Investigating the relationship between transactive memory and performance in collaborative learning

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships between the three dimensions of transactive memory (coordination, credibility, and specialization) and performance of collaborating students. A total of 113 students, distributed into groups of two or three, participated in the study. They were required to complete a series of learning tasks during the semester and to write a joint report for each task to be evaluated by their instructors. Afterwards, they were asked to fill out a questionnaire including self-report measures of transactive memory. The results showed a well-established positive relationship between transactive memory and performance based essentially on coordination; also, performance improved linearly as members developed specializations within groups. Implications for future research in collaborative learning are discussed.     

Team Shared Cognitive Constructs: A Meta‐Analysis Exploring the Effects of Shared Cognitive Constructs on Team Performance

Sharing similar cognitive structures among team members is one key element for the collective to solve problems and work more efficiently (DeChurch & Mesmer‐Magnus, 2010). Research has shown that team cognition is positively associated with team performance in both organizational and educational settings. Team shared cognition constructs are relatively new constructs and have been identified in the literature as team mental models, shared mental models, information sharing, transactive memory systems, cognitive congruence, and group learning. Cannon‐Bowers and Salas (2001) called for better measures of shared cognition to be developed, partially through the integration of shared cognition measures across disciplines. The purpose of this meta‐analysis is to look at these six team cognition constructs in an effort to help identify which measure, if any, results in predicting team performance best. Results indicated that information sharing was statistically significant compared to team mental memory and group learning, and marginally significant compared to transactive memory systems. Additionally, shared mental models and cognitive congruence showed higher associations with performance compared to team mental models, group learning, and transactive memory systems.     

Children's creative collaboration during a computer-based music task

The purpose of this study was to identify and analyse specific instances of transactive communication as children engaged in a paired melody writing task using a computer-based composing environment. Transactive communication has been identified as one of the features of general collaborative engagement that is most helpful in an educational sense, and which makes collaborative learning an important tool for learning and teaching. The paper reports the results of an empirical study in which a group of 10 and 11 year olds worked in pairs to compose short melodies using computers. Analysis of between-pupil dialogue suggested that levels of transactive communication varied between pairs, and also within pairs as pupils took on different roles at the computer. Factors of individual difference, such as musical expertise or whether the pair were friends, did not appear to have a significant influence on the extent of, or nature or, transactive communication.     

Effects of violent and non-violent computer game content on memory performance in adolescents

The present study focuses on the short-term effects of electronic entertainment media on memory and learning processes. It compares the effects of violent versus non-violent computer game content in a condition of playing and in another condition of watching the same game. The participants consisted of 83 female and 94 male adolescents with a mean age of 17.6 years. The dependent variables are memory for previously learnt verbal and visual material, memory for media-related content and physiological measures of stress (heart rate, cortisol, salivary alpha-amylase). Besides the group comparisons, potential mediation effects and gender differences were examined. The results show that violent content leads to a poorer memory performance for verbal material and to an increased heart rate. The heart rate, however, does not mediate the effect on memory performance. Genders differ regarding their abilities to memorise verbal and visual material, with females showing a better performance (independent of the experimental condition), and for memorising media-contents, where the males outperform females (also independent of experimental condition). The study supports the assumption that violent and arousing media content has a negative short-term effect on simultaneous information processing and learning and that there are gender-specific media effects.     

Effects of a Cooperative Learning Program on the Elaborations of Students Working in Dyads

In this study, the effects of a school improvement program on cooperative learning (CL) with respect to the elaborations of 6th-grade students working in mixed-ability and mixed-sex dyads on 2 cooperative tasks were examined. A posttest-only design with a control group was used to investigate the provision and receipt of elaborations within the dyads and the performance of the dyads working on cooperative mathematics and language tasks. Treatment dyads were found to exchange significantly more high-level elaborations during the language task than the control dyads. The treatment dyads also tended to produce higher performance scores on the 2 tasks.     

