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Learning Effects (learning + effects)
Selected AbstractsChild Care in Poor Communities: Early Learning Effects of Type, Quality, and StabilityCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2004Susanna Loeb Young children in poor communities are spending more hours in nonparental care because of policy reforms and expansion of early childhood programs. Studies show positive effects of high-quality center-based care on children's cognitive growth. Yet, little is known about the effects of center care typically available in poor communities or the effects of home-based care. Using a sample of children who were between 12 and 42 months when their mothers entered welfare-to-work programs, this paper finds positive cognitive effects for children in center care. Children also display stronger cognitive growth when caregivers are more sensitive and responsive, and stronger social development when providers have education beyond high school. Children in family child care homes show more behavioral problems but no cognitive differences. [source] Measurement of informal care: an empirical study into the valid measurement of time spent on informal caregivingHEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 5 2006Bernard van den Berg Abstract The incorporation of informal care into economic evaluations of health care is troublesome. The debate focuses on the valuation of time spent on informal caregiving, while time measurement, a related and may be even a more important issue, tends to be neglected. Valid time measurement is a necessary condition for the valuation of informal care. In this paper, two methods of time measurement are compared and evaluated: the diary, which is considered the gold standard, and the recall method, which is applied more often. The main objective of this comparison is to explore the validity of the measurement of time spent on providing informal care. In addition, this paper gives empirical evidence regarding the measurement of joint production and the separation between ,normal' housework and additional housework due to the care demands of the care recipients. Finally, the test,retest stability for the recall method is assessed. A total of 199 persons giving informal care to a heterogeneous population of care recipients completed the diary and the recall questionnaire. Corrected for joint production, informal caregivers spent almost 5.8 h a day on providing informal care. If one assumes that respondents take into account joint production when completing the recall questionnaire, the recall method is a valid instrument to measure time spent on providing informal care compared to the diary. Otherwise, the recall method is likely to overestimate the time spent on providing informal care. Moreover, the recall method proves to be unstable over time. This could be due to learning effects from completing a diary. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Human and machine effects in a just-in-time scheduling problemHUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS IN MANUFACTURING & SERVICE INDUSTRIES, Issue 4 2009Tamer Eren In this article, single-machine scheduling problems with learning effects of setup and removal times and deterioration effects of processing time are considered. The objective function of the problem is minimization of the weighted sum of total earliness and total tardiness. To get an exact solution to the problem, a mathematical programming model is proposed. Also the model is tested on an example. To the best of our knowledge, no work exists in the literature that considers the problem presented in this article. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Nonfinancial Performance Measures and Promotion-Based IncentivesJOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 2 2008DENNIS CAMPBELL ABSTRACT In this paper, I examine the sensitivity of promotion and demotion decisions for lower-level managers to financial and nonfinancial measures of their performance and investigate the extent to which the behavior of lower-level managers reflects promotion-based incentives. Additionally, I test for learning versus effort-allocation effects of promotion-based incentives. I find that promotion and demotion decisions for store managers of a major U.S.-based fast-food retailer (QSR) are sensitive to nonfinancial performance measures of service quality and employee retention after controlling for financial performance. The likelihood of demotion in this organization is also sensitive to nonfinancial performance on the dimension of service quality, while the probability of exit is primarily sensitive to financial performance measures rather than nonfinancial performance measures. I also find evidence that the behavior of lower-level managers is consistent with the incentives created by the weighting of nonfinancial performance measures in promotion decisions. Managers in locations where there is a higher ex ante probability of promotion and a higher potential reward upon promotion demonstrate significantly higher levels and rates of performance improvement in service quality. Finally, consistent with promotion-based incentives inducing both effort-allocation and learning effects, I find that performance-improvement rates for service quality: (1) are higher in prepromotion periods in markets where promotions occur, (2) decrease immediately after the occurrence of a promotion in the same market area, and (3) remain higher than in markets where promotions do not occur. These findings provide some of the first empirical evidence on an alternative to the explicit weighting of nonfinancial metrics in compensation contracts as a mechanism for generating improvements in nonfinancial dimensions of performance. [source] Examining Situationally Induced State Goal Orientation Effects on Task Perceptions, Performance, and Satisfaction: A Two-Dimensional Conceptualization,JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2008Debra Steele-Johnson We examined the longitudinal effects of situationally induced 2-dimensional state goal orientations (i.e., achievement goals) on perceptions, performance, and satisfaction. Results (N = 268) indicated that high state learning cues led to higher perceived challenge and, for higher ability individuals, greater performance gains. Further, high state performance cues led to higher perceived effort. However, results revealed that state learning and performance effects were more complex than expected. State learning effects on challenge and state performance effects on effort were both stronger with other cues absent. Additionally, increasingly beneficial state learning cue effects were stronger for higher ability individuals. Thus, results provided