The role of test stimuli in matching to compound samples by pigeons

Two pigeons matched to sample in a three-key operant conditioning chamber. In Experiment I, two different kinds of samples were presented on the center key.Element samples were members of one of two sample sets — colors (a red or blue disk) or lines (a vertical or horizontal orientation of a set of white lines). These samples were followed by their respective sample sets on the side keys as comparison stimuli.Compound samples consisted of a set of lines superimposed on a colored disk. Following these samples, either sample set could appear as comparison stimuli. Matching to compound samples was less accurate than matching to element samples. One interpretation is that sharing of attention among elements of a compound sample weakened stimulus control by each element. A different interpretation is that an element sample controlled matching better because it was physically identical to a comparison stimulus whereas a compound sample was not. Experiments II–IV evaluated this “generalization decrement” alternative by testing element- vs. compound sample control with both element and compound comparison stimuli. Irrelevant elements were added to form compound comparison stimuli, some of which were physically identical to a preceding compound sample, but never identical to an element sample. In all experiments, the addition of irrelevant elements of comparison stimuli reduced sample control. However, the generalization decrement hypothesis failed to predict how differences in performance maintained by element and compound samples were affected by different tests of sample control. Matching accuracy appeared to be independently determined by the number of elements in a sample and whether irrelevant elements were present during tests of sample control.     

Can an Advance Organizer Technique Compensate for Poor Reading Conditions?

In Experiment 1, 201 college students read both a literary and a technical text either in an advance organizer condition or a non-organizer control condition. Results failed to support the hypothesis that an organizing schema would help subjects with good reasoning skills compensate for poor memory skills or information overload caused by speeded reading conditions. In Experiment 2, data from a sample of 189 college subjects demonstrated that real-world distractions do cause significant learning decrements but failed to support predictions that an organizer would aid distractible students and would compensate for distracting study conditions. Findings suggest that the organizer technique does not help compensate for processing deficits related to information overload or distracting study conditions.     

Development of Scientific Reasoning in College Biology: Do Two Levels of General Hypothesis‐Testing Skills Exist?

The primary purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that two general developmentally based levels of hypothesis‐testing skills exist. The first hypothesized level presumably involves skills associated with testing hypotheses about observable causal agents; the second presumably involves skills associated with testing hypotheses involving unobservable entities. To test this hypothesis, a hypothesis‐testing skills test was developed and administered to a large sample of college students both at the start and at the end of a biology course in which several hypotheses at each level were generated and tested. The predicted positive relationship between level of hypothesis‐testing skill and performance on a transfer problem involving the test of a hypothesis involving unobservable entities was found. The predicted positive relationship between level of hypothesis‐testing skill and course performance was also found. Both theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 81–101, 2000     

Cognitive load theory,the transient information effect and e-learning

When using modern educational technology, some forms of instruction are inherently transient in that previous information usually disappears to be replaced by current information. Instructional animations and spoken text provide examples. The effects of transience due to the use of animation-based instructions (Experiment 1) and spoken information under audio-visual conditions (Experiment 2) were explored in a cognitive load theory framework. It was hypothesized that for transient information presented in short sections, animations would be superior to static graphics, due to our innate ability to learn by observing. For transient information in long sections, animations should lose their superiority over static graphics, due to working memory overload associated with large amounts of transient information. Similarly, the modality effect under which audio-visual information is superior to visual only information should be obtainable using short segments but disappear or reverse using longer segments due to the working memory consequences of long, transient, auditory information. Results supported the hypotheses. The use of educational technology that results in the transformation of permanent into transitory information needs to be carefully assessed.     

Seven plus or minus two

For over 50 years, seven plus or minus two has been a commonly used guideline for gauging how many chunks of new information should be presented at one time in learning and performance situations. Often cited as the limit of working memory, this guideline was created as a result of misinterpreting an article by Miller (1956). More recent studies suggest that the limit for working memory is more like three, and sometimes four, with various factors influencing the capacity of an individual's working memory. Given too much novel information at one time, learners and performers can be derailed by cognitive overload. Instructional designers and performance consultants can adjust the presentation of new information to manage intrinsic, extraneous, and germane cognitive load. This column provides suggestions about how to reduce cognitive overload to improve learning and performance.     

