Cognitive benefits and costs of bilingualism in elementary school students: The case of mathematical word problems.

Previous research has emphasized the importance of language for learning mathematics. This is especially true when mathematical problems have to be extracted from a meaningful context, as in arithmetic word problems. Bilingual learners with a low command of the instructional language thus may face challenges when dealing with mathematical concepts. At the same time, speaking two languages can be associated with cognitive benefits with regard to attentional control processes, although such benefits have only been found in highly proficient bilinguals. In the present study, we attempted to disentangle the effects of bilingual proficiency on mathematical problem solving in Turkish–German bilingual elementary school students. We examined whether the positive cognitive effects of bilingualism could be found not only in highly proficient bilinguals but also in students with an immigrant background and a low command of the instructional or native language. Our findings emphasize the importance of language proficiency for mathematics problem solving, as shown by the predictive value of students' proficiency in the language of testing (German/Turkish) for their performance on mathematical word problems. No additional effect of the language of instruction (German) was found for problem solving in the bilingual students' native language (Turkish). Furthermore, bilinguals gained scores comparable to those of their monolingual peers on word problems that required attentional control skills although performing significantly below their monolingual classmates on ordinary word problems, suggesting that bilinguals have an advantage when it comes to attentional control. Finally, bilingual students with a relatively high command of the instructional language performed better on word problems presented in German than on those presented in Turkish, thus facing cognitive costs when transferring knowledge from one language to the other. Implications of our findings for bilingual education are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A review of sensory preconditioning.

Research employing the sensory preconditioning (SPC) paradigm is examined in the light of 3 questions: (a) can SPC be dealt with by learning theory, (b) if so, what principles does it follow, (c) what problems does the theorist face in integrating the SPC data into his system? The author concludes that SPC, tentatively, can be considered as a phenomenon in learning and that there is a need for further research in determining the principles SPC follows. A suggested paradigm for such research is presented. Finally, one problem the theorist must face is that reinforcement, as classically defined, is an unnecessary condition for SPC to be effective. At the moment, a more tenable approach would be a Hebbian-type view or an S-S analysis. 28 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What teachers say and do to support students' autonomy during a learning activity.

Teachers with an autonomy-supportive style rely on different instructional behaviors to motivate their students than do teachers with a controlling style. In the present investigation, the authors tested which of these instructional behaviors actually correlated positively or negatively with students' autonomy. The authors used Deci, Spiegel, Ryan, Koestner, & Kauffman's (1982) teacher-student laboratory paradigm to randomly assign 72 pairs of same-sex preservice teachers into the role of either teacher or student. From videotapes of the 10-min instructional episode, raters scored 11 hypothesized autonomy-supportive behaviors and 10 hypothesized controlling behaviors. Correlational analyses confirmed that students perceived the functional significance of 8 instructional behaviors as autonomy supports and 6 instructional behaviors as autonomy thwarts. The discussion focuses on the interpretation and classroom implications of these data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Propagation of innovations in networked groups.

A novel paradigm was developed to study the behavior of groups of networked people searching a problem space. The authors examined how different network structures affect the propagation of information in laboratory-created groups. Participants made numerical guesses and received scores that were also made available to their neighbors in the network. The networks were compared on speed of discovery and convergence on the optimal solution. One experiment showed that individuals within a group tend to converge on similar solutions even when there is an equally valid alternative solution. Two additional studies demonstrated that the optimal network structure depends on the problem space being explored, with networks that incorporate spatially based cliques having an advantage for problems that benefit from broad exploration, and networks with greater long-range connectivity having an advantage for problems requiring less exploration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ingredients for a theory of instruction.

Analyzes the steps involved in deriving an optimal teaching strategy for instructional situations where a model-theoretic account of the learning process can be given. 2 examples derived from the author's research are considered: optimizing primary-grade instruction in initial reading, and optimizing 2nd-language learning by college students. In both cases, the optimal model-theoretic strategy yields large gains when compared with other strategies in widespread use in the schools. It is stated that these examples illustrate the relationship between a theory of learning and its corresponding theory of instruction. (22 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 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)     

A research paradigm for the study of interpersonal learning.

A research paradigm is introduced to investigate the process whereby 1 person learns to predict the behavior of another person. The paradigm is derived from Brunswik's probabilistic functionalism and his "lens model" of behavior. Methods of analysis are applied to data provided by an illustrative experiment. Results of the experiment show that interpersonal learning occurs; the results are also shown to have implications for problems inherited from studies of interpersonal perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of the Basal Ganglia in Category Learning: How Do Patients With Parkinson's Disease Learn?

