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Unlike most other musicians, pianists need to play by memory during their recitals, juries, etc. Doing so can greatly influence the intensity and frequency of anxiety due to potential memory slips when performing. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between memory strategies, experiences with memory lapses, and performance anxiety among classical pianists. The specific aims of the study are to: (1) characterize demographics, performance practices, and memorization strategies used by college-level pianists; (2) assess experiences of performance anxiety and the influence of performance anxiety on memory lapses; (3) examine the relationships between demographics, performance practices, and memorization strategies; and (4) suggest various memorization strategies that might be useful intervention to overcome memory lapses. To examine participants' awareness and perception, a survey was conducted via invitation of participation from music schools and piano groups on social media, and the useable collected data came from 162 respondents. The results disclosed that pianists' awareness of memory strategies and performance anxiety were significantly correlated. It showed a relationship between knowledge of memory strategies and frequency of performance anxiety within their musical experiences.

Figures show that Sweden received 40 000 refugees in the autumn of 2015, who all were in the age range to attend junior high, and high school. The majority of these students originated from countries where Islam is the main religion. Hence, some of these students are likely to have their educational background in a qur’anic school. The purpose of this study is therefore to provide information about these students’ educational background. The study has been conducted with a special focus on how the Swedish school system differs in comparison to the qur’anic school system. An additional research aim was to investigate what some English teachers knew about these students’ educational backgrounds. In addition to these aims, the study also focused on whether the teachers tend to adapt their lessons in order to benefit these students. The research method that has been applied in order to answer these questions are qualitative interviews conducted with four teachers of English. The results of this study indicate that the qur’anic school is vastly different from the Swedish school system. Furthermore, the teachers that participated in this study did share some knowledge about the qur’anic school system, even though it was somewhat limited among two of the interviewees. The same varying results were shown regarding the teachers’ wills to adapt their lessons, on behalf of these students. Moreover, two out of four teachers in this study lack basic knowledge about the qur’anic school.

A sample of high school graduate, first year technical school students was measured for retention improvement of underlined textual material under the treatment condition of no review versus review. The sample of 61 students was divided into two groups, more able and less able, subsequent to the first treatment condition of no review to provide a within group measure in the final analysis. The reading material consisted of 14 brief typewritten passages of which the core content was underlined. The criterion measure consisted of 7 multiple choice questions derived from the core content. The experiment consisted of presenting the same experimental materials to the same students on two occasions separated by a five day interval. Students were allowed to review the material, prior to testing, only in the second presentation. Under the experimental conditions both groups of students were able to improve retention of the core content. Results indicate that significant gains were made from no review to review conditions for both more and less able subjects when practice effect was not controlled for.

This study investigated the effects of Cooperative Learning on seventh graders’ vocabulary learning in China. This study was conducted because in China, students usually learn vocabulary via traditional learning method-rote memorization. However, this method has a lot of issues. For example, students only know how to write the words but they cannot use them in contexts. Students tend to forget new words they have newly learned. The purpose of this study was to find out whether Chinese secondary school students can benefit from Cooperative Learning in vocabulary; whether Cooperative Learning can help students in applying new words and whether students can retain new words longer using Cooperative Learning. This research followed a quasi-experimental design, with an experimental group and a control group. Data were collected in a secondary school in Beijing, China. The participants took three tests: a pretest, post-test and a delayed post-test. A one-way repeated ANOVA was used to analyze the data in SPSS (25.0). The findings showed that there was a significant difference across three time points in the two groups (p < .001). There was no significant difference in the students’ vocabulary scores between the two groups (p > .05). However, it was found that there was a significant interaction between time and group on students’ vocabulary learning. An ANCOVA analysis showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups in the delayed post-test (p = .01). These findings can be beneficial to the professionals who work as English teachers in secondary schools in China. My results suggest that Cooperative Learning may be helpful in improving students’ vocabulary learning outcomes.

