教师的存在能否促进视频学习?

随着网络教学和视频学习的普及, 近期大量研究关注视频学习过程中教师角色的作用。真人教师对学习的作用存在不同的理论解释：准社会交往理论、社会存在理论和社会代理理论支持真人教师能够促进学习; 而多媒体学习认知理论、认知负荷理论等则认为教师的存在会阻碍视频学习。汇总以往实证研究发现：第一, 教师对视频学习效果有比较弱的促进效应, 这主要体现在保持测验(d = 0.23)和迁移测验(d = 0.1)中; 第二, 教师对视频学习主观体验的影响主要体现在学习感知(d = 0.49), 学习兴趣(d = 0.5)和学习满意度(d = 2.21)上, 显示中等及大的效应; 第三, 教师的存在会降低学习者对视频学习材料的注视时间(d = -2.02)。未来研究仍需要从真人教师呈现方式、学习者特征、学习材料特征以及测量方式等方面加以探讨。     

班主任教师班级管理效能感对学生学习态度及其与学业效能间关系的影响

研究目的在于验证班主任教师的班级管理效能感对学生学习态度等方面有正向预测作用及其对学生学业效能和学习态度间的关系具有调节作用的假设。通过对109个班级的班主任教师和3066名三到六年级的小学生进行问卷调查,多层线性模型(HLM)分析结果表明:(1)在控制学生性别影响时,学生的学习态度、学习方法和学习技术存在显著的班级水平差异;学生学业效能对学生学习态度、学习方法和学习技术有显著的预测作用,且这一影响强度存在显著的班级水平差异。(2)在控制教师所教年级的影响下,班主任教师班级管理效能的高低对学生学习态度、学习方法和学习技术的班级差异具有显著的预测作用,班主任教师班级管理效能感高的班级,学生学习态度越积极;(3)班主任教师班级管理效能感对学生学业效能与学生学习态度和学习方法之间的关系具有显著的调节作用,班主任教师班级管理效能感越高,学生学业效能对学习态度和学习方法的影响越弱,反之班主任教师管理效能感低的班级,学生学业效能感对学习态度的影响较大。     

Evidence of a role for multiple memory systems in behavioral extinction

The acquisition of learned behavior involves multiple memory systems, and hippocampal system damage impairs cognitive learning while leaving stimulus-response habit learning intact. In view of evidence that extinction also involves new learning, the present experiments examined whether multiple memory systems theory may be applicable to the neural bases of extinction. Adult Long-Evans rats were trained to run in a straight-alley maze for food reward. Twenty-four hours later, rats matched for runway latencies during acquisition received extinction training. In a response extinction condition conducive to habit learning, rats performed a runway approach response to an empty food cup. In a latent extinction condition conducive to cognitive learning, rats were placed at an empty food cup without performing a runway approach response. Prior to daily extinction training, neural activity of the dorsal hippocampus was reversibly inactivated via infusion of bupivacaine (0.75%, 0.5 microl/side). Control rats receiving saline infusions displayed extinction behavior in both the response and latent training conditions. In contrast, rats receiving bupivacaine extinguished normally in the response condition, but did not display latent extinction. The findings (1) confirm that learning underlying extinction of the same overt behavior can occur with or without explicit performance of the previously acquired response, (2) indicate that extinction learning produced by response and latent training procedures can be neuroanatomically dissociated, and (3) suggest that similarly to initial task acquisition, the hippocampus may critically mediate extinction in situations requiring the use of cognitive learning, such as when performance of a previously acquired response habit is prevented.     

Developmental study of multiple memory stages in the cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis

The inhibition of predatory behavior observed during the "prawn-in-the-tube" procedure has been extensively used in studies of cuttlefish learning. The present study examines the effect of age on the conditioning of this response in the cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis. Data show that a significant increase in acquisition performance occurs between 15 and 21 days of age. The retention curves in 8- and 15-day-old cuttlefish show a monotonic memory process, presumably reflecting the presence of only short-term memory. In 21-day-old cuttlefish, there are two distinct processes which could be a labile short-term memory, and a subsequent intermediate memory. These mnesic systems seem to become more effective over the course of post-embryonic development. Moreover, the retention curves obtained in the oldest cuttlefish (30- and 90-day-old) bear a close resemblance to that observed in adults. These behavioral findings will allow further work on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of learning and memory in the cuttlefish.     

Satisfiability Decay along Conjunctions of Pseudo-Random Clauses

k-SAT is a fundamental constraint satisfaction problem. It involvesS(m), the satisfaction set of the conjunction of m clauses,each clause a disjunction of k literals. The problem has manytheoretical, algorithmic and practical aspects. When the clauses are chosen at random it is anticipated (butnot fully proven) that, as the density parameter m/n (n thenumber of variables) grows, the transition of S(m) to beingempty, is abrupt: It has a "sharp threshold", with probability1 – o(1). In this article we replace the random ensemble analysis by apseudo-random one: Derive the decay rule for individual sequencesof clauses, subject to combinatorial conditions, which in turnhold with probability 1 – o(1). This is carried out under the big relaxation that k is not constantbut k = log n , or even r log log n . Then the decay of S isslow, "near-perfect" (like a radioactive decay), which entailssharp thresholds for the transition-time of S below any givenlevel, down to S = .     