Group composition and its effect on female and male problem-solving in science education

Background:?Cooperative learning may help students elaborate upon problem information through interpersonal discourse, and this may provoke a higher level of thinking. Interaction stimulates students to put forward and order their thoughts, and to understand the ideas or questions of their peer learner. However, partner gender is an important variable in cooperative learning. Previous research indicates that female students profit less than male students from mixed-gender cooperative learning in physics, especially where problem-solving is involved. Female and male students have different communication styles. For example, male students tend to give their opinions and explanations directly, while females tend to avoid presenting their opinion and are more likely to initiate cooperative problem-solving by asking questions.

Purpose:?The main aim of this study was to ascertain whether partner gender influences female students' learning to solve science problems and the role female communication style plays in the cooperative learning process.

Sample:?A total of 62 high schools students (31 female, 31 male) from three schools in the Netherlands participated in the study. Students were selected from three physics classes in grade 10, with a mean age of 15.6. Students came from various family backgrounds.

Design and methods:?An experiment was carried out to test the effect of group composition on female and male students' cooperative problem-solving in science. The students were randomly assigned to dyads and three research conditions: 15 mixed-gender pairs (MG); eight female–female pairs (FF) and eight male–male pairs (MM). Students were given training in how to solve a problem as a team, and how to complete the answer sheet. All students solved the same problems in four 50-minute sessions. In each session, students were asked to solve three new and moderately structured problems working together. Each dyad had a university student as an observer. The observer's task was to log the students' time on task and to document the interactions between the students. The observers did not interfere with the communication between the students during problem-solving.

Results:?Analyses of pre- and post-test performance revealed that female students in the MG condition did not learn to solve physics problems as well as male partners or as female students in all-female dyads. Analyses of interactive behaviours showed that female students in the MG condition devoted less time to actively seeking solutions and spent more time asking questions than their male partners.

Conclusions:?Difference in solution-seeking behaviour could explain an important part of the difference in problem-solving performance between the female and male students in this study. Female students in the all-female dyads did not differ in interactive behaviour or post-test performance from males. They had a more balanced interactive style than females in the mixed-gender dyads. Suggestions for further research are discussed. It would be interesting to examine if the findings of this study carried over to areas in which females are traditionally more comfortable, such as biology.     

Mediated activity in the primary classroom: girls,boys and computers

Seven and 9-year-old children (n=120) worked in same or mixed gender pairs on a language-based computer and non-computer task, and their styles of social interaction were compared. At both ages, mixed gender pairs showed more assertive and less transactive (collaborative) interaction than same gender pairs on both tasks. When collaboration broke down, boys on the computer task and girls on the non-computer task dominated assertive interaction in mixed gender pairs, whereas in same gender pairs both children were equally assertive. The mediational role of the computer and the social dynamics that frame its use are discussed.     

Collaborative learning tasks and the elaboration of conceptual knowledge

In this article we present the results of an experimental study of the influence of task characteristics on the characteristics of elaboration of conceptual knowledge in social interaction. With a pre-test and post-test we measured individual learning outcomes. We constructed a coding scheme that focuses on the communicative functions and propositional content of utterances and on elaborative episodes. The subjects were 40 students who worked in dyads on a collaborative task about electricity in one of four conditions. We compared a concept mapping task with a poster task and investigated the effect of a phase of individual preparation. The post-test scores were significantly higher than the pre-test scores. Individual preparation created better learning results and the asking of more questions. The concept mapping conditions showed more discussion of electricity concepts, collaboratively elaborated conflicts and reasoning, but no higher individual learning outcomes. In the concept mapping conditions, elaboration was related to individual learning outcomes.     

