Example-based learning: New theoretical perspectives and use-inspired advances to a contemporary instructional approach

Decades of research has shown that example-based learning is an effective instructional strategy for learning new skills. The field of learning from examples is seeing a shift in focus towards more innovative and use-inspired research, in part because the use of examples for informal and formal learning purposes has mushroomed. This special issue comprises a set of eight papers in which students learned a procedural skill from worked examples or modeling examples. Each study characterizes a recent development towards more innovative example-based learning research. These developments are: (a) the integration of social-cognitive and cognitive example research, (b) the integration of example-based learning and analogical reasoning research, (c) the extension of traditional Cognitive Load Theory effects, (d) a greater focus on learning from (productive) errors, and (e) more research on individual differences. This special issue concludes with insightful commentary articles written by Prof. Dr. Katharina Scheiter and Prof. Dr. Richard Mayer.     

Frustration theory--many years later.

The role of frustration in learning theory, in the invigoration of behavior and in the development of learned persistence and discrimination learning, is conceptualized. This and other phenomena are facets of the larger explanatory domain of what has come to be known as frustration theory, a theory that has guided the author's own research--from behavioral to developmental to psychobiological --until the present time and has had some influence on the research of other investigators. This is a commentary on the 1st of several published theoretical papers on frustration theory.     

多重样例变异性与先前知识对样例学习效果的影响述评

样例学习研究表明多重样例的学习效果好于单个样例。然而研究者关于如何有效设计多重样例得出了不同的发现。通过综述已有关于多重样例学习的实证研究,总结出两个尚未得到解决的问题：（1）多重样例之间的相似或相异程度应该如何;（2）学生的先前知识在多重样例学习中的作用如何。针对已有研究的局限性,本文指出,具有不同先前知识的学生学习时感受到不同的关键属性,多重样例应该基于学生学习时的关键属性设计特定的变易范式以帮助学生学习。     

Individual differences in the preference for worked examples: Lessons from an application of dispositional learning analytics

Worked-examples have been established as an effective instructional format in problem-solving practices. However, less is known about variations in the use of worked examples across individuals at different stages in their learning process in student-centred learning contexts. This study investigates different profiles of students' learning behaviours based on clustering learning dispositions, prior knowledge, and the choice of feedback strategies in a naturalistic setting. The study was conducted on 1,072 students over an 8-week long introductory mathematics course in a blended instructional format. While practising exercises in a digital learning environment, students can opt for tutored problem solving, untutored problem solving, or call worked examples. The results indicated six distinct profiles of learners regarding their feedback preferences in different learning phases. Finally, we investigated antecedents and consequences of these profiles and investigated the adequacy of used feedback strategies concerning ‘help-abuse’. This research indicates that the use of instructional scaffolds as worked-examples or hints and the efficiency of that use differs from student to student, making the attempt to find patterns at an overall level a hazardous endeavour.     

Residential mobility and consumer psychology through a cultural lens

This study provides an extensive review of research on residential and relational mobility and discusses antecedents and consequences that implicate a wide range of psychological processes and behaviors. This commentary highlights their theoretical and practical significance in consumer research and discusses through a cultural lens the implications for specific consumer psychology domains. It also highlights the intricacy of mobility constructs, distinguishes them from the individualism–collectivism construct, and identifies consumer outcomes that warrant nuanced predictions based on residential and relational mobility and other cultural frameworks. The commentary concludes with ideas for future research.     

Effector system mechanisms of coordination.

Current interest in motor learning has prompted researchers to develop models that explain the events or mechanisms underlying skill acquisition. For the most part these models have focused on sensory and perceptual mechanisms. This commentary presents a theoretical explanation of effector system mechanisms of coordination. Options are available in the central control centers and their peripheral components, tonic and phasic motor units. Implications for the methodology of motor learning are discussed as they relate to a paramount factor responsible for prompting individuals to select the most efficacious effector system mechanism option.     

Sleep of Reason: critical reflections on performance arts-based research as psycho-social commentary in expressive arts therapy praxis

This arts-based case study is a critical reflection on how performance art can be used as psycho-social commentary. It is an attempt to amplify arts-based inquiry using critical understandings of diverse and inclusive meaning making in expressive arts praxis and psychology. It examines the use of performance art in the expressive arts to understand psycho-social proximity to and complicity in dehumanization and structural racism. This arts-based research exists in the intersections of culture, race, the arts, and social commentary with the goals of learning how it facilitates awareness of psycho-social justice and how current uncritical expressive arts and psychology praxis and practitioners can perpetuate structural racism and racial trauma. It asserts performance art can be utilized as a catalyst for psycho-social transformation in creative ways.     

Functional assessment: Contributions and future directions

Functional assessment is at once redefining the standards for clinical interventions and reemphasizing the importance of studying basic behavioral mechanisms. This commentary describes one perception of what we are learning from current research on functional assessment and suggests directions for the future.     

