Learning Journals as a Counseling Strategy

This article explores the use of learning journals as a counseling strategy that can be used to complement a counselor's therapeutic orientation. The authors postulate that learning journals will have therapeutic effects on clients that will lead to enduring positive changes, discuss the development of appropriate learning taxonomies to evaluate learning journals, and make recommendations for practice.     

The Learning Portfolio: Reflective Practice for Improving Student Learning

Books reviewed: Zubizarreta, John, The Learning Portfolio: Reflective Practice for Improving Student Learning
Reviewed by Sandra Lee Dixon
University of Denver     

再探人工语法学习迁移效应机制

通过两个实验,检验人工语法学习迁移效应产生机制的组块信息迁移和抽象类比迁移假说.结果表明:当序列表层结构不同时,被试能够学习和迁移非重复成分间的序列依存性.学习序列与语法测验序列分布特征间的匹配会影响非重复成分间依存性的迁移;重复成分间序列依存性的迁移.在一定程度上不以序列的分布特征为基础.     

The Effect of Practice Schedule on Context-Dependent Learning

It is well established that random practice compared to blocked practice enhances motor learning. Additionally, while information in the environment may be incidental, learning is also enhanced when an individual performs a task within the same environmental context in which the task was originally practiced. This study aimed to disentangle the effects of practice schedule and incidental/environmental context on motor learning. Participants practiced three finger sequences under either a random or blocked practice schedule. Each sequence was associated with specific incidental context (i.e., color and location on the computer screen) during practice. The participants were tested under the conditions when the sequence-context associations remained the same or were changed from that of practice. When the sequence-context association was changed, the participants who practiced under blocked schedule demonstrated greater performance decrement than those who practiced under random schedule. The findings suggested that those participants who practiced under random schedule were more resistant to the change of environmental context.     

Knowledge Transfer in Organizations: Learning from the Experience of Others

In the introduction to this special issue of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes on the psychological foundations of knowledge transfer in organizations, we argue that knowledge transfer is becoming increasingly important in organizations. Organizations that are able to transfer knowledge effectively from one unit to another are more productive and more likely to survive than those that are less adept at knowledge transfer. Although organizations are able to realize remarkable increases in performance through knowledge transfer, successful knowledge transfer is difficult to achieve. The articles in this special issue identify factors affecting knowledge transfer in organizations. These articles provide empirical evidence about effective mechanisms for transferring knowledge as well as about barriers to and facilitators of knowledge transfer. By focusing on the psychological processes that underlie knowledge transfer within a unit and between units within a firm, this special issue complements work in cognitive psychology on knowledge transfer at the individual level of analysis as well as work in strategy and organizational theory on knowledge transfer at the firm or industry levels of analysis. This special issue opens up the “black box” of knowledge transfer in organizations by providing new theory and empirical evidence on the psychological processes that are the foundations for knowledge transfer in organizations.     

学习策略与程序性知识迁移关系的研究

本研究以学习者拥有领域知识的水平差异为基点 ,结合元认知监控手段 ,考察学习策略与程序性知识迁移之间的关系。结果表明 :(1 )以揭发意义或价值、建立新旧知识信息间实质性联结的解释策略对拥有高、低领域知识组的被试具有明显促进问题解决的作用 ;而以相似性为基础的练习策略往往在学生头脑中建立的是新旧知识间表面特征的联结 ,因而程序化技能的迁移范围不如前者。 (2 )在运用获得的认知技能碰到阻碍时 ,解释策略不仅使高知组被试能够突破无关变量的影响 ,而且也在一定程度上弥补低知组被试掌握的规则缺陷。     

Transfer of Learning Across Cultural Practices

Although Baranes, Perry, and Stigler (this issue) address important aspects of the interplay between learning in school and out-of-school settings, I found the more intriguing issues linked to some unanalyzed presuppositions about the character of children's out-of-school mathematics and transfer of learning between settings. In the following commentary, I sketch some interpretive problems that arise when these issues are considered, and I point to the need for embedding the study in a larger conceptual framework.     

