Effect of Color Coding on Visually Oriented Tests With Students of Different Cognitive Styles

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects that differentially coded (black and white and color) illustrations had on students (N = 117) who were classified as field dependent, field neutral, or field independent as a result of their performance on the visually oriented Group Embedded Figures Test (Witkin, Olt-man, Rashin, & Karp, 1971). Students were randomly assigned to two instructional treatments complemented by illustrations (black and white and colored). After receiving their respective treatments, students reviewed two visually oriented criterion tests. Two-way analyses of variance conducted on achievement scores indicated that field independents scored significantly higher than did field dependents on both visual tests, and differences between field-dependent and field-independent learners who received the color-coded treatments on the visual identification test were insignificant. Results indicate that field dependency is an important instructional variable and that for some types of learning objectives the process of color coding instructional materials may reduce achievement differences attributed to differences in cognitive style.     

Perceptual learning and acquired face familiarity: Evidence from inversion,use of internal features,and generalization between viewpoints

Pairs of similar faces were created from photographs of different people using morphing software. The ability of participants to discriminate between novel pairs of faces and between those to which they had received brief, unsupervised, exposure (5×2 s each) was assessed. In all experiments exposure improved discrimination performance. Overall, discrimination was better when the faces were upright, but exposure produced improved discrimination for both upright and inverted faces (Experiment 1). The improvement produced by exposure was selective to internal face features (Experiment 2) and was evident when there was a change in orientation (three-quarter to full face or vice versa) between exposure and test (Experiment 3). These findings indicate that perceptual learning observed following brief exposure to faces exhibit well-established hallmarks of familiar face processing (i.e., internal feature advantage and insensitivity to a change of viewpoint). Considered in combination with previous studies using the same type of stimuli (Mundy, Honey, & Dwyer, 2007), the current results imply that general perceptual learning mechanisms contribute to the acquisition of face familiarity.     

Preconceptual intelligibility in perception

This paper argues that John McDowell’s conceptualism distorts a genuine phenomenological account of perception. Instead of the seemingly forced choice between conceptualism and non-conceptualism as to what accounts for perceptual and discursive meaning, I provide an argument that there is a preconceptual intelligibility already in the perceptual field. With the help of insights from certain nonconceptualists I sketch out an argument that there is a teleological directedness in the way in which latent order and structure can be discriminated at the level of perceptual content. This content can then be brought to discursive, conceptual clarity by understanding in such a way that it is guided by the order already discovered in perception. With the help of Husserlian phenomenology of perception, I argue that the fundamental roots of epistemic normativity lie in the discriminating intelligence or mindedness operative below the level of the explicitly conceptual. By preconceptual is meant the directedness of explication of the structures present in the sensory manifold toward fully explicit conceptual judgments.     

Loss of Latent Inhibition of Contextual Conditioning Following Non-reinforced Context Exposure in Rats

Three experiments with rats demonstrated that preexposure to an experimental environment retarded the level of conditioned freezing observed on a test in that environment after it had been paired with mild footshock. Furthermore, Experiment 1 demonstrated that this latent inhibition effect could be abolished if preexposed rats were exposed to a second experimental environment following conditioning to the preexposed environment. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that this second environment had to be similar, but not identical, to the preexposed environment, and that the influence of exposure to the second environment on latent inhibition could be abolished by exposure to that environment prior to footshock conditioning. These results are considered in terms of the Dickinson-Burke (1996) theory of retrospective revaluation, and their implications for experiments demonstrating a loss of latent inhibition across a delay are considered.     

Perceptual learning in humans: Roles of preexposure schedule, feedback, and discrimination assay

In three experiments, humans received preexposure to two compound flavours (AX and BX: saline-lemon and sucrose-lemon) that were presented either in an intermixed (e.g., AX, BX, . . . BX, AX, . . .) or a blocked (e.g., AX, AX, . . . BX, BX. . .) fashion. Subsequently, AXwas paired with an unpleasant bitter taste, and the discriminability of AX and BX was assessed using the accuracy of same/different judgements and by the extent to which any learned dislike of AX generalized to BX. When participants received feedback about the accuracy of their same/different judgements during preexposure those given intermixed preexposure were more accurate in making these judgements during the test than those given blocked preexposure (Experiments 1 and 2A), however, there was no evidence of any learned dislike in these experiments. In Experiment 2B, in which participants did not receive feedback about the accuracy of their judgements, there was no effect of the preexposure regime on same/different judgements, but there was a learned dislike of AX, and this generalized less to BX in participants given intermixed than in those given blocked preexposure. The beneficial effects of intermixed preexposure are consistent with results from other species (chicks and rats), but the differences created by the presence or absence of feedback place constraints on the analysis of these effects.     

Solution of the personnel classification problem with the method of optimal regions

The personnel classification problem is identified mathematically with other problems in the social and biological sciences. This mathematical problem is shown to be a special case of the general mathematical problem of linear programming. It is proposed here that the personnel classification problem may be solved directly by methods particularly appropriate to it as well as by the simplex method, which is a standard method for solving the general linear programming problem. The method of optimal regions is derived and illustrated in this paper.Much of the basic research covered in this paper was carried out while the author was working on the problem of personnel classification in his capacity as Consultant, Personnel Research Branch, Adjutant General's Office, Department of the Army. Some of the material was presented in a conference which was held at Personnel Research Branch in August, 1952. The author wishes to express his appreciation to the Department of the Army for permission to use these materials in this paper. The opinions expressed are those of the author and are not to be construed as official or as those of the Department of the Army.     

The evaluation of determinants

The numerical evaluation of determinants with a modern computing machine is discussed. Various methods are presented and their relations to each other are indicated. The methods presented parallel those developed in the previous paper on “The Solution of Simultaneous Equations.” Especially emphasized are the Abbreviated Doolittle and the Compact methods. Additional topics include the evaluation of partially symmetric determinants by means of symmetric methods and the evaluation of determinantal ratios.     

The evaluation of multiple and partial correlation coefficients from the factorial matrix

This paper shows how to compute multiple correlation coefficients, partial correlation coefficients, and regression coefficients from the factorial matrix. Special emphasis is given to computation technique and to approximation formulas. The method is extremely flexible in application since it may be applied to any subset of the original set of observed variables. It is also extremely useful when many of these coefficients are desired.     

Diagnosing students’ misconceptions in algebra: Results from an experimental pilot study

Computer-based diagnostic assessment systems hold potential to help teachers identify sources of poor performance and to connect teachers and students to learning activities designed to help advance students’ conceptual understandings. The present article presents findings from a study that examined how students’ performance in algebra and their overcoming of common algebraic misconceptions were affected by the use of a diagnostic assessment system that focused on important algebra concepts. This study used a four-group randomized cluster trial design in which teachers were assigned randomly to one of four groups: a “business as usual” control group, a partial intervention group that was provided with access to diagnostic tests results, a partial intervention group that was provided with access to the learning activities, and a full intervention group that was given access to the test results and learning activities. Data were collected from 905 students (6th–12th grade) nested within 44 teachers. We used hierarchical linear modeling techniques to compare the effects of full, partial, and no (control) intervention on students’ algebraic ability and misconceptions. The analyses indicate that full intervention had a net positive effect on ability and misconception measures.