The purpose of the present study was to gain a deeper understanding of the role of the basal ganglia in learning and memory by examining learning strategies among patients with basal ganglia dysfunction. Using a probabilistic category learning task (the "weather prediction" task) previously shown to be sensitive to basal ganglia function, the authors examined patterns of performance during learning and used mathematical models to capture different learning strategies. Results showed that patients with Parkinson's disease exhibit different patterns of strategy use. Specifically, most controls initially used a simple, but suboptimal, strategy that focused on single-cue-outcome associations; eventually, however, most controls adopted a more complex, optimal learning strategy, integrating single-cue associations to predict outcomes for multiple-cue stimuli. In contrast, the majority of individuals with Parkinson's disease continued to rely on simple single-cue learning strategies throughout the experiment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applying the science of learning: Evidence-based principles for the design of multimedia instruction.

During the last 100 years, a major accomplishment of psychology has been the development of a science of learning aimed at understanding how people learn. In attempting to apply the science of learning, a central challenge of psychology and education is the development of a science of instruction aimed at understanding how to present material in ways that help people learn. The author provides an overview of how the design of multimedia instruction can be informed by the science of learning and the science of instruction, which yields 10 principles of multimedia instructional design that are grounded in theory and based on evidence. Overall, the relationship between the science of learning and the science of instruction is reciprocal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Instructional adaptation for self-managed learning systems.

Strategies for adapting instructional support and learning incentives were applied separately and in combination to a lesson on mathematical rules. Adaptations were based on individual students' pretest scores such that the lower the score, the greater the rule support and incentive value. 105 undergraduates participated, and an additional 41 from the same course served as a norming group for the validation of measures. On dependent measures of retention and learning efficiency (posttest/time), adaptation of support improved performance significantly when compared with standard support. Incentive effects, however, were not reliable. An additional comparison strategy, which intentionally mismatched allocations of incentives and instructional support, yielded the lowest performances of all treatments. The results, overall, provide support for the "achievement–treatment interaction" hypothesis and suggest the practical advantages for adapting instructional support to students in self-managed learning systems. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How children change their minds: Strategy change can be gradual or abrupt.

This study investigated patterns of change in children's strategies for solving mathematical equivalence problems. The strategies children expressed in speech and in gesture were assessed both before and after an instructional intervention. In the intervention, children received either no input, accuracy feedback, or feedback plus instruction about a principle, an analogy, or a procedure. From pretest to posttest, many children changed both the variability of their strategy use and the content of their strategy repertoires. Patterns of change depended on type of instruction and on children's initial level of variability. Children who received instruction were especially likely to generate new strategies, and children with high variability were especially likely to abandon prior strategies. Gradual change was most common; however, many children modified their repertoires abruptly. Abrupt strategy change was especially prevalent among children who received procedure-based instruction and among children with low initial variability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

从神经网络到支撑矢量机（上）

在统计模式识别中,Bayes决策规则从理论上解决了最优分类器的设计问题,然后其实施却必须首先解决更困难的概率密度估计问题。BP神经网络直接从观测数据（训练样本）学习,是更简便有效的方法,因而获得了广泛的应用,但它是一种启发式技术,缺乏指导工程实践的坚实理论基础。统计推断理论研究所取得的突破性成果导致现代统计学习理论－VC理论的建立,该理论不仅在严格的数学基础上圆满地回答了人工神经网络中出现的理论问题,而且导出了一种新的学习方法－支撑矢量机（SVM）,SVM已经在一些实际问题中获得了成功的应用,性能优于传统的神经网络方法,本文以模式识别问题为背景,介绍VC理论的主要内容及支撑矢量机方法。     

Research in effective teaching: Implications for school psychologists.

The purpose of this miniseries is to review research on effective instruction and to discuss the contributions of this research knowledge to the practice of school psychology. Effective schooling involves the development of optimal learning environments, sensitivity to the diversity of teacher skills and teaching styles, and the accommodation of instruction to variable characteristics among individual students, all of which lead to the provision of adaptive instruction. Thus, four general areas have been selected as the focus of the articles in this miniseries: teacher behaviors, instructional environments, individual differences among learners, and practices of adaptive education. This miniseries attempts to delineate some of these "lines within which the rules of the art" of teaching fall. Understanding conditions that affect children's learning and knowing how instructional principles and research findings operate in everyday schooling situations are important objectives for all school psychologists. It is with these objectives in mind that the following articles are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Logic and human reasoning: An assessment of the deduction paradigm.

