Transfer of Reactive Inhibition

A serious challenge to Hull’s (1943) theory of reminiscence and intertrial-interval effects is posed by the current contention that reactive inhibition (I_R) must be task-specific since it does not seem to transfer from one task to another. This notion was examined within the framework of a practice-rest paradigm in which three control groups were given 20 1-min trials on a principal task with intertrial intervals of 0, 5, and 70 sec, respectively, while two experimental groups practiced alternately on the principal task and a secondary task known to produce evidence for I_R. The two secondary tasks varied in their similarities to the principal task. Additional control groups were used to assess the magnitude of habit transfer effects. The total sample consisted of 70 males and 70 females whose modal age was 18 yr. With habit transfer effects controlled, results showed clearly that work effects transferred from the alternate tasks to the main task without regard for differences in similarity. Thus, the task-specificity hypothesis was not supported.     

组织学习研究的争议

组织学习的研究对于当今企业乃至整个社会的可持续性发展都有着重要意义。文章从组织学习的概念、研究、实施和新进展等方面对组织学习的研究进行评论。评论指出,组织学习与学习型组织二者是有很大差别的两个概念,绝不可以混淆;学者和实践者会从不同角度和使用不同方法来探讨组织学习;而组织学习这种组织变革方式与组织的现有政治权力是密切联系在一起的;无论是理论还是实践,都需要建立综合的组织学习机制模型     

企业组织的学习结构

在理论综述的基础上,通过访谈、预试和大规模调查,对企业组织学习结构进行了实证研究。根据访谈和预试,初步确定组织学习问卷的项目。采用探索性因素分析和验证性因素分析,对来自全国不同地区43家企业的管理者和员工的调查数据进行了分析。结果表明,我国企业组织学习是一个6因素的结构模型：组织间学习、组织层学习、集体学习、个体学习、利用式学习、开发式学习;组织学习问卷具有一定的信效度。组织学习的作用和影响因素以及这三者之间的复杂作用机制还有待更为深入的研究     

Reflecting talks: a pedagogical model in the learning organization

The aim of the article is to deepen the understanding of how a pedagogical model for reflecting talks can be used in order to make sustainable learning part of the daily work in the learning organization. From an interactive research approach, we have together with a project management group in a European Social Fund project worked with sustainable learning and knowledge development. Empirical data has been collected at the implementation of ten reflecting talks about sustainable equality. The results of the study lead to a strategy for how sustainable learning can become part of the daily work at a workplace. The strategy is constituted by a pedagogical model for reflecting talks, which clearly shows how sustainable learning in an organization can be structured. The core of the pedagogical model for the reflecting talks where both practically applied and theoretically anchored knowledge are important components. The learning process is based on observation, reflection, analysis and discussion of concrete situations/events. The models rests on four basic conditions; pedagogical competence, a delimited problem area, the learning group and timeframes. The model can be used in the daily work at short dialogues or at more penetrating discussions.     

Surface features can deeply affect artificial grammar learning

Three experiments explored the extent to which surface features explain discrimination between grammatical and non-grammatical strings in artificial grammar learning (AGL). Experiment 1 replicated Knowlton and Squire’s (1996) paradigm using either letter strings as in the original study, or an analogous set of color strings to further explore if learning was affected by type of stimuli. Learning arose only with letter strings, but the results were mostly due to the discrimination of non-grammatical strings containing highly salient illegal features. Experiments 2 and 3 tested a new grammar devised to control for those features. Experiment 2 showed reduced grammar learning effects, and again only for letter materials. Experiment 3 explored the effect of additional practice with letter stimuli, and found increased learning only in the spaced practice condition, though additional practice also produced more explicit knowledge. These findings call for further research on the boundary conditions of learning in AGL paradigms.     

学习支持对基于计算机模拟的发现学习的影响

研究了针对发现活动的意义性的解释性支持 (IS)、针对其系统逻辑性的实验性支持 (ES)以及学习者的推理能力对基于模拟的科学发现学习的影响。设计开发了关于浮力的模拟软件 ,被试为北京十四中初二学生 80名 ,采用 2 (有 /无IS)× 2 (有 /无ES)× 3(推理能力 )的混合实验设计。结果发现 ,推理能力在原理性知识、直觉性理解测验以及学习者所设计实验的质量上有显著的主效应。IS在原理性知识和灵活应用测验上有显著的主效应。ES与推理能力在原理性知识测验上有显著的交互作用 ,ES在学习者所设计实验的质量上有显著的主效应。这一结果说明 ,发现活动的意义性和系统逻辑性对基于模拟的发现学习有重要的制约作用 ,应该针对这两个侧面设计相应的学习支持     

Implicit motor sequence learning is not represented purely in response locations

This study employed a novel variant of the serial reaction time task, focused on sequencing one element of movement—direction. During the task a repeated pattern of alternating directions (right–left–right, etc.) was embedded in the stimuli, and there was no series of response locations. Responses were made via two effector systems: single-finger responding (necessitates lateral arm movements between response keys), and four-fingered responding (4 individual fingers on 4 individual keys; requires no lateral arm movement). The sequence of directions was only learned by participants who performed lateral movements during training, indicating that learning was contingent on the particular motor effector used. Participants with low levels of sequence awareness displayed the same pattern of results.     

