Exploring relational regulation in computer-mediated (collaborative) learning interaction: a developmental perspective.

This article presents a qualitative analysis showing the dependency of effective collaborative argumentation on interpersonal relational aspects that develop during synchronous interaction. Four regulatory principles are proposed as propelling the interaction, and of these, autoregulation, or the conservative restraints within the existing relation, appears to be the dominant force. When using a structured dialogue system (SDS), instead of free chat, via roles and sentence-openers, the social dimension of the relation between participants disappears from the surface interaction. Even though using the SDS seems to foster a more focused and task-functional approach, argumentation appears to affect the relations between participants in a negative way, since after an argumentative sequence, repair of the relationship takes place. It might even be argued that, because of relational stress, in many cases, argumentation is momentarily suspended.     

The adolescent with a learning disability: a developmental perspective

The psychosocial difficulties that usually accompany learning disabilities are examined from a framework of developmental theory, particularly that of Erik Erikson. The implications of this perspective for treatment of adolescents with learning problems is discussed, and a specific program described.     

Seniority in the generational transition of laboratory groups: The effects of social familiarity and task experience

The determinants of leadership seniority in laboratory groups were investigated in two experiments. In both experiments a procedure was used in which individual group members were periodically replaced throughout 7 generations. The individuals within the groups folded origami products and traded with other groups so as to earn quarters. In the first experiment the effect of social familiarity on seniority was investigated by comparing a set of standard groups with a set of rotational groups in which the group members moved from group to group between generations and thus always interacted with strangers. There was less seniority in the rotational groups. In the second experiment the effect of experience on seniority was investigated by comparing a set of standard groups with a set of experienced groups in which the new group members were recruited from the standard groups. There was less seniority in the experienced groups. It was found in both experiments, in agreement with previous research, that over generations the subjects earned increasing amounts of money and worked with increasing speed and efficiency.     

Establishing team knowledge coordination from a learning perspective

Research has identified the importance of knowledge coordination in high-performing teams. However, little is known on the processes through which these cognitive structures are developed, more specifically on the learning occurring as teams communicate and interact to build new team knowledge. In a multiple-measures experiment, 33 teams with no prior experience in flight simulations were assigned to newly formed dyads to complete 4 successive performance episodes of a flight simulation task, modeling a complex, fast-paced, and high workload task context. The study showed how team learning processes (i.e., team learning behaviors and team reflexivity), driven by task cohesion, and group potency supported coordination development, which in turn predicted team performance.     

The subjective experience of remembering in artificial grammar learning

The question of what processes are involved in artificial grammar learning has been the subject of a great deal of debate for nearly four decades. Neuropsychological and some behavioural data have found evidence for episodic memory processes such as recollection and familiarity in artificial grammar learning. To date all of this evidence has been found using objective techniques that do not rely on subjective reports. However, recollection and familiarity are associated with distinct phenomenal states that can be measured using the well-known “remember”–“know” procedure. This paper reports three experiments in which evidence was found for recollection and familiarity-based influences in artificial grammar learning using subjective reports of the experience of remembering. Subjective reports were not related to the similarity of the test items to the study items, suggesting that they do not merely reflect levels of confidence. The data are discussed with reference to multiple process models and a modified signal-detection model.     

School coexistence and learning in adolescence from a gender perspective

This article reviews recent research about academic learning and school coexistence in adolescence from a gender perspective. It focuses on the research developed by the Preventive Psychology research group (UCM), specially the results from the Spanish National Study of School Coexistence using a sample of 22,247 secondary school students. Research shows that girls are overrepresented in positive indicators whereas boys are in negative indicators, not only in academic adjustment but also in school coexistence. Girls' better academic achievement can be explained by their higher tendency to overcome sexism: they identify with traditional masculinity values (such as success orientation) without giving up traditional femininity values (such as empathy). Based on this, the following conclusions are reached: 1) to extend the advantages of equality also to men; 2) to emphasize that sharing academic contexts and activities is necessary but sufficient to construct equality; and lastly, 3) to improve school coexistence, it is necessary to adopt a integrative gender approach to prevent any kind of violence, including violence against women.     

