Types Of Learning Tasks Research Articles

Cognitive and sensory capacity each contribute to the canine spatial bias.

Dogs interpret cues as being about location, which human infants would relate to objects. This spatial bias could shed light on the evolution of object-centered thought, however, research needs to rule out that this is not a by-product of dogs' weaker (compared to humans) visual capacities. In this study, we used a data set in which dogs were tested in two types of learning tasks (discrimination and reversal learning) with two types of rewarded cues (location and object features). In both tasks, dogs displayed spatial bias, that is, faster learning when the rewarded cue was a location. We investigated how sensory and cognitive capacity each contributes to this spatial bias. To this end, an estimate for general cognitive ability (g) was obtained from a battery of tests for some of the dogs. Cephalic index, a feature targeted in breeding and linked to differences in visual capacity, correlated negatively with the expression of spatial bias only in the easier discrimination learning task, while a negative correlation between g factor and spatial bias scores emerged in the more difficult reversal learning task. We conclude that dogs' spatial bias cannot be reduced to a sensory limitation and is easier to overcome with greater cognitive capacity.

Multimodal learning: How task types affect learning of students with reading difficulties

Purpose: The prevalence of multimedia technology in the current educational settings has increased the need for investigating how individual differences such as reading difficulties moderate multimedia learning. Given that instructional designs closely interact with task characteristics and requirements, we aimed to explore how students with reading difficulties perform various types of learning tasks within the context of multimedia instruction.Methods: College students with and without reading difficulties viewed a multimedia lesson on stem cell research while their eye movements were recorded. After viewing the multimedia slides, students completed four tasks pertaining to the content provided in the lesson.Results: Students with reading difficulties performed poorer than their peers on the procedural task while the groups’ performance did not differ on definitional, infographic, and argumentative tasks. Further, there was no difference in the eye fixation counts and gaze duration between the two groups.Conclusions: Our findings underscore the importance of an awareness that the types of tasks used to assess students’ knowledge may impact their performance. Information of this nature may be useful in determining optimal learning experiences for students with learning difficulties.

Organization of Students and Total Task Time: External and Internal Load Recorded during Motor Activity

The organization of the students and the time taken to execute the learning tasks determine the physical (external load) and physiological (internal load) demands the students support during physical education classes. The aim of this study was to determine which organizational and pedagogical elements used to design different learning tasks for soccer provoke greater external (Player Load (PL)) and internal (Heart Rate (HR)) load and thus help the students to fulfil the adequate physical activity recommendations (moderate to vigorous physical activity for ≥50% of class time). The organizational elements studied were (1) the participation type and (2) total task time, and the pedagogical element of (3) the game situation. A total of 40 students from the fifth year of primary education participated in the study distributed into two class groups. The basic analysis units were the data on physical activity recorded in each of the tasks carried out by the students during the practical sessions (1500 records), and they were recorded using WIMU ProTM inertial movement devices. A descriptive and inferential analysis was performed with the Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis H statistical tests. The results recommend the following types of tasks with simultaneous participation: individual games, numerical inequality SSG, numerical equality SSG lasting less than 6 min, numerical equality SSG, and full games lasting between 6 and 10 min. This type of learning task makes the students move more (medium Player Load between 0.80 and 1.20) and at greater intensities (Heart Rate zone 4, between 161 and 181 bpm). Therefore, physical education teachers must take into account the pedagogical and organizational elements studied to make the sessions more intense and associated with health benefits.

Wisdom Class Learning Task Design

The learning task is the core of learning design and also an essential part of classroom teaching. Classroom teaching is composed of various learning tasks. Therefore, it is significant to design the learning task to help students learn through accumulation, which is also the key factor of establishing a smart classroom. Simultaneously, the learning task also works as the in-service teachers’ framework in the primary and secondary schools to design and evaluate the learning tasks. This paper designs four types of learning tasks, including discovery, selective, inductive, and evaluating. As a result, to provide a reference for primary and secondary school teachers to further design and evaluate learning tasks.

Research on multitask fault diagnosis and weight visualization of rotating machinery based on convolutional neural network

Recently, deep learning methods such as convolutional neural networks (CNN) have been widely used in fault diagnosis of rotating machinery. However, most methods are not designed to consider the influence of the working conditions and limited to classifying several fault types. In this paper, we propose two CNN-based multitask models, i.e., sigmoid multitask fault diagnosis model and multisoftmax multitask classification model, which can classify the fault types and the working conditions of the signal simultaneously. All samples are jointly learned at the shared network layers, and different types of learning tasks are completed at different subnetwork layers. Results show that the proposed sigmoid multitask fault diagnosis model achieves the overall classification accuracy of 96.8% when testing the CWRU bearing dataset. The proposed multisoftmax multitask classification model is used to classify different working conditions and fault types of planetary gearbox. With frequency signals as inputs, the accuracy rate is able to reach 96.2%, and the classification accuracy of gear and speed conditions reaches more than 99%. Additionally, the gradient-weighted class activation mapping (Grad-CAM) method is used to visualize the weight vectors of different convolutional layers and locate the signal segment of interest to the model.

