Memory

This study was designed to determine whether students' grades and retention in a community college are affected by the degree of congruence between their learning styles and their respective teachers' teaching styles. Using two instruments to identify learning style and degree of self-directed learning, 452 students and twenty-two instructors were tested. A multiple regression analysis, F-tests, T-tests, and cross-tabulation tables were the statistical procedures used to determine the predictive values of the congruence between learning and teaching styles and self-directed learning on retention and grades. The study's findings suggested that an instructor's age and teaching style and a student's degree of self-directed learning have a stronger relationship to academic achievement and retention in class than does congruence between learning and teaching styles, which is also statistically significant. Learning and academic achievement are very complex interactions and are influenced by a variety of factors. Understanding of congruence of learning and teaching styles is a crucial concept in terms of an overall view of student achievement in the academic environment. However, it cannot be used as an isolated factor in predicting a student's academic potential. Rather, it is one of many inter-dependent aspects of learning which includes teaching style, learning style, degree of self-directed learning, instructor age and sex, and type of class taken as well as level of cognitive development. These are the variables that students, instructors, and school adminstrators must understand and take into consideration in building and developing curriculum that encourages students to reach their academic potential. Further research into student learning style flexibility to determine if students adjust learning strategies to teaching styles at odds with their learning style is warranted. Another follow-up study would be to replicate this study with graduates to ascertain which styles are found among graduates and to determine the percentage of style changes between freshmen and graduates.

This study examined the temporal structure of children's study behaviors on a sort/recall task. Forty-two fifth-grade children were given six sort/recall trials, each consisting of a two-minute study period followed by a recall assessment. Three trials used the same word list on each trial, while three trials used different word lists on each trial. Half of the participants received the different word list trials first while the order was reversed for the remaining participants. Results were analyzed for differences between recall groups, type of word list used, and presentation order of the trials. High recallers demonstrated stronger temporal patterns of study behaviors than did low recallers (as measured by Fourier analysis of time series data). High recallers also showed stronger tendencies to use behaviors that facilitated performance in close temporal proximity. Type of word list affected recall and temporal patterns of a portion of the study behaviors analyzed.

This study explored the relationship between memory and social judgment. Subjects evaluated someone who was described in both desirable and undesirable terms in a taped conversation. They used a computer mouse to express their judgments on a moment-to-moment basis for 90 sec. under one of three instructional sets: memory-based (mouse judgment upon completion of the conversation, based on their recall of information), on-line (mouse judgment while listening to the conversation), and off-line (mouse judgment upon completion of the conversation, based on their judgments formed while listening to the conversation). Half the subjects believed their judgments were relevant to the person's fate (high importance), half believed their judgments were not relevant to his fate (low importance). Subjects in the off-line/important condition demonstrated sustained oscillation in their mouse judgments throughout the judgment period in accord with dynamic integration. In all other conditions, subjects converged on a stable judgment relatively quickly, in accord with static integration.

Recent evidence suggests that the supramammillary nucleus (SUM) is an important link from the pontine reticular formation (PRF) to the septum-hippocampus in the generation of hippocampal theta rhythm. I proposed: (1) injections of WGA-HRP into the SUM would produce retrograde labeling in PRF cells; (2) lesions of the SUM would produce a reduction in the frequency and amplitude of hippocampal theta rhythm; (3) injections of procaine into the SUM would attenuate the amplitude and reduce the frequency of reticular elicited theta rhythm. Although WGA-HRP injections in the SUM produced minimal labeling in the PRF, there were labeled cells in the central gray of the pons, and in the dorsal raphe and surrounding regions. I found that lesions of the SUM produced minimal changes in the frequency and amplitude of theta in the behaving animal but that injections of procaine attenuated both of these measures in the urethane anesthetized rat.

Natural language categories are considered as concepts
which can be described in terms of a prototype, wit h some
category i terns more "typical" of their categories than others .
One hypothesis tested was that typicality effects on free
recall performance were due to atypical items not being
encoded by their category labels. An alternative hypothesis
argues that the structural base behind typicality effects
is "family resemblances" (feature overlap). In the task,
subjects were given either a list of typical or atypical
items for three study/recall trials. Further, one half of
the subjects in each materials condition received category
cues at input to test the differential encoding hypothesis.
The results showed large typicality effects in the no cue
condition. However, there were small typicality effects
in the cue condition. These results were interpreted as
indicating that typicality effects on a free recall performance
task are largely eliminated when category coding is relatively
complete. Thus, the feature overlap hypothesis cannot be
accepted.

A stimulus class was generated by applying a fixed set of
transformational rules to a prototype, and selected members
of this class were presented during acquisition. It was found
that children discriminated members of this class from nonmembers.
For adults, further distinctions were obtained among
the stimuli within the class, as follows: Although the prototype
was not presented during acquisition, it was recognized
with greater confidence than stimuli from the acquisition set. Furthermore, class members that were not seen during acquisition
were recognized on the basis of this prototype. For those
class members that had been seen during acquisition, however,
there was no evidence that their recognition was based on the
prototype. Evidence that these previously seen class members
were recognized with greater confidence than new class members
indicated that recognition of stimuli from the acquisition
set was based on stored copies, or specific memory.

