Evaluation of a Web-based introductory psychology course: I. Learning and satisfaction in on-line versus lecture courses

We offered introductory psychology on the World-Wide Web (WWW) and evaluated the on-line format relative to the traditional lecture-test format, using a pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group design. Multiple sections of the introductory course were offered each semester; on-line and lecture sections were taught by the same instructor, the same textbook was used, and the same in-class examinations were taken. For on-line sections, mastery quizzes, interactive individual exercises, and weekly laboratory meetings replaced lectures. Increased content knowledge was greater for the students in the Web sections, as was in-class examination performance. Use of the WWW and computers for academic purposes increased more in the on-line sections, and the on-line students showed a greater decrease in computer anxiety. The students in the on-line sections expressed appreciation for course components and the convenience of the course, but the lecture sections received higher ratings on course evaluations than did the on-line sections. Learning and course satisfaction were dissociated in the two course formats.     

Effects of teaching an introductory psychology laboratory using a computerized research tool

In the introductory psychology laboratory at Drexel University, we employ courseware modules that transform the computer into various pieces of psychological research equipment. Students enrolled in this course use the courseware modules in a series of experiments that investigate motor learning, perception, memory, and other psychological phenomena. In choosing this form of computerization, we have encountered challenges to our methods of instruction, both in the laboratory and in the lecture hall. Opportunities, in the form of financial and programming assistance, have also resulted from our computerization efforts.     

Increasing student interest by the use of interactive computer simulations

Two methods of increasing the involvement of introductory social psychology students with the topic of “person perception” were implemented and compared. Students either experienced two computer simulations of situations which illustrated person-perception principles or participated in a typical person-perception experiment. Students with computer experience, perhaps because of the individualized nature of the simulations, rated “person perception” as more interesting and more important than the experiment-participation students. Knowledge concerning person perception did not differ between groups.     

Transfer of training from introductory computer courses is highly specific ... and negative!

Two groups of students in an introductory computer course learned either BASIC programming or the use of applications software. Students in the programming group learned to use a simple line editor to edit their programs, whereas students in the applications group learned to use a sophisticated cursor-oriented word processor. When both groups were tested on a simulated line-oriented text editor, there were no differences in overall performance, although both groups performed more poorly than did a group of introductory psychology students with no previous computer background. Different error patterns in the two groups for different commands suggest specific kinds of negative transfer due to their prior experiences. These results call into question the assumption that training students in one computer skill facilitates transfer to other situations.     

Applications of a computer algebra system in introductory statistics

Maple, a computer algebra system, is employed in introductory statistics courses to promote conceptual learning by students of statistical principles without direct use of mathematics. Maple’s symbolic computation, graphic display, and animation capabilities support an integrated set of procedures for active study of sampling distributions and concepts related to samples, populations, and statistical decision making, error, and power. Students select parameter values for one-line commands and examine the effects of alternatives on computer-generated graphical representations of distributions. The 20 procedures written to support active student exploration of basic statistical concepts are described, and examples of exercises to support their use are provided.     

Incorporating educational software into large introductory psychology lectures and labs

Psychabilities, a set of 13 computer activities for the introductory psychology course, is introduced. The emphasis of this paper is on using this software, and others of its kind, to coordinate the learning environments of the classroom and the laboratory. The classroom mode in Psychabilities is specifically designed to stimulate discussion during class time while supporting existing lecture-format material. The laboratory mode covers the same content but presents relatively more introductory material to the main learning activity than does the classroom mode. Each module in both modes contains a set of key terms, the main activity, and a set of questions for review. Using educational software more pervasively, that is, in lab as well as in lecture, provides “dual coding” of course content and makes more efficient use of simulations and tutorials that are based on the overall educational needs of introductory psychology students.     

