Teleconsultation as the New Frontier of Educational and Psychological Consultation: Introduction to the Special Issue

ABSTRACT

In this lead-in article, we define teleconsultation as the delivery of consultative services through videoconferencing and other technologies. We then describe the emergence and potential positive impact of teleconsultation in schools. Finally, we introduce the articles that make up this special issue of the Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation.     

The effectiveness of a marketing virtual reality learning simulation: A quantitative survey with psychophysiological measures

Virtual reality (VR) technology has been shown to be a promising teaching method in STEM subjects. Extending these findings, the current study is the first to develop and examine the feasibility of using a VR simulation in marketing (ie, a non-STEM subject). Specifically, the levels of immersion and three learning outcomes (learning attitude, enjoyment and performance) were compared between the marketing students who learned the same content through a VR simulation prototype versus a traditional static video presentation. Learning enjoyment was measured using facial electromyography, which served as a more objective measures for the feeling of enjoyment. Compared to the video condition, the results showed that VR resulted in a higher experience of immersion, learning attitude and learning enjoyment. Furthermore, immersion was found to fully mediate the positive effects of the VR simulation on learning attitude, but not enjoyment. Surprisingly, students in the video condition performed better on the knowledge-based test than those in the VR condition. The current study suggests that the current prototype of the VR simulations should be used as supplementary resource to increase the learning attitude and enjoyment, but not as a main teaching material to enhance knowledge-based performance in the marketing discipline.     

Creating a Developmental Scale to Account for Heterotypic Continuity in Development: A Simulation Study

Many psychological constructs show heterotypic continuity—their behavioral manifestations change with development but their meaning remains the same. However, research has paid little attention to how to account for heterotypic continuity. A promising approach to account for heterotypic continuity is creating a developmental scale using vertical scaling. A simulation was conducted to compare creating a developmental scale using vertical scaling to traditional approaches of longitudinal assessment. Traditional approaches that failed to account for heterotypic continuity resulted in less accurate growth estimates, at the person- and group level. Findings suggest that ignoring heterotypic continuity may result in faulty developmental inferences. Creating a developmental scale with vertical scaling is recommended to link different measures across time and account for heterotypic continuity.     

Dissociation of the blocking of conditioned eyeblink and conditioned fear following a shift in US locus

Two experiments with rabbits investigated the concordance of two measures of conditioning, eyeblink and potentiated startle, during a blocking sequence with paraorbital shock reinforcement. In both, a shift in the locus of shock from one eye to the other between the conditioning of an element and a compound of that element and a new cue had differential effects on the two measures of conditioning to the new cue. When the shock was unchanged, diminished conditioning in relation to controls (i.e., blocking) was observed on both measures. When the shock was changed, little conditioning was observed in startle, but control-equivalent amounts were observed in eyeblink (i.e., blocking occurred on the former but not the latter). The results are interpreted as showing a dissociation of the associative learning involving the emotive features of Pavlovian reinforcers and that involving the remaining sensory-perceptual features, and more compatible with a diminished US-processing, than with a CSprocessing, view of blocking.     

When Is Teleconsultation Acceptable to School Psychologists?

ABSTRACT

School psychologists report a desire to increase consultation with teachers but are limited by competing job demands. Consultation via videoconference (i.e., teleconsultation) offers one possible means of increasing consultant availability to teachers, but little is known about the acceptability of this technology in actual practice. In this exploratory study, we conducted an online survey to assess the conditions under which school consultants would use teleconsultation to assist teachers remotely. Sixty-two school psychology practitioners, trainers, and trainees completed a choice-based conjoint survey designed to assess teleconsultation acceptability in the context of varying commute times, consultee comfort levels, and student problem severities. Findings suggest important differences in teleconsultation acceptability in the context of real-world tradeoffs. Implications of these results are discussed, as well as the potential for using conjoint analysis to better understand technology decisions among school consultants.     

Decision making by humans in a behavioral task: Do humans, like pigeons, show suboptimal choice?

Consistent with human gambling behavior but contrary to optimal foraging theory, pigeons show a strong preference for an alternative with low probability and high payoff (a gambling-like alternative) over an alternative with a greater net payoff (Zentall & Stagner, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 278, 1203-1208, 2011). In the present research, we asked whether humans would show suboptimal choice on a task involving choices with probabilities similar to those for pigeons. In Experiment 1, when we selected participants on the basis of their self-reported gambling activities, we found a significantly greater choice of the alternative involving low probability and high payoff (gambling-like alternative) than for a group that reported an absence of gambling activity. In Experiment 2, we found that when the inhibiting abilities of typical humans were impaired by a self-regulatory depletion manipulation, they were more likely to choose the gambling-like alternative. Taken together, the results suggest that this task is suitable for the comparative study of suboptimal decision-making behavior and the mechanisms that underlie it.     

Association of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Perinatal Maternal Depression with Early Childhood Behavioral Problems: An Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Study

This study examined the association of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), prenatal, and postnatal maternal depressive symptoms with externalizing, internalizing, and autism spectrum problems on the Preschool Child Behavior Checklist in 2379 children aged 4.12 ± 0.60 (48% female; 47% White, 32% Black, 15% Mixed Race, 4% Asian, <2% American Indian/Alaskan Native, <2% Native Hawaiian; 23% Hispanic). Data were collected from the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program from 2009-2021. GDM, prenatal, and postnatal maternal depressive symptoms were each associated with increased child externalizing and internalizing problems. GDM was associated with increased autism behaviors only among children exposed to perinatal maternal depressive symptoms above the median level. Stratified analyses revealed a relation between GDM and child outcomes in males only.