The purpose of this dissertation was to, from the point of view of interaction, study how the factors group size, group composition, group norm and problem type influenced group problem solving. Three classroom studies were performed in grades four and five of the Swedish nine-year compulsory school. In addition to the participants in various pilot studies, the experiment included 1146 pupils. The performance was measured both regarding group results and the individual short-term and long-term retention of knowledge. A fifth factor, group productivity, was formed on the basis of these two measurement values.Group size 1, 2, 3 and 6 were studied. The group composition was defined on the basis of, on one hand, the ability levels high, middle and low and, on the other, on the basis of sex. The group norms were included through instructions about cooperation and competition. A third group norm, so-called free norms, was also introduced. Two problem types were used. One of them was designed so that the other group members would easily be able to judge if a response from one of the group members was correct or not (high accessibility). The other problem type was defined in terms of low accessibility. The first study included the factors group size and group composition (ability), the second study included group composition (sex), group norm, problem type and group productivity, and the third study included all five factors. The factor group size turned out to be of great importance and interacted with each of the other factors. Only high ability pupils could make use of group size in interaction with e. g. the factor group composition. Group composition was also interesting regarding sex. Co-operation favoured girls and competition favoured boys. The results also indicate that girls remember what they learn better than boys. Interactions between the factor group norm and the factors group size, problem type and group productivity showed that, in no case, did co-operation produce poorer results than competition and free norms. Various interactions with the factor problem type and other factors showed that larger group sizes are more favourable to the solving of problems with a high accessibility than to the solving of problems with a low accessibility. However, the individual group members had a better recollection of the solutions to problems with a low accessibility than to problems with a high accessibility. The factor group productivity was included in interactions with each of the other factors and in the three-way and four-way interactions. These interactions indicate that the factor group productivity, in terms of both group results and individual results, is an important factor in group research and in other classroom research.By way of conclusion, the results are discussed regarding educational implications and continued research. / digitalisering@umu

Current theorising in the area of cognitive arithmetic suggests that simple arithmetic knowledge is stored in memory and accessed in the same way as word knowledge i.e., it is stored in a network of associations, with simple facts retrieved automatically from memory. However, to date, the main methodologies that have been employed to investigate automaticity in simple arithmetic processing (e.g., production and verification) have produced a wide variety of difficulties in interpretation. In an attempt to address this, the present series of investigations utilised a numerical variant of the well established single word semantic priming paradigm that involved the presentation of problems as primes (e.g., 2 + 3) and solutions as targets (e.g., 5), as they would occur in a natural setting. Adult university students were exposed to both addition and multiplication problems in each of three main prime target relationship conditions, including congruent (e.g., 2 + 3 and 5), incongruent (e.g., 2 + 3 and 13), and neutral conditions (X + Y and 5). When combined with a naming task and the use of short stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs), this procedure enabled a more valid and reliable investigation into automaticity and the cognitive mechanisms underlying simple arithmetic processing. The first investigation in the present series addressed the question of automaticity in arithmetic fact retrieval, whilst the remaining investigations examined the main factors thought to influence simple arithmetic processing i.e., skill level, surface form, problem type and split. All factors, except for problem type, were found to influence processing in the arithmetic priming paradigm. For example, the results of all five investigations were consistent in revealing significant facilitation in naming congruent targets for skilled participants, following exposure to Arabic digit primes at the short SOA. Accordingly, the facilitation was explained in terms of the operation of an automatic spreading activation mechanism. Additionally, significant inhibitory effects in incongruent target naming were identified in skilled performance in all of the studies in the present series of investigations. Throughout the course of these investigations, these effects were found to vary with operation, surface form and SOA, and in the final investigation, the level of inhibition was found to vary with the split between the correct solution and the incongruent target. Consequently, a number of explanations were put forward to account for these effects. In the first two investigations, it was suggested that the inhibitory effects resulted from the use of a response validity checking mechanism, whilst in the final investigation, the results were more consistent with the activation of magnitude representations in memory (this can be likened to Dehaene’s, 1997, ‘number sense’). In contrast, the results of the third investigation led to the proposal that for number word primes, inhibition in processing results from the activation of phonological representations in memory, via a reading based mechanism. The present series of investigations demonstrated the utility of the numerical variant of the single word semantic priming paradigm for the investigation of simple arithmetic processing. Given its capacity to uncover the fundamental cognitive mechanisms at work in simple arithmetic operations, this methodology has many applications in future research.

Current theorising in the area of cognitive arithmetic suggests that simple arithmetic knowledge is stored in memory and accessed in the same way as word knowledge i.e., it is stored in a network of associations, with simple facts retrieved automatically from memory. However, to date, the main methodologies that have been employed to investigate automaticity in simple arithmetic processing (e.g., production and verification) have produced a wide variety of difficulties in interpretation. In an attempt to address this, the present series of investigations utilised a numerical variant of the well established single word semantic priming paradigm that involved the presentation of problems as primes (e.g., 2 + 3) and solutions as targets (e.g., 5), as they would occur in a natural setting. Adult university students were exposed to both addition and multiplication problems in each of three main prime target relationship conditions, including congruent (e.g., 2 + 3 and 5), incongruent (e.g., 2 + 3 and 13), and neutral conditions (X + Y and 5). When combined with a naming task and the use of short stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs), this procedure enabled a more valid and reliable investigation into automaticity and the cognitive mechanisms underlying simple arithmetic processing. The first investigation in the present series addressed the question of automaticity in arithmetic fact retrieval, whilst the remaining investigations examined the main factors thought to influence simple arithmetic processing i.e., skill level, surface form, problem type and split. All factors, except for problem type, were found to influence processing in the arithmetic priming paradigm. For example, the results of all five investigations were consistent in revealing significant facilitation in naming congruent targets for skilled participants, following exposure to Arabic digit primes at the short SOA. Accordingly, the facilitation was explained in terms of the operation of an automatic spreading activation mechanism. Additionally, significant inhibitory effects in incongruent target naming were identified in skilled performance in all of the studies in the present series of investigations. Throughout the course of these investigations, these effects were found to vary with operation, surface form and SOA, and in the final investigation, the level of inhibition was found to vary with the split between the correct solution and the incongruent target. Consequently, a number of explanations were put forward to account for these effects. In the first two investigations, it was suggested that the inhibitory effects resulted from the use of a response validity checking mechanism, whilst in the final investigation, the results were more consistent with the activation of magnitude representations in memory (this can be likened to Dehaene’s, 1997, ‘number sense’). In contrast, the results of the third investigation led to the proposal that for number word primes, inhibition in processing results from the activation of phonological representations in memory, via a reading based mechanism. The present series of investigations demonstrated the utility of the numerical variant of the single word semantic priming paradigm for the investigation of simple arithmetic processing. Given its capacity to uncover the fundamental cognitive mechanisms at work in simple arithmetic operations, this methodology has many applications in future research.

abstract: This study examined the relationship that gender in interaction with interpersonal problem type has with outcome in psychotherapy. A sample of 200 individuals, who sought psychotherapy at a counselor training facility, completed the Outcome Questionnaire-45(OQ-45) and the reduced version of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-32). This study was aimed at examining whether gender (male and female), was related to treatment outcome, and whether this relationship was moderated by two interpersonal distress dimensions: dominance and affiliation. A hierarchical regression analyses was performed and indicated that gender did not predict psychotherapy treatment outcome, and neither dominance nor affiliation were moderators of the relationship between gender and outcome in psychotherapy. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.C. Counseling 2013