Multimedia learning trumps retrieval practice in psychology teaching

It is well established that studying with (vs. without) visual illustrations as well as taking tests (vs. restudying) is beneficial for learning, but on which strategy should one put the efforts, or should they be combined for best learning? Eighty‐eight upper secondary school students were given a brief lecture presented verbally (6 classes) or with the aid of a visual illustration (visuoverbal, 6 classes). The information was processed again by taking a memory test or by restudying. Recall and transfer tests were conducted after some few minutes and again after one week. The visuoverbal lecture resulted in better learning than verbal presentation only. A significant study strategy by retention interval interaction was found. However, this interaction was not qualified by a testing effect. Hence, taking tests (retrieval practice) did not lead to better learning than restudying. It was concluded that it is worthwhile to use visual illustrations in teaching. However, the present study did not reveal any synergistic effects from the combination of visuoverbal presentation and retrieval practice.     

Behavioral contributions to teaching of psychology: an annotated bibliography

An annotated bibliography that summarizes behavioral contributions to the journal Teaching of Psychology from 1974 to 2006 is provided. A total of 116 articles of potential utility to college-level instructors of behavior analysis and related areas were identified, annotated, and organized into nine categories for ease of accessibility.     

Diversity of learning psychoanalysis and analytical psychology

As the subject of this Conference is 'Diversity and its Limits: New Directions in Analytical Psychology and Psychoanalysis', I would like to investigate some aspects of education at our Institute--the East European Institute of Psychoanalysis--from the point of view of the meeting of West and East. I will look at the influence of this diversity on the formation and development of psychoanalysis and analytical psychology in Russia.     

The teaching and learning of psychoanalytic developmental psychology

I have described three areas in psychoanalytic education where I believe greater attention to existing methods is necessary so as to facilitate the learning of certain principles of development. Explanations might be enhanced by including constructivist with reductionist elements; metapsychology might be clarified in a way that would make the "developmental" more available to analytic scaffolding; and finally, the technical precepts that help focus on the emergence of regressive trends should be broadened to permit enhanced awareness of the progressive trends as well.     

An Oblique Epistemic Defence of Conceptual Analysis

This article argues, against contemporary experimentalist criticism, that conceptual analysis has epistemic value, with a structure that encourages the development of interesting hypotheses which are of the right form to be valuable in diverse areas of philosophy. The article shows, by analysis of the Gettier programme, that conceptual analysis shares the proofs and refutations form Lakatos identified in mathematics. Upon discovery of a counterexample, this structure aids the search for a replacement hypothesis. The search is guided by heuristics. The heuristics of conceptual analysis are similar to those in other interesting areas of scholarship, and so hypotheses generated by it are of the right form to be applicable to diverse areas. The article shows that the explanationist criterion in epistemology was developed and applied in this way. The epistemic value of conceptual analysis is oblique because it contributes not towards the main purpose of conceptual analysis but towards the reliable development of epistemically valuable hypotheses in philosophy and scholarship.     

The learning benefits of teaching: A retrieval practice hypothesis

Teaching educational materials to others enhances the teacher's own learning of those to‐be‐taught materials, although the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. Here, we show that the learning‐by‐teaching benefit is possibly a retrieval benefit. Learners (a) solved arithmetic problems (i.e., they neither taught nor retrieved; control group), (b) taught without relying on teaching notes (i.e., they had to retrieve the materials while teaching; teaching group), (c) taught with teaching notes (i.e., they did not retrieve the materials while teaching; teaching without retrieval practice [TnRP] group), or (d) retrieved (i.e., they did not teach but only practised retrieving; retrieval practice group). In a final comprehension test 1 week later, learners in the teaching group, as did those in the retrieval practice group, outperformed learners in the TnRP and control groups. Retrieval practice possibly causes the learning benefits of teaching.     

Philosophical Methodology and Conceptions of Evil Action

There is considerable philosophical dispute about what it takes for an action to be evil. The methodological assumption underlying this dispute is that there is a single, shared folk conception of evil action deployed amongst culturally similar people. Employing empirical research the authors undertook, this article suggests that this assumption is false. There exist, amongst the folk, numerous conceptions of evil action. Hence, the authors argue, philosophical research is most profitably spent in two endeavours. First, in determining which (if any) conception of evil action we have prudential or moral (or both) reason to deploy and, second, in determining whether we could feasibly come to adopt that conception as the single shared conception given our psychological make‐up and the content of the conceptions currently deployed.     

