Information retention’s relationships with flow,presence and engagement in guided 3D virtual environments

The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation of different variables with information retention in guided 3D virtual learning environments by employing three experimental designs. In each experiments, different participants were included in the same population and different variables were considered. Information retention test, flow, presence, engagement scales were used as data collection tools. Namely measures of flow, presence and engagement were examined to see their correlation with retention in experiment 1, 2 and 3. As a result, not the total score of flow but focused attention, enjoyment and skill dimensions has a weak but significant correlation with information retention, while the challenge has a moderate and significant negative correlation. In the second experiment, retention had a significant, low-level relationship with teaching presence and cognitive presence, but it did not have a similar relationship with social presence. In the third experiment, information retention significantly correlated with affective and cognitive engagement, but not with behavioral engagement. Although the three studies’ participants were from the same population, It was seen that the differences in the level of relationship between information retention and the variables studied in each study. Nevertheless, it was found that the levels of flow, presence and engagement of students are important for information retention in a guided 3D virtual learning environment. The study is thought to guide researchers to design 3D virtual learning environments for different purposes, considering these variables.     

Information Retention as a Function of the Number of Intervals and the Reliability of Continuous Variables

When a researcher constructs a scale, he or she must choose an appropriate number of intervals for the instrument. This study was designed to provide quantitative information to facilitate such decisions. Data were generated based on formulas derived from the classical true-score model. The number of intervals and the reliability of the data were systematically adjusted to determine their effects on information retention. As expected, information retention approached its maximum value when the number of intervals was about eight or more and reliability was near 1.0. Information retention approached its minimum value when the number of intervals was small and reliability was near zero. Moreover, increasing the number of intervals had a greater effect on information retention when reliability was near 1 .O. Tabled information-retention coefficients are presented as an aid to the practitioner who is selecting or creating scales. In addition, suggestions are offered for selecting a useful number of scale intervals.     

The effect of simulation games and worksheets on learning of varying ability groups in a high school biology classroom

High school biology students who were taught by the simulation game method had comparable achievement gains to the students who were taught using worksheets. The three simulation games used in this study were able to teach factual information as well as the worksheet activities. This effect was constant across ability and sex. There were no significant differences in the retention scores of high ability students utilizing gaming. Also, there was no significant difference in the scores of low ability students utilizing worksheets and low ability students using games. Students' sex was significantly related with retention in the three-way interaction of treatment by ability by sex. Low ability females using simulation games scored higher on retention than low ability females utilizing worksheets. Low ability males utilizing worksheets scored higher on retention than low ability males using simulation games.     

LEARNING FROM A TAPE‐SLIDE PROGRAMME

Two groups of students were shown a tape‐slide programme on the history of photography. The use of a number of dark blank slides as a cueing device in the experimental programme had no significant effect on the retention of information from the audio channel, but did significantly increase the amount of visual information recalled on an immediate retention test.     

Enhancement of short-term retention by appetitive-reinforcer reminder treatment

Choice accuracy by rats in a delayed-alternation paradigm was shown to decrease over a 120-sec retention interval. The decrement in choice accuracy was reversed by presentation of the appetitive reinforcer outside of the apparatus during the retention interval. This suggests that the reinforcer served to reactivate the target spatial memory and that the short-term retention deficit in the absence of such memory reactivation was not due to a loss of information. The results are discussed with respect to recent criticisms of memory-reactivation treatments in short-term retention tasks.     

LEARNER EXPECTATIONS AND THE PROCESSING OF INFORMATIVE FEEDBACK BY YOUNG AND ELDERLY ADULTS

Inasmuch as learner expectations may influence specific techniques utilized in the processing and retention of information, a comparison was made between older youth and a sample of retired elderly relative to response confidence in a multiple‐choice task situation. Confidence levels relative to types of responses and retention over two delay periods are discussed. Analysis indicated that both age groups utilized feedback effectively over the two retention conditions and that both age groups expressed similar levels of confidence for this specific task.     

标题对EFL学习者英语说明文阅读理解与信息保持的影响

进行了2个实验考察在正常阅读(实验1)与快速阅读条件下(实验2)标题及小标题对高低英语水平不同的大学生说明文阅读理解与信息保持的作用。结果表明：不论是正常阅读还是快速阅读,标题及小标题的呈现对读者说明文阅读理解与信息保持均有显著的促进作用,即阅读水平高者与低者都能从标题及小标题中受益,特别是在正常阅读条件下,提供标题与小标题对阅读水平低者的信息保持的促进作用比对高水平者的促进作用大得多。     

The tutor/facilitator role in student retention

Open and distance learning provide particular (and sometimes overlapping) contexts for discussions of student retention. This paper argues that the environment for learning created by distance learning tutors is a key factor in student retention, whether retention is taken to refer to student completion of a single course or student persistence through a programme of study. Discussion of tutors' roles in retaining students is stimulated by the recent symposium on student retention and draws on a new analysis of three linked empirical inquiries located within the UK Open University. A fruitful integration of questionnaire surveys, project evaluation and practitioner action inquiries suggest that, where questions of retention focus on the student and their learning experience, tutors' facilitative roles are complex and valuable. Institutional policies and course design practices need to support tutors in their retention roles by using and sharing appropriate pedagogies, systems, student information and integrated professional development opportunities.     

