What is an academic emotion? Insights from Filipino bilingual students’ emotion words associated with learning

We explored Filipino learners’ concept of academic emotions by studying the words they use to describe their emotional experiences associated with learning. Two main theoretical frames were used as reference in the analysis: Clore, Ortony, & Foss’ (1978) taxonomy of emotion words, and Pekrun’s (2006) dimensions of academic emotions. We asked Filipino learners to describe the positive and negative emotions that they associate with their learning experiences using an open ended questionnaire. The 676 students used 1337 words which were classified into root word categories; 38 categories which were mentioned by at least 1% of the participants were included in the analysis. The interpretive analysis suggested that Filipino learners’ concept of academic emotions includes appraisals of cognitive and even physical conditions, beyond the typical affective conditions assumed in theories of emotions and academic emotions. Moreover, Filipino learners’ concepts of academic emotions include a wider range of emotion concepts, and may require additional characteristic dimensions, compared to what is being studied in current academic emotions research.     

Similarity and rules United: similarity- and rule-based processing in a single neural network

A central controversy in cognitive science concerns the roles of rules versus similarity. To gain some leverage on this problem, we propose that rule- versus similarity-based processes can be characterized as extremes in a multidimensional space that is composed of at least two dimensions: the number of features (Pothos, 2005) and the physical presence of features. The transition of similarity- to rule-based processing is conceptualized as a transition in this space. To illustrate this, we show how a neural network model uses input features (and in this sense produces similarity-based responses) when it has a low learning rate or in the early phases of training, but it switches to using self-generated, more abstract features (and in this sense produces rule-based responses) when it has a higher learning rate or is in the later phases of training. Relations with categorization and the psychology of learning are pointed out.     

Development and learning: a TASC-based perspective of the acquisition of perceptual-motor behaviors

The concepts of development and learning are discussed in terms of different theoretical orientations to the study of motor behavior. It is argued that although these concepts are commonly used to discuss various aspects of change across the life span, there is little agreement regarding the definition of these terms and even whether these are useful concepts for researchers studying change over time. A theoretical approach, the TASC-based approach is presented as an alternative account for examining change over time. The TASC label stands for a focus on particular tasks, adaptation and selection of behaviors as a function of constraints. This account is grounded in evolutionary theory and assumes that variability, selection, and adaptation are central to change over time within individuals. Emphasis is placed on the tasks individuals attempt to solve in achieving particular goals given the constraints of the local environment and the organism. An alternative manner to conceptualize the concepts of development and learning are presented within the TASC-based approach.     

Rater Agreement on IQ and Achievement Tests: Effect on Evaluations of Learning Disabilities

Protocols from 110 evaluations utilizing the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III) and the Woodcock/Johnson Tests of Achievement-Revised (W/J-R) were scored by two different raters to determine (a) whether subtests with more difficult levels of scoring yield lower interrater correlation coefficients, (b) whether scoring errors on subtests affect broad score estimates, (c) the effect of expertise of rater on scoring errors, and (d) whether scoring errors affect a learning disability determination based on IQ/achievement discrepancy. Scoring errors were found on almost 25% of Comprehension and Vocabulary subtests; however, the effect of these scoring errors was minimal. About 42% of Writing Samples subtests had scoring errors, resulting in a mean change of 1.75 points on the Broad Written Language Cluster subtest. On the WISC-III, but not the W/J-R, there were significantly more errors made by inexperienced testers. Scoring errors resulted in two cases in which learning disability determination would be changed. Overall, the study corroborates previous findings of strong interrater reliability on most subtests of common IQ and achievement tests and indicates that novice scorers are not likely to make scoring mistakes that will significantly impact an IQ/achievement discrepancy-based documentation of learning disability.     

Matching and oddity relational learning by pigeons (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Columba livia</Emphasis>): transfer from color to shape

Relational learning, as opposed to perceptual learning, is based on the abstract properties of the stimuli. Although at present there is no doubt that pigeons are capable of relational behavior, this study aims to further disclose the conditions under which it occurs. Pigeons were trained in an outdoor cage on a matching-to-sample or an oddity-from-sample task, with colored cardboard stimuli presented horizontally. The apparatus involved three sliding lids on which the stimuli were drawn and which, when displaced, revealed the reinforcement. The lids were either adjacent to each other or somewhat separated. Training sessions involved two colors, and test sessions six different colors (same dimension test), or six different shapes (different dimension test). One group of birds trained under the ‘adjacent’ condition failed when tested with new stimuli, but succeeded in both dimension tests after training under the ‘separate’ condition. Two other groups of birds succeeded in all tests after training under the latter condition. These results show that depending on procedural details, pigeons are or are not able to transfer from one visual dimension to another, thus extending previous related findings.     

