Teaching and Learning Logic in a Virtual Learning Environment

Teaching and learning in a virtual learning environment (VLE)poses some difficulties, but also challenges and opportunitiesto rethink the whole learning process, particularly in abstractsubjects like logic or high level mathematics. On the otherhand, resources and ways to work, now available in VLEs, mightsoon extend to all kinds of environments. In this paper, wewill present experiences at the Open University of Catalonia(UOC), a particular VLE, concerning the whole process of teachinglogic and mathematics. In addition, we will discuss some challengesand we will present some innovation projects allowed by thepresent and near future technologies.     

The Efficacy of a Dialogic Learning Environment in Fostering Literacy

This comparative study examines the role of contextual features embedded in a dialogic environment in fostering literacy. The study, implemented by language arts teachers in a middle school setting, investigates the effectiveness of an instructional program designed to create a collaborative dialogic learning environment that imparts literacy. The program is compared to a traditional learning environment in which reading and writing are imparted through direct teacher instruction. Results indicate that embedding literacy instruction in communities of discourse is superior to traditional methods in fostering reading comprehension and writing competence. Findings suggest that a dialogic environment creates the context within which students develop cognitive tools to achieve literacy.     

Learning when reward is delayed: a marking hypothesis

Rats were trained on spatial discriminations in which reward was delayed for 1 min. Experiment 1 tested Lett's hypothesis that responses made in the home cage during the delay interval are less likely to interfere with learning than responses made in the maze. Experimental subjects were transferred to their home cages during the delay interval, and control subjects were picked up but then immediately replaced in the maze. Contrary to Lett's hypothesis, both groups learned. Further experiments suggested that handling following a choice response was the crucial variable in producing learning: No learning occurred when handling was delayed (Experiment 2) or omitted (Experiment 3). One possible explanation for the fact that handling facilitated learning is that it served to mark the preceding choice response in memory so that subjects were then more likely to recall it when subsequently reinforced. In accordance with this interpretation, learning was found to be just as strong when the choice response was followed by an intense light or noise as by handling (Experiment 4). The implication of marking for other phenomena such as avoidance, quasi-reinforcement, and the paradoxical effects of punishment is also discussed.     

Augmented Feedback Presented in a Virtual Environment Accelerates Learning of a Difficult Motor Task

One can use a number of techniques (e.g., from videotaping to computer enhancement of the environment) to augment the feedback that a subject usually receives during training on a motor task. Although some forms of augmented feedback have been shown to enhance performance on isolated isometric tasks during training, when the feedback has been removed subjects have sometimes not been able to perform as well in the "real-world" task as controls. Indeed, for realistic, nonisometric motor tasks, improved skill acquisition because of augmented feedback has not been demonstrated. In the present experiments, subjects (Experiment 1, N = 42; Experiment 2, N = 21) performed with a system that was designed for teaching a difficult multijoint movement in a table tennis environment. The system was a fairly realistic computer animation of the environment and included paddles for the teacher and subject, as well as a virtual ball. Each subject attempted to learn a difficult shot by matching the pattern of movements of the expert teacher. Augmented feedback focused the attention of the subject on a minimum set of movement details that were most relevant to the task; feedback was presented in a form that required the least perceptual processing. Effectiveness of training was determined by measuring their performance in the real task. Subjects who received the virtual environment training performed significantly better than subjects who received a comparable amount of real-task practice or coaching. Kinematic analysis indicated that practice with the expert's trajectory served as a basis for performance on the real-world task and that the movements executed after training were subject-specific modifications of the expert's trajectory. Practice with this trajectory alone was not sufficient for transfer to the real task, however: When a critical component of the virtual environment was removed, subjects showed no transfer to the real task.     

The New Learning Environment and Adult Developmental Needs

The link between an adult's learning capabilities and an organization's learning and adaptation is highlighted in this study of workers in a new training program. Studies have found that worker productivity differences are rooted in psychological factors. The most successful firms have supportive workplace psychologies that foster perspective transformation, yield high productivity, high involvement, high job satisfaction, low cost, and high profits. This study suggests the importance of workers having a whole-organization perspective. The findings of this study are generalizable to other organizations making the transition from training to learning in which individuals learn to continuously grow, develop, and problem solve to the benefit of all.     

