Two-way and monolingual English immersion in preschool education: An experimental comparison

An experimental study was conducted comparing the effects of dual language, or two-way immersion (TWI) and monolingual English immersion (EI) preschool education programs on children's learning. Three-and four-year old children were randomly assigned by lottery to either a newly established TWI Spanish/English program or a monolingual English program in the same district. Children in the study were from both Spanish and English home language backgrounds. All classrooms in the study used the High/Scope curriculum, and all met high standards for teacher qualifications, ratio, and class size. The TWI program alternated between English and Spanish weekly by rotating children between two classrooms (and teachers) each week. Programs were compared on measures of children's growth in language, emergent literacy, and mathematics. Children in both types of classrooms experienced substantial gains in language, literacy, and mathematics. No significant differences between treatment groups were found on English language measures. Among the native Spanish speakers, the TWI program produced large gains in Spanish vocabulary compared to the EI program. Both TWI and EI approaches boosted the learning and development of children including ELL students, as judged by standard score gains. TWI also improved the Spanish language development of English language learners (ELL) and native English speaking children without losses in English language learning.     

Learner preferences for varying screen densities using realistic stimulus materials with single and multiple designs

Learner preferences for varying screen density levels were examined using multiple screen designs (high external validity) and single screen designs (high internal validity). When viewing multiple screens for each design in Study 1, subjects indicated the highest preference for medium-density screens while tending to select higher-density over lower density screens in individual comparisons. When viewing only the first screen of each density level in Study 2, subjects again expressed preferences for higher-density over lower-density designs. Suggestions are provided concerning the use of realistic and nonrealistic content for the stimulus materials as well as implications of using externally and internally valid screen designs for future research on computer-based instruction screen design.     

The nature of the activity deficit produced by inescapable shock

Two experiments investigated the nature and etiology of the reduced activity in the presence of shock produced by prior exposure to inescapable shock. Previous experiments have demonstrated this deficit in the presence of gridshock. However, gridshock hurts less if movement across the grids is reduced. It is thus unclear whether the inescapable-shock-produced deficit represents a facilitation of learning to reduce movement across the grids in order to alleviate pain or is an “unconditioned” reduction in movement in response to shock. The first experiment tested these possibilities by examining the effects of inescapable shock on subsequent movement during shock delivered via fixed tail electrodes to freely moving subjects. Inescapably shocked subjects still moved less in response to shock than did escapably shocked and restrained control subjects. Experiment 2 examined the possibility that this deficit occurs because unconditioned movement in response to shock during pretreatment diminishes after a few seconds, the reduction then being adventitiously reinforced by shortly ensuing shock termination. Activity during inescapable shock was closely monitored by ultrasonic motion detection. Although activity did decrease across trial blocks, the required within-trial patterns did not occur. Shock-elicited activity did not diminish after a few seconds of shock, but remained unchanged across the 5-sec shock presentations.     

Differences in Pride and Shame in Maltreated and Nonmaltreated Preschoolers

This study examined the expression of shame and pride in maltreated and nonmaltreated preschool children. 84 4–5-year-old children and their mothers participated in the study: 42 had a history of child maltreatment and 42 served as matched controls. Children were presented with easy and difficult tasks and their emotional responses of shame and pride were observed. No shame was shown when subjects succeeded on the tasks and no pride was shown when they failed. Maltreating mothers offered more negative feedback, particularly to their daughters, than nonmaltreating mothers. Maltreated girls showed more shame when they failed and less pride when they succeeded than nonmaltreated girls. The relation between differential socialization practices and the self-conscious emotions is explored as it relates to observed gender differences in emotionality and self-concept.     

Latent Differential Equation Models for Binary and Ordinal Data

This study evaluates latent differential equation models on binary and ordinal data. Binary and ordinal data are widely used in psychology research and many statistical models have been developed, such as the probit model and the logit model. We combine the latent differential equation model with the probit model through a threshold approach, and then compare the threshold model with a naive model, which blindly treats binary and ordinal data as continuous. Simulation results suggest that the naive model leads to bias on binary data and on ordinal data with fewer than 5 levels, whereas the threshold model is unbiased and efficient for binary and ordinal data. Two example analyses on empirical binary data and ordinal data show that the threshold model also has better external validity. The R code for the threshold model is provided.     