Observational learning from animated models: Effects of modality and reflection on transfer

Animated models use animations and explanations to teach how a problem is solved and why particular problem-solving methods are chosen. Often spoken explanations are proposed to accompany animations in order to prevent overloading the visual channel (i.e., the modality effect). In this study we adopt the hypothesis that the inferior performance of written text compared to spoken text is due to the fact that written text receives less attention and, consequently, less effortful processing. In a 2 × 2 factorial experiment (N = 96) with the factors modality (written, spoken) and reflection (reflection prompts, no reflection prompts) the hypothesis is tested that prompted reflection requires learners to explicitly attend to written explanations and carefully process them, thus yielding higher transfer performance, whereas for spoken explanations prompted reflection would have no effect on transfer performance. The results indeed showed the hypothesized interaction between modality and reflection prompts. They suggest that the modality effect can be compensated for when learners explicitly attend to the information and effortfully process it. This has implications for learning situations in which spoken explanations are no option, such as education for the hearing-impaired.     

Executive function performance and trauma exposure in a community sample of children

ObjectiveThough children exposed to familial violence are reported to have difficulties with a range of emotional and behavioral problems (e.g., lower school achievement) that implicate executive function (EF) deficits, relatively little research has specifically examined EF as a function of trauma exposure in children.MethodsBased on parent report of children's exposure to potentially traumatic events, children (N = 110; Age_Mean = 10.39) from an ethnically diverse community sample were compared across three trauma-exposure groups: familial trauma, non-familial trauma, and no trauma. Children completed a battery of tests to assess working memory, behavioral inhibition, processing speed, auditory attention, and interference control.ResultsFamilial trauma (relative to non-familial and no trauma exposure) was associated with poorer performance on an EF composite (composed of working memory, inhibition, auditory attention, and processing speed tasks); the effect size was medium. Both trauma-exposure status and dissociation symptoms explained unique variance in EF performance after controlling for anxiety symptoms, socio-economic status, and potential traumatic brain injury. While IQ and EF performance were related, SES predicted unique variance in IQ (and not EF) scores, while familial-trauma exposure did not.ConclusionsThe contribution of trauma exposure to basic executive functioning held after taking into account symptoms (anxiety and dissociation), socio-economic status, and possible traumatic brain injury exposure. EF problems may provide one route via which maltreated children become at risk for peer, academic, and behavior problems relative to their peers.Practice implicationsEF problems may provide one route via which maltreated children become at risk for peer, academic, psychological, and behavior problems relative to their peers. Recently, intervention strategies have emerged in the anxiety and mood disorder treatment literatures that appear to effectively target EFs. As future research continues to specify the relationship between child trauma exposure and EF performance, these innovative treatments may have important practice implications for addressing EF deficits.     

Hyperactivity and incidental memory: evidence for attentional diffusion

2 experiments examined hyperactive children's attentional diffusion, that is, their tendency to underfocus their attention during learning. In Experiment 1 hyperactive children correctly rejected more incorrect incidental information than their nonhyperactive peers, indicating they were more likely to process noncentral attributes. This type of diffuse attention did not interfere with hyperactive children's overall memory performance. Experiment 2 varied the difficulty level of encoding central information, either by limiting the time available for encoding it (brief vs. long) or by varying the meaningfulness of the central information (high associative value shapes vs. low associative value ones). Results showed that hyperactives outperformed nonhyperactives on incidental recognition only when the encoding demands of the central task were easy. Easy encoding permitted them to attend to incidental information without sacrificing central information. Taken together, the results of both experiments demonstrated the validity of the attentional diffusion hypothesis and indicate the need to assess the central processing demands associated with central and incidental learning in order to evaluate the extent of hyperactive children's attentional diffusion.     

信息处理方法对英语学习者阅读理解的影响

阅读过程本质上是信息处理的过程,不同的信息处理方法对阅读的深度和阅读的质量都会产生影响。基于这个假设,可用"列举例证"和"概括要点"分别表示深层和表层信息处理方法,检验英语基础阶段学习者在这两种不同条件下的阅读理解表现。研究结果表明,不同水平学习者在不同信息处理方法上存在差异,深层信息处理方法更有助于提高较低水平学习者的阅读能力。     

Conscientiousness,achievement striving,and intelligence as performance predictors in a sample of German psychology students: Always a linear relationship?