Personal Encounter in Higher Education

The undergraduate course in the psychology of personal and social development at the University of California at Davis recently underwent some methodological changes. The changes were the addition of weekly encounter groups to traditional lecture during the fall and winter quarter and the substitution of the encounter groups for lectures during the spring quarter. Students found that the addition of the encounter groups to the lecture increased their involvement in the course and made it a much more meaningful and relevant experience when compared with other college courses already taken. Students in the class where the encounter groups took the place of the lecture not only found their experience more meaningful and relevant when compared with the traditional lecture class but also scored as well as the lecture class on an identical final exam.     

Examination performance in lecture-discussion and personalized instruction courses

Students enrolled in a Psychology of Learning course were assigned to either a lecture section, one of two similar personalized instruction sections, or a fourth section that rotated across all three teaching procedures. All students took identical midterms and a final examination. After correcting test performance for differences in the cumulative grade point average of students in the four sections, examination performance of students in the personalized sections was found to be superior to that of students in the lecture section. An analysis of class section examination performance by item type revealed that students in the lecture section scored lower on all item types, but the greatest differences occurred on items that required written responses (essay and fill-in items) rather than recognition responses (multiple choice items). A gross analysis of student performance in the class rotated across the instructional procedures suggests that personalized instruction had its greatest impact on students with "average" to "poor" academic records.     

A Relational Frame and Artificial Neural Network Approach to Computer-Interactive Mathematics

The Psychological Record - Fifteen participants unfamiliar with mathematical operations relative to reflections and vertical and horizontal shifts were exposed to an introductory lecture regarding...     

Joint Effects of Assigned Goals and Training on Negotiator Performance

This study examined the joint effects of assigned goals and training on negotiator performance. Undergraduate business students participated in two sessions of a competitive market simulation and were assigned to one of three levels of goals: do-your-best, specific/emy, or specific/difficult. In the training condition, an introductory lecture on bargaining strategies was presented between the two market sessions; subjects in the control conditions did not attend the lecture. In the first market session, specificldifficult goals improved mean profit per agreement but at the expense of number of agreements negotiated and total profit. In the market session after training, negotiators who were assigned specific goals (whether difficult or easy) negotiated agreements of higher joint value, thereby enhancing both mean personal profit per agreement and total profit. There were no differences between the two market sessions in the control group. The implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.     

AN EXPERIMENTAL COMPARISON OF A CONTINGENCY MANAGED COURSE WITH LARGE LECTURE METHOD1

Contingency management procedures resembling the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) were compared with a conventional lecture method in teaching an introductory psychology course. The use of a within-subjects design in which half of the students experienced both teaching conditions made it possible to examine the reliability of test-score differences over time when subjects were balanced over conditions. In the contingency management course, material was broken down into 14 small units, each unit covering about 30 pages of text. Students were assigned to an undergraduate teaching assistant who was encouraged to develop a close working relationship with each of his/her 13 assigned students. Specifically, this meant that the assistant was to call each student by his/her first name, show an interest in the student's quiz performance, help the student understand difficult concepts, and discuss various topics of interest to the student. Each week, the teaching assistant administered up to four different 10-item multiple-choice quizzes over the week's chapter. A modified “Doomsday Contingency” required each student either to achieve a score of 80% on one of the four quizzes or drop the course. Most students passed the quiz during the first session of the week; those not passing were tutored on special areas of weakness. No student was actually forced to leave the course under the Doomsday Contingency. Although quizzes were administered on a group basis, they were scored individually while the student stood near by. In addition to the weekly quiz assignment, students under the contingency management procedures were asked to attend one lecture per week. The contingency management method departed from traditional PSI in that (1) self pacing was minimal, such that students were required to master one unit per week or drop the course, (2) teaching assistants met with students in small groups, and usually gave individual tutoring only to those students who did not pass the quiz on the first attempt, and (3) students were asked to attend one lecture per week. However, it was similar to PSI in that small units of subject matter were assigned and unit mastery was assessed through use of undergraduate assistants who delivered immediate feedback. Students in the conventional lecture group attended three 50-min lectures each week; two of these lectures followed textbook material closely, while the third, which was attended by all students, concerned material only indirectly related to the text. As a result, students in both conditions were exposed to essentially identical material. Students in the lecture condition could also obtain copies of the unit quizzes, although few did so. Course grades were determined by scores on two 45-item multiple-choice hourly exams, each covering half of the semester material (each worth 25%), and by a 90-item final exam over the entire course (worth 50%). These measures also served as the dependent variables. The experimental design employed a crossover technique in which one fourth of the students began with the contingency management method and then switched to lecture method at midsemester, while another fourth began with the lecture method and switched to contingency management. The other students stayed in the same condition throughout the semester, half under contingency management and half under the lecture method. On the last day of class, all students filled out an extensive questionnaire that assessed their opinions and attitudes about the teaching techniques. In addition to allowing for assessment of any progressive effects that the contingency management procedures might have had over time, the crossover design also permitted students to make meaningful comparisons of the two teaching methods, since half of the students experienced both methods in the same course. Although average test performance was only slightly higher under the contingency management condition, this difference occurred on each exam and was statistically reliable in each case. Further, the method did not interact with time, as it produced about a three-item advantage per half semester. On each of the three exams, teaching method accounted for between 5 and 8% of the total variance in test scores. Finally, attitude measures indicated that students experiencing half a semester of the contingency management procedures preferred them to the lecture technique, but that only those students with a full semester of contingency management rated the course significantly better than students in the full semester lecture course.     

