What learning strategies influence higher-order learning behaviours of medical students?

AIMS

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between the application of learning strategies and the emergence of higher-order learning behaviours among medical students in Chinese provincial undergraduate colleges, while also examining the impact of social demographic variables on the development of higher-order learning behaviours and learning strategy preferences.

METHODOLOGY

We conducted a relevant cross-sectional study using the Chinese College Student Survey (CCSS) online questionnaire to evaluate higher-order learning behaviours and learning strategies in medical undergraduate students attending provincial colleges in China. A total of 992 valid questionnaires were collected and analysed using SPSS 22.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). We performed statistical analysis using one-sample t-tests to compare the results with the national norm score for medical subjects in undergraduate colleges. We also conducted variance analysis and regression analysis.

RESULTS

The study found that the average scores for higher-order learning behaviours, enquiry-based learning and receptive learning behaviour among medical undergraduate students in provincial colleges were higher than the national norm score for medical subjects, indicating a positive trend. However, the average scores for other indicators were lower than the national norm score. The utilization of learning strategies and the development of higher-order learning behaviours among students were affected by various factors such as grade and gender. The study suggests that the preference for certain learning strategies, such as enquiry-based, receptive, integrative and collaborative, can have a significant impact on the emergence of higher-order learning behaviours.

CONCLUSIONS

The study has demonstrated a positive correlation between the utilization of learning strategies and the development of higher-order learning behaviours. This relationship has been observed in medical students attending provincial undergraduate colleges, where the adoption of enquiry-based, receptive, integrative and collaborative learning strategies has been found to significantly influence the emergence of higher-order learning behaviours.KEY MESSAGESThe implementation of learning strategies among medical students in provincial undergraduate colleges in China has a significant impact on high-level learning behaviours.The impact of high-level learning behaviours is reliant on comprehensive support from four distinct learning strategies: receptive learning, inquiry-based learning, comprehensive learning and collaborative learning.One of the most impactful learning strategies is receptive learning, particularly on high-order learning behaviours. On the other hand, reflective learning does not seem to have a significant effect.Changes in grades can significantly impact higher-order learning behaviours and affect the propensity for reflective and collaborative learning strategies.Females generally exhibit a greater preference for receptive learning strategies, while males tend to exhibit a greater preference for inquiry-based learning strategies.

Muscimol inactivation of dorsal striatum in young and aged male rats does not affect paired associates learning performance

Improving cognitive health for older adults requires understanding the neurobiology of age-related cognitive decline and the mechanisms underlying preserved cognition in old age. During spatial learning tasks, aged humans and rodents shift navigation preferences in favor of a stimulus-response learning strategy. This has been hypothesized to result from competitive interactions of the caudate nucleus/dorsal striatum (DS) memory system with the hippocampus (HPC)-dependent spatial/allocentric memory system. In support of this hypothesis, a recent study reported that inactivation of the DS in aged rodents rescued HPC-dependent spatial learning on a T-maze (Gardner, Gold, & Korol, 2020). Currently, it is unclear whether a shift from HPC-dependent to DS-dependent behavior also contributes to age-related cognitive decline outside of spatial learning and memory. To test the hypothesis that inactivation of the DS can restore age-related cognitive function outside of spatial behavior, the present study bilaterally inactivated the DS of young (n = 8) and aged (n = 7) rats during visuospatial paired associates learning (PAL). This study found that inactivation of the DS did not alter PAL performance in young or aged rats, but did alter a positive control, DS-dependent spatial navigation task. This observation suggests that elevated DS activity does not play a role in the decline of HPC-dependent PAL performance in aged male rats. Given the persistent tendencies of aged rodents toward DS-dependent learning, it will be worthwhile to explore further the coordination dynamics between the HPC and DS that may contribute to age-related cognitive decline. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Can synchronised tones facilitate immediate memory for printed lists?