Learning is impaired by activated intentions

Two experiments examined the task interference that sometimes accrues from having an intention. In standard prospective memory tasks, latency is often slower to an ongoing task performed concurrently with having an intention than it is when no intention is given. If the locus of this slowing resulted from different attentional allocation policies in the two cases, we predicted that the process of learning a word list would be impaired if participants had an intention rather than if they did not. Four different event-based prospective memory tasks were used in Experiment 1 to demonstrate that worse free recall of a word list resulted when studied with a concurrent intention than with a control condition that had no intention. In that experiment, linking an intention to a distal context that was to occur after learning did not impair free recall. Two time-based tasks were used in Experiment 2 to demonstrate that possessing a time-based prospective memory also hinders learning, unless the intention is linked to a future context that is expected to occur after the study session. In the latter case, no impairment was obtained.     

Daydreams and Anarchy: A Defense of Anomalous Mental Causation

Must mental properties figure in psychological causal laws if they are causally efficacious? And do those psychological causal laws give the essence of mental properties? Contrary to the prevailing consensus, I argue that, on the usual conception of laws that is in play in these debates, there are in fact lawless causally efficacious properties both in and out of the philosophy of mind. I argue that this makes a great difference to the philosophical relevance of empirical psychology. 1 begin by making the case that revolutions and hurricanes are lawless phenomena, before arguing for a similar thesis about creativity, love, courage, dreams, daydreams, and musings. Furthermore, the empirical research on these phenomena suggests that the philosophical issues may be independent of what empirical psychology can tell us.     

Organizational Learning: The Role of the Physical Environment

This paper examines the role of the physical environment in facilitating organizational learning. Semi-structured interviews related to learning and experiences of physical environment were conducted in two organizations in India. Workspaces were studied using non-participant observation. Cognitive maps of the layouts were created and movements in the workspaces mapped. Content analysis was performed on interview responses, and space syntax analysis was used to analyse maps of the workspaces. Findings suggest that knowledge in organizations is transformed through dialogue and discussion. Relationships, supportive leadership, culture, organizational strategy, and physical environment were found to play a key role in facilitating this process. The physical environment afforded co-presence, movement, and encounter. These features were found to contribute to interaction that facilitated dialogue, and thereby transformation of knowledge. This paper highlights the importance of physical design and provides areas of concrete intervention, allowing for facilitation of learning based on the physical dimension of the learning context.     

Learning to suppress a distractor is not affected by working memory load

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Where and what we attend to is not only determined by our current goals but also by what we have encountered in the past. Recent studies have shown that people...     

Learning a two-cue inference task when one of the cue-criterion relations is known

Learning two-cue probability learning (MPL) tasks when the functional relation between the first cue and the criterion was known to the subject was studied in a factorial experiment. Contrary to the predictions from a hypothesis sampling model assuming independent learning of each cue in MPL, the function form for the first cue was found to affect learning of the second cue, facilitating it when the functional relations were the same for both cues and inhibiting it when the functions were different. These results suggest that it is not possible to extrapolate findings from single-cue probability learning directly to MPL.     

Learning of novel semantic relationships via sudden comprehension is associated with a hippocampus-independent network

Sudden comprehension—or insight—during problem-solving can enhance learning, but the underlying neural processes are largely unknown. We investigated neural correlates of learning from sudden comprehension using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a verbal problem-solving task. Solutions and “solutions” to solvable and unsolvable verbal problems, respectively, were presented to induce sudden comprehension or continued incomprehension. We found activations of the hippocampus, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), amygdala, and striatum during sudden comprehension. Notably, however, mPFC and temporo-parietal neocortical structures rather than the hippocampus were associated with later learning of suddenly comprehended solutions. Moreover, difficult compared to easy sudden comprehension elicited midbrain activations and was associated with successful learning, pointing to learning via intrinsic reward. Sudden comprehension of novel semantic associations may constitute a special case of long-term memory formation primarily mediated by the mPFC, expanding our knowledge of its role in prior-knowledge-dependent memory.     

How the Learning Path and the Very Structure of a Multifloored Environment Influence Human Spatial Memory

Few studies have explored how humans memorize landmarks in complex multifloored buildings. They have observed that participants memorize an environment either by floors or by vertical columns, influenced by the learning path. However, the influence of the building’s actual structure is not yet known. In order to investigate this influence, we conducted an experiment using an object-in-place protocol in a cylindrical building to contrast with previous experiments which used rectilinear environments. Two groups of 15 participants were taken on a tour with a first person perspective through a virtual cylindrical three-floored building. They followed either a route discovering floors one at a time, or a route discovering columns (by simulated lifts across floors). They then underwent a series of trials, in which they viewed a camera movement reproducing either a segment of the learning path (familiar trials), or performing a shortcut relative to the learning trajectory (novel trials). We observed that regardless of the learning path, participants better memorized the building by floors, and only participants who had discovered the building by columns also memorized it by columns. This expands on previous results obtained in a rectilinear building, where the learning path favoured the memory of its horizontal and vertical layout. Taken together, these results suggest that both learning mode and an environment’s structure influence the spatial memory of complex multifloored buildings.     