Transfer of Motor Learning Engages Specific Neural Substrates During Motor Memory Consolidation Dependent on the Practice Structure

The authors investigated how brain activity during motor-memory consolidation contributes to transfer of learning to novel versions of a motor skill following distinct practice structures. They used 1 Hz repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) immediately after constant or variable practice of an arm movement skill to interfere with primary motor cortex (M1) or dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). The effect of interference was assessed through skill performance on two transfer targets: one within and one outside the range of practiced movement parameters for the variable practice group. For the control (no rTMS) group, variable practice benefited delayed transfer performance more than constant practice. The rTMS effect on delayed transfer performance differed for the two transfer targets. For the within-range target, rTMS interference had no significant affect on the delayed transfer after either practice structure. However, for the outside-range target, rTMS interference to DLPFC but not M1 attenuated delayed transfer benefit following variable practice. Additionally, for the outside-range target, rTMS interference to M1 but not DLPFC attenuated delayed transfer following constant practice. This suggests that variable practice may promote reliance on DLPFC for memory consolidation associated with outside-range transfer of learning, whereas constant practice may promote reliance on M1 for consolidation and long-term transfer.     

Defining Our Clinical Practice: The Identification of Genetic Counseling Outcomes Utilizing the Reciprocal Engagement Model

The need for evidence-based medicine, including comparative effectiveness studies and patient-centered outcomes research, has become a major healthcare focus. To date, a comprehensive list of genetic counseling outcomes, as espoused by genetic counselors, has not been established and thus, identification of outcomes unique to genetic counseling services has become a priority for the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC). The purpose of this study was to take a critical first step at identifying a more comprehensive list of genetic counseling outcomes. This paper describes the results of a focus group study using the Reciprocal-Engagement Model (REM) as a framework to characterize patient-centered outcomes of genetic counseling clinical practice. Five focus groups were conducted with 27 peer nominated participants who were clinical genetic counselors, genetic counseling program directors, and/or outcomes researchers in genetic counseling. Members of each focus group were asked to identify genetic counseling outcomes for four to five of the 17 goals of the REM. A theory-driven, thematic analysis of focus group data yielded 194 genetic counseling outcomes across the 17 goals. Participants noted some concerns about how genetic counseling outcomes will be measured and evaluated given varying stakeholders and the long-term nature of genetic concerns. The present results provide a list of outcomes for use in future genetic counseling outcomes research and for empirically-supported clinical interventions.     

Instruction and Practice in Learning to use a Device

We explore the extent to which Anderson's (1987) theory of knowledge compilation can account for the relationship between instructions and practice in learning to use a simple device. Bibby and Payne (1993) reported experimental support for knowledge compilation in this domain. This article replicates the finding of a performance cross-over between instruction type and task type that disappears with practice on the tasks. The research is extended by using verbal protocols to model the strategies of novice and more experienced individuals. Production system models of these strategies suggest that knowledge compilation only provides an adequate account of practice for one of two Instruction groups. To model the strategy shifts for the second group, we employ a “procedure modification heuristic” (after Neches, 1987), which relies on access to a declarative model of the configuration of the device. This suggests that instructionally derived declarative knowledge may have a subtle ongoing effect on the changes in procedural knowledge with practice.     

Influencing Learning States to Enhance Trainee Motivation and Improve Training Transfer

Purpose  

This study examines a pretraining intervention to enhance transfer of training. The learning-state analog of locus of control was the target for intervention designed to impact motivation to learn which in turn would affect knowledge acquisition and the amount of posttraining practice.     

Transfer of Work Decrement in Motor Learning

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the decremental effects of massed practice are due to the development of a negative drive (Hull’s I_r). The results indicated that the decremental effects of massed practice on either the pursuit rotor or the two-hand coordinator do not transfer to depress performance or reminiscence on the other task. The results did not support Hull’s drive interpretation but were explained by theories attributing decrement to a decreased level of arousal.     