通过样例和问题求解学习物理──加强对条件的认知

这项研究支持了我们先前的研究结果,即知识可以表征为一组产生式规则,产生式规则的学习可以通过考察样例和通过问题求解的方式进行。这项研究特别探讨了加强对于产生式的条件认知加工活动的效果。结果表明了我们这一构思的有效性。此外,还讨论了这一学习模式的学习过程。     

公共组织学习的心理学透视：经验习得与信息加工

本文从心理学关于学习的概念,关于行为、认知与信息加工的行为学习理论、社会学习理论和信息加工理论,以及行为绩效的心理学原理角度,阐述了我们所提出的公共组织学习的概念框架的心理学理论基础。认为从心理学角度透视公共组织学习,其实质是经验习得与信息加工的过程。这充分体现了心理学基本理论原理在公共组织学习理论建构中所具有的重要应用价值。     

'Nonspecific' rather than 'nonassociative' pathways to phobias: a commentary on Poulton and Menzies

This commentary attempts to clarify the nature of contemporary associative accounts of phobias, and to describe how they might contribute to the explanation of the diversity of phobic aetiologies. It is argued that conditioning-equivalent associations underpin all phobic conditions, and that the role of experimental psychopathology research is to determine how these associations are acquired. The commentary then proceeds to discuss some of the theoretical problems with the nonassociative account of phobias as it is currently described by Poulton and Menzies, and to suggest that some interpretations of their retrospective and prospective data may not be incompatible with contemporary associative accounts. The outcome of this is that it may be more suitable to describe the fourth pathway to phobia acquisition described by Poulton and Menzies as a 'nonspecific' rather than a 'nonassociative' pathway.     

Advances in designing instruction based on examples

This commentary reviews the evidence for nine principles for how to design effective example-based instruction, drawing from the articles in this special issue.     

身体活动与学业成绩:来自具身认知的启示

具身认知理论认为身体、认知和环境是和谐的统一体。以该理论为基础的具身学习认为,身体不是学习过程的无关因素或障碍因素,身体是学习的主体,身体活动的参与在塑造学习者的思维、判断及记忆等心智活动中具有重要作用。当前已有一定数量的实证研究发现,身体活动能够显著提供语言习得、数学学习等学业成绩,提供学生在同伴中的社会地位。将来,可基于具身认知的角度,采用认知神经科学、心理学和教育学等跨学科合作的方式,进一步探讨具身学习影响学业成绩的因素及其机制。     

Reconsidering P-Prims Theory From the Viewpoint of Situated Cognition

Andrea diSessa's work appears to be representative of the 1980s research on the preconceptions and epistemology of physics. His theoretical framework also seems to be representative of 1980s cognitive science theory such as mental models. Although my theoretical perspective, based on a Gibsonian and situated cognition viewpoint, is different from diSessa's, I agree with him on many points. At the same time, however, I also feel that we have to reinterpret his contributions from a different perspective. In this commentary, therefore, I summarize how the situated cognition view can reinterpret diSessa's work as representative of 1980s research on the epistemology of physics.     

Interpretational Biases in Emotional Psychopathology

Many psychological disorders are characterized by interpretational processing biases, and Aaron T. Beck's work provided a crucial theoretical foundation for assessing, treating, and researching them. The present commentary aims to sketch a brief historical overview of how this work evolved and developed, and how it has been translated into concrete assessment techniques for use in treatment and led to innovative research lines in clinical research.     

Operant theory and methodology in infant vocal conditioning

The numerous mechanisms of behavior change in infant development are sometimes difficult to distinguish. Although it is agreed that elicitation and reinforcement both influence infant learning, the distinction between these two learning mechanisms was clarified in response to K. Bloom's (1984, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 38, 93-102) commentary. The theoretical and methodological assumptions of an functional analysis of infant behavior were made explicit in the context of the C. L. Poulson study (1983, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 36, 471-489). The rationale for the use of DRO schedules to control for elicitation effects of continuous reinforcement and the inadequacy of noncontingent schedules for this purpose were also discussed.     

Culture, Communication, and Competence: A Commentary on Variables Affecting Social and Academic Behavior

The editors of this special issue have recruited six papers focused on the ways that language and communication interact with culture to influence student behavior. Two themes that emerge from these papers are the fundamental role of communication in learning and living, and the impact of culture on the functions of communication. The present commentary is offered in admiration for the work of the authors, and with the goal of emphasizing common messages that may guide both future research and practice.     

Speculation and theory-building in the development of psychology as a science

In this commentary on a classic article by Paul Wachtel on the importance of theoretical work in empirical research, the author expresses agreement that reward structures discourage the kind of theoretical speculation that may lead to new understandings of existing data and, even more critically, to new ways of formulating questions to be addressed in controlled research. Our students in particular need to be encouraged to reflect on what their own empirical research really means within the larger framework of trying to understand the world in psychological terms. New theories and paradigms do not emerge inevitably from a body of data. Rather, they represent creative insights whose sources are poorly understood and yet are overlooked at our risk.     

Eight Decades of Employment Interview Research: A Retrospective Meta-review and Prospective Commentary

Abstract

This article presents a critical review and commentary on eight decades of research into the employment interview. Two alternative theoretical perspectives are identified from the body of empirical studies into the interview: the objectivist-psychometric perspective and the subjectivist-social perception perspective. Criticisms of both are presented, and calls are made for additional research into impression management behaviour, dysfunctions in interviewer decision-making, and situational power effects at interview. The article concludes with a cautiously optimistic evaluation of the interview research paradigm but emphasizes the requirement for future research efforts to be concentrated upon integrative theory-building in conjunction with ongoing empirical studies.     

Word learning in dogs?

In a recent paper, Kaminski, Call and Fischer report pioneering research on word-learning in a dog. In this commentary we suggest ways of distinguishing referential word use from mere association. We question whether the dog is reasoning by exclusion and, if so, compare three explanations - learned heuristics, default assumptions, and pragmatic reasoning - as they apply to children and might apply to dogs. Kaminski et al.'s work clearly raises important questions about the origins and basis of word learning and social cognition.