Logging in and dropping out: exploring student non‐completion in higher education using electronic footprint analysis

Student retention in higher education might be prioritised by funding authorities and universities but robust measurement of non‐completion is elusive. This investigation explores untapped data sources to enrich understanding of non‐completion. The analysis features the main undergraduate course in a part of a large UK university with retention concerns. Three data sources were explored; Registry, course administration and electronic information systems. Discrepancies emerged in data from them, with students' electronic engagement data revealing withdrawal patterns not evident in the other sources. The departures profile revealed by the information systems data is used to conjecture association between type of departure and stage of departure drawing on time‐based retention models. The analysis also draws on material from focus groups of course administrators and tutors. The results demonstrate a new way of pinpointing and quantifying non‐completion over time, electronic footprint analysis, which provides an additional basis for formulating and monitoring retention strategies. While not explaining why individuals withdraw, they reveal more about when they appear more likely to do so. Using data already captured they constitute feasible means of improving retention.     

Why do faculty members leave a university?

This paper uses the results of a survey of tenured faculty members who resigned from the University of Minnesota to analyze the factors that influenced their decisions to leave. The results indicate that the probability of accepting an outside offer is positively related to the expected salary gain, but that other general factors are also important determinants of faculty decision making in this area. However, even with the survey results, we know very little in any systematic sense about specific factors that influence individual faculty decisions, particularly about differences in these factors for those faculty who leave as opposed to those who remain. To analyze faculty retention more completely, we need additional information about the personal circumstances of faculty members who are and are not retention cases and more extensive information on why the retention cases made their eventual choices about staying at or leaving the institution.     

Preference effects on acquisition and retention of concurrent discriminations by rhesus monkeys

Ten rhesus monkeys were trained on five tasks, each of which consisted of eight concurrently presented object discrimination problems. Sequences of presentation were devised to allow one, two, or three new tasks to intervene between acquisition and retention tests or to provide a 30-day period of no testing. Equivalent and proficient performances were obtained in all retention tests, and no relationship was observed between retention and the initial preference characteristics of various objects. Object pReferences did produce significant influences upon acquisition, but these effects were not as pronounced in early tasks as in later ones. An additional retention test provided support for the contention that monkeys do not necessarily process information about specific object pair discriminations. Rather, they appeared to retain a list of previously rewarded objects even when object pairings were different from those provided during acquisition. Concurrent discriminations involving many distinct objects were resistant to interference and independent of preference characteristics over long retention periods.     

对称信息下制造商契约设计

考虑由制造商和销售商组成的二级供应链,其中市场需求依赖于产品价格、销售商的努力水平、产品质量和市场随机因素,并且市场需求是产品价格的指数型函数。在信息对称时,比较两种情况下制造商的最优契约设计：存在“保留利润”时和双方进行Stackelberg博弈时,结果表明：存在“保留利润”时,制造商给予销售商的提成比例系数为零时制造商的利润最优,但此时销售商的利润为一常值：保留利润;双方进行Stackelberg博弈时,双方的利润都不断增加且明显高于前者的最优值点,最后得到结论：信息对称时制造商和销售商进行Stackelberg 时的模型明显优于含有“保留利润”时的模型。     

Functional Significance of Orienters in Prose Learning

Orienters were defined as stimuli that activate the focal attentive mechanisms which are considered to be important for deeper processing of information. Several kinds of Orienters were identified. Orienters act by initiating an orienting response which is characterized by two stages—(1) a brief molar phase involving a gross orientation of the receptor, followed by (2) a tonic phase involving a fine scanning of details. The tonic phase was considered to correspond to the activation of focal attentive mechanisms in Neisser’s terminology. It was concluded that Orienters may in fact activate focal-attentive mechanisms, but mere activation of such mechanisms may not necessarily aid retention of information. Retention of information is also dependent upon S’s decision to retain the information to which he has been alerted.     

Does weak reading comprehension reflect an integration deficit?

