The relationship of typographic arrangement to the learning of technical training material.

"… two newly developed methods of typographic arrangement, square span and spaced unit, may possess certain advantages over the usual arrangement. While square span slowed the reader on first encounter, this effect tended to diminish with practice; spaced unit had little effect upon reading speed. The reader found the newer arrangements less acceptable than the more traditional, but this feeling was less marked when the "thought units" in the arrangement were small rather than large. The chief effect upon immediate retention produced by the newer arrangements compared to the older was to provide an increase in test scores for the more able readers. It should be emphasized that the advantages of the newer arrangement are best described as potential, since they interfere with strongly developed reading habits." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sometimes you need a reminder: The effects of prompting self-regulation on regulatory processes, learning, and attrition.

Prompting self-regulation involves asking trainees reflective questions to stimulate self-regulatory engagement. Research has found positive effects for prompting self-regulation on learning, but a scarcity of evidence exists regarding whether self-regulatory processes mediate the effect of prompting self-regulation, whether the intervention reduces attrition, and the optimal timing of implementing the intervention. Using a longitudinal design, we found that prompting self-regulation throughout training increased learning and reduced attrition, relative to the control condition. Moreover, the effect on learning was fully mediated by time on task. The intervention also moderated the effect of learning on subsequent self-regulatory activity and attrition. Learning performance had less of a positive effect on subsequent self-regulatory activity and less of a negative effect on subsequent attrition when trainees were prompted to self-regulate. These results highlight the importance of adopting a longitudinal design to examine how self-regulatory interventions affect the cyclical relationships among self-regulatory processes, learning, and attrition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of temperature upon technical training.

Two equated groups of 404 men each received identical classroom training, one group in air-conditioned spaces, the other in rooms equipped with exhaust fans, at a Southern U. S. Navy training center. The Ss working under the higher temperatures thought their learning was impaired, but no significant difference in achievement between the two groups was found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Performance across different areas of mathematical cognition in children with learning difficulties.

The performance of 210 2nd graders in different areas of mathematical cognition was examined. Children were divided into 4 achievement groups: children with difficulties in mathematics but not in reading (MD-only), children with difficulties in both mathematics and reading (MD/RD), children with difficulties in reading but not in mathematics, and children with normal achievement. Although both MD groups performed worse than normally achieving groups in most areas of mathematical cognition, the MD-only group showed an advantage over the MD/RD group in exact calculation of arithmetic combinations and in problem solving. The 2 groups did not differ in approximate arithmetic and understanding of place value and written computation. Children with MD-only seem to be superior to children with MD/RD in areas that may be mediated by language but not in ones that rely on numerical magnitudes, visuospatial processing, and automaticity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The hour of departure: Predicting attrition in the training clinic from role expectancies.

In addition to having potentially deleterious effects on clients in distress, client attrition also thwarts efforts by trainee clinicians to develop psychotherapy competencies that are uniquely associated with providing middle- or late-stage treatment. Within the established literature, one well-replicated correlate of attrition is client expectations. Thus, the following study investigated whether client attrition within a training clinic could be prospectively predicted from pretreatment expectancies. To that end, all adult clients presenting for an intake at a training clinic completed the Psychotherapy Expectancy Inventory—Revised (PEI–R). First, normative reference ranges for the PEI–R total and factor scores were developed. Next, analyses revealed that these reference ranges had good specificity in prospectively identifying clients that subsequently prematurely terminated treatment. Moreover, the computed positive likelihood ratios revealed that an individual who obtains a total score outside of the reference range is 7 times more likely to prematurely terminate therapy in comparison with individuals obtaining scores within the normative reference range. Training clinics are therefore encouraged to routinely administer the PEI–R as a means of identifying individuals at risk for attrition and defining which role expectations may need to be modified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Committee on Subdoctoral Education. The training of technical workers in psychology at the subdoctoral level.

After having considered many previous statements and reports concerning the training of psychological workers at the subdoctoral level "… the committee's best collective judgment on certain issues" is made explicit in several statements. Among these are: "A. Professional training in psychology at the subdoctoral level is desirable… . B. Appropriate distinctions as to role and title should be made between the subdoctorally trained psychological worker and the doctorally trained psychologist." Eight recommendations are made concerning subdoctoral training. Implications and expected orientations of the recommendations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Military training and principles of learning.