Executive functions predict conceptual learning of science

We examined the relationship between executive functions and both factual and conceptual learning of science, specifically chemistry, in early adolescence. Sixty‐three pupils in their second year of secondary school (aged 12–13 years) participated. Pupils completed tasks of working memory (Spatial Working Memory), inhibition (Stop‐Signal), attention set‐shifting (ID/ED), and planning (Stockings of Cambridge), from the CANTAB. They also participated in a chemistry teaching session, practical, and assessment on the topic of acids and alkalis designed specifically for this study. Executive function data were related to (1) the chemistry assessment which included aspects of factual and conceptual learning and (2) a recent school science exam. Correlational analyses between executive functions and both the chemistry assessment and science grades revealed that science achievements were significantly correlated with working memory. Linear regression analysis revealed that visuospatial working memory ability was predictive of chemistry performance. Interestingly, this relationship was observed solely in relation to the conceptual learning condition of the assessment highlighting the role of executive functions in understanding and applying knowledge about what is learned within science teaching.     

The value of everyday examples in the teaching of learning: a comment prompted by machado and silva (1998)

Why are so few psychology students and professors interested in the study of learning? Part of the answer lies in the techniques we use for teaching behavioral psychology and communicating its relevance to numerous aspects of life. We add to this journal's discussion of the teaching of learning by explaining the importance of using examples drawn from everyday life: Numerous familiar examples provide powerful pedagogical tools for showing the importance of learning theory and helping students learn behavior principles. This approach does not exclude using other strategies and techniques in our quest to communicate the value of learning theory and teach our behavioral science in meaningful and thought-provoking ways.     

There is no 'truth' outside a context: implications for the teaching of analytical psychology in the 21st century

Humans are from birth embedded in a historical and contemporary context of meanings. This always constrains their theoretical and practical activities. In this paper, I will be suggesting that there are no guiding 'truths' outside such contexts. In order to understand the foundations of any concept or new idea, it is important to comprehend the context in which it is embedded. Candidates and some of their teachers have very little knowledge of the intellectual context in which Jung or any other analytic theorist wrote. As a result, the analytic 'founders' are often believed to have discovered 'truths' transcending the context of history and of everyday life. They were, however, as much creative synthesizers as pure originators. I propose that the components of all analytic theories emerge from their embeddedness. I contend, therefore, that the understandings of these components such as psychic causality, epistemology and identity formation were quite differently conceived at the time the analytic founders were working than they are today. I will give examples to show how the acceptance of this attitude is useful in inculcating a discerning approach in candidates towards traditionally accepted analytic theories and practices. This can provide them with a method to promote their individual creative development.     

Tips to make research teaching and learning enjoyable and productive for counsellors,psychotherapists and their tutors

This article identifies the learning expectations and experiences of qualified counsellors and psychotherapists undertaking higher education awards with specific regard to research activity. Drawing on the current literature and some early findings from focus group research with students, combined with our personal and professional experiences, we identify what contributes to a productive research experience. This is used as a basis to provide tips for both teachers and those new to research to make counselling and psychotherapy research enjoyable and productive. A full research paper is in preparation.     

Category learning with a goal: how goals constrain conceptual acquisition

A novel task was used to examine the roles that goals play in concept acquisition. In Experiment 1, we varied the type of interaction, and thus the task goal, of participants working in a novel domain. Following those interactions, participant responses showed that they had organized their knowledge in terms of goal-relevant features. Using a variation of the same methodology, Experiment 2 provided evidence that the goal relevance also played a role in how the participants structured their knowledge of the items, specifically what information about the items was associated with differentiating the categories encountered. The results suggest that the goals not only highlighted particular features, they determined the centrality of those features in the conceptual knowledge. We discuss the results in terms of the goal-framework hypothesis; the idea that goals structure information and provide coherence to the acquired concepts. We discuss how this approach informs category learning research.     

