Multiple deficits in the retention of an appetitively motivated behavior across a 24-h period in rats

Recent investigations have found a multiphasic retention function associated with avoidance training (e.g., Holloway & Wansley, 1973a, b). The present experiment was done to determine if a similar retention function also describes appetitively motivated behavior. Rats were allowed access to preferred solution in the shock compartment of a passive avoidance apparatus. Then either .25 h after the appetitive preexposure or at successive 3-h intervals up to 24 h, the rats were administered one-trial passive avoidance training consisting of a strong shock presented in the shock compartment. The retention of the appetitive preexposure was determined by its effect on performance of the passive avoidance task as measured 24 h after the shock trial. The results demonstrated that the retention function associated with the appetitive preexposure was phasic with an alternation between high and low retention every 12 h. Specifically, retention was higher after the .25-, 9-, 12-, and 24-h intervals than after 3-, 6-, 15-, and 18-h intervals. These results are consistent with prior research on the retention of avoidance training.     

Rats' performance on an interval time-place task: Increasing sequence complexity

Rats were trained on an interval time-place learning (TPL) task in which the location of food availability depended on the time since the start of the session. Each of four levers (numbered 1, 2, 3, 4) provided food on an intermittent schedule for two nonconsecutive 3-min periods. The order in which the levers provided food was 1, 2, 4, 3, 2, 3, 1, 4. This order was consistent across sessions. Previous research conducted in our lab has shown that when only four “places” are used, rather than the eight in the present study, rats use a timing strategy to track the location of food. Pizzo and Crystal (2004) recently trained rats on an interval TPL in which each of eight arms of a radial arm maze provided food. They found evidence suggesting that rats used both spatial and temporal information. In the present study, in which a revisiting strategy was used (i.e., each lever provided food on more than one occasion), the rats tracked both the spatial and the temporal availability of food for the first half of the session. Interestingly, in the second half of the sessions, the rats appeared to be timing the availability of food even though they did not know where it would occur. That is, the rats knew the temporal, but not the spatial, contingencies for the second half of the session. It appears that the requirement of revisiting a previously reinforced lever resulted in rats' no longer being able to solve the spatial aspect of the task.     

Effect of spatial titration on task performance

A reinforcement schedule and spatial titration method were used to determine task-reinforcement area separation most preferred and effective in two third-grade boys. Errors in task performance decreased task-reinforcement area separation, while correct responses in task performance increased task-reinforcement area separation. Zero task-reinforcement area separation was most preferred and effective in producing high task performance.     

Effects of delayed retention on multiple-choice test performance

In two experiments, immediate feedback defined as feedback following the completion of a 40-item multiple-choice test and delayed feedback (received 48 hr later) were examined in a simulated classroom situation with college students. As defined, delayed feedback was not superior to immediate feedback, as would be predicted by the delayed retention effect. Also, feedback in the form of correct answer only was superior to correct answer plus distractors lending partial support to the frequency theory of recognition memory. In addition to not finding the delayed retention effect, an analysis of errors in experiment two did not support the interference—perseveration hypothesis as an explanation for the type of error committed following immediate feedback.     

Self-efficacy, task complexity and task performance: Exploring interactions in two versions of vocabulary learning tasks

The present study aimed for better understanding of the interactions between task complexity and students?? self-efficacy beliefs and students?? use of learning strategies, and finally their interacting effects on task performance. This investigation was carried out in the context of Chinese students learning English as a foreign language in a university in China. The participants were 78 second-year university students (mean age?=?20.9?years). This study used a repeated-measures design with task complexity as the within-participants factor, and task sequence as the between-participants factor. Results indicated a significant task effect for self-efficacy beliefs and task performance, and a significant interaction effect of sequence with task complexity for learners?? self-efficacy beliefs in learning for both task versions, learners with higher self-efficacy beliefs had better task performances than learners with lower self-efficacy beliefs. The results also revealed a strong correlation between self-efficacy and the use of learning strategies for both tasks.     

Affective states and task performance in naive and prompted children

Using a mental imagery procedure, positive or negative emotions were experimentally induced in 5- and 10-year-old children. In the case of the younger children, the induced emotions influenced their performance on a subsequent memory task, i.e. happy children did better than sad ones. Ten-year-olds, however, seemed to perform at an optimal level in both emotional circumstances. It was argued that these older children, with the help of their firmly established general knowledge about the possible effects of emotion on performance, spontaneously countered the effects of the emotion induction procedure. Activation of the young children’s latent knowledge of these effects, simply by questioning them on this point beforehand, produced, even in their case, an optimal performance in both the happy and sad conditions.     

Detection of explanation obstacles in scientific texts: the effect of an understanding task vs. an experiment task

The aim of this study is to analyse the effect of tasks on the detection of explanation obstacles when secondary school students read scientific texts. Students were instructed to read short passages under different task conditions, and to ask questions if necessary. Obstacle detection was operationalised in terms of the type of questions asked by the students. The experiment examined the influence of goals associated with the task of reading to understand a text vs. reading to perform a procedure described by the text (a science experiment). Significantly, more explanation obstacles were found in the understanding condition than in the experiment condition. Scientific text also had an effect on the explanation obstacles detected.     

Examining the relationship between emotion variability,self-regulated learning,and task performance in an intelligent tutoring system

Educational technology research and development - Prior research has focused extensively on how emotion tendencies (e.g., duration, frequency, intensity, and valence) affect students’...     

