This study sought to address two connections that are fundamental to studies of science teaching and learning in classroom settings. The first one is the connection between classroom instruction and student learning outcomes, and the second one is the relationship between theoretical choice and analytical results. In this study, two theoretical perspectives were employed in parallel to examine a sequence of nine lessons on the topic of “Matter” in a Year 7 science classroom. These two theoretical perspectives are: Distributed Cognition (Hutchins, 1995) and Variation Theory (Marton and Tsui, 2004). The results of each analysis were compared and contrasted in an attempt to identify their similarities and differences in describing and explaining the classroom practice documented.The analyses from both theoretical lenses pointed to several issues underlying student difficulties identified in this classroom, including the problematic macroscopic-microscopic relationship, the lack of attention to “substance”, and the taken-for-granted temperature conditions. However, the two theoretical perspectives differed in their capacity to accommodate learning at different levels, to address the connection between instruction and learning, and to identify and advocate the likely benefits of particular instructional approaches. Distributed Cognition unfolded the connection between teaching and learning by a careful examination of social interactions and the utilization of artefacts in these interactions. It speculated learning occurring in different types of social configurations and interactions found in a science classroom (e.g. collaborative activities). From the perspective of Distributed Cognition, the inappropriate employment or coordination of resources was the key factor contributing to the limited success in establishing shared understanding among the participants in the classroom. Variation Theory explicitly modelled the connection between instruction and learning through the idea of patterns of variation, and it provided some general principles to evaluate the teaching of a specific topic. From the perspective of Variation Theory, it was the lack of appropriate variation in the key attributes of the object of learning that contributed to the limited success in developing student capability to make differentiations between critical and uncritical aspects of a scientific concept. But current applications of Variation Theory do not include learning occurring in the private domain of the classroom (e.g. student-student interaction) and are silent on the role of collaborative activity (e.g. group work) in learning.The juxtaposition of the parallel analyses showed that the two theories are complementary and mutually informing in their explanations of the documented classroom practice. But their assumptions about what constitutes learning and what contributes to that learning differed from each other. This study suggested that we should focus our attention on the identification of the contingencies of compatibilities in our efforts to combine or synthesize elements of different theories. In this study, the local combination of the results generated from the parallel analyses contributed to a more complete understanding of science learning as it occurred in the classroom.The findings of this study should inform science teaching, curriculum development, and instructional design of science classrooms. It also generated implications for research into science classrooms and suggested the need for the science education community to examine the role of theory and the relationship between theoretical choice and analytical results obtained through the employment of a particular theory.

This study sought to address two connections that are fundamental to studies of science teaching and learning in classroom settings. The first one is the connection between classroom instruction and student learning outcomes, and the second one is the relationship between theoretical choice and analytical results. In this study, two theoretical perspectives were employed in parallel to examine a sequence of nine lessons on the topic of “Matter” in a Year 7 science classroom. These two theoretical perspectives are: Distributed Cognition (Hutchins, 1995) and Variation Theory (Marton and Tsui, 2004). The results of each analysis were compared and contrasted in an attempt to identify their similarities and differences in describing and explaining the classroom practice documented.The analyses from both theoretical lenses pointed to several issues underlying student difficulties identified in this classroom, including the problematic macroscopic-microscopic relationship, the lack of attention to “substance”, and the taken-for-granted temperature conditions. However, the two theoretical perspectives differed in their capacity to accommodate learning at different levels, to address the connection between instruction and learning, and to identify and advocate the likely benefits of particular instructional approaches. Distributed Cognition unfolded the connection between teaching and learning by a careful examination of social interactions and the utilization of artefacts in these interactions. It speculated learning occurring in different types of social configurations and interactions found in a science classroom (e.g. collaborative activities). From the perspective of Distributed Cognition, the inappropriate employment or coordination of resources was the key factor contributing to the limited success in establishing shared understanding among the participants in the classroom. Variation Theory explicitly modelled the connection between instruction and learning through the idea of patterns of variation, and it provided some general principles to evaluate the teaching of a specific topic. From the perspective of Variation Theory, it was the lack of appropriate variation in the key attributes of the object of learning that contributed to the limited success in developing student capability to make differentiations between critical and uncritical aspects of a scientific concept. But current applications of Variation Theory do not include learning occurring in the private domain of the classroom (e.g. student-student interaction) and are silent on the role of collaborative activity (e.g. group work) in learning.The juxtaposition of the parallel analyses showed that the two theories are complementary and mutually informing in their explanations of the documented classroom practice. But their assumptions about what constitutes learning and what contributes to that learning differed from each other. This study suggested that we should focus our attention on the identification of the contingencies of compatibilities in our efforts to combine or synthesize elements of different theories. In this study, the local combination of the results generated from the parallel analyses contributed to a more complete understanding of science learning as it occurred in the classroom.The findings of this study should inform science teaching, curriculum development, and instructional design of science classrooms. It also generated implications for research into science classrooms and suggested the need for the science education community to examine the role of theory and the relationship between theoretical choice and analytical results obtained through the employment of a particular theory.