Perceived Academic Control and Failure in College students: A Three-Year Study of Scholastic Attainment

Although self-initiative is recognized as instrumental to success in college, some students do not take responsibility for their academic development and fail to make the transition from high school to college. This problem is exacerbated when bright, highly skilled students drop courses or quit college entirely. Research into this paradox of failure reveals that, although high academic control benefits learning-related emotions, cognitions, motivation, and performance, it is not sufficient to ensure optimal success. Along with academic control other factors are implicated in the paradox. In this 3-year longitudinal study, four groups of students who differed in academic control (low, high) and failure preoccupation (low, high) were tracked using broad indices of scholastic development. Overall, students higher in academic control obtained better 3-year GPAs and withdrew from fewer courses. More notable, however, high-academic-control students who were concerned about failure had better 3-year GPAs and also were less likely to withdraw from courses or quit university than the other three groups. Paradoxically, high-academic-control students who were less concerned about failure did poorly. In qualifying the assumption that more perceived control is always better, these results are interpreted following social cognition theory.     

Defensive Behaviors in Infant Rhesus Monkeys: Ontogeny and Context-dependent Selective Expression

We examined the ontogeny of the infant rhesus monkey's defensive behaviors and the ability to modulate them in response to specific environmental cues. Rhesus infants in 4 age groups (N = 8 per group) were briefly separated from their mothers and tested under 3 conditions: alone, in the presence of a human who averted his gaze, and in the presence of a human staring at them. Infants as young as 0 to 2 weeks displayed defensive behaviors but did not selectively respond to the human's presence or direction of gaze. By 9 to 12 weeks of age, infants modulated their responses in relation to the parameters of the threat. At this age, infant rhesus monkeys undergo cognitive and emotional changes associated with brain development similar to those in human infants 7 to 12 months old. This also is the time when human infants engage in complex emotional and behavioral responses to threatening situations. Understanding the development and expression of defensive behaviors in infant monkeys should be applicable to similar issues in emotional development of human infants.     

Expectation vs experience: might transition gaps predict undergraduate students’ outcome gaps?

Drawing on thematic analysis of one-to-one interviews with 85 undergraduate students, this paper offers initial, exploratory analysis of whether known outcome differentials may be partly attributable to students’ transition into university. The study is located in the English higher education sector, where fee increases have been accompanied by wider availability of metrics and outcome differentials have become a particular focus of attention. Specifically, this paper examines (in)congruence between students’ expectations of higher education and their experience while at university, tracking how recalled pre-arrival expectations correlate with socio-economic status and school type. In the case of students from ‘widening participation’ (WP) backgrounds, the effect of attendance on an intervention (access) programme is also considered. Findings point to a complex web of factors influencing the undergraduate experience of students within the same institution. For WP students, the widest gaps arise in relation to pedagogy, as the culture and curricula of higher education are initially found inconsistent with expectations. Intervention programmes make a small positive difference, primarily because social and academic confidence is enhanced. For students educated at independent schools, the widest gaps arise in relation to assessment, for which university-level support and guidance are felt to be less personalised than expected. On a structural level, findings question the reliability of output metrics as proxies for teaching quality given the extent to which they are predicted by students’ backgrounds and by the nature of their individual transition into higher education.     

Replacement of event-generated memories of nonreinforcement with signal-generated memories of reinforcement during partial reinforcement training: Effect on resistance to extinction

Event-generated memory refers to the memory of a reinforcement (R) or nonreinforcement (N) event from an immediately preceding trial;signal-generated memory refers to the memory of a temporally remote R or N, retrieval of which is generated by presentation of a signal with which the memory is associated (Haggbloom, 1988). In each of three experiments, Group Signal-R received runway discrimination training in Phase 1 to establish a stimulus as a signal for R, and partial reinforcement training in Phase 2. An extinction test measured learning about the memory of nonreward (S^N)—learning that occurs when S^N is retrieved on R trials that follow N trials. In Group Signal-H, those R trials were accompanied by the signal for R, a treatment we hypothesized would generate retrieval of the memory of reinforcement (S^R) so that signal-generated S^R would replace event-generated S^N as the operative memory, thereby eliminating the increased resistance to extinction normally produced by PRF training. In each experiment, Group Signal-R was less resistant to extinction than was a control group conditioned to respond to-event-generated S^N. Extinction was as rapid in Group Signal-R as it was in a consistent reinforcement control group (Experiment 1) and in a group given intertrial reinforcements to interfere with learning about S^N (Experiment 3). Experiment 2 tested two alternative interpretations of the failure to learn about S^N in Group Signal-R. Those alternatives were found to be less viable than the hypothesis that the signal for R actively recruited retrieval of a competing memory.