Study Behavior in Computing Education—A Systematic Literature Review

As the field of computing education grows and matures, it has become essential to unite computing education and higher education research. Educational research has highlighted that how students study is crucial to their learning progress, and study behaviors have been found to play an important role in students’ academic success. This article presents the main results of a systematic literature review intended to determine what we know about the study behaviors of computing students and the role of educational design in shaping them. A taxonomy of study behaviors was developed and used to clarify and classify the definitions of study behavior, process, strategies, habits, and tactics as well as to identify their relationship to the educational context. The literature search resulted in 107 included papers, which were analyzed according to defined criteria and variables. The review of study behavior terminology found that the same terms are used to describe substantially different study behaviors, and the lack of standard terminology makes it difficult to compare findings from different papers. Furthermore, it was more common for papers to use study behaviors to explain other aspects of students rather than exploring and understanding them. Additionally, the results revealed a tendency to focus on specific educational contexts, predominantly introductory programming courses. Although computing education as a field is well equipped to expand the knowledge about both study behaviors and their connection to the educational context, the lack of common terminology and theories limits the impact. The taxonomy of study behaviors in computing education proposed in this article can contribute to contextualizing the research in such a way that researchers and educators across institutional borders can compare and utilize results. Last, the article outlines some areas for future research and recommendations for practice.

New Horizons for Phenotyping Behavior in Rodents: The Example of Depressive-Like Behavior

The evolution of the field of behavioral neuroscience is significantly dependent on innovative disruption triggered by our ability to model and phenotype animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders. The ability to adequately elicit and measure behavioral parameters are the fundaments on which the behavioral neuroscience community establishes the pathophysiological mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disorders as well as contributes to the development of treatment strategies for those conditions. Herein, we review how mood disorders, in particular depression, are currently modeled in rodents, focusing on the limitations of these models and particularly on the analyses of the data obtained with different behavioral tests. Finally, we propose the use of new paradigms to study behavior using multidimensional strategies that better encompasses the complexity of psychiatric conditions, namely depression; these paradigms provide holistic phenotyping that is applicable to other conditions, thus promoting the emergence of novel findings that will leverage this field.

Motor plans under uncertainty reflect a trade-off between maximizing reward and success

When faced with multiple potential movement options, individuals either reach directly to one of the options, or initiate a reach intermediate between the options. It remains unclear why people generate these two types of behaviors. Using the go-before-you-know task (commonly used to study behavior under choice uncertainty), we examined two key questions. First, do these two types of responses reflect distinct movement strategies, or are they simply examples of a more general response to choice uncertainty? If the former, the relative desirability (i.e., weighing the likelihood of successfully hitting the target versus the attainable reward) of the two target options might be computed differently for direct versus intermediate reaches. We showed that indeed, when exogenous reward and success likelihood (i.e., endogenous reward) differ between the two options, direct reaches were more strongly biased by likelihood whereas intermediate movements were more strongly biased by reward. Second, what drives individual differences in how people respond under uncertainty? We found that risk/reward-seeking individuals generated a larger proportion of intermediate reaches and were more sensitive to trial-to-trial changes in reward, suggesting these movements reflect a strategy to maximize reward. In contrast, risk-adverse individuals tended to generate more direct reaches in an attempt to maximize success. Together, these findings suggest that when faced with choice uncertainty, individuals adopt movement strategies consistent with their risk/reward-seeking tendency, preferentially biasing behavior toward exogenous rewards or endogenous success and consequently modulating the relative desirability of the available options.

A Survey of Horse Selection, Longevity, and Retirement in Equine-Assisted Services in the United States

Little published information exists on the horses in equine-assisted services (EAS), particularly their selection, longevity, and retirement. The purpose of this study was to characterize horses and procedures used in EAS. A pilot survey was developed using focus group discussions and distributed to Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship, International (PATH Intl) centers in Florida (n = 45, Part I) before further modification and distribution to members of PATH Intl., American Hippotherapy Association (AHA), eagala, and Certified Horsemanship Association (CHA) (n = 26,000, Part II). Response rates were 36% (Part I) and 0.7% (Part II). Centers report a median of 10 (Part I) or 9 (Part II) horses and ponies. Selection procedures included initial screening (Part I = 100%, Part II = 96%), pre-purchase or pre-donation exam (I = 64%, II = 60%), acclimation period (I = 100%, II = 84%), trial period (I = 91%, II = 90%), and other (II = 11%). Horses remained active in programs for less than a year to over 20 years with the greatest number working 7–10 (Part I) or 1–6 (Part II) yr. In Part I of the study, behavior (44%) was the leading cause of retirement followed by unsoundness (33%). In Part II, unsoundness was the highest ranked response followed by behavior. Behavior, soundness, and health emerged as key factors in horse selection and retirement. Future work should focus on investigating these issues at an individual horse level.