Cross‐Situational Learning: An Experimental Study of Word‐Learning Mechanisms

Cross‐situational learning is a mechanism for learning the meaning of words across multiple exposures, despite exposure‐by‐exposure uncertainty as to the word's true meaning. We present experimental evidence showing that humans learn words effectively using cross‐situational learning, even at high levels of referential uncertainty. Both overall success rates and the time taken to learn words are affected by the degree of referential uncertainty, with greater referential uncertainty leading to less reliable, slower learning. Words are also learned less successfully and more slowly if they are presented interleaved with occurrences of other words, although this effect is relatively weak. We present additional analyses of participants’ trial‐by‐trial behavior showing that participants make use of various cross‐situational learning strategies, depending on the difficulty of the word‐learning task. When referential uncertainty is low, participants generally apply a rigorous eliminative approach to cross‐situational learning. When referential uncertainty is high, or exposures to different words are interleaved, participants apply a frequentist approximation to this eliminative approach. We further suggest that these two ways of exploiting cross‐situational information reside on a continuum of learning strategies, underpinned by a single simple associative learning mechanism.     

Rapid Learning in a Children's Museum via Analogical Comparison

We tested whether analogical training could help children learn a key principle of elementary engineering—namely, the use of a diagonal brace to stabilize a structure. The context for this learning was a construction activity at the Chicago Children's Museum, in which children and their families build a model skyscraper together. The results indicate that even a single brief analogical comparison can confer insight. The results also reveal conditions that support analogical learning.     

Thirty years of research on online learning

This paper presents a personal account of developments in research on online learning over the past 30 years. Research on how to design online instruction represents an example of applying the science of learning to education. It contributes to the science of learning (as exemplified by developments in cognitive load theory, the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, and incorporating metacognitive, motivational, and affective aspects of learning), the science of instruction (as exemplified by the continuing development of research‐based principles of instructional design), and the science of assessment (as exemplified by supplementing self‐report surveys and retention tests with multilevel transfer tests, log file data during learning, and cognitive neuroscience measures of cognitive processing during learning). Some recurring themes are that learning is caused by instructional methods rather than instructional media, so research should focus on features that are uniquely afforded by digital learning environments; instructional practice should be grounded in rigorous and systematic research, including value‐added experiments aimed at pinpointing the active ingredients in online instruction; research in online learning should identify boundary conditions under which instructional techniques are most effective; and research in online learning should test and contribute to learning theory.     

员工自我调节学习的实证研究

本研究以沿海和中原地区的国有、合资和私营企业的603名员工为被试,通过探索性因素分析和验证性因素分析,探讨了员工自我调节学习的心理机制。研究结果表明,员工自我调节学习的基本结构包括学习动力调节和策略调节两个方面。研究结果为提高员工的自我调节学习水平提供了科学依据。     

Study preferences for exemplar variability in self-regulated category learning

Increasing exemplar variability during category learning can enhance classification of novel exemplars from studied categories. Four experiments examined whether participants preferred variability when making study choices with the goal of later classifying novel exemplars. In Experiments 1–3, participants were familiarised with exemplars of birds from multiple categories prior to making category-level assessments of learning and subsequent choices about whether to receive more variability or repetitions of exemplars during study. After study, participants classified novel exemplars from studied categories. The majority of participants showed a consistent preference for variability in their study, but choices were not related to category-level assessments of learning. Experiment 4 provided evidence that study preferences were based primarily on theoretical beliefs in that most participants indicated a preference for variability on questionnaires that did not include prior experience with exemplars. Potential directions for theoretical development and applications to education are discussed.     

A note on DeCaro, Thomas, and Beilock (2008): Further data demonstrate complexities in the assessment of information-integration category learning

DeCaro et al. [DeCaro, M. S., Thomas, R. D., & Beilock, S. L. (2008). Individual differences in category learning: Sometimes less working memory capacity is better than more. Cognition, 107(1), 284-294] explored how individual differences in working memory capacity differentially mediate the learning of distinct category structures. Specifically, their results showed that greater working memory capacity facilitates the learning of novel category structures that are verbalisable and discoverable through logical reasoning processes. Conversely, however, greater working memory was shown to impede the learning of novel category structures thought to be non-verbalisable, inaccessible to conscious reasoning and discoverable only through implicit (procedural) learning of appropriate stimulus-category responses. The present paper calls into question the specific nature of the category learning tasks used, in particular their ability to discriminate between different modes of category learning.     

What is learned about fragments in artificial grammar learning? A transitional probabilities approach

Learning local regularities in sequentially structured materials is typically assumed to be based on encoding of the frequencies of these regularities. We explore the view that transitional probabilities between elements of chunks, rather than frequencies of chunks, may be the primary factor in artificial grammar learning (AGL). The transitional probability model (TPM) that we propose is argued to provide an adaptive and parsimonious strategy for encoding local regularities in order to induce sequential structure from an input set of exemplars of the grammar. In a variant of the AGL procedure, in which participants estimated the frequencies of bigrams occurring in a set of exemplars they had been exposed to previously, participants were shown to be more sensitive to local transitional probability information than to mere pattern frequencies.     

