Learning and Motivation最新文献

Important variables affecting adolescents' mathematics achievement are motivation and peer relationships, including beliefs about the usefulness of mathematics. This study investigated the mediating role of academic motivation and the moderating role of perceived social support in the relationship between mathematics achievement and peer relationships. The study was conducted with a Turkish sample of 534 adolescents (n_female=328, n_male=206). Data was collected using math course achievement grades, academic motivation scales, peer relations and perceived social support scales. Structural equation modelling showed a direct relationship between peer relationships and math achievement, and academic motivation was a mediating variable. However, it was determined that perceived social support did not have a moderating role in the relationship between mathematics achievement and peer relationships. The results regarding the development of adolescents' mathematics achievement are discussed.

Performance feedback is essential for effective learning. Feedback contains both informational and affective properties. Following negative feedback (indicating an incorrect response), the unpleasant experience of being wrong can diminish the value of constructive information that feedback also provides. This can hinder motivation to seek feedback, which can impede learning. Therefore, research into factors that directly shape the subjective value of feedback is critical. The current study investigated potential behavioral and physiological contributors to feedback valuation and to subsequent feedback-seeking behavior. Fifty-nine participants completed a willingness-to-pay associative memory task that measured feedback valuation via trial-wise decisions to either purchase or forgo feedback during a learning phase in service of maximizing a performance-contingent monetary reward during a future test phase. Skin conductance response (SCR) was also measured during feedback decisions. Lower confidence in response accuracy significantly predicted higher likelihood of purchasing feedback during learning. Neither self-reported emotional responses to feedback nor SCR during feedback decisions predicted feedback purchases. Purchase decisions yielding negative feedback significantly predicted better performance during test. These results suggest that confidence during learning significantly impacts performance feedback valuation and should be considered when devising methods to motivate feedback-seeking in settings where learning is critical to success.

Overgeneralization of anxiety is a potential etiological factor contributing to anxiety disorders. Based on perceptual and conceptual generalizations of fear memory, previous research has initiated investigations into the involvement of explicit memory in human fear generalization. However, the precise relationship between episodic and semantic memory in fear generalization remains unclear. Based on the theoretical framework of "multiple trace theory" in memory and using the experimental paradigm of fear generalization from episodic memory, this study aimed to investigate the potential of human fear generalization from episodic to semantic memory. The results showed that conditioned fear can be generalized from episodic to semantic memory and that this generalization has a categorical effect. The results of this study are of great importance for elucidating the mechanism underlying human fear generalization and for exploring more effective measures of emotional intervention.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is considered as a complex syndrome comprising extremely severe anxiety levels, social-interpersonal dysfunction, and cognitive impairment that may be based on severe traumatic events. Although PTSD is more prevalent in females than in males, most preclinical studies have been carried out in males. The present study investigated the effects of voluntary and involuntary exercise, as well as sertraline on behavioral deficits in a female nonhuman animal model of PTSD using the single-prolonged stress (SPS) paradigm. Female adult rats were exposed to SPS protocol (2-hour restrain, 20-minute forced swimming, 15-minute rest, and 2–3 minute diethyl ether exposure) and were then kept undisturbed. Following a 7-day undisturbed period, animals were subjected to a 10 min restraint (re-stress). SPS rats were treated with voluntary wheel running or moderate treadmill exercise (5 days/week) and/or the administration of sertraline (10 mg/kg/day) for four consecutive weeks. Behavioral assessments were conducted using the Elevated Plus Maze (EPM) test for anxiety, the Three-Chamber Social Test (3-CST) for social interaction, and the Morris Water Maze (MWM) test for spatial memory. Involuntary exercise combined with sertraline significantly increased time spent in the open arms of the EPM test (P < 0.001), and interaction with new rats in 3-CST (P < 0.001) compared to SPS rats. The voluntary exercise plus sertraline group showed a significant increase in entries into the training platform during the probe phase of the MWM test (P < 0.001) compared to SPS rats. Overall, sertraline combined with involuntary exercise was more effective than voluntary exercise plus sertraline in enhancing social interaction and reducing anxiety in the SPS model of PTSD. Conversely, voluntary exercise combined with sertraline provided greater benefits for spatial memory enhancement in female rats.

Extinction of fear and avoidance is not permanent and can return following contextual changes (termed renewal). The aim of the current study was to investigate the renewal of avoidance, threat expectancy, and fear ratings in an online avoidance task administered during the COVID-19 pandemic. One-hundred and two participants completed a task consisting of habituation, threat conditioning, avoidance conditioning, extinction with response prevention, and renewal. Tests for renewal occurred either in the original conditioning context (ABA, n = 52) or the extinction context (ABB, n = 50). Images of a quiet and a busy street served as relevant contexts. Renewal was evident whereby the ABA group showed a significant increase in threat expectancy when tested in the conditioning context, which had not been extinguished. This effect was not found for avoidance or fear ratings, nor for the ABB group who underwent the renewal test in the extinction context. The current study demonstrated differential renewal of threat expectancy in an online contextual avoidance paradigm.