The Treatment of the Munich Agreement in British and German Textbooks: Content Analysis and Comparison

This paper presents the results of a qualitative content analysis and comparison of British and German history textbooks for secondary schools, focusing on the textbooks’ treatment of the Munich Agreement. The research explored the overall concept applied to the treatment of this subject, the length of the text, the selection of factual data, the use of historical sources (including iconographic sources), types of learning tasks, the use of various didactic elements (cartograms, diagrams, timelines), and topics for problem-based and project-based teaching. The results of the analysis show that the topic of the Munich Agreement is treated much more thoroughly in the British textbooks – in terms of the quantity of information, the use of didactic resources stimulating critical thinking and argumentation skills, problem-based teaching, creative activities and inquiry-based activities; the controversial policy of appeasement lies at the centre of attention. By contrast, the German textbooks mostly restrict themselves to brief factual information, with only a limited number of educational activities.

Мовленнєві ситуації як засіб формування ключових компетентностей учнів 5-6 класів гімназії у процесі навчання іноземних мов

The article defines the role of speech situations in the formation of key competences of pupils of 5-6 classes of gymnasium at foreign language lessons. Speech situations in a foreign language lesson are characterized as a type of learning tasks that mimic a foreign language activity, providing students with an understanding of the situation in life or modeled by the teacher, which involves analyzing it, making an independent decision based on life. Examples of speech situations that can be used in the educational process to form the key competences of students defined by the concept of the New Ukrainian School are given. It is determined that speech situations contribute to students' ability to use language for spiritual, cultural and national expression; adhere to the culture of speech, use label designs; express your feelings, experiences and judgments in a foreign language. Speech situations allow the student to work with information in a particular system: familiarization with the situation; understanding it; deciding what to do to solve the problem implementation of their actions; reflection. It is emphasized that the use of speech situations increases students' interest in the subject, promotes the formation of skills in them to act in non-standard situations, applying knowledge from different sources. It is established that for the development of speech situations it is possible to use material not only from the textbook, but also other resources, taking into account the principles of accessibility, emotionality.

Individual differences in learning ability are negatively linked to behavioural plasticity in a frequency-dependent game

Behavioural plasticity can be costly, but is advantageous when it allows animals to adjust their behaviour to current conditions. Since individual differences in learning ability could be a source of differences in behavioural plasticity, the frequency dependence of payoffs within a foraging group may permit the coexistence of both plastic, fast-learning individuals and nonplastic, slow-learning individuals; in a frequency-dependent context the adjustments of a few benefit all. In this study, we investigated whether individuals that learned faster in a simple associative learning task were also more likely to adjust their behaviour in a social foraging game context than their slower-learning groupmates. We measured the associative learning ability of female Bengalese finches, Lonchura striata domestica, in a colour discrimination task and their degree of behavioural plasticity in tactic use when foraging conditions called for changes in the flock's producer–scrounger equilibrium. We found that behavioural plasticity was affected by learning speed. However, in contrast to our expectation, the slower learners were most plastic. We argue that behavioural plasticity in the producer–scrounger game context may require learning that is different from colour matching. We also propose that our results may be related to the fast–slow continuum; being proactive or fast and inaccurate could favour being responsive in simple asocial contexts while being reactive or slow and accurate could favour being plastic in more complex social contexts. Future empirical studies need to compare differences in behavioural plasticity in tactic use with learning speed measured in other types of learning tasks and with personality traits relevant to the fast–slow continuum.

Generative learning versus retrieval practice in learning from text: The cohesion and elaboration of the text matters.

