Most computational models of neurons assume that their electrical characteristics are of paramount importance. However, all long-term changes in synaptic efficacy, as well as many short-term effects, are mediated by chemical mechanisms. This technical report explores the interaction between electrical and chemical mechanisms in neural learning and development. Two neural systems that exemplify this interaction are described and modelled. The first is the mechanisms underlying habituation, sensitization, and associative learning in the gill withdrawal reflex circuit in Aplysia, a marine snail. The second is the formation of retinotopic projections in the early visual pathway during embryonic development.

Thesis advisor: Rebecca Lowenhaupt / This qualitative case study examined the organizational learning mechanisms utilized by a district superintendent and their impact on principals’ learning. Examining recent curriculum reform efforts, the study concentrated on a small sample of building principals within a mid-sized urban public school district. Grounded in both organizational and situated learning theories, the research focused on organizational learning mechanisms and the interplay created by their implementation through the analysis of interview data and documents. Findings highlighted how the superintendent interpreted and distributed information to principals. In addition, findings showed the impact that superintendent-initiated processes, behaviors, and structures had on principal learning. The study provided strong evidence that the superintendent under study took steps to create district structures to support organizational learning. Moreover, principal data showed the impact of these structures on principals’ perceived learning. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

<p> Different instructions for associating concrete nouns were given in a paired-associate learning situation. Material was varied to produce different types of interference against which to evaluate the effectiveness of the different instructions.</p> <p> The major findings were: (1) Specific instructions for association produced fewer errors than no specific instructions on the first list a subject learned. (2) After the first list, only the instructions which asked the learner to produce a logical scene from the nouns produced fewer errors than non-specific instructions. (3) Specific instructions did not interact with material.</p> <p> Little evidence was found that the significant instructional effects were due to the specific characteristics of the learners' mediations. These effects were more plausibly attributed to such general mechanisms as either giving the mediations during learning or having learning time occupied with irrelevant activity.</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Thesis advisor: Rebecca Lowenhaupt / This qualitative study examined the organizational learning mechanisms (OLMs) used by school district educational leaders to improve the implementation of curriculum reform. This portion of the study focused on the OLMs used by central office boundary spanners to help school principals implement curriculum reform chosen by school district leaders. Drawing from interview and document data analysis, the results of this study indicated that OLMs used by central office boundary spanners are critical to the successful implementation of school reform. Examples of the OLMs used by central office boundary spanners included utilizing online technology and providing whole and small group support as well as individualized coaching to help school principals implement curriculum reform. Frequent communication, collaborative opportunities, and consistent messaging with school principals surfaced as the key OLM techniques used by central office boundary spanners to consistently improve the implementation of school reform. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Rebecca Lowenhaupt / This qualitative case study examined the organizational learning mechanisms used by school and district leaders to support professional learning within the context of curriculum reform. Elements of organizational learning theory provided a conceptual framework through which the researcher explored how teachers learned and how district leaders supported their learning about a district-wide curriculum reform. Data were collected through document review and semi-structured interviews with eighteen professionals from an urban district in the Northeast. Findings showed that (a) the district implemented an integrated system of organizational learning mechanisms to support teacher/instructional coach learning relevant to curriculum reform efforts, (b) teachers and coaches perceived these learning mechanisms to be effective in supporting their learning and (c) teachers and coaches demonstrated varying levels of understanding regarding the district’s curriculum reform priorities. Recommendations included: (a) enhancements to school and district strategic planning documents, (b) connecting principals closely to the teaching and learning operations of the district and (c) implementing feedback mechanisms to monitor individual interpretations of district priorities. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Rebecca Lownhaupt / This qualitative case study examined the role of the principal in organizational learning in one small, urban school district. The study focused on ways in which building leaders acquired, interpreted, and distributed information in schools, and how these practices were monitored. Findings from analysis of principal interviews and document review showed that monthly meetings with the superintendent served as the primary source of information gathered by principals, while meetings with their peers provided a vehicle for interpreting information shared. Within their buildings, principals used various building-level meetings, written communication, and the teacher evaluation processes as vehicles for information distribution to staff. Meetings and observation of practice were utilized to monitor efficacy of their distribution practices. Findings suggested that principals did not identify themselves as the primary keepers or distributors of information as it pertained to teaching and learning. Using a distributed approach, they instead relied on district directors and instructional coaches for that aspect of the work. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Social learning plays a valuable role in the lives of many animal taxa, sometimes allowing individuals to bypass the costs of personal exploration. The ubiquity of this behaviour may arise from the fact that learning from others is often underpinned by simple learning processes that also enable individuals to learn asocially. Insects have proven to be particularly valuable models for investigating parsimonious hypotheses with regards to social learning processes, due to their small brain sizes and the prevalence of social information use in their life histories. In this thesis, I use social insects to further investigate the mechanisms underlying more complex social learning behaviours and explore the circumstances under which social information use manifests. In the first chapter, I investigate the proximate mechanisms underlying social learning and demonstrate that even seemingly complex social learning behaviours can arise through simple associative learning processes. In Chapter two, I investigate whether bees are more predisposed to learning from conspecific cues and discover that social information is learnt to a greater extent than information originating from non-social sources. In Chapter four, I demonstrate that classical conditioning also underpins learning from evolved social signals in honeybees. Finally, I investigate whether social information is used adaptively by bumblebees: Chapter three demonstrates that joining behaviour in free-flying bees is contingent upon whether flowers are familiar or not, and in Chapter six, I show that when social information is costly to acquire, bees are more likely to rely on social information to make foraging decisions. Taken as a whole, my findings suggest that bees may be specially adapted for receiving social information, but the ability to learn from others arises through general associative learning mechanisms.

