Implementation of training programs in self-regulated learning strategies in Moodle format: results of a experience in higher education

This paper tests the efficacy of an intervention program in virtual format intended to train studying and self-regulation strategies in university students. The aim of this intervention is to promote a series of strategies which allow students to manage their learning processes in a more proficient and autonomous way. The program has been developed in Moodle format and hosted by the Virtual Campus of the University of Oviedo. The present study had a semi-experimental design, included an experimental group (n=167) and a control one (n=206), and used pretest and posttest measures (self-regulated learning strategies' declarative knowledge, self-regulated learning macro-strategy planning-execution-assessment, self-regulated learning strategies on text, surface and deep learning approaches, and academic achievement). Data suggest that the students enrolled in the training program, comparing with students in the control group, showed a significant improvement in their declarative knowledge, general and on text use of learning strategies, increased their deep approach to learning, decreased their use of a surface approach and, in what concerns to academic achievement, statistically significant differences have been found in favour of the experimental group.     

Personalized and not general suggestion produces false autobiographical memories and suggestion-consistent behavior

Suggesting false childhood events produces false autobiographical beliefs, memories and suggestion-consistent behavior. The mechanisms by which suggestion affects behavior are not understood, and whether false beliefs and memories are necessary for suggestions to impact behavior remains unexplored. We examined the relative effects of providing a personalized suggestion (suggesting that an event occurred to the person in the past), and/or a general suggestion (suggesting that an event happened to others in the past). Participants (N=122) received a personalized suggestion, a general suggestion, both or neither, about childhood illness due to spoiled peach yogurt. The personalized suggestion resulted in false beliefs, false memories, and suggestion-consistent behavioral intentions immediately after the suggestion. One week or one month later participants completed a taste test that involved eating varieties of crackers and yogurts. The personalized suggestion led to reduced consumption of only peach yogurt, and those who reported a false memory showed the most eating suppression. This effect on behavior was equally strong after one week and one month, showing a long lived influence of the personalized suggestion. The general suggestion showed no effects. Suggestions that convey personal information about a past event produce false autobiographical memories, which in turn impact behavior.     

Salience modulation in serial preexposure: implications for perceptual learning

In three experiments rats were given serial preexposure to two flavor stimuli. In Experiment 1, some animals were given exposure to AX followed by the presentation of BX, a forward schedule; the others were given backward preexposure (BX→AX). Conditioning and test trials with the A element showed that salience or effectiveness of A was better protected in the forward than in the backward condition. Experiments 2 and 3 assessed the relevance of this salience modulation mechanism for perceptual learning. In these experiments, generalization of a conditioned aversion from AX to BX was reduced in the forward (but not in the backward) condition only after prolonged exposure, indicating that the establishment of an inhibitory link from B to A is required for successful discrimination. However, generalization to a novel compound stimulus, NX, was reduced in the forward group both after short and long preexposure, suggesting the existence of salience modulation processes that work in parallel with associative inhibition. These results seem to support the existence of a salience modulation mechanism that seems to be beyond the scope of current theories of perceptual learning.     

Methods for averaging alpha coefficients in reliability generalization studies

The reliability generalization (RG) approach is a kind of meta-analysis that aims to statistically integrate a set of independent reliability coefficients obtained in several applications of a test, with the purpose of characterizing the measurement error and determining which factors related to the studies and samples can explain its variability. Diverse procedures have been proposed in the literature for averaging a set of independent alpha coefficients, and there is no consensus about which methods are best. Here, we present the results of a Monte Carlo simulation study, comparing the performance of twelve procedures proposed in Feldt and Charter, in terms of bias and mean square error. These procedures differ from each other in the transformation (or not) of the coefficients, and in the application or not of a weighting scheme based on sample size. Our results recommend using weighted methods in contrast to unweighted ones, and transforming the coefficients by the Hakstian and Whalen's proposal or by the proposal based on the square root of the inverse alpha coefficient. Lastly, we discuss the relations between the diverse procedures for averaging alpha coefficients with fixed-effects, random-effects, and varying coefficients models.     

Evidence for multiple routes in learning to read

We describe a multiple-route model of reading development in which coarse-grained orthographic processing plays a key role in optimizing access to semantics via whole-word orthographic representations. This forms part of the direct orthographic route that gradually replaces phonological recoding during the initial phases of reading acquisition. The model predicts distinct developmental trajectories for pseudo-homophone and transposed-letter effects - two benchmark phenomena associated with phonological recoding and coarse-grained orthographic processing, respectively. Pseudo-homophone effects should decrease over the first years of reading acquisition, whereas transposed-letter effects should initially increase. These predictions were tested in a lexical decision task with 334 children in grades 1-5, and 29 skilled adult readers. In line with the predictions, we found that the pseudo-homophone effect diminished as reading level increased, whereas the transposed-letter effect first increased and then diminished.     