No description available.

Thesis (M.M.)--University of Michigan, 1968.

Thesis (M.M.)--University of Michigan, 1968.

No description available.

The proposed aim of this thesis, inspired by the human brain, is to improve on the performance of a perceptual processing algorithm, referred to as a “perceptor”. This is done by trying to bridge the gap between neuroscience and engineering. To this end, we build on localized perception-action cycle in cognitive neuroscience by categorizing it under the umbrella of perceptual attention, which lends itself to increase gradually the contrast between relevant information and irrelevant information. Stated in another way, irrelevant information is filtered away while relevant information about the environment is enhanced from one cycle to the next. Accordingly, we propose to improve on the performance of a perceptor by modifying it to operate under the influence of perceptual attention. For this purpose, we first start with a single-layered perceptor and investigate the impact of perceptual attention on its performance through two computer experiments: The first experiment uses simulated (real-valued) data that are generated to purposely make the problem challenging. The second experiment uses real-life radar data that are complex-valued, hence the proposal to introduce Wirtinger calculus into derivation of our proposed method. We then take one step further and extend our proposed method to the case where a perceptor is hierarchical. In this context, every constitutive component of a hierarchical perceptor is modified to operate under the influence of perceptual attention. Then, another experiment is carried out to demonstrate the positive impact of perceptual attention on the performance of that hierarchical perceptor, just described. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

No description available.

The dual process theory proposes that evaluative conditioning is a form of learning distinct from Pavlovian conditioning and that it displays different functional characteristics such as not being subject to modulation. However, when assessed online as opposed to post-experimentally, modulation of evaluative conditioning by context change has been found in a contingency reversal procedure. Reversal of evaluative learning was found to be faster when trained in a different context rather than in the original training context. The present study addressed the question whether context change or instructions would affect the rate of reversal of evaluative learning and whether reversal learning would accelerate across repetitions. A picture-picture paradigm was used to expose participants to CS-US pairs and contingency was reversed three times during the experiment. Participants were required to provide online causal judgements and valence ratings after each set of 10 training trials. Context change, but not instructions, displayed a trend in affecting reversal of evaluative learning with participants displaying faster learning on trials immediately subsequent to contingency reversal. Instructions affected the reversal of contingency judgements. There was no evidence of acceleration across repetitions for either measure or manipulation.

In episodic recognition memory, differentiation is the assumption that a study item's pre-existing memory trace is updated when additional study for that item is provided. The differentiation models commonly suppose that episodic memory encoding conforms to this process. Although these models have received considerable support within the literature, results inconsistent with their predictions have also been found. The present paper examined conflicting findings that resulted from study list strength manipulations with rhyming word stimuli and semantically related stimuli. As part of the investigation into this discrepancy, 79 university students participated in a computer-based recognition memory task. In this task, word categories of varying length (short vs. long) and word type (rhyming vs. taxonomic) were presented either five times or once within a mixed study list. Following study, an old-new response paradigm was used to examine recognition memory performance. Results from both the rhyming and taxonomic category stimuli were largely consistent with the previous findings in the literature, indicating that word type does appear to influence recognition memory, even within a mixed study list. These findings are interpreted primarily in terms of word type similarity predictions made by one of the differentiation models. Other possible explanations are also discussed.