Teaching with symbols tangentially related to topic: using a linked multimedia approach to enhance learning

40 undergraduate students, none of whom were history or literature majors, attended a lecture on Medieval literature. For half the students the lecture was supplemented by two sets of slides. One set summarized course content while the second set contained slides of paintings or other forms of visual art which were only tangentially related to the topic. For the other half of the student-group, the lecture was supplemented by course content slides only. Students viewing symbolic slides had significantly higher test scores on a written 20-question multiple-choice test given immediately after the lecture.     

Wise: Web Interface for Statistics Education

The Web Interface for Statistics Education (WISE) project includes a World-Wide Web site to support the teaching of introductory social-science statistics courses. The site provides easy access to data bases, archived discussion lists, electronic journals, links to other sites focused on relevant statistics topics, and it includes a prototype of an on-line tutorial. The tutorial, which is the focus of the current paper, is designed to capitalize on special capabilities offered by the Web. The easy linkage between Web pages provides support for a highly interactive tutorial, which uses “failure-based” learning and immediate feedback. Students rated the tutorial as easy to use and indicated that it would have improved their initial statistics course.     

Memory modulation in the classroom: selective enhancement of college examination performance by arousal induced after lecture

Laboratory studies examining moderate physiological or emotional arousal induced after learning indicate that it enhances memory consolidation. Yet, no studies have yet examined this effect in an applied context. As such, arousal was induced after a college lecture and its selective effects were examined on later exam performance. Participants were divided into two groups who either watched a neutral video clip (n=66) or an arousing video clip (n=70) after lecture in a psychology course. The final examination occurred two weeks after the experimental manipulation. Only performance on the group of final exam items that covered material from the manipulated lecture were significantly different between groups. Other metrics, such as the midterm examination and the total final examination score, did not differ between groups. The results indicate that post-lecture arousal selectively increased the later retrieval of lecture material, despite the availability of the material for study before and after the manipulation. The results reinforce the role of post-learning arousal on memory consolidation processes, expanding the literature to include a real-world learning context.     

Design and evaluation of a programmed course in introductory psychology

The design of a programmed course in introductory psychology, utilizing an interview procedure, is described. The performance of students in this course was compared with that of students covering the same subject matter but taught in a more conventional manner. Students in the experimental course scored significantly higher on objective and essay final examinations and rated the course more positively.     

