scholarly journals Integrating Concepts in Biology Textbook Increases Learning: Assessment Triangulation Using Concept Inventory, Card Sorting, and MCAT Instruments, Followed by Longitudinal Tracking

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. ar20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas B. Luckie ◽  
Anne-Marie Hoskinson ◽  
Caleigh E. Griffin ◽  
Andrea L. Hess ◽  
Katrina J. Price ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Concept Inventory ◽  
Learning Assessment ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Medical College ◽  
Biology Textbook ◽  
Longitudinal Tracking ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Introductory Biology Course

The purpose of this study was to examine the educational impact of an intervention, the inquiry-focused textbook Integrating Concepts in Biology (ICB), when used in a yearlong introductory biology course sequence. Student learning was evaluated using three published instruments: 1) The Biology Concept Inventory probed depth of student mastery of fundamental concepts in organismal and cellular topics when confronting misconceptions as distractors. ICB students had higher gains in all six topic categories (+43% vs. peers overall, p < 0.01). 2) The Biology Card Sorting Task assessed whether students organized biological ideas more superficially, as novices do, or based on deeper concepts, like experts. The frequency with which ICB students connected deep-concept pairs, or triplets, was similar to peers; but deep understanding of structure/function was much higher (for pairs: 77% vs. 25%, p < 0.01). 3) A content-focused Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) posttest compared ICB student content knowledge with that of peers from 15 prior years. Historically, MCAT performance for each semester ranged from 53% to 64%; the ICB cohort scored 62%, in the top quintile. Longitudinal tracking in five upper-level science courses the following year found ICB students outperformed peers in physiology (85% vs. 80%, p < 0.01).

scholarly journals A Problem-Sorting Task Detects Changes in Undergraduate Biological Expertise over a Single Semester

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. ar21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Hoskinson ◽  
Jessica Middlemis Maher ◽  
Cody Bekkering ◽  
Diane Ebert-May
Keyword(s):  
Sorting Task ◽  
Biological Knowledge ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Introductory Biology ◽  
Undergraduate Biology ◽  
Biology Students ◽  
Card Sorting Task ◽  
Disciplinary Expertise ◽  
Novices And Experts ◽  
Introductory Biology Course

Calls for undergraduate biology reform share similar goals: to produce people who can organize, use, connect, and communicate about biological knowledge. Achieving these goals requires students to gain disciplinary expertise. Experts organize, access, and apply disciplinary knowledge differently than novices, and expertise is measurable. By asking introductory biology students to sort biological problems, we investigated whether they changed how they organized and linked biological ideas over one semester of introductory biology. We administered the Biology Card Sorting Task to 751 students enrolled in their first or second introductory biology course focusing on either cellular–molecular or organismal–population topics, under structured or unstructured sorting conditions. Students used a combination of superficial, deep, and yet-uncharacterized ways of organizing and connecting biological knowledge. In some cases, this translated to more expert-like ways of organizing knowledge over a single semester, best predicted by whether students were enrolled in their first or second semester of biology and by the sorting condition completed. In addition to illuminating differences between novices and experts, our results show that card sorting is a robust way of detecting changes in novices’ biological expertise—even in heterogeneous populations of novice biology students over the time span of a single semester.

scholarly journals Verbal Final Exam in Introductory Biology Yields Gains in Student Content Knowledge and Longitudinal Performance

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 515-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas B. Luckie ◽  
Aaron M. Rivkin ◽  
Jacob R. Aubry ◽  
Benjamin J. Marengo ◽  
Leah R. Creech ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Cellular Respiration ◽  
Introductory Biology ◽  
Final Exam ◽  
Medical College ◽  
Longitudinal Tracking ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Final Exams ◽  
Introductory Biology Course

We studied gains in student learning over eight semesters in which an introductory biology course curriculum was changed to include optional verbal final exams (VFs). Students could opt to demonstrate their mastery of course material via structured oral exams with the professor. In a quantitative assessment of cell biology content knowledge, students who passed the VF outscored their peers on the medical assessment test (MAT), an exam built with 40 Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) questions (66.4% [n = 160] and 62% [n = 285], respectively; p < 0.001);. The higher-achieving students performed better on MCAT questions in all topic categories tested; the greatest gain occurred on the topic of cellular respiration. Because the VF focused on a conceptually parallel topic, photosynthesis, there may have been authentic knowledge transfer. In longitudinal tracking studies, passing the VF also correlated with higher performance in a range of upper-level science courses, with greatest significance in physiology, biochemistry, and organic chemistry. Participation had a wide range but not equal representation in academic standing, gender, and ethnicity. Yet students nearly unanimously (92%) valued the option. Our findings suggest oral exams at the introductory level may allow instructors to assess and aid students striving to achieve higher-level learning.