Studies on the interface between cognitive ability (intelligence) and personality in the prediction of academic performance have yielded mixed results so far. Especially an interaction between conscientiousness (and its facet achievement striving) and intelligence has been investigated. The hypothesis is that conscientiousness enhances the impact of intelligence on performance. Based on findings supporting the idea of a non-linear relationship between conscientiousness and performance the present study aimed at a clarification of the mixed results. Given such a non-linear relationship, studies investigating a possible moderating effect should pay attention to the performance level. A sample of N = 271 students completed a conscientiousness and an intelligence measure. Moderated regression analyses revealed a moderation for conscientiousness but not its facet achievement striving in the total sample. However, splitting the sample into a low and a high performer group revealed an enhancing effect of achievement striving for low performers and a buffering effect for high performer. Practical as well as theoretical implications are discussed.     

Effects of process-oriented worked examples on troubleshooting transfer performance

In the domain of electrical circuits troubleshooting, a full factorial experiment investigated the hypotheses that (a) studying worked examples would lead to better transfer performance than solving conventional problems, with less investment of time and mental effort during training and test, and (b) adding process information to worked examples would increase investment of effort during training and enhance transfer performance; whereas adding it to conventional problems would increase investment of effort, but would not positively affect transfer performance. The first hypothesis was largely confirmed by the data; the second was not: adding process information indeed resulted in increased investment of effort during training, but not in higher transfer performance in combination with worked examples.     

Manipulation of M demand of chemistry problems and its effect on student performance: A neo-piagetian study

It has been shown that student performance in chemistry problems decreases as the M demand of the problem increases, thus emphasizing the role of information processing in problem solving. It was hypothesized that manipulation (increase or decrease) of the M demand of a problem can affect student performance. Increasing the M demand of a problem would affect more the performance of subjects with a limited functional M capacity. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of manipulation (increase) of the M demand of chemistry problems, having the same logical structure, on performance of students having different functional M capacity, cognitive style, and formal operational reasoning patterns. As predicted the performance of one group of students was lower after the manipulation (increase) in the M demand of the problem. This shows how even small changes in the amount of information required for processing can lead to working memory overload, as a consequence of a poor capacity for mobilization of M power.     

Sound and faulty arguments generated by preservice biology teachers when testing hypotheses involving unobservable entities*

A sample of preservice biology teachers (biology majors) enrolled in a teaching methods course formulated and attempted to test six hypotheses to answer a causal question about why water rose in a jar inverted over a burning candle placed in a pan of water. The students submitted a lab report in which arguments and evidence for testing each hypothesis were presented in an if/then/therefore hypothetico‐predictive form. Analysis of written arguments revealed considerable success when students were able to manipulate observable hypothesized causes. However, when the hypothesized causes were unobservable, such that they could be only indirectly tested, performance dropped, as shown by use of three types of faulty arguments: (a) arguments that had missing or confused elements, (b) arguments whose predictions did not follow from hypotheses and planned tests, and (c) arguments that failed to consider alternative hypotheses. Science is an enterprise in which unobservable theoretical entities and processes (e.g., atoms, genes, osmosis, and photosynthesis) are often used to explain observable phenomena. Consequently, if it is assumed that effective teaching requires prior understanding, then it follows that these future teachers have yet to develop adequate hypothesis‐testing skills and sufficient awareness of the nature of science to teach science in the inquiry mode advocated by reform guidelines. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 237–252, 2002     

Spatial and configural factors in compound stimulus processing by pigeons

Three matching-to-sample experiments examined whether spatial or configural factors determined how the element arrangement of compound sample stimuli influenced matching accuracy in pigeons. Seven types of compound stimuli were tested. The arrangement of color and line-orientation elements in these compounds varied in terms of the spatial separation between the elements, the degree of consistency in element spatial location, and the number of bounded areas containing the elements. Matching accuracy was examined upon initial exposure to the compounds, during asymptotic conditions of shared attention, and with variation of sample durations ranging from .04 to 5.935 sec. In all three experiments, when spatial proximity, locational certainty, and the number of lines were precisely controlled or equated, no evidence for the proposed configural processing of “unified” compounds was found (Lamb & Riley, 1981). Element spatial separation, and to a lesser degree perceptual limitations, determined compound performance. These results question our lab’s previous evidence for configural compound processing by pigeons (Lamb, 1988; Lamb & Riley, 1981). They suggest instead that pigeons independently and separately process the individual elements of color/line-orientation compounds, with element separation determining the distribution of processing between the elements.     

