Learning volleyball serves: a preliminary study of the effects of knowledge of performance and of results.

Recently, doubts have begun to surface about the emphasis that for years has been given to the variable knowledge of results in motor learning, and a view has been expressed that information on how an action has been made (knowledge of performance) may be of more use. This study compared the two types of information in learning a volleyball serve by eight subjects, who were given the two kinds of feedback at various points in the process. Analysis seems to show that knowledge of performance tends to be more effective for learning and that there may be interference across information if knowledge of results is provided after knowledge of performance.     

Information processing by pigeons (Columba livia): incentive as information

Experiment 1 showed that the Hick-Hyman law (W. E. Hick, 1952; R. Hyman, 1953) described the effects of anticipated reinforcement, a form of incentive, on pigeons' (Columba livia) reaction time to respond to a target spatial location. Reaction time was an approximately linear function of amount of information interpreted as probability of reinforcement, implying that pigeons processed incentive at a constant rate. Experiment 2 showed that the Hick-Hyman law described effects of incentive even when it varied from moment to moment in a serial reaction time task similar to that of M. J. Nissen and P. Bullemer (1987), and processing information about target spatial location modulated absolute reaction time and not rate of processing incentive. The results support mental continuity and provide comparative support for the idea of the economics of information in economic theory about the incentive value of information.     

线索冲突情境下幼儿对不同领域知识的选择性信任特点

探讨幼儿在准确性线索和共识线索冲突情境下对自然与社会领域知识的选择性信任特点。实验1探究幼儿在线索冲突情境下对自然领域知识的选择性信任,选取88名4~6岁幼儿,采用对物品命名的方法,结果发现4岁幼儿依据共识线索进行信任判断,而5~6岁幼儿依据准确性线索进行信任判断;实验2探究幼儿在线索冲突情境下对社会领域知识的选择性信任,选取94名4-6岁幼儿,采用对人格特质命名的方法,结果发现4岁幼儿依据共识线索进行信任判断,5岁幼儿对两类线索没有做出偏向性选择,6岁幼儿依据准确性线索进行信任判断。实验3采用被试内设计,探讨5岁幼儿对两个领域知识的选择性信任,验证了实验1和实验2的相关结果。结论:在线索冲突情境下幼儿对不同领域知识的选择性信任具有不同的年龄发展特点。     

Irrelevant incentive learning revisited: Associating flavors and exteroceptive cues with positive incentives

In “irrelevant incentive learning” information stored about an incentive when it is not desired is used later when the incentive is desired. In “habit learning” responses learned under one motive state continue to be made under a new motive state even though they produce goal events that are not appropriate to that motive state. Experiment 1 showed that both types of learning occur simultaneously whether flavor or texture cues are used and whether or not position is also a relevant cue. Thus, contrary to previous suggestions, irrelevant incentive learning is not limited to interoceptive cues, nor is habit learning limited to exteroceptive cues. In both Experiments 1 and 2 it was also shown that motivation affects what is learned as well as affecting current performance. This contrasts with views of motivation as solely a determinant of performance.     

Differential dependence of Pavlovian incentive motivation and instrumental incentive learning processes on dopamine signaling

Here we attempted to clarify the role of dopamine signaling in reward seeking. In Experiment 1, we assessed the effects of the dopamine D(1)/D(2) receptor antagonist flupenthixol (0.5 mg/kg i.p.) on Pavlovian incentive motivation and found that flupenthixol blocked the ability of a conditioned stimulus to enhance both goal approach and instrumental performance (Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer). In Experiment 2 we assessed the effects of flupenthixol on reward palatability during post-training noncontingent re-exposure to the sucrose reward in either a control 3-h or novel 23-h food-deprived state. Flupenthixol, although effective in blocking the Pavlovian goal approach, was without effect on palatability or the increase in reward palatability induced by the upshift in motivational state. This noncontingent re-exposure provided an opportunity for instrumental incentive learning, the process by which rats encode the value of a reward for use in updating reward-seeking actions. Flupenthixol administered prior to the instrumental incentive learning opportunity did not affect the increase in subsequent off-drug reward-seeking actions induced by that experience. These data suggest that although dopamine signaling is necessary for Pavlovian incentive motivation, it is not necessary for changes in reward experience, or for the instrumental incentive learning process that translates this experience into the incentive value used to drive reward-seeking actions, and provide further evidence that Pavlovian and instrumental incentive learning processes are dissociable.     

The Influence of Social Consensus Information on Intergroup Helping Behavior

Previous research demonstrates that social consensus information (information about other people's beliefs) has a powerful influence on intergroup attitudes. The present study examined the influence of consensus information on helping behavior. White participants were provided with favorable or no consensus information about African Americans, and then we assessed their racial attitudes and their willingness to help an African American versus a White person. Replicating previous findings, we found that individuals who received favorable, as compared to no, consensus information had more favorable attitudes toward African Americans. More importantly, our results demonstrated that participants who received favorable consensus information were more likely to help an African American individual than those who did not receive consensus information. Consensus information did not influence behavior toward a White person. In understanding when and why consensus information influences stereotypes and prejudice, we hope to create a useful method to reduce negative intergroup attitudes and behaviors.     

