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Descriptors:
Behavior Modification; Animals; Stress Variables; Restraints (Vehicle Safety); Biochemistry; Control Groups; Animal Behavior; Task Analysis; Memory; Hypothesis Testing

Abstract:
The present research explored the effects of restraint stress on two situations involving incentive downshift: consummatory successive negative contrast (cSNC) and extinction of escape behavior in the Barnes maze. First, Experiment 1 confirmed that the restraint stress procedure used in these experiments increased levels of circulating corticosterone. Second, prior exposure to restraint stress enhanced the cSNC effect whether stress was administered before the first downshift trial (Experiment 2) or before the second downshift trial (Experiment 3). In none of these experiments did restraint stress affect the consummatory behavior of unshifted controls. In Experiment 4, animals received training to escape into a target hole in the Barnes maze and were then exposed to eight extinction trials in which the escape box was absent. Restraint stress before extinction did not affect the latency to reach the target hole, but it increased the distance traveled and approach to nontarget holes. In Experiment 5, restraint stress before a post-extinction test a day later reduced spontaneous recovery in approach to the goal hole without affecting exploratory behavior. The results were interpreted in terms of the aversive summation hypothesis according to which two sources of stress (i.e., restraint and incentive downshift) can affect behavior and enhance the retrieval of aversive memory. (Contains 7 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Task Analysis; Responses; Familiarity; Performance; Olfactory Perception; Animals; Stimuli; Short Term Memory; Comparative Analysis; Decision Making; Cues

Abstract:
The olfactory span task (OST) uses an incrementing non-matching to sample procedure such that the number of stimuli to remember increases during the session. The number of consecutive correct responses (span length) and percent correct as a function of the memory load have been viewed as defining rodent working memory capacity limitations in several studies using the OST. However, the procedural parameters of the OST vary across experiments and their effects are not well understood. For example, in several studies, the number of stimuli to remember is confounded with the number of comparison stimuli displayed in the test arena. Experiment 1 addressed whether performance is influenced by the number of comparison choices available on any given trial (2, 5, 10) as well as the number of odor stimuli to remember during a session (12, 24, 36). Performance was most accurate when the number of stimuli to remember was low, as would be expected from a working memory interpretation of OST. However, accuracy was also affected by the number of comparison stimulus choices. High levels of accuracy were seen even with 36 odors, suggesting that the capacity for odor memory in rats was greater than suggested by previous research. Experiment 2 attempted to define this capacity by programming sessions with 36, 48 or 72 stimuli to remember in a group of rats that had previously received extensive OST training. Highly accurate performance (80% correct or better) was sustained throughout the session at even the greatest memory loads, arguing strongly against the notion that the OST models the limited capacity of human working memory. Experiment 3 explored the possibility that stimulus control in the OST is based on relative stimulus familiarity, rather than recognition of stimuli not yet presented during the current session. Number of odor cups visited increased with the number of comparisons in the arena, but rats rarely sampled all of the comparison odors before responding. However, on probe trials which included only stimuli that had been presented during the session, latency to respond and number of comparisons sampled was sharply increased. These data suggest that responding in the OST is determined not just by relative familiarity, but rather by a more specific "what-when" or perhaps "how long ago" form of stimulus control. (Contains 4 tables and 8 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Foster Care; Attention Deficit Disorders; Executive Function; Disadvantaged Environment; At Risk Persons; Children; Correlation; Residential Institutions; Brain Hemisphere Functions; Diagnostic Tests; Task Analysis; Adoption; Inhibition; Attention Control

Abstract:
Background: Children reared in deprived environments, such as institutions for the care of orphaned or abandoned children, are at increased risk for attention and behavior regulation difficulties. This study examined the neurobehavioral correlates of executive attention in post institutionalized (PI) children. Methods: The performance and event-related potentials (ERPs) of 10- and 11-year-old internationally adopted PI children on two executive attention tasks, Go/No-go and Flanker, were compared with two groups: children internationally adopted early from foster care (PF) and nonadopted children (NA). Results: Behavioral measures suggested problems with sustained attention, with PIs performing more poorly on Go trials and not on No-go trials of the Go/No-go and made more errors on both congruent and incongruent trials on the Flanker. ERPs suggested differences in inhibitory control and error monitoring, as PIs had smaller N2 amplitude on Go/No-go and smaller error-related negativity on Flanker. Conclusions: This pattern of results raises questions regarding the nature of attention difficulties for PI children. The behavioral errors are not specific to executive attention and instead likely reflect difficulties in overall sustained attention. The ERP results are consistent with neural activity related to deficits in inhibitory control (N2) and error monitoring (error-related negativity). Questions emerge regarding the similarity of attention regulatory difficulties in PIs to those experienced by non-PI children with ADHD. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Program Effectiveness; Adolescents; Risk; Health Behavior; Task Analysis; Intervention; Program Evaluation; Behavior Change; Student School Relationship; Program Descriptions; Measurement

