Investigating student engagement in computer-supported inquiry: a process-oriented analysis

The aim of this article is to describe and analyze how computer supported inquiry learning effects two secondary school students’ engagement in a literacy learning project. With comparative analysis of various sources of data we aim to understand what engagement is, how and why it changes over time and how changes in engagement are reflected in what learners do in an actual learning context. A set of methods was implemented that aimed at process-oriented analyses in a natural context of learning, that is, observations, interviews, content analysis of computer notes and an experience sampling questionnaire. The results show that even though the students had very different motivational tendencies in a traditional classroom, both of them showed progressive task engagement in this learning project. The data also illustrate how a technology supported environment can influence the way the students construct their goals and structure their activity. We conclude that multidimensional concepts, like engagement, have the potential to link the antecedents and consequences of how students behave, how they feel, and how they think, especially in the context of new pedagogical and technology-based learning environments.

The effect of the amount of blood in a violent video game on aggression, hostility, and arousal

The current study utilized the General Aggression Model, with an emphasis on aggression-related priming, to explore the different effects on hostility, physiological arousal, and state aggression in those who played a violent video game (Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance) with differing levels of blood (maximum, medium, low, and off). Simple effects analyses showed that those in the maximum blood and medium blood conditions had a significant increase in hostility and physiological arousal, while those in the low blood and no blood conditions did not have such an increase in arousal and hostility. Further analyses indicated that those in the maximum and medium blood conditions used the character’s weapon significantly more often than those in the low and blood absent conditions. Implications and future research are discussed.     

How is God-talk logically possible? A sketch for an argument on the logic of ‘God’

In this paper I want to argue for the optimal way to characterise the logical and semantical behaviour of the singular term ‘God’ used in religious language. The relevance of this enterprise to logical theory is the main focus as well. Doing this presupposes to outline the two rivaling approaches of well-definition of singular terms: Kripke’s (“rigid designators”) and Hintikka’s (“world-lines”). ‘God’ as a “rigid designator” is purified from all real-life-language-games of identification and only spells out a metaphysical tag, which favours the view of “anything goes”. Instead, ‘God’ as a “world-line,” plus two ways of quantification, is much more flexible to theological traditions, teachings of the church, religious practices and personal feelings. Thus, it provides a sufficiently well-defined singular term for the purposes of logical theory. The whole sketch is based on Jaakko Hintikka’s logical ideas, mainly on his responses to different authors in PJH. I have systematically omitted direct references to his texts because I have modified considerably his ideas for my own purposes.     

Determinants of imitation of hand-to-body gestures in 2- and 3-year-old children

Twenty children, ten 2-year-olds and ten 3-year-olds, participated in an AB procedure. In the baseline phase, each child was trained the same four matching relations to criterion under intermittent reinforcement. During the subsequent imitation test, the experimenter modeled a total of 20 target gestures (six trials each) interspersed with intermittently reinforced baseline trials. In each session, target gestures were selected in a pre-randomized sequence from: Set 1--ear touches; Set 2--shoulder touches; Set 3--midarm touches; and Set 4--wrist touches; subjects' responses to targets were not reinforced. In each target set, half the gestures featured in nursery matching games and were termed common targets whereas the remainder, which were topographically similar but did not feature in the games, served as uncommon targets. The children produced significantly more matching responses to common target models than to uncommon ones. Common responses were also produced as mismatches to uncommon target models more often than vice versa. Response accuracy did not improve over trials, suggesting that "parity" did not serve as a conditioned reinforcer. All children showed a strong bias for "mirroring"--responding in the same hemispace as the modeler. The 2-year-olds produced more matching errors than the 3-year-olds and most children showed a bias for responding with their right hands. The strong effects of training environment (nursery matching games) are consistent with a Skinnerian account, but not a cognitive goal theory account, of imitation in young children.     

电子游戏的消极影响及争议

国内外的心理学者对暴力与非暴力电子游戏的消极影响做了大量研究, 随着一般学习模型的出现, 电子游戏的积极影响研究开始兴起, 同时也产生了对电子游戏消极影响的激烈争议。通过对近年来电子游戏消极影响研究中存在的问题进行分析, 认为争议的原因主要在于相关研究未能与真实社会情境结合, 研究设计与方法存在异议, 研究范围狭窄, 研究结果相互矛盾等。将研究领域扩展至电子游戏积极影响方面, 以及大范围的纵向研究将是解决这一争议的关键和这一领域未来的研究方向。     

Violent video games and aggressive behavior in young women

The increasing availability of violent video games and their implication in recent school shootings has raised the volume of public debate on the effects of such games on aggressive behavior and related variables. This article reports an experiment designed to test key hypotheses concerning the short term impact of exposure to violent video games on young women, a population that has received relatively little attention in this research literature. Results were that brief exposure to a violent video game increased aggressive behavior. Mediational analyses suggested that the violent video game effect on aggression was not mediated by instrumental aggressive motivation, but was partially mediated by revenge motivation. Other results suggested that the violent video game effect on aggression might be greater when the game player controls a same‐sex violent game character. Aggr. Behav. 29:423–429, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

An argument game for stable semantics

In this paper, we present a discussion game for argumentationunder stable semantics. Our work is inspired by Vreeswijk andPrakken, who have defined a similar game for preferred semantics.In the current paper, we restate Vreeswijk and Prakken's workusing the approach of argument labellings and then show howit can be adjusted for stable semantics. The nature of the resultingargument game is somewhat unusual, since stable semantics doesnot satisfy the property of relevance.     

Prosocial video games reduce aggressive cognitions

Previous research has shown that playing violent video games increased aggressive tendencies. However, as pointed out by the General Learning Model (GLM) [Buckley, K. E., & Anderson, C. A. (2006). A theoretical model of the effects and consequences of playing video games. In: P. Vorderer & J. Bryant (Eds.), Playing video games motives responses and consequences (pp. 363-378). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum], depending on their content, video games do not inevitably increase but may also decrease aggressive responses. Accordingly, the present research tested the hypothesis that playing prosocial video games decreases aggressive cognitions. In fact, playing a prosocial (relative to a neutral) video game reduced the hostile expectation bias (Experiment 1) and decreased the accessibility of antisocial thoughts (Experiment 2). Thus, these results lend credence to GLMs assumption that the effects of video game exposure depend to a great extent on the content of the game played.     

How long do the short‐term violent video game effects last?

How long do the effects of the initial short‐term increase in aggression and physiological arousal last after violent video game play? Study 1 (N=91) had participants complete pre‐ and postvideo game measures of aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings, and heart rate. Then, participants completed Time 3 measures after 4 min or 9 min of delay. Study 2 employed a similar procedure, but had participants (N=91) complete the hot sauce paradigm to assess aggressive behavior after a 0, 5, or 10 min delay. First, results indicated that aggressive feelings, aggressive thoughts, aggressive behavior, and heart rate initially increased after violent video game play. Second, results of the delay condition revealed that the increase in aggressive feelings and aggressive thoughts lasted less than 4 min, whereas heart rate and aggressive behavior lasted 4–9 min. Aggr. Behav. 35:225–236, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Shared focus in mother—child joint activity in the second year of life

Shared focus between mother and child during joint activity was examined. Ten dyads were observed at 16 and 20 months. We found that the level of conventionality expressed by shared focus increases with age. The activity becomes more oriented towards the cultural aspects of the objects than to material aspects, and social games become more oriented towards symbolic and linguistic aspects than to practical ones. Moreover, we found that the content of the game influences the function of the child's utterances both at 16 and at 20 months. These results point to the cultural specification of joint activity, which can be viewed as mediating the development of intersubjectivity as well as individual behaviour.