Providing study notes: Comparison of three types of notes for review.

College students viewed a 19-min videotaped lecture and were not allowed to take notes. One week later, these students were provided with one of three different forms of study notes for review: a complete text, a linear outline, or a matrix. Students in a control group were given no notes and reviewed mentally. After review, all students completed three different performance tests. Results from all three tests indicated that reviewing any of the three forms of provided notes significantly raised performance beyond that of the no-notes control group. This finding confirmed the importance of the external storage function of note taking for various forms of provided notes. In addition, the outline and matrix notes generally produced higher recall performance than did the text notes, but only the matrix notes produced higher transfer performance than did the text notes. These differences were explained in relation to the forming of internal connections in memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counselor and client responses to hypothesis-testing strategies.

Previous research on the types of hypothesis-testing strategies (HTSs) used by counselors has produced contradictory findings, has not investigated HTSs in an interactive format, and has not investigated client reactions to different HTSs. For this study, 147 college undergraduates and 23 counselors-in-training interacted with a computer-simulated client in Experiment 1 and counselor in Experiment 2 to investigate these issues. The results indicated that of the three HTSs (confirmatory, disconfirmatory, and unbiased), the unbiased HTS was preferred, a person's choice of HTS was stable across time and with different feedback, and the unbiased and disconfirmatory HTSs appeared to be more accurate assessment strategies than the confirmatory. The unbiased HTS was also seen by undergraduates as more trustworthy. Future research and implications for training counselors are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When Static Media Promote Active Learning: Annotated Illustrations Versus Narrated Animations in Multimedia Instruction.

In 4 experiments, students received a lesson consisting of computer-based animation and narration or a lesson consisting of paper-based static diagrams and text. The lessons used the same words and graphics in the paper-based and computer-based versions to explain the process of lightning formation (Experiment 1), how a toilet tank works (Experiment 2), how ocean waves work (Experiment 3), and how a car's braking system works (Experiment 4). On subsequent retention and transfer tests, the paper group performed significantly better than the computer group on 4 of 8 comparisons, and there was no significant difference on the rest. These results support the static media hypothesis, in which static illustrations with printed text reduce extraneous processing and promote germane processing as compared with narrated animations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of concurrent load on feature- and rule-based generalization in human contingency learning.

The effect of concurrent load on generalization performance in human contingency learning was examined in 2 experiments that employed the combined positive and negative patterning procedure of Shanks and Darby (1998). In Experiment 1, we tested 32 undergraduates and found that participants who were trained and tested under full attention showed generalization consistent with the application of an opposites rule (i.e., single cues signal the opposite outcome to their compound), whereas participants trained and tested under a concurrent cognitive load showed generalization consistent with surface similarity. In Experiment 2, we replicated the effect with 148 undergraduates and provided evidence that it was the presence of concurrent load during training, rather than during testing, that was critical. Implications for associative, inferential, and dual-process accounts of human learning are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preferences and learner control over amount of instruction.

This study examined the effects of assigning high school students to a computer-delivered geometry program that either matched or did not match their preferred amount of instruction as measured by a preprogram questionnaire. Students could adjust their program length by adding screens in a lean version of the program or by bypassing them in a full version. Matching students with their preferred program length did not produce improved posttest achievement and was particularly ineffective with students who preferred a low amount of instruction. The full version of the program was somewhat more effective than the lean version, primarily because of the better performance of low-preference students in the full version (mismatched) than in the lean one (matched). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metacognitive and control strategies in study-time allocation.

This article investigates how people's metacognitive judgments influence subsequent study-time-allocation strategies. The authors present a comprehensive literature review indicating that people allocate more study-time to judged-difficult than to judged-easy items—consistent with extant models of study-time allocation. However, typically, the materials were short, and participants had ample time for study. In contrast, in Experiment 1, when participants had insufficient time to study, they allocated more time to the judged-easy items than to the judged-difficult items, especially when expecting a test. In Experiment 2, when the materials were shorter, people allocated more study-time to the judged-difficult materials. In Experiment 3, under high time pressure, people preferred studying judged-easy sonnets; under moderate time pressure, they showed no preference. These results provide new evidence against extant theories of study-time allocation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using standards to improve middle school students’ accuracy at evaluating the quality of their recall.