Imitation: definitions, evidence, and mechanisms

Imitation can be defined as the copying of behavior. To a biologist, interest in imitation is focused on its adaptive value for the survival of the organism, but to a psychologist, the mechanisms responsible for imitation are the most interesting. For psychologists, the most important cases of imitation are those that involve demonstrated behavior that the imitator cannot see when it performs the behavior (e.g., scratching one's head). Such examples of imitation are sometimes referred to as opaque imitation because they are difficult to account for without positing cognitive mechanisms, such as perspective taking, that most animals have not been acknowledged to have. The present review first identifies various forms of social influence and social learning that do not qualify as opaque imitation, including species-typical mechanisms (e.g., mimicry and contagion), motivational mechanisms (e.g., social facilitation, incentive motivation, transfer of fear), attentional mechanisms (e.g., local enhancement, stimulus enhancement), imprinting, following, observational conditioning, and learning how the environment works (affordance learning). It then presents evidence for different forms of opaque imitation in animals, and identifies characteristics of human imitation that have been proposed to distinguish it from animal imitation. Finally, it examines the role played in opaque imitation by demonstrator reinforcement and observer motivation. Although accounts of imitation have been proposed that vary in their level of analysis from neural to cognitive, at present no theory of imitation appears to be adequate to account for the varied results that have been found.     

Are we "experienced listeners"? A review of the musical capacities that do not depend on formal musical training

The present paper reviews a set of studies designed to investigate different aspects of the capacity for processing Western music. This includes perceiving the relationships between a theme and its variations, perceiving musical tensions and relaxations, generating musical expectancies, integrating local structures in large-scale structures, learning new compositional systems and responding to music in an emotional (affective) way. The main focus of these studies was to evaluate the influence of intensive musical training on these capacities. The overall set of data highlights that some musical capacities are acquired through exposure to music without the help of explicit training. These capacities reach such a degree of sophistication that they enable untrained listeners to respond to music as "musically experienced listeners" do.     

Event-related fMRI of category learning: differences in classification and feedback networks

Eighteen healthy young adults underwent event-related (ER) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain while performing a visual category learning task. The specific category learning task required subjects to extract the rules that guide classification of quasi-random patterns of dots into categories. Following each classification choice, visual feedback was presented. The average hemodynamic response was calculated across the eighteen subjects to identify the separate networks associated with both classification and feedback. Random-effects analyses identified the different networks implicated during the classification and feedback phases of each trial. The regions included prefrontal cortex, frontal eye fields, supplementary motor and eye fields, thalamus, caudate, superior and inferior parietal lobules, and areas within visual cortex. The differences between classification and feedback were identified as (i) overall higher volumes and signal intensities during classification as compared to feedback, (ii) involvement of the thalamus and superior parietal regions during the classification phase of each trial, and (iii) differential involvement of the caudate head during feedback. The effects of learning were then evaluated for both classification and feedback. Early in learning, subjects showed increased activation in the hippocampal regions during classification and activation in the heads of the caudate nuclei during the corresponding feedback phases. The findings suggest that early stages of prototype-distortion learning are characterized by networks previously associated with strategies of explicit memory and hypothesis testing. However as learning progresses the networks change. This finding suggests that the cognitive strategies also change during prototype-distortion learning.     

A comparison of intra- and inter-limb relative motion information in modelling a novel motor skill

The importance of intra- and inter-limb relative motion in modelling a whole body coordination skill was examined. Participants were assigned to one of four groups: Full-Body point light model of a cricket bowler, INTRA-LIMB relative motion of the bowling arm, INTER-LIMB relative motions of the right and left wrists or NO-Relative motion, showing only the motions of the right wrist. During 60 acquisition trials, participants viewed the model five times before each 10-trial block. Retention was examined the following day. Although all groups improved on intra-limb coordination of the bowling arm, the INTRA-LIMB and FULL-BODY groups were more accurate than the INTER-LIMB group in acquisition, although these groups did not differ in retention. For inter-limb coordination, the three groups who received relative motion information performed more like the model than the NO-Relative motion group (even though the INTRA-LIMB group did not see the other limb). The amount of information within a display plays a constraining role on acquisition, perhaps more so than the type of information, such that the acquisition of coordination is more an emergent feature of observational learning, rather than a direct approximation of the model.     

The role of phonological recoding in orthographic learning

The objective of this research was to explore whether orthographic learning occurs as a result of phonological recoding, as expected from the self-teaching hypothesis. The participants were 32 fourth- and fifth-graders (mean age = 10 years 0 months, SD = 7 months) who performed lexical decisions for monosyllabic real words and pseudowords under two matched experimental conditions: a read aloud condition, wherein items were named prior to lexical decision to promote phonological recoding, and a concurrent articulation condition, presumed to attenuate phonological recoding. Later, orthographic learning of the pseudowords was evaluated using orthographic choice, spelling, and naming tasks. Consistent with the self-teaching hypothesis, targets learned with phonological recoding in the read aloud condition yielded greater orthographic learning than those learned with concurrent articulation. The research confirms the critical nature of phonological recoding in the development of visual word recognition skills and an orthographic lexicon.