Successive relearning improves performance on a high-stakes exam in a difficult biopsychology course

Successive relearning combines two effective learning techniques (retrieval practice and spaced practice) and involves practicing retrieval until some level of mastery has been reached (i.e., at least one correct retrieval attempt) in each of multiple sessions. Several laboratory studies have demonstrated the promise of successive relearning for enhancing student learning, but attempts to evaluate its effectiveness in authentic educational contexts are limited. In the current research, we implemented successive relearning in a difficult biopsychology course to examine its effectiveness at enhancing student learning on a high-stakes exam. Students successively relearned some course content via a virtual flashcard program, whereas other course content was learned with business-as-usual activities. In two experiments, successive relearning boosted students' learning of course content by at least 10% (with ds ranging from 0.54 to 1.10). These findings suggest that implementing successive relearning in courses can be an effective method of promoting student achievement.     

Estimating the population size of transgender women in San Francisco using multiple methods, 2013

Purpose: To estimate the number of adult transgender women (TGW) in San Francisco and to provide an example of how estimation can be conducted.

Methods: Using nine different services accessed by the TGW population, the service multiplier, integrated into a respondent-driven sampling (RDS) survey of TGW, was used to calculate nine estimates of the TGW population in San Francisco. Both the successive sampling method, also integrated into the RDS survey of TGW, and a population proportion from the literature each calculated an additional estimate of the TGW population. The median of all 11 estimates was calculated to present a single estimate of the TGW population in San Francisco.

Results: The median of estimates was 978 TGW in San Francisco (plausibility bounds 635 – 1,400). This estimate is consistent with known cases of HIV among TGW and surveys on the prevalence of infection in the TGW population.

Conclusion: Using multiple methods, we estimate the TGW population size to be 0.13% of the San Francisco population. Despite small numbers, TGW bear a disproportionate burden of HIV infection in San Francisco. TGW are a priority for HIV care and prevention services.     

A REPLICATION AND EXTENSION OF THE ANTISYMMETRY EFFECT IN PIGEONS

Pigeons trained on successive AB symbolic matching show emergent BA antisymmetry if they are also trained on successive AA oddity and BB identity ( Urcuioli, 2008 , Experiment 4). In other words, when tested on BA probe trials following training, they respond more to the comparisons on the reverse of the nonreinforced AB baseline trials than on the reverse of the reinforced AB baseline trials (the opposite of an associative symmetry pattern). The present experiment replicated this finding. In addition, it showed that antisymmetry also emerged after baseline training on successive AB symbolic matching, AA identity, and BB oddity, consistent with the prediction from Urcuioli's (2008) theory of pigeons' stimulus‐class formation. Together, these results provide further empirical support for that theory including the proposition that the functional stimuli in pigeons' successive matching consist of the nominal stimuli plus their ordinal positions within a trial.     

Emergent identity matching after successive matching training. II: Reflexivity or transitivity

Three experiments evaluated whether the apparent reflexivity effect reported by Sweeney and Urcuioli (2010) for pigeons might, in fact, be transitivity. In Experiment 1, pigeons learned symmetrically reinforced hue-form (A-B) and form-hue (B-A) successive matching. Those also trained on form-form (B-B) matching responded more to hue comparisons that matched their preceding samples on subsequent hue-hue (A-A) probe trials. By contrast, most pigeons trained on just A-B and B-A matching did not show this effect; but some did--a finding consistent with transitivity. Experiment 2 showed that the latter pigeons also responded more to form comparisons that matched their preceding samples on form-form (B-B) probe trials. Experiment 3 tested the prediction that hue-hue matching versus hue-hue oddity, respectively, should emerge after symmetrically versus asymmetrically reinforced arbitrary matching relations if those relations are truly transitive. For the few pigeons showing an emergent effect, comparison response rates were higher when a probe-trial comparison matched its preceding sample independently of the baseline contingencies. These results indicate neither a reflexivity nor a transitivity effect but, rather, a possible identity bias.     

Conjoint control of performance in conditional discriminations by successive and simultaneous stimuli.