Variations on active learning

Although current theories of memory emphasize the fact that learning is an active process, there is little consensus on the role of active learning. This paper attempts to provide a more precise characterization of active learning in the acquisition of computer skills. The analysis of verbal protocols suggests that active learning varies on at least two dimensions: schema orientation and learning strategy. Schema orientation refers to the type of information the learner is acquiring and varies from relational information to procedural information. Learning strategy describes how the information is acquired. Some people prefer to be internally driven and form their own plans for learning. Others are externally driven and allow the instructional materials to guide their learning. These differences need to be taken into account in describing learning and in designing instructional materials.     

Effectiveness of Consensus Information in Advertising: The Moderating Roles of Situational Factors and Individual Differences

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the influence of both individual consumer differences and the purchase decision context on the effectiveness of consensus information in advertising.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Three experiments explore the effectiveness of consensus information. In Experiment 1, gender serves as a moderator. Experiment 2 contains an examination of the susceptibility to interpersonal influence (SII) and purchase decision context as two potential moderators. Finally, Experiment 3 instead explores the need for cognitive closure (NFC) but again includes the purchase decision context as the two possible moderators.

Findings

In Experiment 1, female participants, but not male participants, generate higher purchase intentions for ads with consensus cues as opposed to those without them. With Experiment 2, this study demonstrates that the effectiveness of consensus cues increases for a group (vs. personal) purchase decision, but only for people with high susceptibility to individual influence. In Experiment 3, the effectiveness of consensus cues is relatively greater for a group (vs. personal) purchase decisions, but only for consumers with a high NFC.

Implications

Understanding what moderates the effectiveness of consensus information in advertising has the potential to help practitioners apply consensus information more effectively to improve their advertising returns.

Originality/Value

This study provides initial evidence about the impact of consensus information in advertising on purchase intentions, which is contingent on the situational context and individual differences.     

视觉、听觉情绪设计对多媒体学习的影响

以大学生为被试,特异性免疫工作原理为材料,通过实验法研究视觉、听觉情绪设计对多媒体学习的影响。实验1发现视觉情绪设计诱发了学习者的积极情绪,提高了保持成绩。实验2发现听觉情绪设计可以诱发学习者的积极情绪,提高相关认知负荷、保持和迁移成绩。研究表明视觉、听觉情绪设计都能显著提高多媒体学习效果。听觉情绪设计的发现突破了已有研究仅从视觉角度优化学习材料的方式,拓展了多媒体学习情绪设计的内涵。     

Acquisition of dispositional attributions: effects of sample size and covariation

Two experiments examined whether dispositional attributions are sensitive to the sample size of the evidence indicating a given level of covariation between person and behavior. Participants were given high or low levels of covariation (i.e. consensus and distinctiveness), and the acquisition of dispositional attributions was monitored by requesting dispositional trait ratings at fixed intervals. The results showed that dispositional attributions were sensitive to sample size, and increased given more evidence on high person‐behavior covariation while they decreased given more evidence on low person‐behavior covariation. Additional analyses suggested that in making dispositional inferences (e.g. about the actor), there was a slight preference for agreement information (e.g. low distinctiveness) over difference information (e.g. low consensus). The effects of sample size are inconsistent with current statistical or probabilistic models of covariation, but are in line with connectionist networks using an error‐correcting learning algorithm. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seeing is believing: Utilization of subliminal symbols requires a visible relevant context

Sensory input that is not available for conscious report can still affect our behavior. Recent findings suggest that such subliminal information has the potency to influence behavior in a way that is dependent on the observer’s current intentions. Here, we investigate whether conscious observation of stimulus relevance provides an incentive for the utilization of nonconscious stimuli. We manipulated the predictive power of directional cues to selectively affect the incentive to utilize them for a subsequent target detection task. Central arrow cues rendered invisible by interocular suppression elicited a facilitatory cuing effect, but only when intermixed with visible arrow cues that were highly predictive with respect to (i.e., 80 % congruent with) the subsequent target location. When the visible cues were nonpredictive (50 % congruent), no subliminal cuing effect was found. An analysis of learning effects corroborates these findings; Cuing effects elicited by both visible and invisible cues increased over the course of the experiment, but only when intermixed visible cues were highly predictive. In a second experiment, we demonstrated that the intrinsic relevance of invisible cues (either 50 % or 100 % congruent) has no effect on the utilization of visible cues. We conclude that conscious perception is required to make statistical inferences about the relevance of symbolic cues. Once statistical information is extracted consciously, it affects subsequent nonconscious processing in a way that fits the current context. Accordingly, one of the possible functions of consciousness could be to extract general rules out of the conscious information, to provide guidelines for future behavior.     