Perceptual learning transfer in an appetitive Pavlovian task

In two experiments, rats were given intermixed or blocked preexposure to two similar compound stimuli, AX and BX. Following preexposure, conditioning trials took place in which AX (Experiment 1) or a novel compound stimulus NX (Experiment 2) was paired with a food-unconditioned stimulus in an appetitive Pavlovian preparation. Animals that were given alternated preexposure showed lower generalization from AX to BX (Experiment 1) and from NX to a new compound, ZX (Experiment 2), than animals that were given blocked preexposure, a perceptual learning and a perceptual learning transfer effect, respectively.     

语文教育创新：永恒的课题

语文教学在创新教育中有着特殊的作用。知识创新人们运用母语读写听说的能力提出了前所未有的高要求。如何发挥语文教学在创新教育中的作用,语文教育身身如何创新,已成为紧迫的研究课题;新世纪语文教育要不断创新,首先是教育观念的创新,其次理论研究要创新,第三,教学实验也要创新;希望研究中辩证法多一步,视野宽一点,目光远一点,合作气氛浓一点,这样,我们前进的步伐才能快一点。     

Concurrent enrollment in lecture and laboratory enhances student performance and retention

Laboratories have been a cornerstone in teaching and learning across multiple scientific disciplines for more than 100 years. At the collegiate level, science laboratories and their corresponding lectures are often offered as separate courses, and students may not be required to concurrently enroll in both. In this study, we provide evidence that enrolling in an introductory laboratory concurrently with the corresponding lecture course enhances learning gains and retention in comparison to students who enroll in the lecture alone. We examined the impact of concurrent versus nonconcurrent enrollment on 9,438 students' withdrawal rates from and final grades in the general chemistry lecture at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor using multiple linear and binary logistic regression analyses, respectively, at a significance level of 0.05. We found that concurrent enrollment in the lecture and laboratory positively impacts (1) the odds of retention in the lecture by 2.2 times on average and (2) final lecture grades by up to 0.19 grade points on a 4.0 scale for the lowest‐scoring students according to university‐level mathematics and chemistry placement exam scores. These data provide important results for consideration by curriculum advisors and course planners at universities that do not require concurrent enrollment in general chemistry as well as other science courses. In the face of current budget cuts that threaten to shorten or eliminate laboratory experiences altogether at multiple educational levels, this study demonstrates the value of laboratories in promoting science learning and retention. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 659–682, 2012     

Student performance on argumentation task in the Swedish National Assessment in science

The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of content knowledge on students’ socio-scientific argumentation in the Swedish National Assessment in biology, chemistry and physics for 12-year-olds. In Sweden, the assessment of socio-scientific argumentation has been a major part of the National Assessment during three consecutive years and this study utilizes data on student performance to investigate (a) the relationship between tasks primarily addressing argumentation and tasks addressing primarily content knowledge as well as (b) students’ performance on argumentation tasks, which differ in relation to content, subject, aspect of argumentation and assessment criteria. Findings suggest a strong and positive relationship between content knowledge and students’ performance on argumentation tasks. The analysis also provides some hypotheses about the task difficulty of argumentation tasks that may be pursued in future investigations.     

Motivational and cognitive predictors of goal setting and task performance

The purpose of the study was to explore the influence of various motivational and cognitive factors on goal setting and task performance. A slightly unconventional approach was taken by using a neuropsychological experiment as a starting point and subsequently building on its results and implications from a motivational perspective. The results suggested that different sets of motivational and cognitive factors predict different outcomes. Goal level seemed to be a function of both task-related abilities and motivational beliefs. In contrast, no robust effects on performance level were found. However, subjects who tended to hold beliefs that action outcomes are determined by chance were also likely to display atypical goal setting (i.e., a tendency to raise goals after failure and lower goals after success).     

Achievement goals in a presentation task: Performance expectancy,achievement goals,state anxiety,and task performance

The aims of the study were to test the linkages between achievement goals to task performance, as mediated by state anxiety arousal. Performance expectancy was also examined as antecedents of achievement goals. A presentation task in a computer practice class was used as achievement task. Fifty-three undergraduates (37 females and 16 males) were administered self-report questionnaire measures before and immediately following the task performance. As expected, results of regression analyses showed that performance-avoidance goals were positively related to state anxiety. State anxiety was related to poor task performance. The positive relationship between mastery goals and the task score was shown to be independent of anxiety processes. Performance expectancy was related to state anxiety through achievement goals.     

Maternal interaction,private speech,and task performance in preschool children

This study examined the correspondence between ontogenetic and microgenetic change in private speech, the association of private speech with task performance, and the relationship of maternal interaction during a teaching session to preschoolers' verbal self-regulation and success in independent problem solving. Thirty 4- and 5-year-olds were observed while their mothers assisted them in solving two challenging tasks. In three subsequent sessions, children's private speech and performance were tracked as they worked on tasks requiring skills similar to those taught in the mother-child session. Correspondences between age- and session-related trends in private speech and task performance appeared that are consistent with Vygotsky's assumption that private speech undergoes progressive internalization with increasing cognitive competence. Contrary to Vygotskian assumptions, utterances accompanying action were not replaced by those preceding action (planning statements) with advancing age and task mastery. Private speech predicted gain in task performance more effectively than concurrent performance. A global index of authoritative parenting was a better predictor of private speech and task performance than were microanalytic measures of scaffolding, suggesting that microanalytic indices may miss critical features of maternal teaching behavior that promote transfer of cognitive strategies from adult to child.