In verbal list recall, adding features redundant with the ones to be recalled theoretically could assist recall, by providing additional retrieval cues, or it could impede recall, by draining attention away from the features to be recalled. We examined young adults' immediate memory of lists of printed digits when these lists were sometimes accompanied by synchronised, concurrent tones, one per digit. Unlike most previous irrelevant-sound effects, the tones were not asynchronous with the printed items, which can corrupt the episodic record, and did not repeat within a list. Memory of the melody might bring to mind the associated digits like lyrics in a song. Sometimes there were instructions to sing the digits covertly in the tone pitches. In three experiments, there was no evidence that these methods enhanced memory. Instead, there appeared to be a distraction effect from the synchronised tones, as in the irrelevant sound effect with asynchronised tones.

The Correlation Between Cognitive Flexibility and Learning Strategies Adopted by Medical Students

Background and objective The term cognitive flexibility refers to the ability of the students to adapt to a challenging environment. This quality has been found to enhance creativity and skills for innovation among medical students who are expected to face a taxing environment in clinical settings. Medical students should be competent enough to address the problems on their own and work with autonomy. The practice of self-regulated learning (SRL) can be associated with cognitive flexibility. Hence, this study aimed to determine the correlation between learning strategies and cognitive flexibility. Our primary objective was to correlate the different learning strategies adopted and cognitive flexibility among medical students. Material and methods This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Sri Venkateshwaraa Medical College Hospital and Research Center, Ariyur, Pondicherry after obtaining institutional ethical committee approval. Students from the second year to the final year of the MBBS course who volunteered to participate in the study were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The Motivated Strategy for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), consisting of 50 items in Part B, was employed to assess SRL. Cognitive flexibility was measured using the Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT) and Trail Making Test (TMT) Part A and Part B. Results The study included a total of 220 medical students. The mean age of the participants was 21.76 ± 1.77 years, and they had a healthy mean BMI of 21.06 ± 1.25 kg/m2. There was no significant difference in terms of gender in the tested variables. Responses in Card "C" and Card "CW" of the Stroop test showed a significant positive correlation (p<0.001) with subscales of SRL strategies. In the TMT, the latency of Trail A showed a significant negative correlation (p<0.001) with all the subscale scores of the SRL strategies, and the latency of Trail B showed a negative correlation with rehearsal (p=0.03), organization (p=0.03), and effort regulation strategies (p=0.01) of SRL. Conclusion Implementing SRL techniques can ultimately help medical students to act more wisely and judiciously. Hence, we propose that cognitive flexibility among medical students can be enhanced by adopting SRL strategies.

Motivation to succeed is not enough: motivated students need to know how to plan/organize their steps on their way to success

The study is based on dispositional (career motivation) and social-cognitive (generalized self-efficacy) theories of personality, further on the expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation and future time perspective theory (task value, time, and study environment). The study aimed to explain the mechanism of the prediction relationship between motivation and students' performance. It was assumed that skills of planning and organizing (operationalized as generalized self-efficacy and learning strategies) mediate the prediction of motivation (career motivation and task value) on students' success (operationalized as academic achievement and employability). In two studies (N = 313, N = 219), the hypotheses of the mediation models were supported by structural equation modeling. Generally, the skills of organizing/planning fully mediated the students' performance, measured as academic achievement and employability (number of employers). The results show the importance of combining dispositional motivation characteristics with dynamic planning skills on the way to students' success. Traditional psychological predictors of performance, like general mental ability and conscientiousness, were not controlled. Higher education institutions could support motivated students on their way to success by teaching them how to plan and organize specific steps on their way to success.

Different scoring methods of the VARK questionnaire to evaluate dentistry Students' learning styles

INTRODUCTION

The way students process and organise information to facilitate learning is known as learning style. Knowing one's learning style can improve learning and help teachers choose their teaching methods more effectively. This study was conducted to investigate different scoring methods of the VARK questionnaire and compare different learning styles in different stages of dental school.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Students in three stages of the dental school participated in this study: basic sciences, preclinical and clinical. The validated reliable Persian VARK questionnaire was utilised. Collected data were computed and analysed in three ways: raw, normalised and weighted scoring by ANOVA and chi-squared tests (α = .05).