When recalling key term definitions from class materials, students may recall entirely incorrect definitions, yet will often claim that these commission errors are entirely correct; that is, they are overconfident in the quality of their recall responses. We investigated whether this overconfidence could be reduced by providing various standards to middle school students as they evaluated their recall responses. Students studied key term definitions, attempted to recall each one, and then were asked to score the quality of their recall. In Experiment 1, they evaluated their recall responses by rating each response as fully correct, partially correct, or incorrect. Most important, as they evaluated a particular response, it was presented either alone (i.e., without a standard) or with the correct definition present. Providing this full-definition standard reduced overconfidence in commission errors: Students assigned full or partial credit to 73% of their commission errors when they received no standard, whereas they assigned credit to only 44% of these errors when receiving the full-definition standard. In Experiment 2, a new standard was introduced: Idea units from each definition were presented, and students indicated whether each idea unit was in their response. After making these idea-unit judgments, the students then evaluated the quality of their entire response. Idea-unit standards further reduced overconfidence. Thus, although middle school students are overconfident in evaluating the quality of their recall responses, using standards substantially reduces this overconfidence and promises to improve the efficacy of their self-regulated learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Control of spatial orientation in terrestrial toads (Rhinella arenarum).

Three experiments were conducted to determine problem-solving strategies used by toads, Rhinella arenarum (= Bufo arenarum), in spatial learning situations, using water as reward. Experiment 1 showed that toads can acquire a spatial orientation based on a body-centered turn -an internal self-reference cue. Experiment 2 showed that toads can use a fixed landmark (visual cue) as guidance to solve a spatial problem. Experiment 3 determined whether maze learning was based on “body-centered turn” or “guidance”. In this case, animals were trained with a fixed visual cue in relation to a body-centered turn (i.e., simultaneously with the internal self-reference cue) and then tested with the visual cue dissociated from positional cues. Toads trained with the combination of a visual cue and a body-centered turn preferred the latter (turn response) when the two sources of information were set in conflict on probe trials. Toads showed behavioral patterns similar to those described in rodents trained under similar condition, thus, suggesting an early evolutionary origin for these problem-solving strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Optimizing learning from examples using animated pedagogical agents.

This study attempted to optimize a computer-based learning environment designed to teach learners how to solve word problems by incorporating an animated pedagogical agent. The agent was programmed to deliver instructional explanations either textually or aurally, while simultaneously using gaze and gesture to direct the learners to focus their attention on the relevant part of the example. In Experiment 1, learners presented with an agent delivering explanations aurally (voice plus agent) outperformed their control peers on measures of transfer. In Experiment 2, learners in the voice-plus-agent condition outperformed their peers presented with textual explanations on a variety of measures, including far transfer. In sum, an animated agent programmed to deliver instructions aurally can help optimize learning from examples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adults' knowledge about memory: Awareness and use of memory strategies across tasks.

Two studies investigated college students' knowledge about the effectiveness of alternative memory strategies for different tasks and the relationship of this knowledge to strategy use and performance. In Experiment 1 students made paired-comparison judgments of the relative effectiveness of six strategies for increasing performance on one of three memory tasks. For each task some strategies were judged to be significantly more effective than others, whereas across tasks certain strategies were more likely to be judged effective for one task than for another. Experiment 2 examined the relationship of judgments of strategy effectiveness to actual strategy use and memory performance. Results indicated that different strategies were adopted across tasks and students were more likely to adopt strategies subsequently judged effective for that task. Students in Experiment 2 showed clearer discrimination among the strategies and an increased awareness of the efficacy of task-specific strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analysis of the role of associative inhibition in perceptual learning by means of the same-different task.

