When Are Tutorial Dialogues More Effective Than Reading?

It is often assumed that engaging in a one-on-one dialogue with a tutor is more effective than listening to a lecture or reading a text. Although earlier experiments have not always supported this hypothesis, this may be due in part to allowing the tutors to cover different content than the noninteractive instruction. In 7 experiments, we tested the interaction hypothesis under the constraint that (a) all students covered the same content during instruction, (b) the task domain was qualitative physics, (c) the instruction was in natural language as opposed to mathematical or other formal languages, and (d) the instruction conformed with a widely observed pattern in human tutoring: Graesser, Person, and Magliano's 5-step frame. In the experiments, we compared 2 kinds of human tutoring (spoken and computer mediated) with 2 kinds of natural-language-based computer tutoring (Why2-Atlas and Why2-AutoTutor) and 3 control conditions that involved studying texts. The results depended on whether the students' preparation matched the content of the instruction. When novices (students who had not taken college physics) studied content that was written for intermediates (students who had taken college physics), then tutorial dialogue was reliably more beneficial than less interactive instruction, with large effect sizes. When novices studied material written for novices or intermediates studied material written for intermediates, then tutorial dialogue was not reliably more effective than the text-based control conditions.     

Intuition and the correspondence between implicit and explicit self-esteem

Four studies tested whether the perceived validity of intuition increases the correspondence between implicit and explicit self-esteem. Studies 1 and 2 found, with 2 different measures of implicit self-esteem, that people who chronically view their intuition as valid have more consistent implicit and explicit self-esteem. In contrast, people with relatively low faith in their intuition had a negative relation between implicit and explicit self-esteem, suggesting that they may overcorrect their explicit self-views for the potential bias posed by implicit self-esteem. In Studies 3 and 4, participants who were induced to view their intuition as valid reported explicit self-views (self-evaluations made under time pressure, or state self-esteem) that were more consistent with their implicit self-esteem. These results suggest that people experience implicit self-esteem as intuitive evaluations. The correspondence between implicit and explicit self-esteem among individuals who view their intuition as valid may suggest that these individuals incorporate implicit self-esteem into their explicit self-views.     

Sequence and priming in 15 month-olds' reactions to brief arm restraint: evidence for a hierarchy of anger responses

Brief, gentle arm restraint is widely used in experimental studies of children's anger, but the pattern of responses generated by such restraint has been incompletely described. We now describe a hierarchy of responses within trials as well as an escalation across trials that have both methodological and theoretical significance. Mothers of 87 15-month olds prevented them from playing with a toy by restraining their arms on two consecutive 30 sec trials. Physical struggling was the first and most frequent response; children who struggled were significantly more likely to vocalize, and those who vocalized were significantly more likely to show facial expressions of anger. The children's responses became more probable, rapid, and intense during Trial 2 restraint. Overall, the hierarchy was orderly enough to meet criteria for Guttman scalability. The particular sequence observed suggests situational, as opposed to bio-energetic, ordering of responses. Methodologically, the two trial paradigm is a simple, ecologically valid model for studying anger escalation that parallels the "attack priming" of aggression in other species. The magnitude and persistence of anger priming may provide novel measures of anger regulation. Theoretically, the existence of an orderly response hierarchy is consistent with previous observations suggesting that, within a situational context, the sequential appearance of specific behaviors may indicate progressive increases in anger intensity.     

Assessing the importance of letter pairs in reading-parafoveal processing is not the only view: reply to Inhoff, Radach, Eiter, and Skelly (2003)

D. Briihl and A. W. Inhoff (1995; see record 1995-20036-001) found that exterior letter pairs showed no privileged status in reading when letter pairs were presented as parafoveal primes. However, T. R. Jordan, S. M. Thomas, G. R. Patching, and K. C. Scott-Brown (2003; see record 2003-07955-013) used a paradigm that (a) allowed letter pairs to exert influence at any point in the reading process, (b) overcame problems with the stimulus manipulations used by Briihl and Inhoff (1995), and (c) revealed a privileged status for exterior letter pairs in reading. A. W. Inhoff, R. Radach, B. M. Eiter, and M. Skelly (2003; see record 2003-07955-014) made a number of claims about the Jordan, Thomas, et al. study, most of which focus on parafoveal processing. This article addresses these claims and points out that although studies that use parafoveal previews provide an important contribution, other techniques and paradigms are required to reveal the full role of letter pairs in reading.     

Posttraumatische Belastungsstörungen nach einem akuten Herzinfarkt

An acute myocardial infarction is an unexpected life threatening event (mortality = 50% within the first 28 days). Frequently the acute symptoms could be so strong that the danger gets conscious to the persons affected. Diagnostics and therapy start with the arriving of the emergency doctor’s car today. The progress of interventional cardiology leads to hospital treatment (angiography with following dilatation/bypass crafting and/or medical treatment) and rehabilitation, which is very effective. Persons affected have to cope with serious informations (“information trauma”) and have to face death often for the first time in the life. An infarction as an emotionally threatening event has been discussed in the scientific literature from the beginning of our century. In the last years the question of posttraumatic stress disorder rises. The following paper gives a systematic review to this issue: About 11% of the patients develop a PostTraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The psychotherapeutic implications are discussed.     

Sources of openness/intellect: cognitive and neuropsychological correlates of the fifth factor of personality

We characterize Openness/Intellect as motivated cognitive flexibility, or cognitive exploration, and develop a neuropsychological model relating it to dopaminergic function and to the functions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Evidence is reviewed for sources of Openness/Intellect shared with Extraversion and sources unique to Openness/Intellect. The hypothesis that the cognitive functions of the dorsolateral PFC are among the latter was tested using standard measures of cognitive ability and a battery of tasks associated with dorsolateral PFC function (N=175). Dorsolateral PFC function, as well as both fluid and crystallized cognitive ability, was positively related to Openness/Intellect but no other personality trait. Additionally, facet level analysis supported the characterization of Openness/Intellect as a primarily cognitive trait.     

Motivation by positive or negative role models: regulatory focus determines who will best inspire us

In 3 studies, the authors demonstrated that individuals are motivated by role models who encourage strategies that fit their regulatory concerns: Promotion-focused individuals, who favor a strategy of pursuing desirable outcomes, are most inspired by positive role models, who highlight strategies for achieving success; prevention-focused individuals, who favor a strategy of avoiding undesirable outcomes, are most motivated by negative role models, who highlight strategies for avoiding failure. In Studies 1 and 2, the authors primed promotion and prevention goals and then examined the impact of role models on motivation. Participants' academic motivation was increased by goal-congruent role models but decreased by goal-incongruent role models. In Study 3, participants were more likely to generate real-life role models that matched their chronic goals.     

Intact perception of biological motion in the face of profound spatial deficits: Williams syndrome

Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic disorder that results in profound spatial cognitive deficits. We examined whether individuals with WS have intact perception of biological motion, which requires global spatial integration of local motion signals into a unitary percept of a human form. Children with WS, normal mental-age-matched children, and normal adults viewed point-light-walker (PLW) displays portraying a human figure walking to the left or right. Children with WS were as good as or better than control children in their ability to judge the walker's direction, even when it was masked with dynamic noise that mimicked the local motion of the PLW lights. These results show that mechanisms underlying the perception of at least some kinds of biological motion are unimpaired in children with WS. They provide the first evidence of selective sparing of a specialized spatial system in individuals with a known genetic impairment.