Consistency of Mother-Child Interaction Using the Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) Scale

This investigation focused on stability of mother-child interactions in three consecutive situations, as rated by the Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) Scale. The Scale was devised to reflect components of parent interaction hypothesized to facilitate cognitive development of children, as described by Feuerstein. Twenty-two mothers were videotaped in interaction with their pre-school children in three consecutive situations: two structured teaching, and one free play. The Scale was found to have moderate internal consistency and moderate to high interrater reliability. Intersituational consistency of the parents varied with the components. The mediational component of Transcendence correlated significantly and positively with the Perceptual-Performance subscale score of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities, and the component of Reciprocity correlated significantly, but negatively, with the McCarthy Perceptual-Performance score. Implications of the results for special practitioners and applied researchers are discussed.     

A failure to find socially mediated taste aversion learning in Norway rats (R. norvegicus)

Observer rats interacted with conspecific demonstrators immediately after demonstrators ate a novel diet and were made ill by LiCl injection. Following their interaction with demonstrators, observers were tested for aversion to their ill demonstrator's diet. Previous research has shown that (a) an observer can extract information from a demonstrator sufficient to permit identification of the demonstrator's diet (Galef & Wigmore, 1983) and (b) a rat ill from LiCl toxicosis is an adequate unconditioned stimulus in a taste aversion learning paradigm (Lavin, Freise, & Coombes, 1980). Further, two of the present experiments demonstrated that cues emitted by a rat, reflecting the particular diet it has eaten, are an adequate conditional stimulus in a toxicosis-induced aversion learning situation. Observer avoidance of a diet previously ingested by an ill demonstrator was, however, not demonstrated. The implications of the failure to find socially mediated aversion learning are discussed.     

联想学习对消费行为的影响：基于产品搜索经验的视角

消费者能够基于长期形成的联结产生预期并引导产品搜索。然而,在实际搜索过程中,消费者可能会遭遇符合预期的经验或违反预期的经验。本研究主要探讨基于不同产品搜索经验的联想学习影响消费行为的机制,主要涉及(1)消费者是否会基于产品搜索经验的联想学习产生“违反预期”的预期,并且影响随后搜索中的注意加工;(2)违反预期和符合预期的产品搜索经验对任务无关信息的联想学习所产生的影响,同时关注先前短期的联想学习能否建立预期从而引导随后的产品注意搜索过程;(3)基于产品搜索经验的联想学习对产品偏好的影响,并将行为偏好和大脑奖赏进行联系。本研究有助于阐明消费情境中产品搜索对消费者行为和大脑的影响机制,为营销应用中通过改变消费体验、促进产品购买提供实证依据。     

Socially mediated learning in male Betta splendens

Seven experiments showed that in the absence of social stimulation male Siamese fighting fish would approach any of several visual and spatial cues that had previously been paired with the animals' mirror images. These findings demonstrate that learned modifications of swimming mediated by social stimuli are possible in Bettas. The present results also suggest that territorial defense in some teleosts may, in part, be mediated by the association of social cues with visual and spatial stimuli.     

The learning of goal-directed locomotion: A perception-action perspective

This study was designed to better understand the process underlying the learning of goal-directed locomotion. Subjects walked on a treadmill in a virtual reality setting and were asked to cross pairs of oscillating doors. The subjects' behaviour was examined at the beginning of the learning process (pretest), after 350 trials (intermediate test), and after 700 trials (posttest). The data were analysed at three different levels, each representing a specific aspect of the global response: performance outcome, displacement kinematics, and current arrival condition. While some aspects of performance outcome suggested the presence of a ceiling effect in the intermediate test, both displacement kinematics and current arrival condition clearly highlighted continuous transformations of the control mechanism involved. The learning process is best described as (1) the establishing of a relationship between specific information and a movement parameter and (2) the optimization of this relationship. The optimization process is characterized by the further exploration of the available behavioural repertoire and by the refinement of the dialogue between information and movement.     