Analyzing human factor impacts of a programming pedagogy strategy at University of Coimbra

This paper presents an ethnographic study, focusing on the human factor impacts, by analyzing the relation of the pedagogical strategy requirements implemented into a regular programming classes with the efficacy of the classroom changes proposed to improve teaching practice and study behavior. The paper summarizes the updates implemented in the Introduction to Programming and Problem Solving (IPRP in Portuguese equivalent acronym), the first programming course offered for two undergraduates degrees, Informatics Engineering and Design and Multimedia, by the Informatics Engineering Department at the University of Coimbra. The changes applied in IPRP were inspired by pedagogical strategy recommendations developed in previous research, and its updated version has been run since 2011/12 academic year. The present study reports only the developments observed in IPRP classes from the Design and Multimedia degree through the lecturer's point of view assessments

When the rich do (not) trust the (newly) rich: Experimental evidence on the effects of positive random shocks in the trust game

We study behavior in a trust game where first-movers initially have a higher endowment than second-movers but the occurrence of a positive random shock can eliminate this inequality by increasing the endowment of the second-mover before the decision of the first-mover. We find that second-movers return less (i.e., they are less trustworthy) when they have a lower endowment than first-movers, compared with the case in which first and second-movers have the same endowment. Second-movers who received the positive shock return more than those who did not; in fact, second-movers who received the positive shock return more than second-movers who had the same endowment as the first-mover from the outset. First-movers do not seem to anticipate this behavior from second-movers. They send less to second-movers who benefited from a shock. These findings suggest that in addition to the distribution of the endowments the source of this distribution plays an important role in determining the levels of trust and trustworthiness. This, in turn, implies that current models of inequality aversion should be extended to accommodate for reference points if random positive shocks are possible in the trust game.

Socio-Cultural Psychology in Reading Behavior of Employees and Determining Organization Culture

In the present diverse Organization culture, every Management need to determine motivational factors, policies, events and provide culture-based targets to lead the organization to achieve goals. In this journey every organization should understand the behavioral factors of their workforce. Psychology, on the other hand is a study of mind and behavior of human beings. This study considers important elements of psychology to study behavior of human at a said time to identify factors which motivates employees at workplace and improve efficiency. Understanding employee’s behavior also poses useful to set acceptable policies and work culture to the employees. This study also includes how behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures, how it affects human behavior and thinking. A Likert scale is constructed based on important elements of psychology, the scores are analyzed to examine which point gets high score, further descriptive statistics was calculated to examine its variability and Reliability test on the construct was conducted to check whether the construct is reliable to the study are not.

Study on sulfur vulcanized natural rubber formulated with nitrosamine safe diisopropyl xanthogen polysulfide/tertiary butyl benzothiazole sulphenamide binary accelerator system

An outstanding interest on elimination of nitrosamine generation in traditional sulfur vulcanization systems has led to introduce nitrosamine safe accelerator/s to produce safe natural rubber (NR) vulcanizates. It is an effective way to prevent formation of carcinogenic N-nitroso compounds during manufacture of rubber products. In the present study, behavior of nitrosamine safe binary accelerator system consisting of diisopropyl xanthogen polysulfide (DIXP) with commonly used non-regulated accelerator N-tert-butyl-2-benzothiazole sulfenamide (TBBS) was investigated in efficient sulfur vulcanization of NR. Cure characteristics, physico-mechanical properties and crosslink density of vulcanizates prepared with different combinations of the accelerator system were evaluated and compared with those of individual accelerators. The study reveals that moduli and strength properties of the vulcanizate prepared with DIXP accelerator are inferior to those of the vulcanizate prepared with TBBS accelerator. Nevertheless, optimum cure time of the DIXP compounds is lower in comparison to TBBS compounds. Moreover, progressive replacement of DIXP with TBBS in the accelerator system showed a synergistic effect in regard to cure characteristics and physico-mechanical properties.