In Experiment 1a, participants were exposed, over a series of trials, to separate presentations of 2 similar checkerboard stimuli, AX and BX (where X represents a common background). In one group, AX and BX were presented on alternating trials (intermixed), in another, they were presented in separate blocks of trials (blocked). The intermixed group performed to a higher standard than the blocked group on a same-different test. A superiority of intermixed over blocked exposure was also evident in a within-subject design (Experiment 1b) and when the test required discrimination between a preexposed stimulus and the background (e.g., AX vs. X), even if the background changed between preexposure and test (AY vs. Y) (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, the intermixed/blocked effect was observed when, in preexposure, stimulus presentations were alternated with the background alone (e.g., AX/X). This suggests that the perceptual learning effect is not the consequence of inhibitory associations between unique features but to increased salience of those features. Experiment 4 confirmed this finding and also ruled out an account of the effect in terms of trial spacing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young children associate novel words with complex objects rather than salient parts.

How do children learn associations between novel words and complex perceptual displays? Using a visual preference procedure, the authors tested 12- and 19-month-olds to see whether the infants would associate a novel word with a complex 2-part object or with either of that object's parts, both of which were potentially objects in their own right and 1 of which was highly salient to infants. At both ages, children's visual fixation times during test were greater to the entire complex object than to the salient part (Experiment 1) or to the less salient part (Experiment 2)--when the original label was requested. Looking times to the objects were equal if a new label was requested or if neutral audio was used during training (Experiment 3). Thus, from 12 months of age, infants associate words with whole objects, even those that could potentially be construed as 2 separate objects and even if 1 of the parts is salient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immediate and Sustained Effects of Planning in a Problem-Solving Task.

In 4 experiments, instructions to plan a task (water jugs) that normally produces little planning altered how participants solved the problems and resulted in enhanced learning and memory. Experiment 1 identified planning strategies that allowed participants to plan full solutions to water jugs problems. Experiment 2 showed that experience with planning led to better solutions even after planning was no longer required, whereas control participants showed little improvement. Experiments 3 and 4 showed that although the most recent planned solution could be recalled following a long filled retention interval, retroactive interference (RI) between successive problems resulted in much lower recall of earlier solutions. RI during plan generation could also explain participants' choice of depth-first planning strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Formation of excitatory and inhibitory associations between absent events.

Considerable evidence indicates that associations may be formed between two events even when one or both of them is absent at the time of learning. Previously, some researchers asserted that excitatory associations are formed when associatively activated representations for two events are paired, whereas others claimed that inhibitory associations are formed. In three experiments, the authors investigated the nature of tone-sucrose learning when associatively activated representations of those events were paired in the absence of either of the events themselves. Experiment 1 found substantial excitatory learning when the tone surrogate preceded the sucrose surrogate in training. Experiment 2 evaluated other accounts for the results of Experiment 1, and Experiment 3 found evidence for inhibitory tone-sucrose learning when the tone and sucrose surrogates were presented in simultaneous or backward order. The results indicated that the nature of representation-mediated learning is influenced by some of the same variables as more standard associative learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

May I borrow your class notes? An attributional analysis of judgments of help giving in an achievement-related context.

Two simulation experiments described a student seeking to borrow class notes. The notes were needed either because of a lack of academic effort or because of a physical disability. The perceived controllability of the cause, affective reactions, and the likelihood of lending one's notes were ascertained. A total of 245 undergraduates served as Ss. It was found that (a) lack of effort, perceived controllability, anger, and neglect and (b) lack of ability, perceived uncontrollability, pity, and help formed 2 constellations of associations. There was also suggestive evidence of an attribution–affect–action motivational sequence, in which thoughts determine what is felt and feelings determine what is done. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pictorial aids for learning by doing in a multimedia geology simulation game.