In a conditional discrimination, reinforcement of pigeons' responses to pairs of simultaneously presented wavelength stimuli depended on the orientation of white lines superimposed on the wavelengths. Over different conditions in Experiment 1, three wavelength differences were combined with two differences between successively presented line orientations. Measures of stimulus discriminability increased with increases in the difference between both orientation and wavelength stimuli. Conditional-discrimination performance was thus conjointly determined by stimulus disparity in the successive and simultaneous discriminations. In Experiment 2, ratios of rates of reinforcement contingent upon the two categories of correct responses were varied over several conditions for difficult and easy discriminations. Ratios of responses to wavelength pairs were sensitive to variations in the reinforcement ratio to a greater extent for the more difficult orientation discrimination than for the easier orientation discrimination. Performance in the conditional discrimination was therefore determined by the interacting effects of stimulus disparity and the relative rates of reinforcement contingent upon the two correct choices. It was concluded that the effect of temporally distant reinforcement on behavior in a prevailing schedule component is attenuated to an extent that depends on similarity of stimuli that delineate the successive components.     

Shaping by automated tracking of an arbitrary operant response

Although shaping is a widely accepted operant-conditioning procedure for establishing new responses, technological problems involved in specifying and recording precise approximations to the target response have hindered experimental analysis of the shaping process. The present study used a computer-controlled system that allows relatively precise procedural specification by continuous tracking of a pigeon's head and reinforcing successively closer approximations to contact of the head with an arbitrary fixed spherical region of 3-cm diameter. The procedure was demonstrated to be effective, in that shaping of the target response occurred rapidly for each of the 3 birds in the study.     

Multidimensional successive categories scaling: A maximum likelihood method

A single-step maximum likelihood estimation procedure is developed for multidimensional scaling of dissimilarity data measured on rating scales. The procedure can fit the euclidian distance model to the data under various assumptions about category widths and under two distributional assumptions. The scoring algorithm for parameter estimation has been developed and implemented in the form of a computer program. Practical uses of the method are demonstrated with an emphasis on various advantages of the method as a statistical procedure.The research reported here was partly supported by Grant A6394 to the author by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Portions of this research were presented at the Psychometric Society meeting in Uppsala, Sweden, in June, 1978. MAXSCAL-2.1, a program to perform the computations discussed in this paper may be obtained from the author. Thanks are due to Jim Ramsay for his helpful comments.     

A COMPARISON OF THREE STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING OBJECT NAMES

Researchers in applied behavior analysis have been charged to provide large-scale demonstrations of the outcomes of evaluations. In this research, three experiments were conducted to examine the relative efficacy of three methods of presenting stimuli in object naming tasks. Stimuli were introduced successively, simultaneously, or using a combination of the two procedures. College adults, mentally retarded children and adolescents, and preschool children were taught to produce the names of five Hebrew letters, English words, or American coins, respectively. Presentation method was a between-subjects treatment in a factorial design. Results from the series of systematic replications were consistent in showing better posttest performance for subjects in the Simultaneous and Combined conditions. Further, follow-up data in Experiment III showed that retention was also superior for subjects trained by the Simultaneous or Combined methods. Although the acquisition criterion was met in fewer trials by subjects in the Successive condition, only several minutes more training time was required by the Simultaneous and Combined conditions. From a cost-effectiveness point of view, either of the latter two techniques should be favored over the Successive procedure for teaching verbal naming skills.     

A stochastic multidimensional unfolding approach for representing phased decision outcomes

This paper presents a stochastic multidimensional unfolding (MDU) procedure to spatially represent individual differences in phased or sequential decision processes. The specific application or scenario to be discussed involves the area of consumer psychology where consumers form judgments sequentially in their awareness, consideration, and choice set compositions in a phased or sequential manner as more information about the alternative brands in a designated product/service class are collected. A brief review of the consumer psychology literature on these nested congnitive sets as stages in phased decision making is provided. The technical details of the proposed model, maximum likelihood estimation framework, and algorithm are then discussed. A small scale Monte Carlo analysis is presented to demonstrate estimation proficiency and the appropriateness of the proposed model selection heuristic. An application of the methodology to capture awareness, consideration, and choice sets in graduate school applicants is presented. Finally, directions for future research and other potential applications are given.