关系数据库中近似查询的自动采样改进方法研究

海量数据的传统精确查询易导致负载过大,而通过改进数据库近似查询自动采样,预先运行样本查询,然后根据每一个元组在样本关系表中出现的次数,将每个元组需要的存储信息作为元组的属性添加进数据表中,并通过DBMS在整个自动抽样过程对它们进行管理,对所得的结果进行分类并统计,得出每次采样过程中某个元组出现的次数,实验表明方法是有效的。     

Processing of empty and filled time intervals in pigeons

Pigeons were trained initially with 2- and 8-sec empty or filled intervals as sample stimuli. Interval onset and termination was signaled by 1-sec start and stop markers. Following retention and psychophysical testing, both groups were trained with the alternative type of interval, and the tests were repeated. Group empty-first demonstrated a choose-long effect with both empty and filled intervals. Group filled-first demonstrated a weak (and nonsignificant) choose-short effect with filled intervals and a robust choose-long effect with empty intervals. Both groups tended to time the markers and to add that duration to the sample duration only on filled-interval trials. Initial training with empty intervals alters the way pigeons process temporal information on filled-interval trials, whereas initial training with filled intervals has little effect on the processing of temporal information on empty-interval trials.     

The cost of going the extra mile: the relationship between teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior,role stressors,and strain with the buffering effect of job autonomy

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is defined as performance that supports the social and psychological environment in which a task is conducted. Teachers’ OCB can be directed toward particular individuals (OCBI) and/or toward the organization (OCBO). Despite their beneficial impact on school, these could entail personal costs for the teacher. The present study argues that OCB contributes to teachers’ strain through the mediating impact of role overload, role ambiguity, and role conflict, while job autonomy buffers it. The structural equation modeling results from a sample of 483 Israeli teachers and their principals confirmed the main hypotheses for OCBO. Role overload and role ambiguity fully mediated the relation of OCBO to teachers’ strain; the relation of OCBO to role stressors was significant for teachers with low job autonomy, but was non-significant for teachers with high job autonomy. This study opens an exploration of the positive and the negative consequences of OCB for teacher and school.     

Use of reasoning to a contradiction in grades three to college

The primary purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that an important intellectual acquisition during adolescence is the ability to generate arguments that involve reasoning to contradiction. Students in grades 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and college were individually administered a four-card selection task that required them to, among other things, reason to a contradiction to falsify a hypothesis. Virtually none of the students spontaneously utilized this reasoning pattern on the initial task. Minimal verbal instruction in use of the reasoning pattern was then given followed by a logically analogous selection task. Performance on this task improved significantly with age from 12% success among third graders to 52% success among college students, providing some support for the hypothesis. Performance on an evaluation task showed similar rates of success; however, most students were able to correctly evaluate falsifying evidence when presented. This result suggested that, contrary to Piagetian theory, students from grade 3 upward comprehend the logic of falsification. It is argued that reasoning to a contradiction is a reasoning pattern of central importance in testing alternative scientific hypotheses and its use in students grades 3 through college could be enhanced through proper instruction and, if done, should increase students' ability to generate and evaluate competing hypotheses.     

How need for cognition affects the processing of achievement-related information

The present article analyzed, how need for cognition (NFC) influences the formation of performance expectancies. When processing information, individuals with lower NFC often rely on salient information and shortcuts compared to individuals higher in NFC. We assume that these preferences of processing will also make individuals low in NFC more responsive to salient achievement-related cues because the processing of salient cues is cognitively less demanding than the processing of non-salient cues. Therefore, individuals lower in NFC should tend to draw wider ranging inferences from salient achievement-related information. In a sample of N = 197 secondary school students, achievement-related feedback (grade on an English examination) affected changes in expectancies in non-corresponding academic subjects (e.g., expectation of final grade in mathematics or history) when NFC was lower, whereas for students with higher NFC, changes in expectancies in non-corresponding academic subjects were not affected.