"If I were faced with the problem of improving training, I should not look for much help from the well-known learning principles like reinforcement, distribution of practice, response familiarity, and so on. I should look instead at the technique of task analysis and at the principles of component task achievement, intratask transfer, and the sequencing of subtask learning to find those ideas of greatest usefulness in the design of effective training." Major sections are: Some Representative Military Tasks, Learning, Principles, Using These Assumptions and Principles in Training Design, What Is Applicable to the Design of Training? and Summary. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Field training versus technical school training for mechanics maintaining a new weapon system.

Comparison on job knowledge is made between B-52 mechanics receiving field training and those receiving technical school full-time for 2 months. After control for aptitude and maintenance experience by means of matched regression estimates, "there is no significant difference in job knowledge on the part of mechanics exposed to the two training environments. Mechanics at higher levels of aptitude and experience benefit most from field training… lower levels of aptitude and experience benefit most from technical school training." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achievement growth in children with learning difficulties in mathematics: Findings of a two-year longitudinal study.

The reading and mathematics growth of 180 children was examined over 4 points, spanning 2nd and 3rd grades. Initially, 4 achievement groups were identified: difficulties in mathematics but not in reading (MD only), difficulties in mathematics as well as in reading (MD-RD), difficulties in reading hut not in mathematics (RD only), and normal achievement in mathematics and in reading. When IQ, income, ethnicity, and gender were held constant, the MD-only group grew at a faster rate in mathematics than did the MD-RD group. In reading, the RD-only and MD-RD groups grew at about the same rate. Reading abilities influence children's growth in mathematics, but mathematics abilities do not influence children's growth in reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of attrition on baseline comparability in randomized experiments in education: A meta-analysis.

Using meta-analysis, randomized experiments in education that either clearly did or clearly did not experience student attrition were examined for the baseline comparability of groups. Results from 35 studies suggested that after attrition, the observed measures of baseline comparability of groups did not differ more than would be expected given sampling error. The degree of either overall or differential attrition did not relate to baseline comparability, a finding that held under sensitivity analyses. Also, both overall and differential attrition rates were unrelated to posttest effect sizes. All of these analyses, however, lacked sufficient statistical power to detect small but potentially meaningful effects. Results suggest caution is warranted when applying quality scales and other blanket rules pertaining to attrition that are meant to either serve as inclusion-exclusion criteria or in scoring study quality. Much greater attention is needed to both the reporting of attrition in primary studies and to the development of conceptual and empirical models of the attrition process. These developments would aid further investigation of the relation between attrition and study outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Note taking and university students with learning difficulties: What supports are needed?

Despite advances in electronic course delivery, most university content is still conveyed through class lecture, which necessitates note taking by students. At the same time, students with learning difficulties are entering universities in unprecedented numbers (Stodden, Conway, & Chang, 2003; Wilhelm, 2003). These students encounter high expectations for autonomous learning and may struggle when they attempt to quickly prioritize and record lecture information. Research on students with learning difficulties and note taking at the university level is limited but worthy of review. This article examines the literature on the utility of providing copies of instructors' notes to all students and the effect of instructor-provided notes on the academic performance of students with learning difficulties. Practical implications for current university teaching practice are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mathematical competencies in children with different types of learning difficulties.

The mathematical performance of 182 third and fourth graders in 8 different areas of mathematics was examined. The children belonged to 4 achievement groups: children with mathematic difficulties (MD only), children with both mathematic and reading difficulties (MD-RD), children with reading difficulties (RD only), and normally achieving children (control group). Both MD groups performed worse than the normally achieving children in all but 1 area, place value knowledge. The MD-only and the MD-RD children performed equally in all areas of mathematics. The RD-only group performed at the same level as the control group on all areas of mathematics. The study provides further evidence that fact retrieval deficits are a cardinal characteristic of children with MD. The MD children's substantial difficulties with mathematic word problem solving can be attributed to several processes involved in problem solving. Besides poor skills in multidigit calculation, arithmetic fact retrieval, and poor understanding of calculation principles, children with MD might have deficits related to specific problem-solving processes such as establishing a problem representation and developing a solution plan. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparative study of "transfer through generalization" and "transfer through identical elements" in technical training.

When are very short specialized training programs good enough in naval aviation technical training? Graduates of several specialized training programs were compared with those having had broader training. Technical behavior check lists were used with groups of up to 60 Ss. Specialized training was adequate for mechanical manipulation but not for abstract conceptual tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Configural learning without configural training.