Discovery Learning and Transfer of Problem-Solving Skills

A framework for understanding the effects of discovery learning on the transfer of problem-solving skill is presented. A distinction is drawn between applying a learned strategy on a transfer problem versus having to generate a novel strategy to solve a transfer problem. The main premise of the framework is that requiring discovery of a strategy while in training encourages the activation or refinement of procedures that are useful for generating a novel strategy. In general, then, the primary benefit of discovery is that it should facilitate transfer to tasks requiring a novel strategy. Learning by discovery, however, may provide little benefit for tasks that can be completed only by applying the learned strategy. Two experiments provided support and further refinement of this hypothesis. Experiment 1 used a transfer problem that could be solved with the general strategy learned in training but required new move sequences to instantiate the strategy. The results indicated that, when transfer required new move sequences to implement a general strategy learned previously, discovery did not enhance transfer of that strategy. In experiment 2, some transfer problems required using a strategy other than that learned in training. As predicted, in this transfer situation, having to discover a strategy while in training produced better transfer than being provided with a strategy in training. Thus, discovering a strategy provided benefits when a new strategy had to be generated to solve a transfer problem but not when the learned strategy could be applied, albeit with new moves, to the transfer problem. Educational implications are discussed.     

The Effect of Retrieval Practice in Primary School Vocabulary Learning

The testing effect refers to the finding that retrieval practice leads to better long‐term retention than additional study of course material. In the present study, we examined whether this finding generalizes to primary school vocabulary learning. We also manipulated the word learning context. Children were introduced to 20 words by listening to a story in which novel words were embedded (story condition) or by listening to isolated words (word pairs condition). The children practised the meaning of 10 words by retrieval practice and 10 words by restudy. After 1 week, they completed a cued recall test and a multiple choice test. Words learned by retrieval practice were recalled better than words learned by additional study, but there was no difference in recognition. Furthermore, the children in the word pairs condition outperformed the children in the story condition. These results show that retrieval practice may improve vocabulary learning in children. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emergence of Information Transfer by Inductive Learning

We study a simple game theoretic model of information transfer which we consider to be a baseline model for capturing strategic aspects of epistemological questions. In particular, we focus on the question whether simple learning rules lead to an efficient transfer of information. We find that reinforcement learning, which is based exclusively on payoff experiences, is inadequate to generate efficient networks of information transfer. Fictitious play, the game theoretic counterpart to Carnapian inductive logic and a more sophisticated kind of learning, suffices to produce efficiency in information transfer.     

A Bibliometric Analysis of Communication Journals from 2002 to 2005

Journal impact ratings are often used by authors, promotion/hiring committees, and grant review teams as a proxy for scholarship quality. Journal citation data (2002–2005) from Social Sciences Citation Index were used to rank journals in the field of communication. A journal relatedness algorithm was applied to ascertain the 19 semantically related journals in communication. The mean journal impact index was 0.77 (SD= 0.28). Human Communication Research (HCR), Personal Relationships, Journal of Communication (JOC), and Communication Research (CR) were ranked the top four journals for the study years examined. Network analysis was conducted on in‐degree (i.e., citations to journals) and out‐degree (i.e., citations from journals) data for the 19 communication journals for 2003–2005. The purpose of the network analysis was to study the citation patterns among journals in the field of communication. Data using degree centrality indicate that Communication Monographs, CR, HCR, and JOC (in alphabetical order) are the four most central journals in the field.     

The Effects of Practice Trials and Prior Learning on Motor Memory

The effects of prior positions (PL), practice reinforcements of the criterion distance (CT), and retention intervals on proactive interference (PI) in a 20-cm. linear positioning task were examined. Independent treatment groups had either 0, 3, or 5 PL, with 1, 3, or 10 CT, and a 5-, 15-, or 50-sec. retention interval. Only absolute error scores at recall indicated PI. This forgetting occurred only under the highly restricted conditions of 5 PL and 1 CT after 15-and 50-sec. retention intervals. Since 0 PL groups showed no differences in recall over levels of retention intervals, PI alone apparently caused the forgetting.