policymakers to improve learning. I study a statewide postsecondary admissions policy in North Carolina which introduces minimum admission standards for students wishing to attend college in-state. Regression discontinuity estimates show that high school students respond by increasing GPA and decreasing absences and suspensions, suggesting increased engagement. However, I find that the boost in GPA is driven by students substituting away from demanding coursework. Finally, I document stark heterogeneity of response across demographics, as minority and less affluent students have higher effort allocations but do not engage in strategic course-taking.     

自控电路的探讨

自控电路是实现自动化的一个基本的要求，是实现自动化的重要前提和保证。在科技高度发展的时代，自动控制电路一天天地广泛应用干生产、生活和工作中，它的使用非常简单，但它的原理却不是人人知晓，尤其是非专业人员。现在，笔者怀着对电工电子的极大兴趣，对几个简单常见的自控电路进行了总结和探索，以飨读者。     

Effects of performance feedback valence on perceptions of invested mental effort

We investigated whether the valence of performance feedback provided after a task, would affect participants’ perceptions of how much mental effort they invested in that same task. In three experiments, we presented participants with problem-solving tasks and manipulated the presence and valence of feedback between conditions (no, positive, or negative feedback valence), prior to asking them to rate how much mental effort they invested in solving that problem. Across the three experiments–with different problem-solving tasks and participant populations–we found that subjective ratings of effort investment were significantly higher after negative than after positive feedback; ratings given without feedback fell in between. These findings show that feedback valence alters perceived effort investment (possibly via task perceptions or affect), which can be problematic when effort is measured as an indicator of cognitive load. Therefore, it seems advisable to measure mental effort directly after each task, before giving feedback on performance.     

论儿童自我控制能力的培养

自我控制是自我意识的重要组成部分,是人类个体从幼稚、依赖走向成熟、独立的标志。了解儿童自我控制能力发展的特点和影响因素,培养儿童良好自我控制能力,对儿童发展具有重要意义。     

论儿童自我控制能力的培养

自我控制是个人对自己心理和行为的主动掌握。儿童阶段是人自我控制能力发展的关键时期。它不仅对后续阶段自我控制能力的发展有深远影响,而且对一个人的社会化及人格的发展至关重要。本文在分析儿童自我控制能力发展的特点及其影响因素的基础上,探讨了如何对儿童自我控制能力进行有效的培养。     

论大学生的自我管理

自我管理是当代大学生必备的素质，也是当代大学生教育的重要内容。文章在对自我管理内涵约定的基础上，认为，自我管理是大学生事业成功的重要保障；自我管理能够提高大学生的活动绩效；自我管理有助于促进大学生的身心健康。大学生的自我管理能力的培养主要可以从这样几个操作层面进行：即学习管理、交往活动的管理、计划组织实施能力的管理、资源与机会管理、行为动力系统的管理、自我控制能力的管理、责任心的管理和健康管理等。     

Promoting self-control of learning

The process of learning with understanding was investigated by case study of three male students learning genetics at a tertiary college. Five conclusions regarding the process arise from the study. These conclusions are: (1) Learning outcome is determined by decisions made by the learner. These decisions are influenced by learner perceptions and interpretations. (2) Inadequate learning is due to ineffective decision-making. This ineffective decision-making is associated with specific, recurring learning deficiencies. The main types of deficiency, deficient processing tendencies and misconceptions, cause inadequate performance and preclude learning with understanding. A total of seven tendencies was observed. Each learner applied tendencies idiosyncratically. Tendencies also generated particular misconceptions which further inhibited learning. (3) It takes energy to learn with understanding, or to unlearn a misconception. (4) Learners often are unaware of their deficiencies. This lack of awareness generates inappropriate attitudes. (5) Increased learner awareness of the nature and process of learning changes attitudes and procedures. The major implication of this study relates to promoting self-control of learning. It is proposed that improved learning will result from increasing learner awareness of the nature and process of learning, and by training learners in procedures for enhancing self-evaluation and decision-making.     

大学生自我管理机制实施探讨

根据当前高校学生管理工作中的新特点,分析了大学生自我管理的必要性,对大学生自我管理机制及其如何实施进行了探讨。     

意志品质与自我控制能力的实验研究

将意志品质与学生的自我控制能力结合起来 ,对意志品质与自我控制能力的关系进思考 ,结合学生的日常生活,探索培养学生优良的意志品质和自我控制能力的方法。     

Fostering house mice onto rats and deer mice: Effects on response to species odors

Newborn wild house mice (Mus musculus) were fostered upon maternal conspecifics, prairie deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdi) or laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus). Male subjects were weaned into individual cages, in which they remained until testing commenced. At 35 days of age, subjects were given a four-choice test in which they had the opportunity to investigate tunnels scented with clean wood chips or with chips soiled by an adult male conspecific, deer mouse or rat. Compared to theMus-nursed andPeromyscus-nursed mice,Rattus-nursed mice were more active during the test and less reluctant to investigate theRattus-scented tunnel. These results were replicated in a two-choice test (Mus- vs.Rattus-scented tunnels) that included a group of mice fostered onto conspecifics, but withRattus scents present in the maternity cage throughout the nursing period. Early exposure to the scent ofRattus had no significant effects on the responses ofMus-nursed mice to the scent ofRattus.     