RESULT

The most favoured learning style was auditory; however, the prevalence of other learning styles varied through stages. On analyses of visual and auditory learning styles by all methods of scoring, no significant difference was seen in different stages (study time). The kinetic learning style, using normalised scoring method, was used more significantly when the grade increased (p-value = .028). However, in the weighted method, this effect was not significant. The read-write learning style using all three scoring methods showed an inverse relationship with the level of education (p-value <.05), which means the tendency to use this style of learning decreased when the level of education increased.

CONCLUSION

As the educational level increases, students are more inclined to use kinetic and less likely to employ read-write learning style. There was not a significant difference in the use of visual and aural learning styles in any stages of dental school.

Student's Learning Strategies and Academic Emotions: Their Influence on Learning Satisfaction During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Based on the control-value theory (CVT), learning strategies and academic emotions are closely related to learning achievement, and have been considered as important factors influencing student's learning satisfaction and learning performance in the online learning context. However, only a few studies have focused on the influence of learning strategies on academic emotions and the interaction of learning strategies with behavioral engagement and social interaction on learning satisfaction. Methods: The participants were 363 pre-service teachers in China, and we used structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the mediating and moderating effects of the data. Results: The main findings of the current study showed that learning strategies influence students' online learning satisfaction through academic emotions. The interaction between learning strategies and behavioral engagement was also an important factor influencing online learning satisfaction. Conclusions: We explored the internal mechanism and boundary conditions of how learning strategies influenced learning satisfaction to provide intellectual guarantee and theoretical support for the online teaching design and online learning platform. This study provides theoretical contributions to the CVT and practical value for massive open online courses (MOOCs), flipped classrooms and blended learning in the future.

Dissociative Effects of Neuropeptide S Receptor Deficiency and Nasal Neuropeptide S Administration on T-Maze Discrimination and Reversal Learning

Cognitive flexibility refers to the ability to modify learned behavior in response to changes in the environment. In laboratory rodents, cognitive flexibility can be assessed in reversal learning, i.e., the change of contingencies, for example in T-maze discrimination learning. The present study investigated the role of the neuropeptide S (NPS) system in cognitive flexibility. In the first experiment, mice deficient of NPS receptors (NPSR) were tested in T-maze discrimination and reversal learning. In the second experiment, C57BL/6J mice were tested in the T-maze after nasal administration of NPS. Finally, the effect of nasal NPS on locomotor activity was evaluated. NPSR deficiency positively affected the acquisition of T-maze discrimination but had no effects on reversal learning. Nasal NPS administration facilitated reversal learning and supported an allocentric learning strategy without affecting acquisition of the task or locomotor activity. Taken together, the present data show that the NPS system is able to modulate both acquisition of T-maze discrimination and its reversal learning. However, NPSR deficiency only improved discrimination learning, while nasal NPS administration only improved reversal learning, i.e., cognitive flexibility. These effects, which at first glance appear to be contradictory, could be due to the different roles of the NPS system in the brain regions that are important for learning and cognitive flexibility.

Estradiol selectively regulates metabolic substrates across memory systems in models of menopause

Estrogen loss at menopause is thought to contribute to specific memory problems commonly encountered by women who are transitioning through or who have experienced menopause. Work in preclinical models suggests that estrogens bidirectionally regulate cognition through direct actions on different neural systems called memory systems, enhancing some types of learning and memory while impairing others. The energy load in the brain during cognitive activity is notoriously high, requiring sufficient provisions of metabolic substrates such as glucose, lactate, or ketones for optimal cognition. Thus, it is possible that estrogens bidirectionally regulate energy substrate availability within each system to produce the improvements and impairments in learning and memory. Indeed, estradiol increases extracellular levels of glucose in the hippocampus, a shift that corresponds to the hormone's beneficial effects on hippocampus-sensitive cognition. In contrast, estradiol decreases levels of lactate and ketones in the striatum, a shift that corresponds to the impairing effects of estradiol on striatum-sensitive cognition. Menopause may thus be associated with both cognitive improvements and impairments depending on estradiol status and on the problem to be solved. We propose that regulation of neural metabolism is one likely mechanism for these bidirectional effects of estradiol on cognition.