You cannot do this alone! Increasing task interdependence in cooperative educational videogames to encourage collaboration

Complex, multimedia software such as educational videogames offer a wide range of elements to modify learner behavior. The adjustment of such software might support learning, especially in complex settings like collaborative or cooperative scenarios. Coming from a theoretical background of educational psychology, our experiment seeks to implement the “jigsaw strategy” within educational videogames. We conducted an experiment with sixty participants to compare conditions with or without increased task interdependence through the jigsaw strategy (i.e., the distribution of game elements and essential information). The participants had to rebuild a house from the 1894 novel Effi Briest within an adjusted version of the “sandbox” game Minecraft. The results show increased play performance, and learning outcomes with increased task interdependence. We conducted mediator and moderator analysis, which revealed a strong impact of play performance on learning outcomes. Additional analyses of mental effort, cognitive load, and efficiency allowed for deep insights into the playing and learning process. These insights enrich current theories about collaboration, mental strain, and the working memory effect and highlight the applicability of collaborative mechanics within educational videogames.     

LEARNING ABILITY FOR TWO SPATIAL ORIENTATION SYSTEMS IN ELDERLY NURSING HOME RESIDENTS

Disorientation and confusion have been identified as significant problems for older persons newly admitted to nursing homes and other institutions. The purpose of this study was to determine which of two orientating systems might be best for helping older people become accustomed to a strange environment. Middle‐aged and elderly residents of a nursing home were dichotomized by performance on three memory tests and then were given two paired‐associate learning tasks. In one task colors and a place in the nursing home were to be associated; in the other symbols and a place in the nursing home were to be associated. The results indicated that the symbol‐place paired‐associate task was learned more rapidly than the color‐place task by both high and low memory ability groups, and that the lower memory ability group showed slower learning of the color‐place task compared to the higher memory ability group. In addition, learning was slower on both tasks when the color‐place task was the first presented. These results indicated that symbol‐place codes may be more useful than color‐place codes as orientation markers and suggested that evaluation of learning performance should include examination of order effects.     

What Are the Effects of Science Lesson Planning in Peers?—Analysis of Attitudes and Knowledge Based on an Actor–Partner Interdependence Model

This study focuses on the effects of collaborative lesson planning by science pre-service teachers on their attitudes and knowledge. In our study, 120 pre-service teachers discussed a preparation for a science inquiry lesson in dyads. The teacher with the lesson preparation had the role of the coachee, while the other was the coach. We investigated the following research questions: (1) Does learning occur between the two peers? and (2) Is the competency in lesson planning affected by the attitude and knowledge of coach and coachee? Based on an actor–partner interdependence model (APIM), we could clarify the relations of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and attitudes (ATT) between and within the dyads of coach and coachee, as well as their development over time. Furthermore, the APIM allowed the inclusion of a mediator (lesson planning competency). Both PCK and ATT increased slightly but significantly during our project. ATT and PCK seemed to converge between coach and coachee at the end of the project. However, we could not find any cross-lagged effects, meaning there was no effect of coach on coachee or vice versa over time. Further, preceding PCK showed a significant effect on the competency of lesson planning, but planning competency did not influence succeeding PCK or attitude. Finally, these results are discussed with respect to science teacher education.     

Divergences in learning and memory among wild zebrafish: Do sex and body size play a role?

Given its diverse ecological distribution, zebrafish has great potential for investigations on the effect of habitat characteristics on cognition. Studies were conducted on four wild-caught zebrafish populations to understand the role of native habitat, sex, and body size in determining learning through a novel task associated with a food reward. The habitat variables, namely, the relative abundances of zebrafish and predatory fish and the substrate and vegetation diversity, were quantified during fish sampling. Fish were subjected to a novel task to find a food reward in a maze over successive training trials followed by a test for memory. Performances of subjects were based on time taken to find the food reward and number of mistakes made during trials, and tests for memory. The experiments revealed significant differences in learning rates and memory across populations. Males made significantly fewer mistakes than females only within two populations. No relationship between performance and body size was observed. The differences in learning and memory among wild zebrafish could be due to differences in predation, complexity, and stability of the native habitats. These findings suggest the possible role of multiple interacting factors in determining learning and memory among populations and point to a need for incorporating effects of several factors in future studies.     