环境对儿童自我监控能力的影响

环境因素对儿童自我监控能力的发展具有重要作用，在影响个体自我监控能力发展的环境因素中，家庭和学校环境变量对个体自我监控的发展具有全面而深刻的直接影响。     

Place versus response learning in rats

In previous research designed to test whether place learning or response learning proceeds more quickly and better in rats,place has not been defined unambiguously when direction has been controlled by moving an apparatus around in the test room (Blodgett, McCutchan, & Mathews, 1949; Skinner et al., 2003). In Experiment 1, we compared place and response learning while controlling direction in a static apparatus, thus making the meaning of place unambiguous. The performance of rats that had to make different turns to find food in a particular place and rats that had to always make the same turn to find food in two different places did not differ. In Experiment 2, visual cues were made equally discriminable for place and response learners in a static apparatus. Place learners still failed to outperform response learners, but there was evidence that response biases interfered more with place than with response learning. The results are discussed with reference to the historical debate that generated the original research and also in terms of more contemporary spatial-learning issues in rats.     

数学教学自主性学习初探

素质教育的核心是以学生发展为本,以培养人的创新精神和创新能力为基本价值取向的创新教育,要求教师更新教育观念,让学生积极主动参与教学过程,使教学过程真正成为学生自主学习的过程并探索自主学习的实践意义。     

Instrumental response topographies of rats

Experiments 1, 2, and 3 showed that food-deprived rats responding for food pellets made significantly more long-duration leverpresses than water-deprived rats responding for water drops. These experiments further showed that this difference in instrumental response topography is long-lived, and depends neither upon idiosyncrasies of the experimental chamber nor upon severity of deprivation conditions. In Experiment 4, food-deprived rats responding for food pellets made significantly more long-duration leverpresses than did either food- or water-deprived rats responding for sucrose solution. Human judges in Experiment 5 were able to correctly identify instrumental leverpress responses by rats as being for food or water based solely on previous viewings of other rats drinking water or eating food pellets. It appears that instrumental response topographies in rats vary depending principally upon the reinforcer received, and that these instrumental response topographies resemble consummatory response topographies.     

自控式学习的评价机制

评价机制是自控式学习发生发展的重要机制。自我评价是自控式学习中一种自我教育方式和自我教育行为，学习主体自我评价的过程是学习主体自我建构不可或缺的重要环节。由于自控式学习是一种学习的自我期待和自我调控的学习方式，在实施过程中有多种途径和不同切入点，所以自我评价的标准和自我评价的层次是多样化的。     

Effects of sucrose concentrations on single-alternation performance in rats

In Experiment 1, rats received single-alternation training with 32% or 4% sucrose reward (Phase 1) followed by a shift in reward from 32% to 4%, and vice versa (Phase 2). In Phase 1, high reward facilitated alternation performance over low reward. In Phase 2, performance on rewarded trials increased as reward increased but was unchanged as reward decreased. Performance on nonrewarded trials showed negligible effects of shifts in reward. In Experiment 2, rats received goalbox placements with 32% or 4% sucrose alternated with nonreward in Phase 1; and in Phase 2, they received alternation runway training with the same or the opposite reward from that of placements. Performance on rewarded trials was faster, the higher the reward in runway training; performance on nonrewarded trials was slower, the higher the reward in placements. In Experiment 3, Phase 1 provided placements with 64%, 32%, 16%, or 4% sucrose or dry mash alternated with nonreward; Phase 2 provided alternation runway training with dry mash reward. Alternation prerformance developed more rapidly, the higher the sucrose concentration in placements. Only 64% sucrose produced performance superior to that for dry-mash placements.     

Children's cognitive effort and fluency in writing: Effects of genre and of handwriting automatisation

This study investigated the cognitive effort of 5th and 9th graders while writing a text. We manipulated genre (narrative text vs. argumentative text) and tested how level of handwriting automatisation contributes to cognitive effort and fluency in writing. The participants were 23 students from Grade 5 and 21 from Grade 9, who wrote two texts differing in genre while performing a secondary reaction time task. The results showed that cognitive effort interacted with genre. Cognitive effort decreased between Grades 5 and 9 only for writing argumentative text. Handwriting did not contribute to fluency in writing, but contributed to cognitive effort only in 5th-graders' writing of narrative text. The findings are discussed in light of the factors contributing to cognitive effort and fluency in writing.     

Effort strategies in a mastery instructional system: The quantification of effort and the impact of effort on achievement

The mastery method of instruction stresses the importance of student effort to a much greater degree than a traditional approach. Mastery advocates believe that a student can compensate for lower ability through greater persistence. This research attempted to develop variables which quantify a student's willingness to engage in appropriate effort and to relate these variables to student achievement. It was possible to demonstrate that the effort variables accounted for differences in student achievement beyond the impact of differences in student aptitude. Use of this method of assessing effort is urged in more diverse educational settings.     

The effect of effort grading on learning

In the fall of 2004, Benedict College – a Historically Black College in Columbia, SC – began enforcing a new grading policy called Success Equals Effort (SE²). Under this policy, students taking freshman and sophomore level courses were assigned grades that explicitly rewarded not only content learning (“knowledge” grade) but also measures of effort (“effort” grade). This paper examines the effects of effort grading using two stage least squares and fixed effect estimates. I find evidence of a strong positive correlation between “effort” grades and “knowledge” grades. Under some restrictions this relationship can be interpreted as “effort” producing “knowledge”.