Seven‐ and eight‐year‐old skilled and less‐skilled comprehenders were compared on a sentence recognition task in two conditions varying in memory load and retention interval. Integration of story information during comprehension was indexed by inflated recognition errors of foils that had been constructed by integrating information across original story sentences. Skilled comprehenders exhibited more accurate memory for sentences than less‐skilled comprehenders. However, the groups did not differ in the degree to which they integrated information with minimal memory demand, or in their tendency to integrate information and retain the integrated representations with increased memory demand. These results were interpreted as evidence that integration deficits do not lie at the root of reading comprehension difficulties in mainstream children.     

Reasons for suboptimal learning in medical microbiology

Medical microbiology presents a challenge to undergraduate students, mostly due to its extensive content and complexity of unfamiliar terminology. In addition to a narrative review of the literature, we report findings on students’ motivation for and approach to learning in the Infections module of an undergraduate medical curriculum, and their perceived lack of retention of knowledge acquired in the module, as determined by a self-administered, anonymous questionnaire. When students experienced information overload, they reverted to performance goals and the wrong motivation for learning. Their focus turned primarily to being successful in tests and examinations, and they consequently adopted a surface approach to learning. Surface learning and memorisation of facts without understanding its content usually result in moderate retention of knowledge, which could handicap the development of clinical reasoning. However, the concern about students’ perceived poor retention of knowledge can be laid to rest – the prognosis is not discouraging after all.     

The impact of color and role on retention of knowledge: a body-painting study within undergraduate medicine

Body painting as a tool for teaching anatomy is becoming increasingly popular as it is fun and diffuses the formal academic context. Students claim bright color plays a significant role in retention of knowledge from painting sessions. Medical students (n = 117) were divided into two conditions: block color (CLR) and black outlines (BLK). Students completed a pre-test before a body painting teaching session on abdominal referred pain. CLR students used bright block colors, and BLK students mapped outlines in black. Immediately afterward, students sat a mid-test to compare the conditions. Students completed a post-test to compare long-term retention of knowledge four weeks later. There was no difference in knowledge between the two conditions immediately after the teaching (P = 0.653). There was no significant difference in long-term retention of knowledge between those using black outlines and those using color (P = 0.278). The use of color had no impact on short-term or long-term retention of knowledge, despite previously collected qualitative data that color helped memorization. Despite there being no immediate difference in the amount of information retained, the students' enthusiasm for body painting and the use of bold colors warrant body painting's inclusion within the anatomy curriculum. Acceptability plays a significant role in the success of any teaching modality. Additionally, students who undertook the roles of painter or canvas retained similar amounts of information after six weeks (P = 0.505). Students' classification as verbalizer or visualizer did not impact on their test performance.     

Factors associated with one-year retention in a community college

This study sought to evaluate preenrollment variables as predictors of one-year retention of first-time students in a community college. The purpose was to use information that is typically available when a student begins his or her college program and determine if this information can help identify students who are more likely to drop out within their first year. Based on a logistic regression model to select predictors of retention, the lower the high school GPA, the greater the chance the student will drop out. Over and above this, additional risk is associated with the age range 20–24, attending part-time, and being an ethnic minority other than Asian. When all or some of these are operating, it may be necessary to enhance these students' chances with special programs or services.     

CHANGING PERSPECTIVES ON STUDENT RETENTION: A Role for Institutional Research

This paper proposes a role for institutional research in changing institutional attitudes about the priority placed on student retention efforts. Problems associated with changing perspectives are described using Kuber-Ross's work On Death and Dying. Potential barriers associated with changing the status of student retention efforts within the institution are identified relative to her stages of grief-denial, hostility, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Tactics useful in addressing and moving through each stage are described. Results from several studies on student retention provide information that has been used to promote and change attitudes toward student retention efforts at all levels at Virginia Tech.     

A comparative study on the use of humor in the design of instruction

This study examined the effects of three integrated and contiguous instructional designs using incongruity humor on the recognition and recall of information measured by immediate learning and retention tests. First graders in three classes (N=58) were randomly assigned to one of three humor design treatment groups and a control group. On two successive days prior to receiving a humor treatment, each group received a taped reading of a familiar story, which succeeded in the intended manipulation of subjects to low levels of arousal and interest across all groups. The three humor designs included a humor experience which was immediately followed by a serious presentation of new information (contiguous-immediate design), the same humor experience with a one week postponed presentation of the new information (contiguous-postponed design), and a presentation of the new information with humor interspersed within (integrated design). Results indicated that the two contiguous humor treatment groups had higher immediate memory and retention scores than the control group, particularly with regard to recall of the new information. The integrated humor treatment failed to have its intended humor reaction. Limitations of previous research, which generally does not support the instructional value of humor, are discussed in terms of basic theory and research in humor, motivation, and learning.