The experience of tedium in three generations of professional women

Tedium, defined as the experience of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion, was studied in three generations of professional women, who were questioned extensively about their lifestyles, life stresses, and life attitudes. Results indicated that in spite of the differences in life features and pressures among the three groups, the similarities in their experiences, attitudes, and overall life satisfaction are rather impressive. The differences among the generations tended to cluster around the more stressful environment of college for the young preprofessional women, who experienced most tedium and were most overextended and conflicted, and around the more traditional attitudes toward women and women's issues expressed by the older postprofessional generation, who also had the least tedium. The midcareer professional women were characterized by more positive life attitudes, more satisfaction from their work, and by liberal feministic attitudes toward working women's issues. Three focal variables were hypothesized and documented to be important tedium correlates for all professional women. Of the three, role conflict rather than number of roles was found to be a positive tedium correlate. Sense of control and especially having social support systems emerged as significant negative tedium correlates.An earlier version of this article was presented as a paper at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, August 26–30, 1977. The authors wish to thank Trudy Solomon, who assisted in the organizational aspects of the study, and Susan Reuss and the students of the University of California, Berkeley's social psychology course, who took part in the group research project and helped in the data collection.     

The role of experience in web-building spiders (Araneidae)

A typical feature of vertical orb-webs is the ‘top/bottom’ asymmetry, where the lower web region is larger than the upper web region. This asymmetry may improve prey capture success, because, sitting in the hub of the web, a spider can reach prey entangled below the hub faster than prey entangled in the area above the hub. While web asymmetry is known to vary intraspecifically, we tested if this variation also exists at the individual level and whether it is the result of experience, using two orb-web spider species, Argiope keyserlingi and Larinioides sclopetarius. The results reveal that experienced web-building spiders constructed more asymmetric webs than conspecifics deprived of any prior building experience over a period of several months. Experienced individuals invested more silk material into the web region below the hub, which covered a larger area. Moreover, web asymmetry was also influenced by previous prey capture experiences, as spiders increased the lower region of the web if it intercepted the most prey over a period of 6 days. Consequently, spiders may be able to use long-term web-building experience as well as short-term prey capture experience to build better traps. In contrast to previous views of spiders, experience can contribute to intraspecific as well as to individual variations in web design. Received: 1 March 1999 / Accepted after revision: 18 August 1999     

Perceptual experience in learning to read

A group of 24 children (12 boys and 12 girls) aged 10 yr. was given the Children's Embedded Figures Test and a Reading Ability Test on Comprehension, Accuracy, and Speed. Only the correlation of CEFT and Accuracy scores was statistically significant, while that for CEFT and Comprehension scores fell just short of significance, and that for CEFT and Speed was nonsignificant. Data are discussed in terms of more holistic and more articulated processes in learning to read, respectively, as adopted by more field-dependent and more field-independent subjects.     

Population psychology in perspective(1)

Many aspects of population, from fertility regulation to migration, may be viewed as examples of human behavior occurring within a particular socio-economic and environmental context, and thus appropriate for psychological research. Especially considered in this paper are (1) the current status of population growth and the importance of population processes as research topics for psychologists; (2) basic assumptions concerning the complementarity of behavioral and biomedical sciences in population research; (3) behavioral science contributions, specifically from psychology; and (4) recommendations for cooperative multidisciplinary efforts.     

The memorizing effort heuristic in judgments of learning: A developmental perspective

Recent work on adult metacognition indicates that although metacognitive monitoring often guides control operations, sometimes it follows control operations and is based on the feedback from them. Consistent with this view, in self-paced learning, judgments of learning (JOLs) made at the end of each study trial decreased with the amount of time spent studying the item, suggesting that JOLs are based on the memorizing effort heuristic that easily learned items are more likely to be remembered. Study 1 extended investigation to primary school children. Whereas for third to sixth graders (9- to 12-year-olds) JOLs decreased with increasing study time (ST), no such relationship was found for first and second graders (7- and 8-year-olds). For both age groups, however, recall decreased with ST, supporting the validity of the memorizing effort heuristic. Self-reports (Study 2) disclosed the belief that recall should tend to increase with ST. The results bring to the fore the importance of mnemonic cues that shape metacognitive feelings even among primary school children. These cues lie in the very feedback that learners gain on-line from task performance rather than in metacognitive knowledge, and their use may also contribute to increased monitoring accuracy with age.