The study of deductive reasoning has been a major paradigm in psychology for approximately the past 40 years. Research has shown that people make many logical errors on such tasks and are strongly influenced by problem content and context. It is argued that this paradigm was developed in a context of logicist thinking that is now outmoded. Few reasoning researchers still believe that logic is an appropriate normative system for most human reasoning, let alone a model for describing the process of human reasoning, and many use the paradigm principally to study pragmatic and probabilistic processes. It is suggested that the methods used for studying reasoning be reviewed, especially the instructional context, which necessarily defines pragmatic influences as biases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coherence formation when learning from text and pictures: What kind of support for whom?

This study examined how 2 kinds of help when learning from text and pictures (mapping support and instructional guidance through prompts) influence the coherence formation process of integrating information into a mental model. It also explored spatial abilities and working memory span as potential moderators. In a computer-based setting, 84 university students learned botanical concepts under 1 of 4 different support conditions: mapping (numerical labels vs. highlighting) and prompting (given vs. not given). Posttests assessed cognitive load, confidence in learning, and knowledge. Results showed a complex interplay between the 2 kinds of help and an effect of metacognitive monitoring. Moreover, spatial abilities moderated the effects of help. Our results indicate the need to complement resource-oriented instructional design models with a conceptualization of the cognitive and metacognitive processes involved in successful learning. The notion of hybrid conceptual knowledge is proposed as a theoretical approach to understanding coherence formation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between instructional language and primary students' learning.

Causal modeling was used to examine how primary students' language ability interacted with pace and redundancy of instructional language during an expository science lesson to explain students' attention and learning. Language ability and pace of the instructional language, mediated by students' attention to the lesson, accounted for significant variance in learning outcomes. Higher language ability related to greater learning. Overall, slow-paced instructional language was positively related to learning, but students attended less to it than to fast-paced talk. Students with special needs attended significantly less and learned less, whereas students not so identified attended slightly less but learned more. Teachers' talk matters, but because instructional language impacts differentially on students, heuristics for modifying it are not straightforward. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

SSL: A Theory of How People Learn to Select Strategies.

The assumption that people possess a repertoire of strategies to solve the inference problems they face has been raised repeatedly. However, a computational model specifying how people select strategies from their repertoire is still lacking. The proposed strategy selection learning (SSL) theory predicts a strategy selection process on the basis of reinforcement learning. The theory assumes that individuals develop subjective expectations for the strategies they have and select strategies proportional to their expectations, which are then updated on the basis of subsequent experience. The learning assumption was supported in 4 experimental studies. Participants substantially improved their inferences through feedback. In all 4 studies, the best-performing strategy from the participants' repertoires most accurately predicted the inferences after sufficient learning opportunities. When testing SSL against 3 models representing extensions of SSL and against an exemplar model assuming a memory-based inference process, the authors found that SSL predicted the inferences most accurately. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perspectives of probabilistic inferences: Reinforcement learning and an adaptive network compared.

The assumption that people possess a strategy repertoire for inferences has been raised repeatedly. The strategy selection learning theory specifies how people select strategies from this repertoire. The theory assumes that individuals select strategies proportional to their subjective expectations of how well the strategies solve particular problems; such expectations are assumed to be updated by reinforcement learning. The theory is compared with an adaptive network model that assumes people make inferences by integrating information according to a connectionist network. The network's weights are modified by error correction learning. The theories were tested against each other in 2 experimental studies. Study 1 showed that people substantially improved their inferences through feedback, which was appropriately predicted by the strategy selection learning theory. Study 2 examined a dynamic environment in which the strategies' performances changed. In this situation a quick adaptation to the new situation was not observed; rather, individuals got stuck on the strategy they had successfully applied previously. This "inertia effect" was most strongly predicted by the strategy selection learning theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning and understanding science instructional material.

Learning and understanding of science instructional material was examined from a cognitive load perspective. It was suggested that instructions can be difficult to learn if multiple elements of information need to be simultaneously processed through limited working memory. Diagrams were expected to reduce cognitive load by allowing students to process information using fewer elements in working memory than an equivalent text-based format. However, if instructional information could be processed serially, then working-memory load should be light, and both diagrammatic and text-based instructions were hypothesized to be equally effective. Two experiments using different chemistry instructions confirmed these hypotheses and so highlight the role of cognitive load factors in instructional design. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)