Translating the ICAP Theory of Cognitive Engagement Into Practice

ICAP is a theory of active learning that differentiates students’ engagement based on their behaviors. ICAP postulates that I nteractive engagement, demonstrated by co‐generative collaborative behaviors, is superior for learning to C onstructive engagement, indicated by generative behaviors. Both kinds of engagement exceed the benefits of A ctive or P assive engagement, marked by manipulative and attentive behaviors, respectively. This paper discusses a 5‐year project that attempted to translate ICAP into a theory of instruction using five successive measures: (a) teachers’ understanding of ICAP after completing an online module, (b) their success at designing lesson plans using different ICAP modes, (c) fidelity of teachers’ classroom implementation, (d) modes of students’ enacted behaviors, and (e) students’ learning outcomes. Although teachers had minimal success in designing Constructive and Interactive activities, students nevertheless learned significantly more in the context of Constructive than Active activities. We discuss reasons for teachers’ overall difficulty in designing and eliciting Interactive engagement.     

The effect of statistical learning on internal stimulus representations: Predictable items are enhanced even when not predicted

Statistical learning is the automatic and unconscious learning of environmental regularities and is a basic mechanism of learning in a variety of human perceptual and cognitive domains. Previous studies have mainly focused on the associative mechanisms of statistical learning. However, an unexplored question is whether the internal representations of individual stimuli are altered as their associations are learned. Using a temporal statistical learning paradigm, we examine this question across three experiments and find clear evidence that the internal representations of individual stimuli are differentially altered according to their degree of temporal predictability. These findings complement previous accounts of statistical learning and reveal an enriched mechanism of human learning, such that learning to associate items also enhances the representations of certain items relative to others.     

Illusions of Learning: Irrelevant Emotions Inflate Judgments of Learning

People use assessments of how much they have learned to choose and recommend instructors, seminars, and weekend trips. How do people assess how much they have learned? Recent theorizing has depicted emotion as a cue for learning, and so people may be misled by recent emotional states to infer that they have learned more than they actually have. Four studies showed that people associated emotion with learning and believed, often falsely, that they learned more when in an emotional than unemotional state. Factual lessons were coupled with manipulations of arbitrary, irrelevant emotional states. Participants rated that they learned more after an emotion had been induced than in emotionally neutral control conditions. These differences remained significant after controlling for actual learning as measured by objective tests, which was unaffected by emotion. This illusion of learning caused by emotion was robust with respect to changes of procedure and sample, including whether the emotion came before or after the information to be learned. Alternative explanations were ruled out, including that emotion would intensify ratings generally, that emotion would make incoming information seem particularly personally relevant, that emotion increased engagement in the research, and that illusory learning would depend on retrospective exaggeration of one's prior ignorance. Because irrelevant emotions can increase people's judgments that they have learned something, incidental emotional experiences could increase a person's likelihood of deciding to take another class with a particular instructor, to sign up for another leadership seminar, or to engage in a risky (but emotion‐filled) excursion. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Noncognitive factors in high-road/low-road learning: I. Modes of abstraction in adulthood

Since the termscognition andcognitive are broadly used but not clearly defined, it may be helpful to clarify what is meant bynoncognitive factors. In cognitive science, the termscognition andcognitive generally describe mental processes that are informational insofar as they carry information about the organism's own body and the material world. Thus defined, there are three sorts of noncognitive organismic factors important in adult learning:affective processes, self-developmental processes, andhardware factors (i.e., noninformational, purely organismic constraints such as mental capacity/working memory limitations, gestaltist field factors, etc.). In this series of papers, we attempt to show how these noncognitive factors interact with cognitive factors to facilitate adult learning. We outline and give reference to a dialectical constructivist (neoPiagetian) model of the psychological organism that integrates noncognitive with cognitive factors and that can serve to explicate the findings of the literature and to process/task analyze adult learning. An important aim is the integration of the findings of decline and regression from the cognitive literature with the findings regarding the increase in self-directedness reported by adult education theorists. This is explicated through a process-analytic account of the will, particularly as it pertains to noncognitive factors. In Part II, we continue our explication of a dialectical model of the ego and conclude with a discussion of modes of learning/instruction in adulthood.     

非文字内隐学习的优势效应

本研究以大学生为被试,运用计算机将人工语法范式程序化,分别以色块串和色词串为材料,研究颜色内隐和外显学习的特点;并增设时间变量（单元）以了解学习的详细进程。结果发现：1.学习材料上存在主效应,非言语材料（包块）较言语材料（色词）更适合于内隐加工。2.时间变量上也存在主效应,整体呈递增趋势;3.指导语上不存在主效应,即内隐学习在不同材料上的优势效应依然存在。实验结果极好地支持了非文字内隐学习优势效应的假设。