Content effects in self-directed inductive learning

A study is presented into the effect of familiar and abstract task content on self-directed inductive learning. Two groups of learners performed a self-directed inductive learning task in which they conducted experiments to discover the model describing the relations between five independent variables and a dependent variable. One group performed a task of familiar content, the other performed an isomorphic abstract task. During learning, indicators of the inductive learning process were gathered by means of think-aloud protocols and asking standardized questions to the learners. As expected, learning outcome was higher in the group performing the concrete task. It appeared that the number of hypotheses, research plans and inferences stated were predictive for successful learning outcome, especially in the abstract task. The content effect was explained in terms of a narrowing down of the number of possible hypotheses to be considered in the concrete task, compared to the abstract task.     

How Partner Gender Influences Female Students’ Problem Solving in Physics Education

Research has shown that female students cannot profit as much as male students can from cooperative learning in physics, especially in mixed-gender dyads. This study has explored the influence of partner gender on female students’ learning achievement, interaction and the problem-solving process during cooperative learning. In Shanghai, a total of 50 students (26 females and 24 males), drawn from two classes of a high school, took part in the study. Students were randomly paired, and there were three research groups: mixed-gender dyads (MG), female–female dyads (FF) and male–male dyads (MM). Analysis of students’ pre- and post-test performances revealed that female students in the single-gender condition solved physics problems more effectively than did those in the mixed-gender condition, while the same was not the case for male students. We further explored the differences between female and male communication styles, and content among the three research groups. It showed that the females’ interaction content and problem-solving processes were more sensitive to partner gender than were those for males. This might explain why mixed-gender cooperation in physics disadvantages females in high schools.     

Effects of Informal Cooperative Learning and the Affiliation Motive on Achievement, Attitude, and Student Interactions

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of informal cooperative learning and the affiliation motive on achievement, attitude, and student interactions. Participants classified as high or low need for affiliation used either an informal cooperative learning strategy or an individual strategy while receiving information, examples, practice and feedback from an instructional television lesson. Results indicated that participants who used the individual strategy acquired significantly more knowledge from the lesson and indicated significantly more continuing motivation for working alone than those who used the informal cooperative strategy. Instructional strategy did not influence performance on the application portion of the test. Results also revealed that high affiliation participants expressed significantly more continuing motivation than low affiliation participants for working with another person. Low affiliation participants expressed significantly more continuing motivation than high affiliation participants for working alone. Finally, results indicated that high affiliation dyads exhibited significantly more on-task group behaviors (taking turns, sharing materials, group discussion of content) and significantly more off-task behaviors than low affiliation dyads. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

State anxiety and working memory in children: A test of processing efficiency theory

This study investigated the effect of individual differences in state anxiety on tasks tapping the central executive, phonological, and visuo‐spatial components of working memory (WM). It was designed to test Eysenck and Calvo’s processing efficiency theory (PET) which suggests that the phonological and executive components of WM may be important in understanding learning outcomes in anxiety. Typically‐developing children aged 9–10 years were split into high and low state anxiety groups. They performed three WM tasks – forward and backward digit span (assumed to measure phonological and central executive components of WM respectively) and a spatial working memory task (measuring the visuo‐spatial component of WM). Measurements of task accuracy were taken as an indicator of performance outcome or effectiveness. Time taken to complete tasks and a subjective rating of mental effort were taken as measurements of performance efficiency. No differences were found between high and low state anxiety groups in task accuracy for any measure. Children in the high state anxiety group, however, took longer to complete the backward digit span task and reported increased mental effort in the forward digit span task, indicating some effect of anxiety on measures of performance efficiency.     