中国远程学习者学习风格理论模型与验证

为帮助中国远程学习者了解自身的学习风格,选择相应的学习策略,进而提高远程学习质量,根据学习风格的信息加工理论、Kolb的经验学习理论以及荣格的人格特征类型理论,从生理、社会、心理三个维度,构建了我国远程学习者学习风格的理论模型,通过编制量表和实际测量,对该模型进行验证分析和修订完善.结果表明,最初提出的理论模型假设得到验证,修订后的量表具有良好的效度和信度,可以用来测量我国远程学习者的学习风格.     

Developing a Measure That Captures Elderly’s Well-Being in Local Marketplace Transactions

The goal of this study is to report on the development of a measure designed to capture elderly satisfaction with local retail establishments. The measure is based on the notion that elderly consumers experience well-being with retail institutions in purchasing food, housing, household operations, household furnishings, clothing and accessories, personal care, medical care, recreation, transportation, and education. Two-hundred and forty-nine (N = 249) elderly consumers were surveyed to demonstrate the validity of this measure. Specifically, it was hypothesized that satisfaction with retail establishments in one’s community contributes to overall life satisfaction. The data supported the validity of the measure.     

The error statistical philosopher as normative naturalist

We argue for a naturalistic account for appraising scientific methods that carries non-trivial normative force. We develop our approach by comparison with Laudan’s (American Philosophical Quarterly 24:19–31, 1987, Philosophy of Science 57:20–33, 1990) “normative naturalism” based on correlating means (various scientific methods) with ends (e.g., reliability). We argue that such a meta-methodology based on means–ends correlations is unreliable and cannot achieve its normative goals. We suggest another approach for meta-methodology based on a conglomeration of tools and strategies (from statistical modeling, experimental design, and related fields) that affords forward looking procedures for learning from error and for controlling error. The resulting “error statistical” appraisal is empirical—methods are appraised by examining their capacities to control error. At the same time, this account is normative, in that the strategies that pass muster are claims about how actually to proceed in given contexts to reach reliable inferences from limited data.     

Learning from Tolstoy: Forgetfulness and Recognition in Literary Edification

Philosophers have often applied a distinctively epistemic framework to the question of how moral knowledge can be derived from fictional literature, by considering how true propositions, or their argumentative support, can be the cognitive fruits of reading works of fiction. I offer an alternative approach. I focus not on whether readers fail to assent to the truth of a proposition or fail to provide it rational support. Instead, I focus on how readers fail to accord a truth (which they already accept) adequate importance in their web of beliefs about living a good human life. This is a form of ignorance, but in the form of neglect, or failure to pay proper regard – which is one sense of the term ‘forgetfulness’. I argue that works of fictional literature may, at times, stimulate audience members to overcome their own particular forms of forgetfulness in this respect. And I use Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich as a case in point.

Simplicity and generalization: Short-cutting abstraction in children's object categorizations

Development in any domain is often characterized by increasingly abstract representations. Recent evidence in the domain of shape recognition provides one example; between 18 and 24 months children appear to build increasingly abstract representations of object shape [Smith, L. B. (2003). Learning to recognize objects. Psychological Science, 14, 244-250]. Abstraction is in part simplification because it requires the removal of irrelevant information. At the same time, part of generalization is ignoring irrelevant differences. The resulting prediction is this: simplification may enable generalization. Four experiments asked whether simple training instances could shortcut the process of abstraction and directly promote appropriate generalization. Toddlers were taught novel object categories with either simple or complex training exemplars. We found that children who learned with simple objects were able to generalize according to shape similarity, typically relevant for early object categories, better than those who learned with complex objects. Abstraction is the product of learning; using simplified - already abstracted instances - can short-cut that learning, leading to robust generalization.