Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 254-262).

No description available.

No description available.

The Rural Aquaculture Promotion (RAP) project is a vital development initiative by the Peace Corps in Zambia with the goal of increasing the nutritional and caloric intake of rural Zambian farmers in addition to augmenting income (Peace Corps Zambia rural aquaculture promotion, n.d.). Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) success in achieving the goals of the RAP project is vital, and because PCVs are on site working on projects in the aquaculture assignment area for only 24 months, and as only three generations of PCVs are placed at a given site, it is imperative that they be able to contribute to these projects very promptly after arrival on site. The overriding issue concerning the effectiveness of the Peace Corps development effort is the job performance of the individual PCV which primarily depends on the PCV's ability to transfer learned knowledge and skills to the workplace. Many PCVs are routinely hampered by an inability to achieve significant and continuous contributions to projects within their assignment area. The Peace Corps' fundamental approach to the diffusion of aquaculture in Zambia is centered on the exchange of information between PCVs and rural farmers. Achieving sustainability with the RAP project is essentially based upon the consistency and longevity of this information exchange. PCVs are instructed in very specific technical procedures concerning all aspects of fish farming during pre-service training in order to ensure that they are equipped to diffuse a standardized technical curriculum to project beneficiaries. In addition, volunteers are trained in language and cross-cultural skills, and throughout the pre-service training period are assessed by the training staff for competence in the behavioral areas of motivation, productive competence, and adaptability/social sensitivity. Deficiencies in language and cross-cultural skills, the detrimental psychological effects of culture and role shock, and a lack of agency planning and support were key factors that affected the PCVs' ability to transfer successfully learned skills to the workplace. The lack of language ability was identified as the most substantial factor affecting the Volunteer's on-site job performance. Given the social nature of rural extension efforts, this has serious implications for Volunteer effectiveness.

This study examines how prior knowledge influences future learning. Although it has been established that prior knowledge does have a strong impact on later learning, it is not clear how this effect manifests itself. Previous research suggests that one way to examine the effects of knowledge on learning is to compare subtasking, that is, dividing a task into subsets, to unstructured learning, or learning "all-at-once". Neural network simulations using the cascade-correlation learning algorithm predict that subtasking facilitates learning when it involves learning a function that is compatible (i.e., logically consistent) with the rest of the task, and hinders learning when it involves learning a function that is incompatible with the rest of the task (Tetewsky, Shultz, & Takane, 1995). Two experiments were conducted to test these predictions using a concept learning task, measuring the number of trials required for participants to correctly classify 16 stimuli, consisting of key images defined by four binary dimensions, into two groups based on a relationship between the stimulus dimensions that was either simple or complex. The results indicated that the simple subtasking condition provides a good example of the effects of function compatibility, in that depending on what regularity participants extract in the first subset, learning of the rest of the task is facilitated or hindered as compared to all-at-once learning. The complex condition shows that some participants extracted a function in the first subset that was compatible with the rest of the task, thus facilitating learning as compared to all-at-once learning. However, for other participants, the knowledge acquired in subtasking is inaccessible in later learning. These findings provide evidence for the psychological validity of the simulations. Implications to part-whole transfer and applications in concept learning research are discussed.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--California Polytechnic State University, 2009. / Title from PDF title page; viewed on March 12, 2009. "February 2009." "In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree [of] Master of Science in Kinesiology." "Presented to the faculty of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo." Major professor: Kellie Green Hall, Ph.D. Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-45). Also available on microfiche.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 298-303). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Victoria University (Melbourne, Vic.), 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--University of Florida. / Description based on print version record. Typescript. Vita. Bibliography: leaves 67-70.