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Learning Behavior (learning + behavior)
Selected AbstractsAge-Related Differences in the Motivation of Learning English as a Foreign Language: Attitudes, Selves, and Motivated Learning BehaviorLANGUAGE LEARNING, Issue 2 2008Judit Kormos Our study describes the motivation for learning English as a foreign language in three distinct learner populations: secondary school pupils, university students, and adult language learners. Questionnaire data were collected from 623 Hungarian students. The main factors affecting students' second language (L2) motivation were language learning attitudes and the Ideal L2 self, which provides empirical support for the main construct of the theory of the L2 Motivational Self-System (Dörnyei, 2005). Models of motivated behavior varied across the three investigated learner groups. For the secondary school pupils, it was interest in English-language cultural products that affected their motivated behavior, whereas international posture as an important predictive variable was only present in the two older age groups. [source] Variable Memory Strategy Use in Children's Adaptive Intratask Learning Behavior: Developmental Changes and Working Memory Influences in Free RecallCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2007Martin Lehmann Variability in strategy use within single trials in free recall was analyzed longitudinally from second to fourth grades (ages 8,10 years). To control for practice effects another sample of fourth graders was included (age 10 years). Video analyses revealed that children employed different strategies when preparing for free recall. A gradual shift from labeling to cumulative rehearsal was present both with increasing age and across different list positions. Whereas cumulative rehearsal was frequent at early list positions, labeling was dominant at later list portions. Working memory capacity predicted the extent of cumulative rehearsal usage, which became more efficient with increasing age. Results are discussed in the context of the adaptive strategy choice model. [source] Emerging Markets as Learning Laboratories: Learning Behaviors of Local Firms and Foreign Entrants in Different Institutional ContextsMANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION REVIEW, Issue 3 2005Michael A. Hitt abstract In this work, we examine and integrate the research streams on learning behaviours of both local firms and foreign entrants in emerging markets. We propose that local firms and foreign entrants differ in the types of learning pursued and in the learning processes used. While emerging market firms engage in a significant amount of exploratory learning, they also attempt to exploit the newly gained knowledge in their current markets. Furthermore, foreign entrants engage in exploitative learning as expected but also must participate in exploratory learning to acquire knowledge of culture, institutional norms, and important social relationships. While much of the learning occurs through cooperative processes with both partners, they also each engage in experiential learning. We argue that emerging markets also differ; firms in the more mature emerging markets seek different types of learning and the learning processes used vary compared to those in less mature emerging markets. Our research suggests that emerging markets represent learning laboratories and provide a base to catalyse future research. [source] Self-Assessment of Speaking Skills and Participation in a Foreign Language ClassFOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 1 2009Diane De Saint Léger French; relevant to all languages Abstract: This article investigates the ways in which learners' perception of themselves as second language (L2) speakers evolved over a 12-week period. Thirty-two students of the advanced French stream in a tertiary institution participated in this semester-long study. Students self-assessed their speaking skills and their level of participation in French oral tasks in weeks 4, 6, and 12, and set learning goals accordingly. Self-perception evolved in a positive fashion over time, particularly in relation to fluency, vocabulary, and overall confidence in speaking in the L2. In addition, individual goal-setting encouraged learners to take increased responsibility toward their own learning, although increased awareness did not necessarily lead to concrete actions to modify learning behavior. To conclude, this study highlights the potential pedagogical benefits of self-assessment at both the cognitive and affective levels. [source] Environmental enrichment stimulates progenitor cell proliferation in the amygdalaJOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH, Issue 16 2009Hiroaki Okuda Abstract Enriched environments enhance hippocampal neurogenesis, synaptic efficacy, and learning and memory functions. Recent studies have demonstrated that enriched environments can restore learning behavior and long-term memory after significant brain atrophy and neural loss. Emotional and anxiety-related behaviors were also improved by enriched stimuli, but the effect of enriched environments on the amygdala, one of the major emotion-related structures in the central nervous system, remains largely unknown. In this study, we have focused on the effects of an enriched environment on cell proliferation and differentiation in the murine amygdala. The enriched environment increased bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)-positive (newborn) cell numbers in the amygdala, almost all of which, immediately after a 1-week period of enrichment, expressed the oligodendrocyte progenitor marker Olig2. Furthermore, enriched stimuli significantly suppressed cell death in the amygdala. Some of the BrdU-positive cells in mice exposed to the enriched environment, but none in animals housed in the standard environment, later differentiated into astrocytes. Our findings, taken together with previous behavioral studies, suggest that progenitor proliferation and differentiation in the amygdala may contribute to the beneficial aspects of environmental enrichment such as anxiolytic effects. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Effect of Evolvulus alsinoides Linn. on learning behavior and memory enhancement activity in rodentsPHYTOTHERAPY RESEARCH, Issue 4 2010Alok Nahata Abstract In the Ayurvedic system of medicine, the whole herb of ,Shankhpushpi' has been employed clinically for centuries for its memory potentiating, anxiolytic and tranquilizing properties. The present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of Evolvulus alsinoides (EA), considered as Shankhpushpi on learning and memory in rodents. Nootropic activity using Cook and Weidley's pole climbing apparatus, passive avoidance paradigms and active avoidance tests were used to test learning and memory. The ethanol extract of EA and its ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions were evaluated for their memory enhancing properties. Two doses (100 and 200 mg/kg p.o.) of the ethanol extract and ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions were administered in separate groups of animals. Both doses of all the extracts of EA significantly improved learning and memory in rats. Furthermore, these doses significantly reversed the amnesia induced by scopolamine (0.3 mg/kg i.p.). Nootropic activity was compared using piracetam as the standard. EA also exhibited potent memory enhancing effects in the step-down and shuttle-box avoidance paradigms. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Direct Associations or Internal Transformations?COGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 1 2010Exploring the Mechanisms Underlying Sequential Learning Behavior Abstract We evaluate two broad classes of cognitive mechanisms that might support the learning of sequential patterns. According to the first, learning is based on the gradual accumulation of direct associations between events based on simple conditioning principles. The other view describes learning as the process of inducing the transformational structure that defines the material. Each of these learning mechanisms predicts differences in the rate of acquisition for differently organized sequences. Across a set of empirical studies, we compare the predictions of each class of model with the behavior of human subjects. We find that learning mechanisms based on transformations of an internal state, such as recurrent network architectures (e.g., Elman, 1990), have difficulty accounting for the pattern of human results relative to a simpler (but more limited) learning mechanism based on learning direct associations. Our results suggest new constraints on the cognitive mechanisms supporting sequential learning behavior. [source] Learning in interactive work situations: It takes two to tango; why not invite both partners to dance?HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2006Hanneke Koopmans Learning that arises from interactions at work is the focus of this study. More specifically, the concrete activities of adult learners and their interaction partners were of interest because such learning activities largely determine the quality of learning outcomes. The results of the study are summarized in the form of a typology of interactive learning behaviors for adult learners (that is, workers) and their interaction partners at work. The similarities and differences among three occupational groups, teachers, financial service professionals, and police officers groups,were examined, and explanations were sought based on the nature of work and power. The results can help adult learners and their interaction partners enter into a more equal, dyadic, and reciprocal learning process and thereby contribute to a critical human resource development perspective. [source] Sex differences in L2 vocabulary learning strategiesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS, Issue 1 2003Rosa María Jiménez Catalán This article reports the results of a descriptive study on sex differences in the use of a second language. A questionnaire was administered to 581 Spanish-speaking students learning Basque and English as L2 (279 males and 302 females) in order to answer these questions: Do male and female second language learners differ in (1) the number and (2) the range of vocabulary strategies they use? The results show that they differ significantly in the number of strategies used. Regarding the range of vocabulary strategies, 8 out of the 10 most frequent strategies are shared by males and females. However, a close analysis of the data also reveals differences, such as females' greater use of formal rule strategies, input elicitation strategies, rehearsal strategies and planning strategies, and males' greater use of image vocabulary learning strategies. In addition, the females' total strategy usage percentages are higher than the males', which points to either different perceptions of vocabulary learning behaviors or different patterns of vocabulary strategy usage for males and females. [source] Psychometric data for teacher judgments regarding the learning behaviors of primary grade childrenPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 3 2002Edward G. Crosby The psychometric properties of the Classroom Performance Profile (CPP), a teacher rating scale, were investigated using primary grade children from economically at-risk families. Students were rated as they progressed from kindergarten through third grade. The CPP demonstrated high internal consistency yielding Cronbach alpha coefficients for the total score of at least .96. CPP ratings were correlated with scores from the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery,Revised: Tests of Achievement and the Social Skills Rating System,Teacher Form, Elementary Level. Results suggest that the CPP ratings were positively correlated with measures of academic achievement, academic competence, and social skills, and negatively correlated with problem behaviors. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] | ||||||||||||||||