Both generative learning tasks and retrieval practice tasks can serve as a beneficial follow-up to an initial study phase in which learners have studied new learning material. However, research that compares the effects of these 2 types of learning tasks is scarce. Therefore, it is widely unknown whether, and if so under which conditions, the one or the other type of task is better suited to optimizing learning outcomes. We hypothesized that in learning from text, the effects between generative learning and retrieval practice tasks depend on the cohesion and elaboration of the text. To test this prediction, in two 2 × 2-factorial experiments we varied whether university students were prompted to engage in retrieval practice (with vs. without) and generative learning activities (with vs. without) after an initial study phase in which learners read an expository text that was either of high cohesion and elaboration (Experiment 1) or of low cohesion and elaboration (Experiment 2). When the expository text was of high cohesion and elaboration, engaging learners in retrieval practice was beneficial, whereas engaging learners in generative activities was not. By contrast, when the learning material was of low cohesion and elaboration, only engaging learners in generative learning activities was beneficial. Furthermore, in these circumstances engaging learners in generative activities lost its effectiveness when learners were also engaged in retrieval practice. We conclude that generative learning tasks and retrieval practice tasks serve different functions and, thus, differ in the state of learners’ mental representations in which they are most beneficial.

Investigating students' interaction patterns and dynamic learning sentiments in online discussions

Convincing evidence found by educators and psychologists shows that students' interaction patterns of online discussions significantly affect their learning process, and are related to their learning sentiments. By using both quantitative content and lag sequential analysis, this study investigated students' interaction patterns and dynamic learning sentiments by performing seven types of learning tasks on an asynchronous discussion platform. The research participants were 38 postgraduate students. The results revealed that, compared to students performing the individual-oriented learning tasks, those performing the group-oriented ones had more diverse learning sentiments and interaction patterns, and deeper interactions with regard to learning sentiments. In addition, their learning sentiments exhibited a periodic feature during the process of online learning. Based on the results, we presented a four-phase model for describing a process of diverse interactions in online learning environments. In particular, this model characterizes the interactions with dynamic learning sentiments including generation, collision and integration, refinement, as well as stability.

The Role of Lexical Status and Individual Differences for Perceptual Learning in Younger and Older Adults.

This study examined whether older adults remain perceptually flexible when presented with ambiguities in speech in the absence of lexically disambiguating information. We expected older adults to show less perceptual learning when top-down information was not available. We also investigated whether individual differences in executive function predicted perceptual learning in older and younger adults. Younger (n = 31) and older adults (n = 27) completed 2 perceptual learning tasks composed of a pretest, exposure, and posttest phase. Both learning tasks exposed participants to clear and ambiguous speech tokens, but crucially, the lexically guided learning task provided disambiguating lexical information whereas the distributional learning task did not. Participants also performed several cognitive tasks to investigate individual differences in working memory, vocabulary, and attention-switching control. We found that perceptual learning is maintained in older adults, but that learning may be stronger in contexts where top-down information is available. Receptive vocabulary scores predicted learning across both age groups and in both learning tasks. Implicit learning is maintained with age across different learning conditions but remains stronger when lexically biasing information is available. We find that receptive vocabulary is relevant for learning in both types of learning tasks, suggesting the importance of vocabulary knowledge for adapting to ambiguities in speech.

Function of private singing in instrumental music learning: A multiple case study of self-regulation and embodiment

The aim of this article is to explore a range of largely embodied vocalisations and sounds produced by learners of string instruments and how they relate to the potential self-regulatory use provided by such vocalisations. This type of “singing” while learning to play an instrument may have similarities to the use of private speech in other types of learning tasks. This report describes a multiple case study based on the naturalistic observation of learners playing string instruments in different situations. We observed private rehearsals by six adult guitarists from different music cultures (classical, flamenco and jazz) who had different approaches to learning (traditional and constructivist). In addition, we observed the one-to-one lessons of a constructivist cello teacher with a 7-year-old beginner and a 12-year-old student. All sessions were recorded. We applied the System for Analysing the Practice of Instrumental Lessons to the video lessons and/or practices and participant discourse for constant comparative analysis across all categories and participants. From the theoretical framework of private speech, we identified a set of qualities in private singing, such as whistling, humming, and guttural sounds, with different levels of audibility. Self-guidance and self-regulation appeared to be the functions underlying both psychomotor learning and reflective-emotional learning from an embodiment approach. Guitar learners from popular urban cultures seemed to use less explicit singing expression than classical guitar learners, the explicitness of which may be related to the instructional use of the notational system. In the one-to-one cello lessons, we observed a process of increasing internalisation from the younger to the older student. Both results are consistent with the literature on private speech, indicating that this process is a natural process of internalisation at higher literacy levels. Singing is not as frequent in music lessons as might be expected, and it is even less frequently used as a reflective tool or understood as an embodied process. The examples provided in this article shed light on the multiplicity of applications and on the potential benefits of private singing in instructional contexts as a powerful learning tool.

