Reversal learning deficits are a feature of many neuropsychiatric disorders, most notably schizophrenia. These deficits could be due, in part, to altered ability to dissipate either or both associations of previous positive (perseverance) and negative (learned non-reward) valence. Studies reported in this thesis developed an egocentric maze task and a visuospatial operant task for separate assessments of spatial reversal learning, perseverance and learned non-reward in mice. These tasks were subsequently used to assess the cognitive causes for altered performance after manipulations to brain systems recognised to be involved in reversal learning and relevant for human psychopathology, with a specific focus on schizophrenia. NMDA receptor (NMDAr) antagonism through acute phencyclidine did not affect reversal learning in the operant task, but caused general impairments in the maze task. Orbitofrontal (OFC) lesioned mice showed perseverative impairments in the operant task. Mice treated with the 5-HT2C receptor (5-HT2CR) antagonist SB242084 and 5-HT2CR KO mice showed facilitated reversal learning and decreased learned nonreward in the operant task. In the maze task, SB242084 decreased perseverance but increased learned non-reward, while 5-HT2CR KO mice showed perseverance and discrimination learning deficits. The final experimental chapter investigated the effect of SB242084 on touch-screen visual reversal learning in the rat. SB242084 retarded learning in this task. These studies demonstrate that previously non-reinforced associations can be of considerable importance in tasks of cognitive flexibility. The studies also show that the NMDAr, the 5-HT2CR, and the OFC, are involved in reversal learning and can modulate mechanisms related to both perseverance and learned non-reward. Moreover, in reversal learning, few effects of manipulations affecting PFC-functioning, or activity at the NMDAr and 5-HT2CR, generalise across the procedures in the visuospatial, egocentric spatial, and visual domains.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Riverside, 2009. / Includes abstract. Title from first page of PDF file (viewed March 8, 2010). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-147).

The purpose of this research was to investigate the nature of thinking styles as it relates to style value and style malleability through examining the relationships between thinking styles, motivational orientations, and academic achievement in learning physics among secondary school students in Hong Kong. Specifically, the research aimed to determine whether or not teaching styles change students’ thinking styles, and if so, the association of these changes on students’ motivational orientations; and to determine the extent to which motivational orientations and thinking styles link academic achievement in physics. This quantitative research employed a quasi-experimental longitudinal design and was composed of one pilot study and one main study. The pilot study purposed to evaluate the two inventories used in the main study: the Motivational Orientation Scales in Learning Physics (MOSLP) and the Thinking Styles Inventory Revised II (TSI-R2). A total of 76 secondary school students participated in the pilot study. Results revealed that the MOSLP and the TSI-R2 were applicable to Hong Kong school students. The main study was an experimental study aimed at determining the impact of teaching styles on students’ thinking styles, motivational orientations, and academic achievement in physics. A total of six teachers and 449 secondary students constituted the experimental group, and five teachers and 347 students constituted the control group. The intervention, involved students in physics lessons instructed under Type I teaching styles, was implemented in each participating teacher’s school for one semester. Pre-and post-tests were conducted, in which students’ thinking styles and motivational orientations were measured by the TSI-R2 and the MOSLP respectively. Students’ physics examination results were also collected at the time of the post-test. A series of statistical analyses were conducted to reveal the effects of thinking styles on motivational orientations, to identify changes in students’ thinking styles, and to determine their relationships with academic achievement in both the experimental and control groups. Overall results demonstrated that Type I thinking styles were positively associated with task orientation and negatively connected with work avoidance orientation, thus which indicated adaptive value of Type I styles; Type II styles were not particularly associated with any of the motivational orientation scales, which suggested that they were value-differentiated; and Type III styles were found to be associated with ego orientation (in the pre-test), which suggested that they had less adaptive value. Moreover, students in the experimental group unexpectedly demonstrated a decreasing trend in their use of some Type I styles, some maladaptive Type II styles, and some Type III thinking styles for learning physics, whereas students in the control group decreased their use of some Type III thinking styles. Also, reduction in ego orientation among students in the experimental group was found to be greater than that of the control group. Finally, results demonstrated that teaching styles played a mediating role in boosting academic achievement. Students in the experiment and control groups studying in different forms modified either their thinking styles or motivational orientations. The magnitudes of these changes positively associated with students’ levels of achievement in physics. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