Abstract:
School connectedness has a significant impact on adolescent outcomes, including reducing risk-taking behavior. This paper critically examines the literature on school-based programs targeting increased connectedness for reductions in risk taking. Fourteen articles describing seven different school-based programs were reviewed. Programs drew on a range of theories to increase school connectedness, and evaluations conducted for the majority of programs demonstrated positive changes in school connectedness, risk behavior, or a combination of the two. Many of the reviewed programs involved widespread school system change, however, which is frequently a complex and time-consuming task. Future research is needed to examine the extent of intervention complexity required to result in change. This review also showed a lack of consistency in the definitions and measurement of connectedness as well as few mediation analyses testing assumptions of impact on risk-taking behavior through increases in school connectedness. Additionally, this review revealed very limited evaluation of the elements of multicomponent programs that are most effective in increasing school connectedness and reducing adolescent risk taking. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Memory; Personality Traits; Semantics; Scoring; Cognitive Style; Personality; Metacognition; Task Analysis; Self Efficacy; Scores; Measures (Individuals); Correlation; Decision Making

Abstract:
In learning contexts, people need to make realistic confidence judgments about their memory performance. The present study investigated whether second-order judgments of first-order confidence judgments could help people improve their confidence judgments of semantic memory information. Furthermore, we assessed whether different personality and cognitive style constructs help explain differences in this ability. Participants answered 40 general knowledge questions and rated how confident they were that they had answered each question correctly. They were then asked to adjust the confidence judgments they believed to be most unrealistic, thus making second-order judgments of their first-order judgments. As a group, the participants did not increase the realism of their confidence judgments, but they did significantly increase their confidence for correct items. Furthermore, participants scoring high on an openness composite were more likely to display higher confidence after both the first- and second-order judgments. Moreover, participants scoring high on the openness and the extraversion composites were more likely to display higher levels of overconfidence after both the first- and second-order judgments. In general, however, personality and cognitive style factors showed only a weak relationship with the ability to modify the most unrealistic confidence judgments. Finally, the results showed no evidence that personality and cognitive style supported first- and second-order judgments differently. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Teaching Methods; English (Second Language); Grounded Theory; Graduate Students; Humanities; Language Styles; Task Analysis; English for Special Purposes; Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; Intellectual Disciplines

Abstract:
Genre-based approaches are widely used in academic writing courses for graduate students. Yet, despite numerous studies of academic discourses and genres, there is still little research focusing on the learner in ESP genre-based instruction, and further consideration of individual learners' responses to genre pedagogy is needed. This article reports on a study conducted at a multi-disciplinary humanities faculty. It examines graduate learners' approaches to "examine-and-report-back" genre-analysis tasks by comparing 32 students from four disciplines: archaeology, history, literature, and media studies. The data are subjected to qualitative analysis inspired by the constant comparative method. The overview of features in students' genre-analysis tasks across the four disciplines is illustrated with excerpts from student writing. Graduate learners' approaches to genre-analysis fall into two categories: descriptive and analytical. It is shown that graduate learners' approaches to genre-analysis tasks vary depending on individual students' capacity to analyse academic texts in relation to their purpose, audience, and disciplinary practices. Another possible factor impacting this variation includes the extent of learners' understanding of disciplinary knowledge-making practices. Finally, students' own aims and learning histories affect the way they approach genre-analysis tasks. (Contains 2 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Workplace Learning; Vocational Education; Learning Processes; Task Analysis; Predictor Variables; Research Methodology; Trainees; Novelty (Stimulus Dimension); Feedback (Response); Diaries; Education Work Relationship; Regression (Statistics); Helping Relationship; Office Occupations; Clerical Occupations; Sales Occupations