Characterizing and exploring users' task completion process at different stages in learning related tasks

ABSTRACTThis study explored user interactions when accomplishing learning related tasks from a new perspective, the process perspective, and examined three main types of user interactions: searching, reading and writing behaviors. The goal is to characterize how users' searching, reading, and writing interactions change at different stages, and explore what contextual factors are related to the task completion process. A user experiment with thirty‐two participants was conducted, and each participant was asked to work on two types of learning tasks: receptive tasks and critical tasks. For data analysis, we calculated the percentage of searching time, reading time and writing time during four stages, to characterize users' task completion process. Our results demonstrated that users' reading efforts were evenly distributed at four stages; half of their searching efforts were devoted at the first stage and writing efforts were mainly spent at the last stage. In addition, we also found task type and users' cognitive style had significant effects on users' searching, reading, writing process, and their writing efforts in the first stage were correlated to the quality of learning outcome. This study took the process perspective to characterize user interactions at different stages, and this perspective provides us a more comprehensive picture of user interactions and has implications for the design of search systems to fully support user interactions and their task completion process.

Reduction of Cav1.3 channels in dorsal hippocampus impairs the development of dentate gyrus newborn neurons and hippocampal-dependent memory tasks.

Cav1.3 has been suggested to mediate hippocampal neurogenesis of adult mice and contribute to hippocampal-dependent learning and memory processes. However, the mechanism of Cav1.3 contribution in these processes is unclear. Here, roles of Cav1.3 of mouse dorsal hippocampus during newborn cell development were examined. We find that knock-out (KO) of Cav1.3 resulted in the reduction of survival of newborn neurons at 28 days old after mitosis. The retroviral eGFP expression showed that both dendritic complexity and the number and length of mossy fiber bouton (MFB) filopodia of newborn neurons at ≥ 14 days old were significantly reduced in KO mice. Both contextual fear conditioning (CFC) and object-location recognition tasks were impaired in recent (1 day) memory test while passive avoidance task was impaired only in remote (≥ 20 days) memory in KO mice. Results using adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated Cav1.3 knock-down (KD) or retrovirus-mediated KD in dorsal hippocampal DG area showed that the recent memory of CFC was impaired in both KD mice but the remote memory was impaired only in AAV KD mice, suggesting that Cav1.3 of mature neurons play important roles in both recent and remote CFC memory while Cav1.3 in newborn neurons is selectively involved in the recent CFC memory process. Meanwhile, AAV KD of Cav1.3 in ventral hippocampal area has no effect on the recent CFC memory. In conclusion, the results suggest that Cav1.3 in newborn neurons of dorsal hippocampus is involved in the survival of newborn neurons while mediating developments of dendritic and axonal processes of newborn cells and plays a role in the memory process differentially depending on the stage of maturation and the type of learning task.

Patterns of Participation and Social Connections in Online Discussion Forums

Social relations are an essential component of group learning online, because through them, the process is managed and controlled. In addition, learning cannot be understood in isolation from its situated nature. To identify patterns of participation and social connections in online group learning, this study analyzes the social network among university students who work in online discussion forums and are required to solve higher order learning tasks. Discussion forums were used, focusing on three types of tasks: analyzing case studies, evaluating websites, and creating WebQuest. The structures of social networks that arose out of 96 discussion forums over three academic years were analyzed. The results demonstrate that as the opening (lower level of structuration) of the learning task increases, so too does the need for social interaction in the group. The social structure of the groups is modulated by the type of learning task. Finally, the educational implications of the results are discussed.

Exploration on English Task-based Learning Teaching Mode— from a Perspective of New Curriculum Reform

Task-based learning teaching (TBLT) is a recent popular language teaching mode which is based on learning tasks as the center, promoting learners to acquire language knowledge in the course of finishing learning tasks, and educating their language communication abilities. As a matter of fact, it is further development and improvement of the communicative language teaching (CLT). On the base of theories of TBLT, this paper simply explores connotation and types of learning tasks, design procedures and principles of learning tasks and common problems designing and fulfilling learning tasks.

Reducing the transience effect of animations does not (always) lead to better performance in children learning a complex hand procedure

When large amounts of information are presented in long-section animations, or videos, depicting hand procedures, a transient information effect has often been shown to potentially weaken the superiority of dynamic visualizations over static graphics and to increase cognitive load. In the present paper, 103 ten-year-old children learnt to tie complex nautical knots from either a video of hand movements or from a static graphics presentation. Experiment 1 extended previous studies in the field using a conventional sequential presentation of the knots, under four conditions (long-section animation, short-section animation, long-section static graphics and short-section static graphics), but in a more “ecological” learning task than the majority of previous studies, involving a combination of observation and practice. In Experiment 2, with the same task and the same conditions, transience was reduced using animated simultaneous presentations. Results showed that long-section animation did not always lose its superiority over static graphics in this type of learning task. In addition to the transient information effect of the cognitive load theory, complementary explanations in terms of inhibition processes, attentional continuity and task affordance are suggested.