<p>Increased globalization has come with it increased competition, multitude of international competitors, dramatic and frequent changes in customer tastes, shorter product life cycles, and frequent and rapid technological/product upgrading. Resultant competitive pressures have led to the emergence of two trends among some firms and industries. Firstly, there is an increased premium placed on the role of continuous learning and knowledge accumulation as the most dependable base for sustainable competitive advantage in today’s dynamic global markets. Secondly, there is increased trend towards organizing more economic activities as distinct projects. The above two trends provides both opportunities and challenges for any firms, especially project-based firms (PBFs). A number of past researches have emphasized the importance of investment in interproject learning as a means to foster continuous upgrading of project competencies. This is equally applicable to more knowledge intensive project-based firms in the Consultancy services sector. However, no study had been done in Sweden on Consultancy firms, from the perspective that they are project-based firms.</p><p>This study explores, describes and analyzes the various characteristics of interproject learning mechanisms and project competencies found in a sample of consulting firms in Sweden. The study focuses on the perceived importance of different interproject learning mechanisms and their perceived impact in developing project competencies in consulting firms. The study interrogates the ‘perceptions’ of ‘key’ informed project management practitioners, who have experience of managing consulting projects. Their perceptions about project activities in their respective firms helped capture a ‘managerial’ view, as well as, provide ‘expert’ opinion.</p><p>The study find that the most highly ranked and valued interproject learning mechanisms involved some degree of face-to-face interactions. Learning mechanisms that enable the capture, storage and transfer of explicit knowledge, though important, were not ranked highly in importance as person-to-person communication. The difference might be due to the efficient way the latter mechanisms have in transferring socially embedded and context-dependant tacit knowledge, which comprise a large part of knowledge applied in projects. Most of the respondents seem to indicate that their respective firms emphasized development of project competencies that were underpinned by ‘product knowledge’, which emphasize capabilities to deliver short-term project goals (i.e., delivering a particular service/product on a certain date). Respective firms didn’t seem to invest more in project competencies that are underpinned by ‘process knowledge’. The latter is aimed at long-term continuous improvement of project processes, which in turn has impact on developing dynamic competitive advantage. With regard to organizational learning infrastructure needed to support interproject learning and the development of project competencies, the results from the survey provides a mixed picture. While some firms had put in place a series of well implemented organizational structures, procedures, processes and routines to support interproject learning, some other learning supporting infrastructure were not that well implemented (i.e., explicit scheduling of time to do ‘reflections’ during project execution, emerging of a ‘no blame’ culture, instilling a culture of experimentations). Based on our research findings, a number of recommendations are outlined.</p>