[Questionnaire Survey of Pharmacy Students regarding Long-term In-hospital Practical Training: 8 Years of Changes]

In 2010, the in-hospital practical training period for pharmacy students was extended from 4 to 11 weeks. We have conducted questionnaire surveys of these students every year with the aim of reviewing the quality of training by conduction of surveys and evaluations. However, it was not clear whether reviewing based on the questionnaire results improved student satisfaction with the in-hospital practical training. Therefore, the aim of this study was to verify the validity of reviewing based on the questionnaire results by analyzing the data accumulated during the long-term practical training. A questionnaire survey was conducted of 333 5th-year students upon completion of practical training at Chiba University Hospital from 2010 to 2017. Students self-evaluated their attitude toward practical training on a 6-point scale and their satisfaction level for each component of the practical training on a 5-point scale. The students were also allowed to share their feelings about hospital pharmacy work. Repeated review of the training content can facilitate communication with patients, which was lacking at the beginning of the training period. Improved communication led to higher-quality pharmacy practice and increased student satisfaction. Meanwhile, changes to work procedures may reduce student satisfaction unless the training strategy is reviewed accordingly. Because the work of hospital pharmacists is constantly changing, it is considered that the content of the practical training should be revised accordingly through continuous conduction of surveys and evaluations, thereby enabling optimal practical training.

Benefits of Writing an Explanation During Pauses in Multimedia Lessons

Generative learning theory posits that learners engage more deeply and produce better learning outcomes when they engage in selecting, organizing, and integrating processes during learning. The present experiments examine whether the generative learning activity of generating explanations can be extended to online multimedia lessons and whether prompts to engage in this generative learning activity work better than more passive instruction. Across three experiments, college students learned about greenhouse gasses from a 4-part online lesson involving captioned animations and subsequently took a posttest. After each part, learners were asked to generate an explanation (write-an-explanation), write an explanation using provided terms (write-a-focused-explanation), rewrite a provided explanation (rewrite-an-explanation), read a provided explanation (read-an-explanation), or simply move on to the next part (no-activity). Overall, students in the write-an-explanation group (Experiments 2 and 3), write-a-focused-explanation group (Experiment 2), and rewrite-an-explanation group (Experiment 3) performed significantly better on a delayed posttest than the no-activity group, but the groups did not differ significantly on an immediate posttest (Experiment 1). These results are consistent with generative learning theory and help identify generative learning strategies that improve online multimedia learning, thereby priming active learning with passive media.

Effects of Metacognitive Strategies on the Self-Regulated Learning Process: The Mediating Effects of Self-Efficacy

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of metacognitive strategies on self-regulated learning processes, focusing on the mediating effects of self-efficacy. The surveys were conducted in December 2016 (Time 1) and January 2017 (Time 2). One hundred and five undergraduates enrolled at a Japanese university participated in this survey study, consisting of two surveys conducted one month apart. The questionnaires measured the use of metacognitive strategies (i.e., planning strategy and monitoring strategy), self-efficacy, general learning behaviors (behavioral engagement and persistence), and the use of cognitive strategies (i.e., writing-repetition strategy and deep-processing strategy). First, cross-lagged structure equation modeling revealed that the use of planning strategy enhanced self-efficacy. Second, path analysis examined relationships between metacognitive strategies, general learning behaviors, and cognitive strategies. It revealed that (a) general learning behaviors were promoted by metacognitive strategies mediated by self-efficacy and (b) cognitive strategies were almost directly affected by the monitoring strategy. The current study reveals that general learning behaviors and cognitive strategies involve different processes than metacognitive strategies.