Negative infl uence of internet on the conduct studies in higher education

The paper shows that nowadays the Internet is increasingly used in higher education. It is argued that the main directions of research use the Internet show a positive effect of using a global network of higher education. It was revealed that in addition to the positive influence of the Internet network has a signifi cant negative impact. Identifi ed such negative factors as the widespread learning task solving and quick copying in the case of the emergence of new jobs. Not shown the ability to publish new textbooks in applying active methods lectures, due to these facilities benefi ts the Internet. The prevalence of false information on the Internet. The question of providing students with the information as it is fi nished, it is shown that in some cases it is not advisable to do. It is said that the publication of the full study guides is suitable only in the case when it comes to the basic disciplines, in other cases it is doubtful. Analyzed the shortcomings of such methods of struggle with the designated program to identify factors such as plagiarism, limiting the exchange of scientifi c and methodological experience. Revealed such disadvantages of using plagiarism detection software as programs to combat the use of these programs, and others. It is shown that the use of new teaching jobs, may lead to the fact that completed assignments will be distributed by students via the Internet, and thus the depreciation of these tasks will occur. Revealed the following pattern of use of new teaching jobs in higher education: the more effective is the learning task, the greater the likelihood that it will be devalued. The question required a waiver of such types of learning tasks as translation work, which is due to the fact that students are copying term papers or materials to them without even reading them. The ways of using reports and abstracts that allow overcome the negative trend. It is shown that the use of the Internet actually blocks the exchange of scientifi c and methodological experience. Having analyzed the relevant use of the Internet in higher education some didactic principles. It is shown that the use of the Internet is contrary to this principle as a selflearning, so that students copy information even acquainted with its content. The principle of science, because the Internet is full of inaccurate, false information. Principle strength assimilation of knowledge, because the copy and sometimes not even scanned information is assimilated in any way. We offer ways to overcome the impact of these factors. It argued the need for specific additional studies designed to identify ways to combat negative trends of using the Internet in higher education and compliance of the use of the basic principles of didactics.

The acoustic salience of prosody trumps infants' acquired knowledge of language-specific prosodic patterns.

There is mounting evidence that prosody facilitates grouping the speech stream into syntactically-relevant units (e.g., Hawthorne & Gerken, 2014; Soderstrom, Kemler Nelson, & Jusczyk, 2005). We ask whether prosody's role in syntax acquisition relates to its general acoustic salience or to the learner's acquired knowledge of correlations between prosody and syntax in her native language. English- and Japanese-acquiring 19-month-olds listened to sentences from an artificial grammar with non-native prosody (Japanese or English, respectively), then were tested on their ability to recognize prosodically-marked constituents when the constituents had moved to a new position in the sentence. Both groups were able to use non-native prosody to parse speech into cohesive, reorderable, syntactic constituent-like units. Comparison with Hawthorne & Gerken (2014), in which English-acquiring infants were tested on sentences with English prosody, suggests that 19-month-olds are equally adept at using native and non-native prosody for at least some types of learning tasks and, therefore, that prosody is useful in early syntactic segmentation because of its acoustic salience.

The extracellular fragment of GPNMB (Glycoprotein nonmelanosoma protein B, osteoactivin) improves memory and increases hippocampal GluA1 levels in mice.

Glycoprotein nonmelanoma protein B (GPNMB, alias osteoactivin), a type I transmembrane glycoprotein, is cleaved by extracellular proteases, resulting in release of an extracellular fragment (ECF). GPNMB is widely expressed by neurons within the CNS, including the hippocampus; however, its function in the brain remains unknown. Here, we investigated the role of GPNMB in memory and learning by using transgenic (Tg) mice over-expressing GPNMB (Tg mice on a BDF-1 background) and ECF-treated mice. In the hippocampus of both wild-type and Tg mice, GPNMB was highly expressed in neurons and astrocytes. Tg mice exhibited memory improvements in two types of learning tasks but were impaired in a passive-avoidance test. In Tg mice, the hippocampus displayed increased levels of the α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionate receptor subunit GluA1. Intracerebroventricular administration of ECF (50 ng) to Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice also improved memory in a passive-avoidance test and increased hippocampal GluA1 levels 24 h after treatment. In Tg mice and ECF (0.25 μg/mL)-treated hippocampal slices, long-term potentiation was promoted. These findings suggest that GPNMB may be a novel target for research on higher order brain functions.