A research report submitted to the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Educational Psychology) Johannesburg, South Africa February 2014 / South African youth face a variety of challenges and barriers to learning. The prevalence of learners with emotional and behavioural barriers to learning (EBD) in South African schools is significantly increased due to the disadvantaged circumstances that many of the learners live in. Education White Paper 6 states that educational structures of support should be established to provide support to these learners. These structures of support include; the school based support team (SBST), educators, the principal, the school management team (SMT), educational psychologists, the school governing body (SGB), families, communities, professionals such as health care workers, social workers and non-profit organisations (NGOs). This research is a qualitative inquiry that provides a case study of one government high school in Gauteng with the primary aim of examining the structure of support available to address the socio-emotional needs of high school learners. There is limited information on the role of Life Orientation educators within this structure of support. Thus the research examines what role Life Orientation educators could play when working collaboratively to provide socio-emotional support to high school learners. The following data collection methods were used; semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, observation and document review. Through the process of content analysis and through an acquisition of an interpretivist lens, the research gained a deep understanding of the lived experiences of the participants, relying on their perceptions and interpretations thereof. It was found through the examination of the research findings that there is a need for more educational psychologists positioned at the school level and district education levels.

"This paper reports the results of an investigation into the relation of the emotion of fear and learning. Purposes of the investigation were: 1. To bring together some of the literature in education and psychology that deals with fear and learning. 2. To study the fears of elementary school pupils. 3. To make recommendations on the basis of purpose one and purpose two that might be useful to school teachers"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1956." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Marian Black, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 24-26).

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有研究發現過度的媒界多任務處理者(HMMs)在多種認知任務上較輕度的媒界多任務處理者(LMMs)表現得遜色。這表示HMMs的多種認知功能，包括工作記憶的更新及維持、選擇性的注意力及作業轉換的能力，皆次於LMMs。有研究採用有線索的作業轉換典範時，為每一個作業設置了兩個線索，從而將總的作業轉換成本拆分為與作業轉換過程中兩個連續而不同的階段相關的部份。第一部份的成本由線索的改變導致，代表使用線索把作業心向從長期記憶抽出放於工作記憶這一階段所需要的成本。第二部份的成本由作業的改變導致，代表將作業規則應用於刺激這一階段所需的成本。第二階段的成本被大多數研究者視為真正的作業轉換成本。本研究想探討的問題是過度的媒界多任務處理所影響的是哪一階段的作業轉換能力。我們採用一份網上的媒界使用問卷選出二十名HMMs及二十名LMMs來參加實驗。實驗中，被試必須完成一個雙線索對單作業的作業轉換典範，當中的兩個作業分別為一個打字作業及一個性別判斷作業。反應時上的總作業轉換成本被拆成兩個部份: (甲)作業不變而線索改變所引起的線索轉換成本，及(乙)線索轉換成本所不能解釋的剩下的作業轉換成本。我們發現HMMs的線索轉換成本顯著地高於LMMs的線索轉換成本。然而，兩組人之間的作業轉換成本並沒有顯著差異。結果表明，HMMs只在使用線索把作業心向從長期記憶拿出來放在工作記憶這一階段遜色於LMMs。 / Heavy media multitaskers (HMMs) are found to be inferior to light media multitaskers (LMMs) in cognitive functions such as updating and maintenance of working memory representations, selectively attention, and surprisingly, the ability to switch between tasks. Research on task-switching paradigm using a 2:1 mapping between cues and tasks separates the total switch cost into costs related to two distinct, serial processing stages. The first type of cost, relating to the stage of cue-driven retrieval of task-set from long-term memory into working memory, is caused by a change in the task-indicating cue. The second type of cost, relating to the stage of application of task-rules onto the stimuli, is caused by a change of the task-set and has been regarded by some as the actual task-switch cost. In the current study, we examine which stage(s) are affected by media multitasking experience. Twenty HMMs and twenty LMMs identified using an online media-use questionnaire participated in a cued task-switching experiment involving a word typing task and a face gender classification task. The overall switch cost in response time was decomposed into two components: (a) the cue-switch cost as a result of a change of the cue with the task unchanged; and (b) the task-switch cost, which represent the switch cost not accountable by the cue-switch cost. HMMs showed a significantly larger cue-switch cost than LMMs, while the task-switch cost was similar for the two groups. Results suggest that HMMs may only be inferior in the cue-driven retrieval process of task set but not in the task-rule application stage. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Lui, Fai Hong. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 25-28). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction --- p.1 / Media multitasking and its chronic effects --- p.1 / Effects of media multitasking on task switching ability --- p.4 / The typical task-switching paradigm --- p.5 / Task-switching paradigm using a 2:1 mapping between cues and tasks --- p.7 / Design of the current study --- p.10 / Hypotheses of the current study --- p.11 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- 2: Experiment 1: Method --- p.15 / Participants --- p.15 / Apparatus --- p.15 / Stimuli and procedure --- p.16 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Experiment 1: Results --- p.19 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- Experiment 2 --- p.22 / Chapter Chapter 5: --- Experiment 2: Method --- p.24 / Participants --- p.24 / Apparatus --- p.24 / Stimuli and procedure --- p.24 / Chapter Chapter 6: --- Experiment 2: Results --- p.26 / Chapter Chapter 7: --- Discussions --- p.28