Personality and the psychology of learning

The aim of this article is to examine the interaction between personality and learning in order to find clues to the role that a student's personality plays in the process of adaptation and learning. To scrutinize such an expansive area requires that I cover a lot of territory in a small space, condensing many components and processes. Wherever meaningful, I will direct readers to sources that provide greater depth of coverage. The article is divided into four sections. The first section covers personality theories and models based on a structure-oriented view of personality. The second section addresses personality from a process-oriented viewpoint. Current research findings that relate personality characteristics explicitly to learning processes, strategy use, and metacognition are briefly reviewed. The third section goes one step further and discusses second-generation process-oriented personality models. These models are applied to student behaviour during actual learning episodes. A general outline of my model of the adaptable learning process is given and it is argued that the quality of subjective experience is not just an outcome of personality characteristics. It is influenced by student * situation transactions. In the fourth section, conclusions and suggestions for future research are given.     

A critical evaluation of the use of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) in health psychology

With the burgeoning use of qualitative methods in health research, criteria for judging their value become increasingly necessary. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is a distinctive approach to conducting qualitative research being used with increasing frequency in published studies. A systematic literature review was undertaken to identify published papers in the area of health psychology employing IPA. A total of 52 articles are reviewed here in terms of the following: methods of data collection, sampling, assessing wider applicability of research and adherence to the theoretical foundations and procedures of IPA. IPA seems applicable and useful in a wide variety of research topics. The lack of attention sometimes afforded to the interpretative facet of the approach is discussed.     

Possibilities and Limits of Self-reflection in the Teaching Profession

Reflection seems today to be highest fashion ineducation, especially in discussions aboutteacher education and the teaching profession.This has created the paradoxical situation that reflection is often used in an unreflectedmanner. Furthermore, this discovery ofreflection is not supported by earlierresearch. In philosophy, however, reflectionhas always played a central role.The purpose of this study is to investigate thepossibilities and limits of self-reflection forthe teaching profession by relating the problemto three masters of philosophy of reflection,i.e., René Descartes, Immanuel Kant andEdmund Husserl. In this way it is hoped that itwill be possible to learn from specialists onreflection for the teaching profession. Thelessons do not, however, need to be exclusivelypositive. Also from deficiencies and mistakesit is possible to learn.     

Speaking for Ourselves: Feminist Methods and Community Psychology

Although feminist and community psychology share a number of epistemological and methodological perspectives that guide their respective theories and research practices, it has been argued that community psychology has not fully integrated a feminist perspective into the discipline. This paper examines how community psychology and feminist research methods might combine to help us better understand women's experiences without essentializing or universalizing those experiences. The authors offer a series of suggested directions for feminist research that may also prove promising for community psychology. Particular attention is paid to feminist social constructionist approaches insofar as they address the complex relationship between epistemology and methodology.     

焦循易学方法论的哲学意义

文章认为焦循通过“旁通”、“当位失道”、“时行”、“八卦相错”、“比例”五图,编织了一套表现为象数形式的逻辑类比推理的思想构架。并将自己的道德理想尽数纳入构架之中。这样。焦循一方面确立了研究易学的方法论,另一方面也具有以“旁通”为主体的哲学意义。焦循易学的方法论,标志着清代中期易学的重要转向,它已迈出象数与义理诠释易学的旧轨。然而将易学的探求严格限定在各种法则的框架之内,因而也就混淆了易学的象数系统与义理系统的各自独立性。因此,易学的哲学意义也就被逻辑推理的工具价值所取代。     

A review of the feminist pedagogy literature: The neglected child of feminist psychology

Feminist psychologists have introduced feminist values, critiques, and methods into the science and practice of psychology. On the topic of teaching, feminist psychologists have done a thorough job of addressing curricula issues, but they have been involved marginally in developing the literature on feminist pedagogy. A comprehensive review of the feminist pedagogy literature was compiled based on a review of 60 articles, 25 chapters from books, 10 books, and 4 bibliographies. The review covers major aspects of the legacy of patriarchy in schools as well as feminist transformations of traditional educational practice. Explanations are posed for the minimal involvement of feminist psychologists in the development of the feminist pedagogy literature. Reciprocal benefits are identified for both the field of psychology and the feminist pedagogy scholars if more bridges are built between the two.