Instructional support for novice law students: Reducing search processes and explaining concepts in cases

Reasoning about legal cases is a complex skill that imposes a high working memory load, especially for novice students. Not only do novices lack necessary conceptual knowledge, searching through the information sources that are used during reasoning can also be assumed to impose a high additional working memory load that does not contribute to learning. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of supporting novice law students' learning by (a) providing the meaning of important concepts in the case and (b) reducing the search process by providing a condensed (relevant articles only) rather than a complete civil code. Results show that performance on a test case (for which they had to use the complete civil code) was significantly better for participants who had used the condensed civil code during learning. Performance on a conceptual knowledge post‐test was significantly enhanced when students had received the concept explanations during learning. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Primary and secondary reinforcers as distinctive cues which acquire information value in partial-reinforcement discrimination training

To assess the cue as opposed to incentive effect of reward, rats were trained on an easy visual discrimination with food contingent on 50 or 100% of the correct responses, and white-noise contingent on 0, 50 or 100% of these responses. Additionally, the 50% food and noise schedules were structured for different groups to produce positive, zero, or negative correlations of the two events. Although the addition of noise did not affect learning with 100% food, the slower learning observed with 50% food was increasingly offset by greater percentages of noise, with the 50% groups showing faster learning under the negative than zero correlation and faster under the zero than positive correlation. Together with supporting speed data, these results indicate that a “neutral” stimulus can be substituted for food with little loss in performance. Consequently, the reinforcing effect of food is attributed in part to its function as a cue which, like noise, can increase the discriminability of the alternatives and provide information about the correctness of the response.     

Resource allocation decision making in an uncertain environment

This experiment investigated how individuals learn to allocate limited resources across competing activities in order to maximize their objective when the form of the objective function is uncertain. On each of 25 trials, subjects selected an allocation policy and received a corresponding profit. The objective function that was used to assign profits to allocations was unknown initially and was learned through trial by trial outcome feedback. A total of 144 subjects were randomly assigned to nine groups constructed from a 3 (objective function form) by 3 (amount of error variability) factorial design. Several measures of learning were analyzed including (a) the distance between the current and optimal allocation policy as a function of training, (b) the magnitude of change in allocation as a function of past profits, and (c) the direction of change in allocations as a function of the direction of change in past profits. The results provide evidence for an integrated approach to learning — a functional learning process based on global information about the shape of the objective function and a hill-climbing learning process based on local information about trial to trial improvements in profit.     

LOWERING FLOORS AND RAISING CEILINGS: A LONGITUDINAL ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTS OF AN EARNINGS-AT-RISK PLAN ON PAY SATISFACTION

The attitudes of 101 bank employees were measured before and after the implementation of an earnings-at-risk (EAR) incentive pay plan which reduced base pay and increased employee risk and uncertainty with respect to total pay. Pay outcome satisfaction and pay process satisfaction both declined significantly over time, but the decrease in pay outcome satisfaction was the greater of the two. An examination of pay satisfaction antecedents at both points in time revealed relatively stable across-time relationships and provided information about some of the reasons for the changes. Perceived reward-to-effort ratio, which declined significantly over time, influenced both dimensions of pay satisfaction at both points in time. Perceived understanding of the pay system, which also declined over time, had a somewhat greater influence on pay process satisfaction than on pay outcome satisfaction, particularly at Time 2. In contrast to actual pay levels, changes in incentive and base pay amounts added more explained variance to the pay outcome satisfaction regression model. The study points out the potential for negative employee reactions to EAR incentive plans, and indicates that managers must ensure that employees understand these systems and feel that EAR plans will reward them equitably for their efforts.     

Static and dynamic seductive illustration effects on text‐and‐graphic learning processes,perceptions, and outcomes: Evidence from eye tracking

This study aimed to examine how different forms (still pictures vs. animations) of seductive illustrations impact text‐and‐graphic learning processes, perceptions, and outcomes. An eye‐tracking experiment of three groups (static, dynamic, and control) was conducted with 60 college and graduate students while learning with PowerPoint slides about infant motor development milestones. Prior knowledge, learning performance, learning perception, and visual attention were assessed by achievement tests, self‐rated scales, and eye‐tracking measures. Analysis of variance and t test results showed that, under a low task‐load condition, no seductive details effect was found for learning achievement but was found for learning process and perception. Decreased attention was found in the relevant pictures in both experimental groups. With more deeply and intensively processing on the seductive animations, the dynamic group perceived more distractions than the static group. Lag sequential analysis results revealed different visual transitional patterns for the groups, providing deep understandings about the process of seductive details effects.