How can we help students learn to solve authentic geology problems within a virtual environment? The task was to survey an area of a planet's surface to identify the presence of various geological features such as a trench, ridge, basin, island, or seamount. Students who received prior pictorial representations of each of the possible features (pictorial scaffolding) performed more accurately than students who did not (in Experiments 2 and 3), but there was no significant effect (in Experiments 1 and 2) for including verbal statements about strategies for drawing lines and points (strategic scaffolding). Some cognitive apprenticeship techniques (such as pictorial scaffolding) are useful aids to learning in computer-based geology simulations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of species identification in ducklings: XII. Ineffectiveness of auditory self-stimulation in wood ducklings (Aix sponsa).

Examined the actual vocalizations of 24 auditory self-stimulated and 21 unstimulated wood ducklings to explore the possibility that there is a difference in the kind and/or amount of auditory self-stimulation in the 2 groups. Previous research shows that wood ducklings vocalized copiously when in auditory isolation; however, such self-stimulation was ineffective in maintaining their preference for descending frequency-modulated (FM) notes of the maternal call. Only isolated ducklings that had been exposed to recorded descending sib calls exhibited the normal preference for descending maternal notes in a choice test with ascending and descending maternal calls. Results of the present study with a similar choice test show that although stimulated Ss produced more ascending notes than unstimulted Ss, no differences were found in the overall vocal behavior, vocal reactivity, or specific kinds of frequency modulation produced by Ss that preferred the descending maternal call and other Ss that responded in the choice test. This absence of a difference in vocal production supports the previous conclusion that self-stimulation plays no role in the development or maintenance of the species-typical perceptual preference for descending FM notes. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tests of preferences of young deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdi) for siblings versus nonsiblings.

Three experiments were conducted to test the performance of young deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdi) in associating preferentially with siblings versus nonsiblings. In Experiment 1, neither males nor females preferred caged siblings versus nonsiblings. In Experiment 2, with full contact permitted, nonsibling males were in contact as much as were sibling males. In Experiment 3, with pairs of littermate pairs permitted full contact, there was no significant differential association. Although discrimination and preferences related to kinship have been demonstrated in some species, they cannot be assumed to be universal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Representation of order information: An analysis of grouping effects in short-term memory.

Exps I–IV tested the independence model, 2 hierarchical models, and the dependence model of matrix relationships with a probed recall procedure in which 91 undergraduates were presented with a grouped sequence of items and were then required to recall the position and group of 1 of the items. This technique provided information about how well Ss correctly recalled both the group and position, the group only, the position only, and neither the group nor the position of an item. Findings reveal that when the items in a group were letters, digits, or musical notes, the data conformed to a hierarchical structure. When the nonalphanumeric characters were used, a matrix structure emerged. Exps V–VII required 50 undergraduates to judge the dissimilarity of 2 sequences of grouped items, the 2nd of which (the variation) was a reordering of the 1st (the original). The variation was made by reordering the groups in the original, reordering positions within groups, or reordering both groups and positions. Results show that when the members of a group were able to be encoded as single verbal units, the data supported a hierarchical system. When this was not possible, a matrix system fitted the data best. It is concluded that there is no general code for representing the order of grouped sequences and that the results are more compatible with a theory that postulates a number of specific subsystems in short-term memory, each with its own format for preserving order, than one that assumes a generalized order code. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Improving fourth-grade students' composition skills: Effects of strategy instruction and self-regulation procedures.

Extending S. Graham and K. R. Harris's (2003) self-regulated strategy development model, this study examined whether self-regulation procedures would increase the effectiveness of a writing strategies training designed to improve 4th graders' (N = 113) composition skills. Students who were taught composition strategies in conjunction with self-regulation procedures were compared with (a) students who were taught the same strategies but received no instruction in self-regulation and (b) students who received didactic lessons in composition. Both at posttest and at maintenance (5 weeks after the instruction), strategy plus self-regulation students wrote more complete and qualitatively better stories than students in the 2 comparison conditions. They also displayed superior performance at a transfer task requiring students to recall essential parts of an orally presented story. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)