I denna studie undersöks olika metoder för att lära sig ny musikrepertoar. Den mer tradition- ella övningen vid instrument jämförs med konsten att öva utan instrument. Frågor som under- söks är hur effektivt det är att öva vid respektive utan instrument och om svårighetsgraden på stycket spelar någon roll. Jag gör fyra experiment med sektioner av olika svårighetsgrad. I vardera experiment ställer jag övning utan och vid instrument mot varandra. Vid övning vid instrument övar jag med piano tills jag kan stycket. Vid övning utan instrument använder jag mig av visualisering. Jag tillåter mig i experiment 1–3 att använda mig av yttre hjälpmedel vid övning utan instrument som att spela på ett bord och användning av ett virtuellt tangentbord för att höra tonernas frekvens. I experiment 4 undersöker jag ren mental övning där inga yttre hjälpmedel är tillåtna. Resultatet visar att det är möjligt att lära sig musik utantill från första stund utan instrument. Gällande effektiviteten så var resultaten något motstridiga. I vissa ex- periment gick det snabbare att memorera musik utan instrument medan det var mindre effek- tivt i andra. I kommande arbeten vill jag undersöka vad detta beror på. / The purpose of this study is to evaluate different methods for learning new pianistic re- pertoire. Traditionally, a pianist’s practice is always conducted in front of the instrument. Here, practicing without the instrument is compared to practicing in front of the instrument. How efficient each method is and if different levels of the choosen repertoire will affect the result is examined. I conduct 4 experiments with sections of music of various difficulty. In each experiment practicing with and without instrument is compared. When practicing with instrument I practice with piano until I know the section by heart. When practicing without instrument I use visualization. In experiments 1–3 I allow myself to use tools when practicing without instrument such as playing on a table and the usage of a virtual keyboard to hear the pitch of the notes. In experiment 4 I examine pure mental practice where no tools are allowed. The result of the study shows that it is possible to memorize music without instrument. Regar- ding the efficiency the results were somewhat conflicting. In some experiments it was more efficient to memorize music without instrument and in some it was more efficient to memorize in front of the instrument. In future studies I would like to see why that is.

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No description available.

Understanding the process of memory formation in neural systems is of great interest in the field of neuroscience. Valiant’s Neuroidal Model poses a plausible theory for how memories are created within a computational context. Previously, the algorithm JOIN has been used to show how the brain could perform conjunctive and disjunctive coding to store memories. A limitation of JOIN is that it does not consider the coding of temporal information in a meaningful manner. We propose SeqMem, a similar algorithmic primitive that is designed to encode a series of items within a random graph model. We investigate the feasibility of SeqMem empirically by observing its stability and effects on capacity in our model. We intend to provide value in the use of SeqMem and similar procedures to further develop a neurobiologically plausible theory of mind. Our goal here is to inspire further work in scaling our methods to function at a human-level magnitude of computation.

Durant ma thèse, j’ai étudié dans le bulbe olfactif (BO) de souris adulte, les mécanismes cellulaires et moléculaires impliqués dans l’apprentissage et de la mémorisation olfactive. Le BO est le premier relai central de l’information olfactive. A ce niveau, des phénomènes de plasticité locaux interviendraient dans la conservation d’une trace mnésique de l’apprentissage. J’ai tout d’abord évalué, dans la couche granulaire, les conséquences d’un apprentissage olfactif associatif sur l’expression de l’IEG Zif268 induite par une stimulation odorante. Les souris ayant une expérience préalable avec l’odorant ne présentent pas d’augmentation de l’expression de Zif268. Cependant, le patron d’expression cellulaire de Zif268 est modifié par l’apprentissage. J’ai ensuite isolé par microdissection laser, à partir des patrons d’expression de Zif268, les populations de cellules de la couche granulaire impliquées dans le traitement de l’odorant suite à l’apprentissage. Dans ces régions, l’étude de l’expression des gènes à large échelle m’a permis de mettre en évidence que la voie des neurotrophines était modulée dans la phase précoce de l’apprentissage alors que les acteurs de la LTP étaient modulés lors de la phase tardive. Enfin, j’ai montré que des souris inactivées pour zif268 présentaient des déficits d’acquisition et de consolidation de l’apprentissage olfactif ainsi que de discrimination d’odorants perceptivement proches. Ces résultats indiquent que l’acquisition par l’odorant d’une signification lors d’un apprentissage olfactif modifie son traitement dans le BO. D’autre part, des acteurs moléculaires potentiellement impliqués dans ces modifications cellulaires ont été identifiés. / My research was about cellular and molecular mechanisms implicated in olfactory learning and memory in the adult mouse olfactory bulb (OB). The OB is the first relay of olfactory information in the central nervous system. At this level, phenomenon of local plasticity could be involved in the conservation of a memory trace associated with learning process. First, I evaluated in the granule cell layer, the consequences of an olfactory associative learning on the IEG Zif268 odour-induced expression. Mice with a prior behavioural experience with the odour do not show increase in Zif268 expression. However, the specific odour-induced Zif268 expression pattern is modified by learning. Then, I isolated using laser capture microdissection activated cell populations of the granule cell layer, based on Zif268 expression patterns, after an olfactory associative learning. In those regions, I studied gene expression at a large scale. I found that neurotrophine pathway was modulated during the early phase of learning process whereas molecular actors of LTP are modulated during the consolidation phase. Finally, I showed that Zif268 knock-out mice exhibit associative learning and memory deficits. Those mice also present deficits to discriminate between closely related odorants. Those results indicate that acquisition by odorant of a behavioural meaning during olfactory learning modify odorant processing at the level of OB. Moreover we identified candidate genes that could be implicated in the cellular modifications.