Effects of Success and Failure with Institutionalized Mentally Retarded Adults

1966 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 779-782 ◽  
Author(s):  
William I. Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Mentally Retarded ◽  
Adolescents And Young Adults ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Partial Failure ◽  
Failure Group ◽  
Card Sorting Task ◽  
Total Failure ◽  
Success Group

Institutionalized mentally retarded adolescents and young adults ( N = 80) performed on a card-sorting task immediately preceding and following a series of neutral, success, total failure or partial failure experiences. As predicted, the success group demonstrated an increment in performance, the total failure group showed no change in performance, and the partial failure group showed a decrement in performance.

scholarly journals Compartmentalization of self-representations in female survivors of sexual abuse and assault, with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 956-963 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgina Clifford ◽  
Caitlin Hitchcock ◽  
Tim Dalgleish
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Negative Attributes

AbstractBackgroundThis study examined the structure of the self-concept in a sample of sexual trauma survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to healthy controls using a self-descriptive card-sorting task. We explored whether individuals with PTSD possess a highly affectively-compartmentalized self-structure, whereby positive and negative self-attributes are sectioned off into separate components of self-concept (e.g. self as an employee, lover, mother). We also examined redundancy (i.e. overlap) of positive and negative self-attributes across the different components of self-concept.MethodParticipants generated a set of self-aspects that reflected their own life (e.g. ‘self at work’). They were then asked to describe their self-aspects using list of positive or negative attributes.ResultsResults revealed that, relative to the control group, the PTSD group used a greater proportion of negative attributes and had a more compartmentalized self-structure. However, there were no significant differences between the PTSD and control groups in positive or negative redundancy. Sensitivity analyses demonstrated that the key findings were not accounted for by comorbid diagnosis of depression.ConclusionFindings indicated that the self-structure is organized differently in those with PTSD, relative to those with depression or good mental health.

The Effects of Frontal Lobe Lesions on Goal Achievement in the Water Jug Task

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1129-1147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Kathryn Colvin ◽  
Kevin Dunbar ◽  
Jordan Grafman
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Frontal Lobe ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Hill Climbing ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Frontal Lobe Lesion

Patients with prefrontal cortex lesions are impaired on a variety of planning and problem-solving tasks. We examined the problem-solving performance of 27 patients with focal frontal lobe damage on the Water Jug task. The Water Jug task has never been used to assess problem-solving ability in neurologically impaired patients nor in functional neuroimaging studies, despite sharing structural similarities with other tasks sensitive to prefrontal cortex function, including the Tower of Hanoi, Tower of London, and Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST). Our results demonstrate that the Water Jug task invokes a unique combination of problem-solving and planning strategies, allowing a more precise identification of frontal lobe lesion patients' cognitive deficits. All participants (patients and matched controls) appear to be utilizing a hill-climbing strategy that does not require sophisticated planning; however, frontal lobe lesion patients (FLLs) struggled to make required “counterintuitive moves” not predicted by this strategy and found within both solution paths. Left and bilateral FLLs were more impaired than right FLLs. Analysis of the left hemisphere brain regions encompassed by the lesions of these patients found that poor performance was linked to left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex damage. We propose that patients with left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex lesions have difficulty making a decision requiring the conceptual comparison of nonverbal stimuli, manipulation of select representations of potential solutions, and are unable to appropriately inhibit a response in keeping with the final goal.

Spatiotemporal analysis of feedback processing during a card sorting task using spatially filtered MEG

2006 ◽  
Vol 410 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah J. Bayless ◽  
William C. Gaetz ◽  
Douglas O. Cheyne ◽  
Margot J. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Spatiotemporal Analysis ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Feedback Processing ◽  
Card Sorting Task

Problems in the Interpretation of Cognitive Abnormalities in Schizophrenia

1976 ◽  
Vol 129 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. R. Hemsley
Keyword(s):  
Movement Time ◽  
Decision Time ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Clinical Tests ◽  
Significant Relation ◽  
Card Sorting Task ◽  
Schizophrenic Group ◽  
Information Processing Deficits ◽  
Direct Measures

SummaryThis study compared matched groups of patients with acute schizophrenia and with depression on three tests used in the assessment of schizophrenic thinking disorder. Most measures derived from these tests significantly differentiated the groups; however, within the schizophrenic group there were no significant correlations between scores on the three tests. Further data were available from a choice reaction-time card-sorting task, from which estimates of distractability, stimulus decision time, response decision time, and movement time, were obtained. Only one significant relation was found between these measures and scores on the clinical tests. The possible confounding effects of intelligence and responsiveness are discussed. It is argued that more direct measures of the latter are preferable to interpreting tests of thinking disorder in terms of information processing deficits.

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