Coherence estimates have been used to determine the presence of functional coupling between two signals. While direct projections from the nucleus reuniens (RE) to the hippocampus formation in the rat have been discovered, little is known about the possible functional influence of the RE on the hippocampus. This investigation makes use of MATLAB to create a set of specialized algorithms to investigate coherence function estimates between RE cell activity and hippocampal EEG. In addition, error prevention considerations as well as shortcomings in current data acquisition software that ultimately lead to the necessity for additional software analysis tools are also discussed. An investigation into RE cell behavior requires the calculation of cell activity spike rates as well as the identification of action potential bursting phenomena. Isolation of individual cell activity, from a population recording channel, is needed in order to prevent erroneous effects associated with using unresolved multi-neuron recordings. Changes in spike rate activity and frequency of bursting occurrences are calculated as a means of gauging RE unit response to the presence of a stimulus (e.g., tail pinch). The relationship of RE units on hippocampal EEG by analysis of coherence function estimates between RE units and hippocampal EEG, as well as evaluated RE unit behavior in terms of changes in unit spike rate and bursting activity are established.

Facial recognition memory is a specialized system in the human brain, with an effect of familiarity playing a role in the brain activations involved. Previous studies examining the familiar face processing system have used college-aged subjects. However, memory disorders, like those associated with Alzheimer's disease, typically affect adults over sixty. In an attempt to reveal possible differences between young and older adults', two different age groups were subjected to fMRI analysis while viewing face images with varying familiarity (family, famous and novel). The result showed a significant difference in activations for various cortical areas including the precuneus, cingulate cortex, and fusiform gyrus. Among the differences, an overall trend of greater activation in the left hemisphere for younger subjects compared to the older group was revealed. The results have implications for the study of memory disorders afflicting older adults, like Alzheimer's disease.

In order for memory questions to accomplish the goals of questions, teachers need to determine specific content and cognitive goals for each question so that questions can direct learners' attention and reinforce an organizational structure for the encoding of information. The purpose of this study was to examine the language used in memory questions for assessment purposes and to examine whether different language options used when formulating memory questions engaged brain areas related to memory and cognition. The language of the questions can affect the cognitive process by which the answer is derived. The two language options that affect cognitive processes are non-specific and specific. This study supplements teachers' working knowledge of the methods and techniques for questioning by providing a basic understanding of cognitive processes that different questions can evoke. This study used techniques from neuroscience to test hypotheses derived directly from education-based theories of cognition in order to validate educational theory. Neuroscience provides knowledge about how the brain senses, processes, stores, and retrieves information. It also provides findings that can be translated into practical applications for the classroom. Therefore, the relationship between education and neuroscience contributes to effective planning, practices, and assessment; it allows a more comprehensive understanding of the difficulties and apprehensions associated with learning. The following study utilized fMRI to answer the general question of the relationship between the memory processes associated with specific and non-specific questions. Seventeen undergraduate and graduate students from a university in South Florida served as subjects. Subjects were presented with a stimulus consisting of specific questions, non-specific questions, and control statements. All questions/statements followed the design of 8 seconds to read the question/statement, 10 seconds to "think" about the answer to the question or the material presented in the statement, 4 seconds for response using a "yes" or "no" button, and a 12 second rest period. Images collected were analyzed using AFNI. Specific cognitive operations improved efficiency for the retrieval of information from memory. Results elucidate differences in neural activity associated with encoding processes and the retrieval of information from memory based on the language used in specific and non-specific questions.

This study sought to determine the effects of two types of advance organizers on the learning and retention of an aeronautical concept, and the interaction of both advance organizers across the learner variable of Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). The 126 subjects selected for testing consisted of students enrolled in the Aircraft Turbine Engine Theory course at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida. Students were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups within four intact class sections. The treatment instrument was two different modes of "The Bernoulli Principle of Energy Conservation in a Moving Fluid." The experimental treatment was administered at the beginning of the sixth week of a 14 week course. The first group read a verbal advance organizer; the second examined a graphic organizer; and the third received a placebo. Following the treatments, the subjects began a six hour block of instruction, Aircraft Turbine Compressor Theory, which extended over two weeks. Following the instruction, a learning test was administered to each intact class section. Seven weeks later, a delayed retention test was administered. A statistical analysis of the results indicated that: (1) the advance organizer in verbal or graphic form was an effective approach to learning and retention of an aeronautical concept; (2) the verbal advance organizer tended to be more effective than the graphic in both learning and retention; and (3) the graphic advance organizer was most effective in the retention of material by those students who had exhibited a lower standand of over-all performance (CGPA) in the past.