IDAC computer interfacing for an undergraduate learning laboratory

A hardware and software interface system from International Data and Acquisition and Control, Inc. (IDAC) is reviewed. The IDAC system comes with spreadsheet software compatible for either Macintosh or IBM microcomputers. I prefer to use the IDAC hardware with my own software written in TrueBasic and spreadsheet macros. The entire system is easy to use and is currently in use for our undergraduate Learning Laboratory.     

Selection of software in the instructional laboratory

In this paper, I discuss a number of issues concerning software selection in instructional laboratories. First, I describe several taxonomies of instructional software and argue that the most important dimension of instructional software is that it must be an efficient tool. Second, I discuss some elements of the context of the instructional lab, including sophistication of users. Third, I explore design features, especially those related to ease of learning to use packages. Several other issues are also considered, such as where to find software reviews.     

Microcomputers in undergraduate laboratory training in psychology

Goals for undergraduate training in psychology are reviewed, and a survey is reported to suggest ways in which computers are being used to meet these goals. Currently computers primarily aid data collection and analysis. Computer-based literature searching and word processing are becoming more common. The true challenge of laboratory training, however, is inquiry training: helping students generate and frame research questions and interpret their results. Are we using the time we have gained through computer data collection and analysis to meet these goals? Are there ways in which the computer can directly help us meet these goals? The new generation of flexible experiment-generator software may provide direct help of this sort, as may effective simulations of theory.     

Application of color displays to problems in the undergraduate laboratory

Some topics in psychology are difficult to master without dynamic visual displays. This paper describes a few applications of computer-driven color graphics displays in an undergraduate laboratory in neuropsychology. The paper includes the advantages, disadvantages, and cost of this approach, as well as student reactions and evaluations.     

The purposes of laboratory experimentation and the virtues of deliberate artificiality

Critics of the laboratory experiment have maintained that artificiality (the intrusion into the experiment of “unrealistic” conditions) vitiates any possibility of generalizability beyond the confines of the laboratory. It is argued here that such artificiality in laboratory experimentation is a defect or flaw only within the context of verification and may be a distinct virtue in the context of discovery. Indeed it is argued that social psychological experiments may not be artificial enough when contrasted with the most fruitful experiments in the natural sciences. One purpose of an experiment may be to maximize artificiality deliberately so as to discover regularities that do not presently obtain under the “real” conditions outside the laboratory but which are capable of existing. When such observed laboratory regularities produce potentially beneficial outcomes, an attempt may be made to create the specific artificial laboratory conditions outside the laboratory to benefit mankind. This logic, exceedingly common in the natural sciences, has been virtually ignored in social psychology, even in the laboratory experiment, in favor of “realistic” reproduction of existing or reasonably plausible situations. Theoretical benefits of this additional modality of experimentation are illustrated by two recent developments in psychology.     

A computer-driven undergraduate laboratory curriculum and related support logistics

A psychology department in a teaching university solved problems in the existing undergraduate laboratory courses by setting up a computer laboratory and developing its own software. The logistical support that allowed a small department to offer many laboratory experiences came in part from an undergraduate apprenticeship program, which is described.     

A Winchester hard-disk integrated computer-assisted instructional laboratory: Hardware and data management considerations

The hardware configuration at the University of Kentucky is discussed with emphasis on a Winchester technology hard disk as the integrating feature. Advantages and disadvantages of this configuration are discussed in light of the issues of software transportability, ease of use for students, and system maintenance. The Winchester disk is compared to floppy drives as a means of program and data storage. The importance of proper, clear, and organized documentation is stressed. The conclusion is that each system can complement the other in a functional computer learning laboratory.     

Improved advising ratings in an undergraduate psychology program

During the late 1990s, the psychology department of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis made investments in its undergraduate advising program in terms of additional professional personnel, a new orientation course, an experimental intrusive advising track, innovative peer activities, and expanded physical facilities. Against this backdrop of innovations, from 1995 to 2001 an exit survey of graduating seniors (N=311) showed improved evaluations of departmental counseling services. Ratings of the obtainability of advising on courses and the quality of course and career advising all showed significant upward shifts over the seven years of study. Regarding a specific innovation, students who completed a 1-hr. orientation course gave higher mean counseling ratings than those not enrolled.     