Acute Low Alcohol Disrupts Hippocampus-Striatum Neural Correlate of Learning Strategy by Inhibition of PKA/CREB Pathway in Rats

The hippocampus and striatum guide place-strategy and response-strategy learning, respectively, and they have dissociable roles in memory systems, which could compensate in case of temporary or permanent damage. Although acute alcohol (AA) treatment had been shown to have adverse effects on hippocampal function, whether it causes the functional compensation and the underlying mechanisms is unknown. In this study, rats treated with a low dose of AA avoided a hippocampus-dependent spatial strategy, instead preferring a striatum-dependent response strategy. Consistently, the learning-induced increase in hippocampal, but not striatal, pCREB was rendered less pronounced due to diminished activity of pPKA, but not pERK or pCaMKII. As rats approached the turn-decision area, Sp-cAMP, a PKA activator, was found to mitigate the inhibitory effect of AA on intra- and cross-structure synchronized neuronal oscillations, and rescue response-strategy bias and spatial learning deficits. Our study provides strong evidence of the critical link between neural couplings and strategy selection. Moreover, the PKA/CREB-signaling pathway is involved in the suppressive effect of AA on neural correlates of place-learning strategy. The novel important evidence provided here shows the functional couplings between the hippocampus and striatum in spatial learning processing and suggests possible avenues for therapeutic intervention.

Learning strategies, study habits and social networking activity of undergraduate medical students

OBJECTIVES

To determine learning strategies, study habits, and online social networking use of undergraduates at an Irish medical school, and their relationship with academic performance.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted in Year 2 and final year undergraduate-entry and graduate-entry students at an Irish medical school. Data about participants' demographics and educational background, study habits (including time management), and use of online media was collected using a self-report questionnaire. Participants' learning strategies were measured using the 18-item Approaches to Learning and Studying Inventory (ALSI). Year score percentage was the measure of academic achievement. The association between demographic/educational factors, learning strategies, study habits, and academic achievement was statistically analysed using regression analysis.

RESULTS

Forty-two percent of students were included in this analysis (n=376). A last-minute "cramming" time management study strategy was associated with increased use of online social networks. Learning strategies differed between undergraduate- and graduate-entrants, with the latter less likely to adopt a 'surface approach' and more likely adopt a 'study monitoring' approach. Year score percentage was positively correlated with the 'effort management/organised studying' learning style. Poorer academic performance was associated with a poor time management approach to studying ("cramming") and increased use of the 'surface learning' strategy.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study demonstrates that effort management and organised studying should be promoted, and surface learning discouraged, as part of any effort to optimise academic performance in medical school. Excessive use of social networking contributes to poor study habits, which are associated with reduced academic achievement.

Dissection and dissection-associated required experiences improve student performance in gross anatomy: Differences among quartiles

To promote student learning, educational strategies should provide multiple levels of engagement with the subject matter. This study investigated examination data from five first year medical gross anatomy class cohorts (692 students) to determine if enhanced student performance was correlated with learning through dissection in a course that used a rotating dissection schedule coupled with peer teaching and other associated experiences. When students performed two of five weekly dissections for a given unit, their average scores on both laboratory and written examinations tended to increase as compared to when they had completed only one week of dissection (P < 0.01). However, these performance gains differed across the class strata and were related to the amount of dissection completed. Students in the upper quartile (UQS) of the class benefited when they had dissected once (92.8%) or twice (92.4%), and these scores were significantly higher than those attained when learning from peers (90.3%, P < 0.01). Students in the lower quartile (LQS) benefited most from the dissection experiences, where practical examination performance was better (77.8% and 80.5%) than when these students learned material from their peers (73.7%, P < 0.01). Although UQS benefited from dissection, LQS benefited to a greater extent in both the practical and written examinations with dissection. Although limited, these data suggest that dissection, coupled with associated educational activities, is an effective pedagogical strategy for learning. Further investigation is required to evaluate the concomitant benefits of peer teaching that are associated with the dissection experience. Anat Sci Educ 9: 238-246. © 2015 American Association of Anatomists.

