Evaluating Cognitive Training Outcomes: Validity and Utility of Structural Knowledge Assessment

Conventional approaches to evaluating cognitive outcomes of training typically use paper-and-pencil tests that emphasize gains or differences in declarative knowledge. Yet a key factor in differentiating expert and novice performance is the way individuals organize their knowledge. Accordingly, the acquisition of meaningful knowledge structures and methods of assessing structural knowledge are potentially important issues for designing and evaluating training programs. Two studies were conducted to examine the validity and utility of one structural assessment technique called Pathfinder (Schvaneveldt, Durso, & Dearholt, 1989). Results from academic and organizational samples indicated that Pathfinder measures of structural knowledge quality predicted individual differences in performance self-efficacy. After controlling for differences in declarative knowledge, measures of structural knowledge quality added to the prediction of performance self-efficacy in the student sample, but not in the organizational sample. The unique features and potential advantages of structural assessment for training evaluation are discussed.     

Relationship Between School and Classroom Environment and Teacher Burnout: A LISREL Analysis

Research was conducted on the relationship between school and classroom psychosocial environment and perceptions of burnout in teachers who staff Queensland private schools. A sample of 246 teachers responded to scales that assess seven school environment and seven classroom environment dimensions and the three facets of burnout measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory: emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment. Preliminary multiple regression analyses resulted in an hypothesised model of seven environment dimensions predicting burnout. This model was tested in a LISREL analysis with posthoc modifications improving model fit to data. While staff affiliation and work pressure were significant predictors of emotional exhaustion, staff mission consensus and co-operation in classrooms were significant predictors of depersonalisation. Staff mission consensus, together with classroom interactions, co-operation and task orientation were significantly related to personal accomplishment. Results supported previous research on the structure of teacher burnout in that emotional exhaustion influenced depersonalisation which subsequently impacted on personal accomplishment.     

Does it matter where you work? A comparison of how three work venues (traditional office, virtual office, and home office) influence aspects of work and personal/family life

Millions use electronic tools to do their jobs away from the traditional office. Some labor in a “virtual office” with flexibility to work wherever it makes sense and others telecommute primarily from home. This IBM study compares how three work venues (traditional office, n=4316, virtual office, n=767, and home office, n=441) may influence aspects of work (job performance, job motivation, job retention, workload success, and career opportunity) and personal/family life (work/life balance and personal/family success). Perceptions, direct comparisons, and multivariate analyses suggest that the influence of the virtual office is mostly positive on aspects of work but somewhat negative on aspects of personal/family life. The influence of the home office appears to be mostly positive and the influence of traditional office mostly negative on aspects of both work and personal/life. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Yes, we still need Universal Grammar

In a recent paper [Lidz, J., Gleitman, H., & Gleitman, L. (2003). Understanding how input matters: Verb learning and the footprint of universal grammar. Cognition, 87, 151-178], we provided cross-linguistic evidence in favor of the following linked assertions: (i) Verb argument structure is a correlate of verb meaning; (ii) However, argument structure is not directly available to learners as a cue for reconstructing verb meaning, owing to the complexity of form-meaning mappings within and across languages; (iii) A major correlate of argument-structure, namely, noun phrase number, is statistically available on the surface in all languages, and serves as a quasi-universal derivative cue to the meanings of verbs; (iv) this cue is privileged, in the sense that it is used early and selectively by learners, despite within- and cross-language differences in its availability. Goldberg [Goldberg, A. (2004). But do we need Universal Grammar? Comment on Lidz, Gleitman and Gleitman 2003. Cognition] suggests that this cue is not linguistic, that it is too sicklied o'er with exceptions and provisos to be useful to learners, and that conversational conspiracies can in any case serve as the alternative theoretical framework for a theory of predicate learning, and language acquisition more generally. In the present reply, we review and further explicate our original position, to wit: A large part of any generative grammar is a formal statement of the complex alignments between predicate-argument structures and the surface forms (linear strings of words) of sentences. Because the several rules for alignment interact, the surface outcomes reveal individual systematicities only abstractly. Therefore, learning would be impossible if infants could not analyze probabilistically available patterns to recover their principled linguistic sources. This statistics-based discovery procedure is in certain relevant regards specific to language learning. Finally, we argue that while pragmatics and theory of mind properties in learner and tutor necessarily frame language acquisition, that these have not been shown—and probably cannot be shown—to be sufficient to this computational problem.     