<p>This study explored the effects of a teacher development programme based on Philosophy for Children. One of the challenges facing education in South Africa is that the school curriculum has to promote the development of values, such as respect for life, equality, protection of freedom and the right to an opinion, through creative and critical thinking. The theorists, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky inform our understanding of cognitive development with the important notions of active involvement, mediated learning and the development of thinking skills. Many programmes have been developed to assist learners in this regard. One such programme is Philosophy for Children. This study located Philosophy for Children and the locally developed material, Stories for thinking, in Vygotskian theory and explored its application within a South African context.</p>

Disputats. Stockholm : Stockholms universitet, 2006. / I publikationen: ISSN 1104-1625-138. Med litteraturhenvisninger.

Teams play a key role in organisational success and it is imperative to proactively manage team performance needs in order to influence team effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of a group of employees in a sales-driven organisation on how the application of Neethling’s thinking style preferences influenced team performance following their participation in Neethling’s thinking style preferences training. The qualitative exploratory study was conducted with 19 employees in the Finance and Insurance department of a sales-driven organisation. The data were collected by means of in-depth individual interviews and focus group interviews. A nonprobability purposive sample technique was used to identify participants for the two focus group interviews and six individual interviews. Evidence provided in the findings concluded that Neethling's thinking style preferences can be used as a viable tool to enhance team performance in an organisation as the participants’ perceptions and experiences of the advantages of these preferences and the findings in the literature on effective teams, concurred. There were also strong indications that the team performed better in terms of their internal team processes, leading to team outputs such as better communication, cooperation, understanding and relationships between team members. Participants also recognised that the team’s performance led to the achievement of organisational results or outcome goals such as improved productivity, profitability, organisational image and customer satisfaction. The study represents original research, extending the current body of knowledge on the perceptions of employees’ team performance related to Neethling’s thinking style preferences. Neethling’s thinking style preferences could have a high influence on identified elements of team performance and could be viewed by employees as a viable tool for enhancing team performance. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

Ph.D. / Evolution of life as a scientific theory was introduced officially into the South African life sciences grade twelve curriculum in 2008. This presented an opportunity to investigate how teachers could incorporate teaching strategies, involving the use of narratives and concept cartoons, into their pedagogical content knowledge to encourage the use of higher-order thinking skills and deep learning about evolution, a new topic in the curriculum. Little research has been done on how narratives and concept cartoons contribute to the development of higher-order thinking skills in teachers and their ability to use these teaching strategies to effect a better conceptualization of evolution. A mixed methods research design was adopted to establish generalizations about the teachers’ higher-order thinking skills as well as to explore their individual worldviews about evolution as a scientific theory and their perceptions about the controversy between science and religion. The quantitative and main part of the study involved a (quasi)experimental format based on interventions focusing on workshop presentations using either narratives or concept cartoons. A pre-test and post-test format was used to measure the effect of the treatments. A rubric, based on the Piagetian levels of concept development, was designed to transform qualitative responses into quantitative data. The responses to five open-ended questions of a questionnaire were analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test and the Mann-Whitney U test. The smaller and supportive phase of the study involved categorizing and then analyzing qualitative data, derived from different artifacts and responses to the questionnaire, in order to establish how the teachers’ worldviews influenced their perceptions of the evolution of life, the nature of science and religion. An embedded concurrent mixed methods design allowed for the simultaneous generation and collection of quantitative and qualitative data. The findings were integrated and mixed to give a clearer and more global picture not only of the teachers’ ability to use higher-order thinking skills but also to reflect their conceptual ecologies of evolution.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / The aim of this study was to investigate the use of the "Stories for thinking" learning materials in one intermediate phase classroom in the Western Cape. The "Stories for thinking" project resulted from the Western Cape Education Department project, Cognition in Curriculum 2005. This project explored the potential role the cognitive education movement could play in accomplishing the goals of the Curriculum, especially the critical outcomes. The aim of the project was to investigate a range of strategies primary school educators could use to develop cognitive abilities. / South Africa