Rats learned discriminations in which 2 familiar compound visual stimuli AB and CD were nonreinforced, whereas less-familiar compounds (EF, GH, IJ…) were reinforced (constant-negative paradigm). Such discriminations can in principle be acquired through elemental (nonconfigural) learning. Three different types of compound—object/object, object/position, and shape/fill-pattern—were used, and the number of familiar compounds extended to 3 or 4. In all cases, when rats were tested for the first time with previously unseen recombinations of the familiar elements—for example, AC, BD—they preferred these to the familiar compounds, implying that they had encoded configural information during the original training. Moreover, preference remained constant despite extended exposure to configural training in the test phase. The findings extend the evidence that configural representations are formed independently of explicit configural training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An examination of learning processes during critical incident training: Implications for the development of adaptable trainees.

Three experiments are reported that examined the process by which trainees learn decision-making skills during a critical incident training program. Formal theories of category learning were used to identify two processes that may be responsible for the acquisition of decision-making skills: rule learning and exemplar learning. Experiments 1 and 2 used the process dissociation procedure (L. L. Jacoby, 1998) to evaluate the contribution of these processes to performance. The results suggest that trainees used a mixture of rule and exemplar learning. Furthermore, these learning processes were influenced by different aspects of training structure and design. The goal of Experiment 3 was to develop training techniques that enable trainees to use a rule adaptively. Trainees were tested on cases that represented exceptions to the rule. Unexpectedly, the results suggest that providing general instruction regarding the kinds of conditions in which a decision rule does not apply caused them to fixate on the specific conditions mentioned and impaired their ability to identify other conditions in which the rule might not apply. The theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of the results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Active learning: Effects of core training design elements on self-regulatory processes, learning, and adaptability.

This article describes a comprehensive examination of the cognitive, motivational, and emotional processes underlying active learning approaches; their effects on learning and transfer; and the core training design elements (exploration, training frame, emotion control) and individual differences (cognitive ability, trait goal orientation, trait anxiety) that shape these processes. Participants (N = 350) were trained to operate a complex, computer-based simulation. Exploratory learning and error-encouragement framing had a positive effect on adaptive transfer performance and interacted with cognitive ability and dispositional goal orientation to influence trainees' metacognition and state goal orientation. Trainees who received the emotion-control strategy had lower levels of state anxiety. Implications for development of an integrated theory of active learning, learner-centered design, and research extensions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of motivation in verbal learning and performance.

"It is the major thesis of the present paper that the question as to whether a given variable acts as a motive or reflects a motivational state can be answered only in the context of explicit assumptions concerning the particular ways in which motivational variables can be differentiated from other variables in their influence on behavior. In view of the current confusions between the concepts of motivation and habit, it would appear to be particularly desirable to distinguish between the associative and nonassociative properties of variables." 57 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation and learning in medieval writings.

Quotations from writings during medieval times (the span in the Western World from 400 to 1400 A.D.) provide discussions and examples of conditioning or substitute stimulation, compensation, rationalization, projection, learning problems, individual differences, and "the importance of the formative years and of the significance of childhood impressions in the formation of attitudes and resultant behavior." However, "there does not seem to be much that is cumulative, no temporal development or drift, in behavioral knowledge." But "one can grant to many medieval persons rich insights into the behavior of their fellows." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pretreatment expectancies and premature termination in a training clinic environment.

The extant literature includes no studies regarding the rate of premature termination in training clinics. The following study documents a very high rate of premature termination in a training clinic, relative to either the established literature or the regional prevalence rate. In addition, this study explores the contributions of effectiveness and role expectations in the prediction of premature termination. Results reveal that the effect of clients’ pretreatment role expectations on eventual premature termination was moderated by the clients’ pretreatment effectiveness expectancies. Stated another way, role and effectiveness interactions interact and account for 11 to 14% of the variance in premature termination. Discussion of training implications is provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achievement motivation and learning.

The hypothesis was offered that Ss with high n Achievement would learn more in directed and incidental learning situations than those with low n Achievement. Using extreme groups on a n Achievement continuum, the 12 highest and 14 lowest high school freshmen, it was found that the expected superiority of high n Achievement Ss in a directed learning situation did not obtain, although they did demonstrate more efficient incidental learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)