Increased globalization has come with it increased competition, multitude of international competitors, dramatic and frequent changes in customer tastes, shorter product life cycles, and frequent and rapid technological/product upgrading. Resultant competitive pressures have led to the emergence of two trends among some firms and industries. Firstly, there is an increased premium placed on the role of continuous learning and knowledge accumulation as the most dependable base for sustainable competitive advantage in today’s dynamic global markets. Secondly, there is increased trend towards organizing more economic activities as distinct projects. The above two trends provides both opportunities and challenges for any firms, especially project-based firms (PBFs). A number of past researches have emphasized the importance of investment in interproject learning as a means to foster continuous upgrading of project competencies. This is equally applicable to more knowledge intensive project-based firms in the Consultancy services sector. However, no study had been done in Sweden on Consultancy firms, from the perspective that they are project-based firms. This study explores, describes and analyzes the various characteristics of interproject learning mechanisms and project competencies found in a sample of consulting firms in Sweden. The study focuses on the perceived importance of different interproject learning mechanisms and their perceived impact in developing project competencies in consulting firms. The study interrogates the ‘perceptions’ of ‘key’ informed project management practitioners, who have experience of managing consulting projects. Their perceptions about project activities in their respective firms helped capture a ‘managerial’ view, as well as, provide ‘expert’ opinion. The study find that the most highly ranked and valued interproject learning mechanisms involved some degree of face-to-face interactions. Learning mechanisms that enable the capture, storage and transfer of explicit knowledge, though important, were not ranked highly in importance as person-to-person communication. The difference might be due to the efficient way the latter mechanisms have in transferring socially embedded and context-dependant tacit knowledge, which comprise a large part of knowledge applied in projects. Most of the respondents seem to indicate that their respective firms emphasized development of project competencies that were underpinned by ‘product knowledge’, which emphasize capabilities to deliver short-term project goals (i.e., delivering a particular service/product on a certain date). Respective firms didn’t seem to invest more in project competencies that are underpinned by ‘process knowledge’. The latter is aimed at long-term continuous improvement of project processes, which in turn has impact on developing dynamic competitive advantage. With regard to organizational learning infrastructure needed to support interproject learning and the development of project competencies, the results from the survey provides a mixed picture. While some firms had put in place a series of well implemented organizational structures, procedures, processes and routines to support interproject learning, some other learning supporting infrastructure were not that well implemented (i.e., explicit scheduling of time to do ‘reflections’ during project execution, emerging of a ‘no blame’ culture, instilling a culture of experimentations). Based on our research findings, a number of recommendations are outlined.

It is widely held among cognitive aging researchers that older adults are at a disadvantage with respect to the division of attention between two or more concurrent tasks. Some researchers have attributed dual-task performance decrements to reduced processing speed with age while others have attributed declines in dual-task performance to the reduced efficiency of task coordination and control processes. Few researchers, however, have considered the possibility that age-related differences in dual-task performance may be related to underlying differences in the learning mechanisms supporting component task performance. Three studies were conducted which differed in the type of single-task training provided to young and old adult participants: Consistently mapped (CM), variably mapped (VM) and attenuated priority (AP) training. Skilled dual-task performance was then assessed as a function of both component task learning and age through a) the examination of initial and end-level skilled dual-task performance, b) transfer of learning to novel task combination and c) retention capability. It was predicted that type of component task training would moderate age-related differences in skilled dual-task performance. The results were confirmatory, however, were not completely consistent with initial predictions.