Parental verbal strategies and children’s capacities at 3 and 5 years during a memory task

In order to study the influence on memorization of external inputs as well as children’s own strategies, we examined both parental discourses in terms of distancing (Sigel, 1970) and spontaneous rehearsal by children during a memory task. Our aim was to assess the influence of each factor for children between 3 and 5 years of age. In our study of 72 parent-child dyads (36 dyads at 3 years and 36 dyads at 5 years), an initial factorial analysis revealed that parental discourse was organized on three levels of distancing: a basic level, a recontextualization level and a symbolic level. We also found that the children’s memory performances at both ages were chiefly influenced by the symbolic level, the most cognitively demanding. Lastly, the children’s rehearsal did not have any significant effect on memory performances, unlike their age, which was the primary predictor. A model featuring the various factors we studied is proposed in the discussion.     

An Investigation of University Students’ Collaborative Inquiry Learning Behaviors in an Augmented Reality Simulation and a Traditional Simulation

The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare students’ collaborative inquiry learning behaviors and their behavior patterns in an augmented reality (AR) simulation system and a traditional 2D simulation system. Their inquiry and discussion processes were analyzed by content analysis and lag sequential analysis (LSA). Forty university students were divided into dyads and then randomly assigned into AR group and traditional 2D group to collaboratively conduct an inquiry task about elastic collision. The results of the content analysis and LSA indicated that both systems supported students’ collaborative inquiry learning. Particularly, students showed high frequencies on higher-level inquiry behaviors, such as interpreting experimental data or making conclusions, when using these two simulations. By comparing the behavioral patterns, similarities and differences between the two groups were revealed. The AR simulation engaged the students more thoroughly in the inquiry process. Moreover, students in both groups adopted the same approaches to design experiments. Due to the line of AR research is in its initial stage, suggestions for future studies were proposed.     

Learning crafts as practices of masculinity. Finnish male trainee teachers' reflections and experiences

Craft education in Finland has long gendered traditions that effect the present situation. The aim of this paper is to analyse the processes of learning the interlinking of crafts and gender. The analysis concentrates on male trainee teachers' experiences of craft education in comprehensive schools in Finland. Data were collected through memory work and autobiographical writing. The analysis revealed how the boys had linked the term ‘technical crafts’ with masculinity, (1) as part of their upbringing at home surrounded by the gender order of their childhood families; (2) following the school model that technical crafts are a masculine sphere for boys; and (3) the importance and pressures of the boys' peer culture. Through learning crafts, the boys were learning the masculinities of their local ‘communities of practices’. The prospective teachers' reflections revealed the importance of studying gender issues in teacher education.     

Working memory capacity and disfluency effect: an aptitude-treatment-interaction study

According to Cognitive Load Theory, learning material should be designed in a way to decrease unnecessary demands on working memory (WM). However, recent research has shown that additional demands on WM caused by less legible texts lead to better learning outcomes. This so-called disfluency effect can be assumed as a metacognitive regulation process during which learners assign their cognitive resources depending on the perceived difficulty of a cognitive task. Increasing the perceived difficulty associated with a cognitive task stimulates deeper processing and a more analytic and elaborative reasoning. Yet there are studies which could not replicate the disfluency effect indicating that disfluency might be beneficial only for learners with particular learner characteristics. Additional demands on working memory caused by disfluent texts are possibly just usable by learners with a high working memory capacity. Therefore the present study investigated the aptitude-treatment-interaction between working memory capacity and disfluency. Learning outcomes were measured by means of a retention, a comprehension, and a transfer test. Moreover, the three types of cognitive load (intrinsic, extraneous, and germane) were assessed. The results revealed significant aptitude-treatment-interaction effects with respect to retention and comprehension. Working memory capacity had a significant influence only in the disfluency condition: The higher the working memory capacity, the better the retention and comprehension performance in the disfluency condition. No effects were found with respect to transfer or cognitive load. Thus, the role of metacognitive regulation and its possible effects on cognitive load need further investigation.