Assessing student engagement and self-regulated learning in a medical gross anatomy course

In courses with large enrollment, faculty members sometimes struggle with an understanding of how individual students are engaging in their courses. Information about the level of student engagement that instructors would likely find most useful can be linked to: (1) the learning strategies that students are using; (2) the barriers to learning that students are encountering; and (3) whether the course materials and activities are yielding the intended learning outcomes. This study drew upon self-regulated learning theory (SRL) to specify relevant information about learning engagement, and how the measures of particular scales might prove useful for student/faculty reflection. We tested the quality of such information as collected via the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). MSLQ items were administered through a web-based survey to 150 students in a first-year medical gross anatomy course. The resulting 66 responses (44% response rate) were examined for information quality (internal reliability and predictive validity) and usefulness of the results to the course instructor. Students' final grades in the course were correlated with their MSLQ scale scores to assess the predictive validity of the measures. These results were consistent with the course design and expectations, showing that greater use of learning strategies such as elaboration and critical thinking was associated with higher levels of performance in the course. Motivation subscales for learning were also correlated with the higher levels of performance in the course. The extent to which these scales capture valid and reliable information in other institutional settings and courses needs further investigation.

New perspectives on the auditory cortex: learning and memory

Primary ("early") sensory cortices have been viewed as stimulus analyzers devoid of function in learning, memory, and cognition. However, studies combining sensory neurophysiology and learning protocols have revealed that associative learning systematically modifies the encoding of stimulus dimensions in the primary auditory cortex (A1) to accentuate behaviorally important sounds. This "representational plasticity" (RP) is manifest at different levels. The sensitivity and selectivity of signal tones increase near threshold, tuning above threshold shifts toward the frequency of acoustic signals, and their area of representation can increase within the tonotopic map of A1. The magnitude of area gain encodes the level of behavioral stimulus importance and serves as a substrate of memory strength. RP has the same characteristics as behavioral memory: it is associative, specific, develops rapidly, consolidates, and can last indefinitely. Pairing tone with stimulation of the cholinergic nucleus basalis induces RP and implants specific behavioral memory, while directly increasing the representational area of a tone in A1 produces matching behavioral memory. Thus, RP satisfies key criteria for serving as a substrate of auditory memory. The findings suggest a basis for posttraumatic stress disorder in abnormally augmented cortical representations and emphasize the need for a new model of the cerebral cortex.

Humanized Foxp2 accelerates learning by enhancing transitions from declarative to procedural performance

The acquisition of language and speech is uniquely human, but how genetic changes might have adapted the nervous system to this capacity is not well understood. Two human-specific amino acid substitutions in the transcription factor forkhead box P2 (FOXP2) are outstanding mechanistic candidates, as they could have been positively selected during human evolution and as FOXP2 is the sole gene to date firmly linked to speech and language development. When these two substitutions are introduced into the endogenous Foxp2 gene of mice (Foxp2(hum)), cortico-basal ganglia circuits are specifically affected. Here we demonstrate marked effects of this humanization of Foxp2 on learning and striatal neuroplasticity. Foxp2(hum/hum) mice learn stimulus-response associations faster than their WT littermates in situations in which declarative (i.e., place-based) and procedural (i.e., response-based) forms of learning could compete during transitions toward proceduralization of action sequences. Striatal districts known to be differently related to these two modes of learning are affected differently in the Foxp2(hum/hum) mice, as judged by measures of dopamine levels, gene expression patterns, and synaptic plasticity, including an NMDA receptor-dependent form of long-term depression. These findings raise the possibility that the humanized Foxp2 phenotype reflects a different tuning of corticostriatal systems involved in declarative and procedural learning, a capacity potentially contributing to adapting the human brain for speech and language acquisition.