Emotion in the neutral face: a mechanism for impression formation?

The current work examined contributions of emotion-resembling facial cues to impression formation. There exist common facial cues that make people look emotional, male or female, and from which we derive personality inferences. We first conducted a Pilot Study to assess these effects. We found that neutral female versus neutral male faces were rated as more submissive, affiliative, na?ve, honest, cooperative, babyish, fearful, happy, and less angry than neutral male faces. In our Primary Study, we then "warped" these same neutral faces over their corresponding anger and fear displays so the resultant facial appearance cues now structurally resembled emotion while retaining a neutral visage (e.g., no wrinkles, furrows, creases, etc.). The gender effects found in the Pilot Study were replicated in the Primary Study, suggesting clear stereotype-driven impressions. Critically, ratings of the neutral-over-fear warps versus neutral-over-anger warps also revealed a profile similar to the gender-based ratings, revealing perceptually driven impressions directly attributable to emotion overgeneralisation.     

Subjective Situations and Logical Omniscience

The beliefs of the agents in a multi-agent system have been formally modelled in the last decades using doxastic logics. The possible worlds model and its associated Kripke semantics provide an intuitive semantics for these logics, but they commit us to model agents that are logically omniscient. We propose a way of avoiding this problem, using a new kind of entities called subjective situations. We define a new doxastic logic based on these entities and we show how the belief operators have some desirable properties, while avoiding logical omniscience. A comparison with two well-known proposals (Levesque's logic of explicit and implicit beliefs and Thijsse's hybrid sieve systems) is also provided.     

Peculiar aspects of reading and writing performances in patients with olivopontocerebellar atrophy

Olivopontocerebellar atrophy (OPCA) is a still debated condition, of which motor disruption is the most common feature. A high incidence of associated mood disorders may exist, but there are few studies on concomitant cognitive impairment. Our aim was to assess whether there is reading and writing disruption in olivopontocerebellar atrophy (OPCA). 6 patients were administered different reading and writing tasks. Scores were then compared to those obtained by healthy volunteers. There was an evident impairment in reading and writing execution in our patients compared to those of the control group. On the contrary, no difference could be found in abstraction, problem-solving, and memory tasks. We discuss the results, debating the role of the cerebellum in the conscious process of cognition or in ocular movement control (necessary for reading and writing fluidity and effective execution) and in the dynamic activation of all the cerebral cortex mediated by the diffuse projection to the reticular system.     

Deformation of the useful visual field with state of vigilance,task priority,and central task complexity

In a dual-task situation, peripheral perception can deteriorate due to different variables related to the experimental situation, such as central task complexity and the relative priority given to the two tasks. Recent studies have also shown that individual characteristics (such as the state of vigilance) can alter the useful visual field. The ability to perceive signals presented at different places in the visual field decreases in situations that lead to episodes of low vigilance. In Exp. 1, 27 subjects (18-29 years) had to perform a monotonous and prolonged dual-monitoring task involving central and peripheral vision. The test was carried out with two different sets of instructions regarding priority: the more important task was either the central task or the peripheral one. In Exp. 2, 18 subjects (18-30 years) performed the same test, but this time with two levels of complexity of the central task, either a simple monitoring activity or the same monitoring task coupled with a counting activity. Elliptical interpolation of the data enabled assessment of the deformation of the useful visual field in both experiments. The analysis of the parameters of the elliptical model indicated that the useful visual field mainly shrinks on the vertical axis, as the individual becomes drowsy. The useful visual field also shrinks on the horizontal axis when the peripheral task has priority and the monitoring activity is prolonged, or when the central task is complex.     

Behavioral consequences of fluctuating group success: an internet study of soccer-team fans

The authors tested the hypothesis that fans of a sports team avoid private contact with their team when it is unsuccessful (cutting off reflected failure, or CORF), whereas fans actively seek private contact with their team when it is successful (basking in reflected glory, or BIRG). During the 2nd half of the 1999-2000 soccer season, the authors registered the number of visitors who had surfed the Web sites of 16 Belgian and 18 Dutch 1st-division teams on the 1st working day following a championship game. The authors obtained 586 valid measurements, which were transformed into z scores for each team separately. In line with the hypothesis, there were significantly more visitors after the teams won (BIRG) than after they lost (CORF). The effects of game outcome were not mediated by pregame expectations or by the size of the wins or losses.