Exploring the relations between teachers’ cue-utilization, monitoring and regulation of students’ text learning

This study investigated teachers’ monitoring and regulation of students’ learning from texts. According to the cue-utilization framework (Koriat, in Journal of Experimental Psychology, 126, 349–370, 1997), monitoring accuracy depends on how predictive the information (or cues) that teachers use to make monitoring judgments actually is for students’ performance. Accurate monitoring of students’ comprehension is considered a precondition for adaptive regulation of students’ learning. However, these assumptions have not yet been directly investigated. We therefore examined teachers’ cue-utilization and how it affects their monitoring and regulation accuracy. In a within-subjects design, 21 secondary education teachers made monitoring judgments and regulation decisions for fifteen students under three cue-availability conditions: 1) only student cues (i.e., student’s name), 2) only performance cues (i.e., diagrams students completed about texts they had read), and 3) both student and performance cues (i.e., student’s name and completed diagram). Teachers’ absolute and relative monitoring accuracy was higher when having student cues available in addition to diagram cues. Teachers’ relative regulation accuracy was higher when having only performance cues available instead of only student cues (as indicated by a direct effect). Monitoring accuracy predicted regulation accuracy and in addition to a direct effect, we also found and indirect effect of cue-availability on regulation accuracy (via monitoring accuracy). These results suggest that accurate regulation can be brought about both indirectly by having accurate monitoring judgments and directly by cue-utilization. The findings of this study can help to refine models of teacher monitoring and regulation and can be useful in designing effective interventions to promote teachers’ monitoring and regulation.

Spatial pattern completion deficits in older adults

Aging may have an impact on the CA3 autoassociative network of the hippocampus, posited by computational models as supporting pattern completion. Twenty-five young (YAs) and 25 older adults (OAs) performed a spatial pattern completion task using a computerized navigational paradigm analogous to a rodent pattern completion task reliant on the CA3. Participants identified a previously seen goal location, and the availability of distal cues in the environment was manipulated such that 0, 2, or 4 cues were missing. Performance in both groups declined as a function of decreased cue availability. However, controlling for age differences in task performance during a pre-experimental baseline task, OAs performed equivalently to YAs when all cues were available, but worse than YAs as the number of cues decreased. These findings suggest spatial pattern completion may be impaired in OAs. We discuss these findings in the context of a growing body of literature suggesting age-related imbalances in pattern separation vs. pattern completion.

Spatial pattern completion deficits in older adults

Aging may have an impact on the CA3 autoassociative network of the hippocampus, posited by computational models as supporting pattern completion. Twenty-five young (YAs) and 25 older adults (OAs) performed a spatial pattern completion task using a computerized navigational paradigm analogous to a rodent pattern completion task reliant on the CA3. Participants identified a previously seen goal location, and the availability of distal cues in the environment was manipulated such that 0, 2, or 4 cues were missing. Performance in both groups declined as a function of decreased cue availability. However, controlling for age differences in task performance during a pre-experimental baseline task, OAs performed equivalently to YAs when all cues were available, but worse than YAs as the number of cues decreased. These findings suggest spatial pattern completion may be impaired in OAs. We discuss these findings in the context of a growing body of literature suggesting age-related imbalances in pattern separation vs. pattern completion.

Modeling Input Factors in Second Language Acquisition of the English Article Construction

Based on the Competition Model, the current study investigated how cue availability and cue reliability as two important input factors influenced second language (L2) learners' cue learning of the English article construction. Written corpus data of university-level Chinese-L1 learners of English were sampled for a comparison of English majors and non-English majors who demonstrated two levels of L2 competence in English article usage. The path model analysis in structural equation modeling was utilized to investigate the relationship between the input factors and L2 usage (frequency and accuracy of article cue production). The findings contribute novel and scarce empirical evidence that confirms a central claim of the Competition Model, i.e., the changing importance of cue availability and cue reliability in the frequency and accuracy of production. Cue availability was found to determine L2 production frequency regardless of level of L2 competence. Cue reliability was the input factor that differentiated competence levels. When learners stayed at a relatively lower L2 proficiency, cue reliability played an important role in influencing L2 frequency of usage rather than accuracy of usage. When learners developed increased exposure to and stronger competence in the target language, cue reliability played a significant role in determining learners' success of cue learning. The study is methodologically innovative and expands the empirical applicability of the Competition Model to the domain of second language production and construction learning.

Communicative efficiency and differential case marking: a reverse-engineering approach

The use of differential case marking of A and P has been explained in terms of efficiency (economy) and markedness. The present study tests predictions based on these accounts, using conditional probabilities of a particular feature given the syntactic role (cue availability), and conditional probabilities of a particular syntactic role given the feature in question (cue reliability). Cue availability serves as a measure of markedness, whereas cue reliability is central for the efficiency account. Similar to reverse engineering, we determine which of the probabilistic measures could have been responsible for the recurrent cross-linguistic patterns described in the literature. The probabilities are estimated from spontaneous informal dialogues in English and Russian (Indo-European), Lao (Tai-Kadai), N||ng (Tuu) and Ruuli (Bantu). The analyses, which involve a series of mixed-effects Poisson models, clearly demonstrate that cue reliability matches the observed cross-linguistic patterns better than cue availability. Thus, the results support the efficiency account of differential marking.

Postural control in high-level kata and kumite karatekas

Postural performance may vary according to the constraints related to the practice of different martial arts. This study aimed to investigate the visual and tactile contribution in balance control: (i) between karatekas and sedentary controls; (ii) between kata and kumite specialists within the elite karatekas. Balance control in quiet stance of 23 high-level karatekas (11 kata and 12 kumite specialists) and of 24 sedentary controls was evaluated in four sensory context conditions, a combination of visual cue availability (eyes open or closed) and tactile support reliability (firm or foam surface). The results showed that karatekas had a reduced body sway and a smaller sway area compared to controls, especially in the more challenging condition, i.e. eyes closed on a foam surface. Moreover, kata karatekas tended to have a reduced body sway and a smaller sway area than kumite karatekas in all sensory conditions. The practice of karate may enhance balance control in quiet stance by optimizing the role of tactile cues and by decreasing the weighting of visual cues. Moreover, the specialization into different karateka practices may induce the implementation of specific postural strategies to solve a given balance problem.

The smell of success: the amount of prey consumed by predators determines the strength and range of cascading non-consumptive effects

We examined whether chemically mediated risk perception by prey and the effects of changes in prey behavior on basal resources vary as a function of the amount of prey biomass consumed by the predator. We studied these issues using a tritrophic system composed of blue crabs,Callinectes sapidus(top predator), mud crabsPanopeus herbstii(intermediate prey), and oystersCrassostrea virginica(basal resource). Working in a well characterized field environment where experiments preserve natural patterns of water flow, we found that biomass consumed by a predator determines the range, intensity and nature of prey aversive responses. Predators that consume large amounts of prey flesh more strongly diminish consumption of basal resources by prey and exert effects over a larger range (in space and time) compared to predators that have eaten less. Less well-fed predators produce weaker effects, with the consequence that behaviorally mediated cascades preferentially occur in refuge habitats. Well-fed predators affected prey behavior and increased basal resources up to distances of 1–1.5 m, whereas predators fed restricted diet evoked changes in prey only when they were extremely close, typically 50 cm or less. Thus, consumptive and non-consumptive effects may be coupled; predators that have a greater degree of predatory success will affect prey traits more strongly and non-consumptive and consumptive effects may fluctuate in tandem, with some lag. Moreover, differences among predators in their degree of prey capture will create spatial and temporal variance in risk cue availability in the absence of underlying environmental effects.