support that state learning and performance goals are separate dimensions, and their interactive effects need further examination. [source] Evaluating the persona effect of an interface agent in a tutoring systemJOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING, Issue 3 2002M. Moundridou Abstract This paper describes the evaluation of the persona effect of a speech-driven anthropomorphic agent that has been embodied in the interface of an intelligent tutoring system (ITS). This agent is responsible for guiding the student in the environment and communicating the system's feedback messages. The agent was evaluated in terms of the effect that it could have on students' learning, behaviour and experience. The participants in the experiment were divided into two groups: half of them worked with a version of the ITS which embodied the agent and the rest worked with an agent-less version. The results from this study confirm the hypothesis that a pedagogical agent incorporated in an ITS can enhance students' learning experience. On the other hand, the hypothesis that the presence of the agent improves short-term learning effects was rejected. [source] Landmines and Local Community AdaptationJOURNAL OF CONTINGENCIES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2002Aldo A. Benini Despite international mobilization for greater humanitarian mine action and despite considerable clearance achievements, the majority of mine-affected communities have not yet been involved in formal clearance activities. They adapt to the contamination largely by local means. The differing degree to which local adaptation is successful is now better understood as a result of the Global Landmine Survey, a multi-country survey project launched in the wake of the 1997 Ottawa treaty to ban anti-personnel mines. Socio-economic impact surveys have since been completed in several countries. In addition to landmines, the Global Landmine Survey records impacts also from unexploded ordnance (UXO). The ability to avoid mine incidents is used to measure adaptation success. We use a variant of Poisson regression models in order to identify community and contamination correlates of the number of recent landmine victims. We estimate separate models using data from the Yemen, Chad and Thailand surveys. We interpret them in a common framework that includes variables from three domains: Pressure on resources, intensity of past conflict and communities' institutional endowments. Statistically significant associations occur in all three domains and in all the three countries studied. Physical correlates are the most strongly associated, pointing to a lasting deadly legacy of violent conflict, but also significant learning effects over time are present. Despite different measurements of institutional endowments, in each country one factor signifying greater local development is correlated with reductions in victims, whereas factors commonly associated with the presence of government officials do not contribute to local capacity to diminish the landmine problem. Strong spatial effects are manifest in clusters of communities with recent victims. Two policy consequences emerge. Firstly, given humanitarian funding limits, trade-offs between clearing contaminated land and creating alternative employment away from that land need to be studied more deeply; the Global Landmine Survey will need to reach out to other bodies of knowledge in development. Secondly, communities with similar contamination types and levels often form local clusters that are smaller than the administrative districts of the government and encourage tailored planning approaches for mine action. These call for novel coalitions that bring advocacy and grassroots NGOs together with local governments, agricultural and forestry departments and professional mine clearance and awareness education agencies. [source] Valuing food-borne risks using time-series data: The case of E. coli O157:H7 and BSE crises in JapanAGRIBUSINESS : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2006Shunji Oniki This study evaluates changes in consumers' concerns on food safety after the outbreaks of E. coli O157 and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Japan using household consumption time-series data. A food demand system for Japanese households is estimated using the linear approximate almost-ideal demand system (AIDS) model to evaluate the willingness to accept (WTA) compensation for risk. The Kalman filtering method is applied to produce estimates without a priori assumption regarding timing of the changes. The WTA value rises immediately after a food safety crisis occurs and declines in a short time. However, it does not return to previous levels for an extended period. A possible explanation for remaining effects of a crisis might be that they are the results of habit formation and learning effects of consumption. [EconLit citations: D12, D18, Q13]. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 22: 219,232, 2006. [source] Teaching science problem solving: An overview of experimental workJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 4 2001R. Taconis The traditional approach to teaching science problem solving is having the students work individually on a large number of problems. This approach has long been overtaken by research suggesting and testing other methods, which are expected to be more effective. To get an overview of the characteristics of good and innovative problem-solving teaching strategies, we performed an analysis of a number of articles published between 1985 and 1995 in high-standard international journals, describing experimental research into the effectiveness of a wide variety of teaching strategies for science problem solving. To characterize the teaching strategies found, we used a model of the capacities needed for effective science problem solving, composed of a knowledge base and a skills base. The relations between the cognitive capacities required by the experimental or control treatments and those of the model were specified and used as independent variables. Other independent variables were learning conditions such as feedback and group work. As a dependent variable we used standardized learning effects. We identified 22 articles describing 40 experiments that met the standards we deemed necessary for a meta-analysis. These experiments were analyzed both with quantitative (correlational) methods and with a systematic qualitative method. A few of the independent variables were found to characterize effective strategies for teaching science problem solving. Effective treatments all gave attention to the structure and function (the schemata) of the knowledge base, whereas attention to knowledge of strategy and the practice of problem solving turned out to have little effect. As for learning conditions, both providing the learners with guidelines and criteria they can use in judging their own problem-solving process and products, and providing immediate feedback to them were found to be important prerequisites for the acquisition of problem-solving skills. Group work did not lead to positive effects unless combined with other variables, such as guidelines and feedback. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 442,468, 2001 [source] Modelling concurrency of events in on-line auctions via spatiotemporal semiparametric modelsJOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY: SERIES C (APPLIED STATISTICS), Issue 1 2007Wolfgang Jank Summary., We introduce a semiparametric approach for modelling the effect of concurrent events on an outcome of interest. Concurrency manifests itself as temporal and spatial dependences. By temporal dependence we mean the effect of an event in the past. Modelling this effect is challenging since events arrive at irregularly spaced time intervals. For the spatial part we use an abstract notion of ,feature space' to conceptualize distances among a set of item features. We motivate our model in the context of on-line auctions by modelling the effect of concurrent auctions on an auction's price. Our concurrency model consists of three components: a transaction-related component that accounts for auction design and bidding competition, a spatial component that takes into account similarity between item features and a temporal component that accounts for recently closed auctions. To construct each of these we borrow ideas from spatial and mixed model methodology. The power of this model is illustrated on a large and diverse set of laptop auctions on eBay.com. We show that our model results in superior predictive performance compared with a set of competitor models. The model also allows for new insight into the factors that drive price in on-line auctions and their relationship to bidding competition, auction design, product variety and temporal learning effects. [source] Experimental evidence on trading behavior, market efficiency and price formation in double auctions with unknown trading durationMANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 8 2005Darren Duxbury The reasons for the highly efficient market outcomes observed under the double auction remain unclear. This paper presents a series of experimental financial markets designed to investigate the importance of unknown trading period duration on trading behavior and the convergence tendencies of such markets. Using panel data techniques the results support the conclusions that individuals generally display more aggressive trading strategies, trading earlier in a period, and that markets exhibit reduced levels of informational efficiency when unknown duration is present. Markets with imperfect information structures are also studied and, in a unique result, are associated with significantly slower rates of trade, as traders become more cautious over their trading strategies. Investigation of the price formation process provides evidence that the pricing error varies over time and the estimation of a fixed effects model provides unique support that learning effects and unknown trading period duration influence the price formation process. Future refinement of theoretical models of the price formation process or institutions of exchange should recognize the effect of unknown trading period duration on market behavior, along with potential learning effects. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] FIRM EFFICIENCY AND THE DESTINATION OF EXPORTS: EVIDENCE FROM KENYAN PLANT-LEVEL DATATHE DEVELOPING ECONOMIES, Issue 3 2009Mats GRANÉR D24; F14; L60; O24; O33 Investigating the link between firm efficiency and exports in Kenyan manufacturing, the results show that exporters are more efficient than non-exporters, and that relatively efficient firms self-select into exporting. An important new finding is that only for export markets outside Africa must firms be efficient prior to entry. The probability of exporting to other African countries increases if production is intense in physical and human capital. For export activities outside Africa, firm size is more important. Contrary to many other studies, it is also found that export participation yields learning effects. When testing the hypothesis that the main source of learning effects is trade with developed countries (south,north), as opposed to trade with other developing countries (south,south), yet another new finding is that learning effects only obtain in south,south trade. Therefore, one can conclude that controlling for the destination of exports importantly improves the understanding of the relationship between firm efficiency and exports. [source] Frequency Map Variations in Squirrel Monkey Primary Auditory Cortex,THE LARYNGOSCOPE, Issue 7 2005Steven W. Cheung MD Abstract Objective: The goal of this work is to understand the neural basis for cortical representation of hearing in highly vocal primates to gain insights into the substrates for communication. Variation patterns in frequency representation among animals are incorporated into an explanatory model to reconcile heterogeneous observations. Study Design: Prospective. Methods: Thirty-four squirrel monkeys underwent microelectrode mapping experiments in primary auditory cortex (AI) using tone pip stimuli. Characteristic frequency (CF) was extracted from the excitatory frequency receptive field. Frequency maps were reconstructed using Voronoi-Dirichlet tessellation. The spatial locations (rostral vs. caudal) of highest CF isofrequency contours (minimum length 1 mm) and highest CF neuronal clusters on the temporal gyral surface were analyzed. Results: Isofrequency contours at least 1 mm long with CFs greater than 2.9 kHz (75% cases) are accessible on the temporal gyrus. Variability of the highest CF isofrequency contours accessible on the temporal gyrus has an interquartile range from 2.9 to 5.1 (mean 4.3) kHz. The highest CF isofrequency contours are located mainly in rostral AI, whereas the highest CF neuronal clusters flanking fully expressed isofrequency contours are equally distributed in rostral and caudal locations. Conclusions: Squirrel monkey AI frequency map variations are sizeable across animals and small within single animals (interhemispheric comparison). AI frequency map variations, modeled as translations and rotations relative to the lateral sulcus, are independent transfers. Caution must be exercised when interpreting nominal frequency map changes that are attributed to hearing loss and auditory learning effects. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||