虚拟学习环境下图形加工的认知负荷研究

基于单探测变化觉察和双任务范式,采用项目数量（3）×呈现时间（2）×文字线索（2）混合实验设计,对沉浸式虚拟学习环境图形加工特征和认知负荷进行探讨,以任务绩效法与主观测量法评定认知负荷。44名大学生的实验结果显示：（1）项目数量对虚拟空间图形识记主任务绩效和主观认知负荷有显著影响,项目数量越多,主任务正确率越低,反应时越长,主观评定认知负荷越高,同时加工刺激数量以4个为宜;（2）呈现时间对虚拟空间图形识记次任务绩效有显著影响,呈现时间越长,次任务正确率越高,呈现时间超过0.5s有利于次任务加工;（3）文字线索对虚拟图形识记认知负荷有显著影响,重复性文字线索会增加认知负荷。结果表明,在沉浸式虚拟环境中,图形加工的认知负荷特点与平面和三维图形基本一致,项目数量多、呈现时间短以及有重复性文字线索时,认知负荷更高;任务绩效和主观测量评定指标在反映认知负荷强度上不完全一致。     

Learning to discriminate simple sinusoidal gratings is task specific

Learning transfer effects of a modified spatial frequency discrimination task with simple sinusoidal gratings on various untrained test tasks, testing performance in relative position, local width and global size discrimination, have been investigated. Six subjects were exposed to grating stimuli of varying spatial frequency and size but constant relative position while they had to respond only to spatial frequency. In the course of 7 consecutive days all subjects showed significant reduction of spatial frequency discrimination thresholds. Comparison of discrimination thresholds for the untrained test tasks, taken before and after the learning epoch, reveals complete learning transfer to spatial frequency discrimination with gratings of constant size and variable relative position, but complete lack of transfer when grating spatial frequency is shifted about one octave lower. Further, there is improvement of relative position discrimination and width discrimination of single luminance bars, which is not very specific for the learnt spatial frequency. Although size variation was part of the learning procedure, discrimination of global stimulus size did not improve. Generally, the observed scheme of learning transfer reveals that there is learning only for stimulus attributes that are behaviorally relevant in the learning task. The differential scheme of improvement and code usage in the test tasks strongly indicates involvement of higher stages capable of independent access to different coding domains, as well as attentionally guided attribute selection and suppression. Supported by other recent findings, it is suggested that discrimination learning can be understood as a higher level process of gradual refinement of code selection out of a rich code base provided by lower level stages.     

Socially Optimized Learning in a Virtual Environment: Reducing Risky Sexual Behavior Among Men Who Have Sex With Men

A socially optimized learning approach, which integrates diverse theoretical perspectives, places men who have sex with men (MSM) in an interactive virtual environment designed to simulate the emotional, interpersonal, and contextual narrative of an actual sexual encounter while challenging and changing MSM's more automatic patterns of risky responses. MSM assume a character's identity and are scaffolded in their decision‐making and relearning process by supportive, and often humorous, peer coaches who encourage situated learning of self‐regulatory and behavioral skills, and tailor and frame their responses to be responsive to the men's behavioral choices. In a longitudinal design, participants were randomly assigned to receive either an interactive video (IAV) intervention with peer counseling or to a peer‐counseling‐alone control. Compared to the counseling alone, men who also received the IAV reduced risky anal sex behaviors and increased protected anal sex behaviors.     

Student Nurses' Experiences of The Clinical Psychiatric Learning Environment in an Education Institution

This study investigated lived experiences of student nurses working in a clinical psychiatric learning environment in South Africa. Participants were 29 fourth-year student nurses in the clinical psychiatric learning environment at a nursing education institution (females = 27; males =2). They engaged in focus group discussion on their experiences of the clinical psychiatric learning environment. The data were thematically analyzed using Tesch's method of open coding. The student nurses experienced the environment as growth enhancing on a professional and personal level.