Animal experimentation

Millions of animals are used every year in oftentimes extremely painful and distressing scientific procedures. Legislation of animal experimentation in modern societies is based on the supposition that this is ethically acceptable when certain more or less defined formal (e.g. logistical, technical) demands and ethical principles are met. The main parameters in this context correspond to the “3Rs” concept as defined by Russel and Burch in 1959, i.e. that all efforts to replace, reduce and refine experiments must be undertaken. The licensing of animal experiments normally requires an ethical evaluation process, oftentimes undertaken by ethics committees. The serious problems in putting this idea into practice include inter alia unclear conditions and standards for ethical decisions, insufficient management of experiments undertaken for specific (e.g. regulatory) purposes, and conflicts of interest of ethics committees’ members. There is an ongoing societal debate about ethical issues of animal use in science. Existing EU legislation on animal experimentation for cosmetics testing is an example of both the public will for setting clear limits to animal experiments and the need to further critically examine other fields and aspects of animal experimentation. This paper was presented at the 6th International Bioethics Conference on the subject of ‘The Responsible Conduct of Basic and Clinical Research’, held in Warsaw, Poland, 3–4 June 2005. The paper has been expanded from an article to be published in the forthcoming Council of Europe publication entitled “Animal Protection and Welfare”.     

The role of elaborations in learning a skill from an instructional text

In these studies, we examined the role of elaborations for subjects learning a procedural skill (viz., using a personal computer) from an instructional text. In Experiment 1, we compared two sources of elaborations: those provided by the author and those generated by learners while reading. In the latter condition, subjects were given advance information about the tasks they were to perform so that they would generate more specific task-related elaborations while reading. Each source of elaborations facilitated skill performance. This result contrasts with results of the past experiments testing declarative knowledge in which author-provided elaborations were found to hurt performance. In Experiment 2, the author-provided elaborations were classified into those illustrating the syntax of the operating system commands and those explaining basic concepts and their applicability. Syntax elaborations produced significant facilitation for experienced and novice computer users. Concept elaborations produced no reliable improvement.     

Laboratory experimentation and social field experimentation: An ambiguous distinction

Critical and epistemological reflections on the use of experimental methods in social psychology are often made to distinguish between two types of settings where these methods are used: The laboratory and the social field. But it is by no means certain that such a division has, from the start and at its own level, real significance: for one thing, because in social psychology, laboratory work is probably never merely laboratory work; and for another, because an analysis of what happens in practice would show that much experimental research work carried out in the social field merely transfers into that setting tools, concepts and a theoretical intention derived from the laboratory. If that is so, it follows that it is not at its own level that the laboratory-social field distinction has a heuristic and epistemological significance, nor is that the real location of the breaking-point between the methodologies. Perhaps the real ‘dividing’ line is one which separates experimental work which, whether in the laboratory or in the social field, concentrates on social interactions which are miniaturized or able to be so, from work which, in the social field, aims to concentrcte on processes which cannot be simulated or miniaturized without becoming distorted and seeks to reach social systems which are relatively complete and essentially intact.     

Ambiguity in perception and experimentation

Bruno and Cutting (1988) varied four monocular cues to perceived depth in a factorial design. Subjects judged the distance between test objects. Given main effects in the analysis of variance, the authors concluded that the perceivers integrated the four different sources of information, as opposed to simply selecting a single source. Given no interactions in the analysis of variance, the authors concluded that the integration process was additive rather than multiplicative. The ambiguity inherent in Bruno and Cutting's experiments and analyses is discussed. As presented, their results did not provide evidence for integration of depth cues or evidence for additivity, independence, and parallel processing of the cues. An additional analysis of the distribution of the rating judgments given by their subjects, however, provides some evidence for integration of the cues. The fuzzy logical model of perception (FLMP) is extended to describe perceptual recognition of depth. The model assumes independence of the cues during feature evaluation and a nonadditive integration process in which the least ambiguous cues have the greatest impact on the judgment. The FLMP is contrasted with a model assuming additivity of the cues. Because both models describe the results equally well, it remains for future researchers to provide definitive tests between the models.     

Painless computer-controlled experimentation

More Es might employ computers to control psychological experiments if computer languages suitable for experimental control were easier to learn. In fact, course author languages intended for writing instructional sequences offer many facilities desirable for experimental control. A particular language, CAN-4, is examined for its suitability, and its use in a concept learning experiment is illustrated.