Use it and boost it with physical and mental activity

One of the now classic tenets of neuroscience is that the brain retains a substantial amount of structural and functional plasticity throughout adulthood and old age. Enriching experiences that stimulate physical and mental activity produce robust changes in subsequent behaviors, including learning and memory, that tap a wide range of neural systems. In this article, we review evidence for cognitive priming with physical and mental exercise through a memory systems lens and present brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signaling as one candidate neural mechanism for experience-dependent modulation of learning and memory. We highlight our recent findings showing that priming with voluntary exercise or with spontaneous alternation, a working memory task, enhances new learning of hippocampus-sensitive place, or striatum-sensitive response tasks. Blocking BDNF signaling with infusions of a BDNF receptor inhibitor into hippocampus or striatum just before training on place or response tasks, respectively, abrogated the benefits of priming regardless of the type of priming experience. These results suggest that enhanced BDNF signaling during learning may itself produce the cognitive benefits afforded by prior physical or mental activity.

Comparison of tutored group with tutorless group in problem-based mixed learning sessions: a randomized cross-matched study

BACKGROUND

Problem-based learning (PBL) involves discussions among students who resolve loosely-structured problems to facilitate learning. In the PBL curriculum, faculty tutors are employed as facilitators for small groups of students. Because of lack of time and staff shortage, the effectiveness of tutorless PBL has been discussed as an alternate option.

METHODS

Sessions in which tutored and tutorless PBL groups are mixed were presented by 1st-year medical students, who experienced both tutored and tutorless groups alternately in the two sessions of a year. To examine the effectiveness of tutored and tutorless PBL, written examination scores (WES) and self-contentment scores (SCS) were statistically analysed.

RESULTS

WES averages did not significantly differ between the tutored and tutorless groups; however, a significantly greater variation was observed in WES in the tutorless group. SCS averages tended to be higher in the tutored PBL than in tutorless PBL groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Students in these tutorless PBL groups performed well in their written examinations, whereas those in the tutored PBL groups, achieved this and reported better self-contentment with their learning experience. Tutorless PBL sessions were considered to be comparable to tutored PBL sessions at least in the early stages.

The Influences of Pre-testing Reviews and Delays on Differentialassociative Processing versus A Condition in which Students chose their Learning Strategy

Recent studies show that a new strategy called differential-associative processing is effective for learning related concepts. However our knowledge about differential-associative processing is still limited. Therefore the goals of the present study are to assess the duration of knowledge that is acquired from using differential-associative processing, to determine whether the efficacy of differential-associative processing changes with the addition of a 10-minute pre-testing review, and to compare differential-associate processing to two conditions in which students select their own learning strategy. The results revealed that differential-associative processing was a better strategy for learning related concepts than were either of the two comparison conditions. They also revealed that a 10-minute pre-testing review had a positive additive influence on differential-associative processing. Finally, although the knowledge acquired from using differential-associative processing declined with an increase in delay between learning and testing, this decline was equivalent to the decline observed in both comparison conditions.

Making memories matter

This article reviews some of the neuroendocrine bases by which emotional events regulate brain mechanisms of learning and memory. In laboratory rodents, there is extensive evidence that epinephrine influences memory processing through an inverted-U relationship, at which moderate levels enhance and high levels impair memory. These effects are, in large part, mediated by increases in blood glucose levels subsequent to epinephrine release, which then provide support for the brain processes engaged by learning and memory. These brain processes include augmentation of neurotransmitter release and of energy metabolism, the latter apparently including a key role for astrocytic glycogen. In addition to up- and down-regulation of learning and memory in general, physiological concomitants of emotion and arousal can also switch the neural system that controls learning at a particular time, at once improving some attributes of learning and impairing others in a manner that results in a change in the strategy used to solve a problem.

Juvenile zebra finches can use multiple strategies to learn the same song

Does the ontogeny of vocal imitation follow a set program that, given a target sound, unfolds in a predictable manner, or is it more like problem solving, with many possible solutions? We report that juvenile male zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, can master their imitation of the same song in various ways; these developmental trajectories are sensitive to the social setting in which the bird grows up. A variety of vocal developmental trajectories have also been described in infants. Are these many ways to learn unique to the vocal domain or a hallmark of advanced brain function?