Induction produced by upcoming food-pellet reinforcement: Effects on subsequent operant responding

Research has demonstrated that rats' rates of operant behavior maintained by 1% sucrose reinforcement in the first half of an experimental session are heightened when food-pellet reinforcers, rather than 1% sucrose, will be available in the second half. Experiment 1 showed that rats that had been displaying this positive induction effect acquired a new response more quickly when 1% sucrose was used to reinforce the novel response than did rats that had not been displaying induction. Experiment 2 showed that this enhanced acquisition remained even when the new response was learned in a new environment. Experiment 3 showed that unconditioned rates of making a new response did not differ between subjects that had or had not been displaying induction. Experiment 4 further showed that significantly different rates of responding on a novel task were not observed when that response was reinforced with a new, non-sucrose reinforcer. Together, the present results suggest that induction results in and/or from an increase in the reinforcing value of the 1% sucrose. As such, the present results have both theoretical and practical implications.     

Depression Following Traumatic Brain Injury: The Validity of the CES-D as a Brief Screening Device

The validity, reliability, and factor structure of the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) was examined with 253 patients seen for neuropsychological evaluation following traumatic brain injury (TBI). All patients completed the CES-D; 31 also completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and 17 completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-II (MMPI-II). The CES-D demonstrated good concurrent, construct validity, significantly correlating with the BDI (r = .673, p < .0001) and the MMPI-II (Depression Scale T score r = .536, p = .027). The CES-D also demonstrated good internal consistency (coefficient alpha = .8195) and split-half reliability (Spearman–Brown r = .8284). Principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation resulted in a four-factor solution that accounted for 56.01% of the variance. The factor structure differed from the originally reported factor structure, and indicated that somatic difficulties were strongly associated with dysphoric affect in TBI patients. The CES-D is a valid and reliable screening instrument for use with TBI patients.     

The Problem of Ontotheology: Complicating the Divide Between Philosophy and Theology

This paper examines the problem of ontotheology as it was defined by Martin Heidegger, and how it has subsequently been approached by those philosophers and theologians who have followed in his wake. It argues that Heidegger's initial analysis of the onto-theological condition was mistaken by its presumption of a radical divide between philosophy and theology. Furthermore, many of the key thinkers who have followed after Heidegger have merely reinscribed this supposed divide between thought and faith, rather than genuinely questioning the terms Heidegger thought self-evident. The result, even among some of the most radical and influential contemporary thinkers such as Emmanuel Levinas, John Caputo, and Jean-Luc Marion, has been a contemporary philosophy deprived of questions of faith and a theology unaccountable to its place in the world. In response to this shortcoming of contemporary philosophical and theological thought, Jacques Derrida has approached the problem of ontotheology from the dual perspective of both thought and faith, and thereby, has provided a new path of thought beyond the problem of ontotheology and towards a renewed appreciation for the possibilities for a genuine philosophical theology.     

Exploring evaluative conditioning using a working memory task

Johnsrude, Owen, Zhao, and White (1999) demonstrated that evaluative conditioning (EC) can occur even while participants conduct a working memory task. This is consistent with claims that EC can occur outside awareness, and hence is an automatic process. In their study, three abstract patterns were paired differentially with a candy reinforcer: 90, 50, or 10%. On reinforced trials a red ball was presented in one of three locations on a computer screen. Participants were instructed to keep a tally for each location. We argue that if EC is automatic, then it will not consume cognitive/attentional resources, and hence co-occurrence of red ball and reinforcer should be irrelevant. Results from four experiments indicate that learning is only evident when the red ball and reinforcer co-occur or when the complexity of the working memory task is reduced. Together, the results suggest that EC is governed by specific attentional constraints on working memory. This interpretation questions the automatic nature of EC.