Abstract:
Most learning in the workplace occurs while pursuing working rather than learning goals. The studies at hand aimed to identify task characteristics that foster learning in the workplace. Task characteristics are supposed to exert a major effect on the learning potential. However, the fact that learning is more often than not a rather unconscious by-product of working poses methodological challenges because respondents might not be capable of accurately recalling daily work experiences. Diaries were applied in order to bring measurement closer to the processes. Three diary studies were conducted in the field of office work within vocational education and training, with trainees requested to record particular work tasks several times a day. Each diary record, i.e., each work task, required a rating of ten standardized items relating to task characteristics including the perceived learning potential of the present task. Eighteen trainees aiming to become retail salespersons recorded 488 work tasks, 10 trainees aiming to become bank clerks recorded 1,113 work tasks, and 20 trainees aiming to become industrial clerks recorded 573 work tasks. The aim of these studies was to explain the variance in the perceived learning potentials from further task characteristics using regression analyses. The extent of the explained variance ranged from 46.6% in study 1 to 77.8% in study 3. Interestingness, novelty, assistance from others, and feedback turned out to be the best predictors, whereas scope of action even showed negative influences. Practical implications for workplace learning as well as methodological recommendations for using diary methods in the workplace are discussed. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Native Speakers; Learning Experience; Nouns; Spanish; Second Language Learning; Morphology (Languages); Heritage Education; Form Classes (Languages); Language Proficiency; Task Analysis; Pictorial Stimuli; Language Research; Oral Language; Error Patterns; Graduate Students; Advanced Courses

Abstract:
This study examined whether type of early language experience provides advantages to heritage speakers over second language (L2) learners with morphology, and investigated knowledge of gender agreement and its interaction with diminutive formation. Diminutives are a hallmark of Child Directed Speech in early language development and a highly productive morphological mechanism that facilitates the acquisition of declensional noun endings in many languages (Savickiene and Dressler, 2007). In Spanish, diminutives regularize gender marking in nouns with a non-canonical ending. Twenty-four Spanish native speakers, 29 heritage speakers and 37 L2 learners with intermediate to advanced proficiency completed two picture-naming tasks and an elicited production task. Results showed that the heritage speakers were more accurate than the L2 learners with gender agreement in general, and with non-canonical ending nouns in particular. This study confirms that early language experience and the type of input received confer some advantages to heritage speakers over L2 learners with early-acquired aspects of language, especially in oral production. (Contains 8 tables, 5 figures and 7 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Native Speakers; Priming; Morphology (Languages); Language Processing; Psycholinguistics; Second Language Learning; English (Second Language); Semitic Languages; Advanced Students; Eye Movements; Task Analysis; Grammar

Abstract:
We report findings from psycholinguistic experiments investigating the detailed timing of processing morphologically complex words by proficient adult second (L2) language learners of English in comparison to adult native (L1) speakers of English. The first study employed the masked priming technique to investigate "-ed" forms with a group of advanced Arabic-speaking learners of English. The results replicate previously found L1/L2 differences in morphological priming, even though in the present experiment an extra temporal delay was offered after the presentation of the prime words. The second study examined the timing of constraints against inflected forms inside derived words in English using the eye-movement monitoring technique and an additional acceptability judgment task with highly advanced Dutch L2 learners of English in comparison to adult L1 English controls. Whilst offline the L2 learners performed native-like, the eye-movement data showed that their online processing was not affected by the morphological constraint against regular plurals inside derived words in the same way as in native speakers. Taken together, these findings indicate that L2 learners are not just slower than native speakers in processing morphologically complex words, but that the L2 comprehension system employs real-time grammatical analysis (in this case, morphological information) less than the L1 system. (Contains 8 tables, 1 figure, and 2 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Grammar; Nouns; Language Processing; Control Groups; Language Proficiency; Morphemes; Native Language; Morphology (Languages); Phrase Structure; Korean; Second Language Learning; Task Analysis; Language Research

Abstract:
This study examined the second language (L2) acquisition of the Korean plural marker -"tul" by native speakers of English. Seventy-seven learners at four Korean proficiency levels along with 31 native Korean-speaking controls completed five tasks designed to probe for knowledge of particular features and restrictions associated with so-called intrinsic and extrinsic plural-marking in Korean. The results suggest that knowledge of both types of plural developed with increasing proficiency. However, the features associated with the intrinsic plural, which is more similar to the English plural in terms of grammatical function, were more easily acquired than those of the extrinsic (distributive) plural, which requires recruiting the features of a completely distinct morpholexical item from the first language (L1). We also found some developmental evidence for a feature hierarchy in quantified Korean noun phrases, in which the most deeply-embedded featural co-occurrence restriction on intrinsic plural-marking was the latest acquired. (Contains 15 tables, 2 figures and 19 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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