In the last decade, tremendous advances have been made in the effort to understand mind wandering, yet many questions remain unanswered. Chief among them is how mind wandering relates to learning. Insofar as mind wandering has been linked to poor learning, finding ways to reduce the propensity to mind wander could potentially improve learning. Two experiments were conducted to examine this. The first experiment evaluated how difficulty of the to-be-learned materials affected one’s tendency to mind wander and revealed that people mind wandered when there was a mismatch between their level of expertise and the difficulty of materials studied. The second experiment compared whether participants were more likely to mind wander in blocked or interleaved conditions and showed that participants were more likely to mind wander when materials were presented in a blocked fashion. Together, these results indicate that techniques such as studying materials specific to one’s own level of mastery or changing the way in which one studies might reduce mind wandering and improve learning. Of equal importance is the question of what happens on in the brain when a person mind wanders. While the effect of mind wandering on early sensory processing is known, the impact it has on learning-related processing is not. In two event-related potential (ERP) experiments, participants were asked to report whether they were mind wandering or not while studying materials they were later tested on. Analyses revealed that elaborative semantic processing – indexed by a late, sustained slow wave that was maximal at posterior parietal electrode sites – was attenuated when participants mind wandered. Crucially, the pattern when people were on task rather than mind wandering was similar to the subsequent memory effect previously reported by other memory researchers, suggesting that mind wandering disrupts the deep level of processing required for learning.

Probability is an area of mathematics that remains a mystery to many people and is problematic for others who engage in its study in secondary school or its use in fields such as science and business. Yet, ordinary people frequently encounter the informal application of aspects of probability in daily-life situations that require decision-making under uncertainty, understanding of random behaviour and consideration of likelihood. With the purpose of discovering more about children’s ‘natural’ probability strategies, in a particular part of the world, task-based interviews were conducted with 74 children aged four to twelve years from three schools. These children had not received any formal instruction in probability, as it was not part of their school curriculum. The children’s interaction with games involving random generators prompted a range of intuitive strategies for making probabilistic judgments. These invented strategies are related to the development of proportional reasoning, but are also interlaced with the development of understanding of randomness. Examination of the strategies revealed an age-related hierarchy of sophistication of reasoning and mathematical precision. The study confirmed the presence of three developmental stages, but also revealed two distinct transitional stages not reported in previous research. The characteristics of children’s thinking at each stage of development provide a further research on probabilistic thinking and contribute to planning for teaching. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

This investigation sought to evaluate the claim by art educators that cumulative general experiences in art develop specific visual skills. The primary objective was to assess the influence of an individual's amount of experience in art upon the two selected visual skills of visual perception and picture memory. The secondary objective included the assessment of the relationship between these skills as well as the relationship of age and gender to picture memory.Three instruments were identified or developed. The Art Experience Form (AEF) determined a subject's amount of experience in art while the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) assessed visual perceptual style and Wiley's Unique Visual Imagery Test (WU IT) evaluated picture memory ability. Results from these instruments provided scores which were correlated to determine if significant relationships existed.A total of fifty subjects were assembled from three source groups likely to display variance in amounts of art experience, undergraduate non-art majors, undergraduate art majors, and graduate art majors. All attended Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana during Spring Quarter of 1983. Random subject selection was accomplished by university placement into intact classes.All subjects received similar tasks during two sessions seventy days apart. In session one each subject completed the AEF, the CEFT and WUVIT Part L WUVT.T Part I required each subject to analyze and classify three unique and fifteen ordinary pictures. "Unique" pictures were those which contained possible but improbable subject matter relationships such as an octupus in a barnyard. Ordinary pictures contained normal subject relationships. In session two, the subjects were required to recall all eighteen pictures from within the seventy-two pictures of WUVI T Part II.Pearson Product-Moment Coefficients of Correlation were used to test seventeen hypotheses at the .05 level. The results indicated that as amount of experience in art increased, visual perceptual style tended toward field independence and memory for ordinary pictures increased. Conversely, as art experience decreased, visual perceptual style tended toward field dependence and memory for ordinary pictures decreased. Memory for unique pictures was consistently high for all subjects regardless of amount of art experience, visual perceptual style, age or gender.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 98 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-69).