A “Classic” Revisited: Students' Immediate and Delayed Evaluations of a Warm/Cold Instructor

Solomon Asch's classic (1946) warm/cold research was replicated in this study with introductory psychology professors, using students' evaluations of teaching (SET) as dependent variables. Students completed attributed course evaluation forms three times: (a) after receiving fabricated warm or 'cold" information but before seeing the instructor; (b) after a 30–minute exposure to the instructor in an introductory lecture; and (c) at the end of the semester. In the first administration, strong warm/cold differences were found for the social components of SET, and warm instructors were also judged as more lenient. In the larger courses of Instructor B (but not in the smaller courses of Instructor A), the cold instructor was judged higher than the warm one in academic components of SET. In the second administration, following a 30–minute exposure to the instructor, students' judgments changed considerably, most warm/cold effects disappeared, and, unlike the common reports in the literature, we found only a moderate level of perseverance. In the third administration, all warm/cold differences practically disappeared, with no evidence of prolonged perseverance. These findings were interpreted as demonstrating students' flexibility in accommodating their judgments to the accumulating real-life information. It was argued that although cognitive factors determine a certain level of perseverance (especially in a short exposure), motivational factors and cognitive style play a major role in determining whether initial judgments will persevere or not. Students' personal beliefs in human changeability were found related to their actual change in judgment, incremental theorists (those believing in changeability) showing more change than entity theorists (those believing in fixed, unchangeable traits). Thus, perseverance of judgments is also related to systematic individual differences in students' cognitive style.     

Contingency management in an introductory psychology course produces better learning

For the contingency management techniques first devised by Keller (1966, 1968) to become a widely accepted teaching method, it is necessary that they be shown (1) to be applicable to general subject matter and (2) to be superior to traditional lecture methods. The present study demonstrated (1) by successfully teaching the material from a standard psychology text. The superiority of contingency management was established by direct comparison of final examination scores from comparable groups taught the same subject matter by either Keller's method or traditional methods. Students taught by Keller's method also rated the course more favorably.     

Comprehensive course management and delivery using POISE-CIS

At SUNY-Plattsburgh, we are using the POISE-CIS course management and delivery software to teach one section of introductory psychology each semester. Although this course uses a traditional textbook and covers the same material as most introductory psychology courses, it uses a self-paced mastery-based approach to learning and is managed and delivered over the Plattsburgh computer network. Students receive assignments, take on-line diagnostic assessments, receive feedback, and communicate with the instructor over the campus network. In a departmental laboratory facility, students also work with a computerized tutorial, complete computerized learning activities, take supervised on-line exams, and consult with teaching assistants. The present paper describes the overall design of the course as well as the specific characteristics of the course as it was offered in the spring of 1995, at which time data were collected on student attitudes toward computers.     

Cardiovascular responses to occupational stress in male medical students: a paradigm for ambulatory monitoring studies.

Hemodynamic responses to systematic variations in occupational stress were examined using ambulatory blood pressure monitors (ABPMs). The goals of this study were (a) to illustrate the effectiveness of employing naturally occurring, controlled variations in psychological stress levels in studies incorporating ABPMs and (b) to document the patterns of cardiovascular responses to acute examination stress in medical students. Heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, rate-pressure product, and mood states were measured before, during, and after low-stress (lecture) and high-stress (examination) work in 44 healthy male medical students. The lecture day was characterized by stable patterns of cardiovascular activity across all three periods. Hemodynamic activity and reports of activation and distress were greater on the examination day than on the lecture day. Cardiovascular activity during the preexamination period was as high as that seen during the examination period itself, indicating an anticipatory stress effect. Pressor activity decreased after the examination, although some residual chronotropic activity was seen. Systematic changes in physiological responses to controlled variations in the level of this naturalistic stressor support the use of this paradigm for other ABPM studies. The elevations in preexamination responses seen here suggest the need to consider prestressor experiences in such studies.