The suppression of behavior that occurs in instrumental extinction is strikingly specific to the response. In contrast, Steinfeld and Bouton (2022) recently reported that inhibition developing in an operant feature-negative (FN) discrimination is not specific to the response. In two experiments, we tested two potential explanations of why inhibition in FN learning is relatively response-general. In each, we used Steinfeld and Bouton’s method and concurrently trained two FN discriminations with different operant responses (AR1+/ABR1- and CR2+/CDR2-). We then assessed the extent to which the inhibitory cues (B and D) suppressed the response they were trained with (same-response inhibition) and the alternative response (cross-response inhibition). Experiment 1 tested the idea that FN inhibition might be response-general because it can create strong inhibition. Rats received either 3, 6, or 12 sessions of FN discrimination training (Steinfeld and Bouton’s rats had received 12). Inhibition was response-general at every level of training. In Experiment 2, the inhibitors (B and D) were first trained as cues that set the occasion for R1 and R2 (respectively) before they were turned into inhibitors in the FN discriminations. In the end, there was less cross-response inhibition, and thus more response-specificity. We suggest that inhibition in FN learning may be response-general because the unambiguous inhibitory cue (B or D) can attract attention and interfere with learning about the response.

People high on neuroticism express a negativity bias in attention, memory, and interpretation, giving primacy to negative rather than positive information. Investigating additional forms of negativity bias in neuroticism could provide further insights into the situations where people who score high on neuroticism tend to remain anchored on negative aspects. We examined whether neuroticism is related to negativity bias in evaluative learning. Instruction-based and experience-based counterconditioning are two evaluative learning procedures in which a conditioned stimulus (CS) is related to a positive or a negative unconditioned stimulus (US) in Phase 1 and with a US of the opposite valence in Phase 2. Using these procedures, we obtained partial support for a negativity bias in counterconditioning among people who scored high on neuroticism. Specifically, participants scoring high on negative emotionality altered the CSs ratings more easily from positive to negative than from negative to positive, a pattern observed in instruction-based counterconditioning (Experiment 1) but not in experience-based counterconditioning (Experiment 2). In line with previous findings, we could conclude that people who score high on neuroticism tend to give primacy to emotionally negative information at the expense of positive information, particularly in ambiguous (learning) contexts.

With the rise of Positive Psychology, there have been abundant studies concerning positive emotions in English teaching and learning. However, the attention paid to positive emotions related to large-scale English tests as well as the influential factors of such emotions has been scarce. To this end, the present study, from the perspective of Positive Reinforcement, investigated to what extent Student Engagement (SE) and Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE), as reinforcers, contribute to positive emotions related to Test for English Majors-Band 4 (TEM4). Altogether 580 English majors from universities across China were invited to complete three questionnaires as research instruments. Confirmative Factor Analysis was conducted with AMOS 24.0 to guarantee the construct, discriminant and convergent validity of each instrument, after which structural equation modeling and regression analysis were conducted to explore the contribution of SE and FLE to English majors’ TEM4-related positive emotions. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that both SE and FLE contribute significantly to TEM4-related positive emotions, respectively explaining 44.8 % and 51.8 % of the variance. The results of the present study were discussed, and some implications were offered at the end, concerning efforts that need to be made to promote SE and FLE, which ultimately foster English majors’ TEM4-related positive emotions.

This study investigated 704 high school students using Latent Profile Analysis to examine the relationship between types of emotion regulation and reflective learning. The analysis identified four latent categories of emotion regulation: low emotion regulation group (LERG) (14.8 %), moderate reappraisal-low suppression group (MRLSG) (58 %), low reappraisal-high suppression group (LRHSG) (8.4 %), and high reappraisal-moderate suppression group (HRMSG) (18.9 %). The results demonstrated that as age and grade increase, the students of LERG, MRLSG, and LRHSG will converge towards HRMSG and compared to males, females have a significantly lower proportion in the HRMSG than in the MRLSG. Significant differences were observed among these four categories in habits, understanding, reflection, and critical thinking behaviors, which represent different levels of cognitive and behavioral processes involved in reflective learning. Specifically, students in the HRMSG exhibited the highest levels of reflective learning behaviors, including well-developed study habits, deeper understanding of material, frequent reflection on their learning processes, and strong critical thinking skills. Conversely, students in the LERG showed the lowest levels in these areas. The findings of this study enhance teachers’ understanding of the emotion regulation characteristics within different subgroups of high school students and facilitate the adoption of effective educational strategies tailored to the specific characteristics of students to promote reflective learning and psychological health development. Additionally, this research provides empirical evidence for designing teaching strategies based on students’ types of emotion regulation.

Behavioral problems in the educational context represent a daily challenge for teachers and educators, considering their impact on the teaching-learning process. Nowadays, various psychological strategies are used aimed at changing the student's disruptive behaviors to ensure adequate development. Although these techniques appear to be effective, these behaviors are often seen to reappear. However, it is widely accepted that some of the effects of associative learning that are present in adult humans and animals, such as spontaneous recovery, renewal and reinstatement, could be at the basis of these relapses. Therefore, to improve psychological interventions and to understand whether these relapse effects are present in the child population, research studies have been reviewed in which some of these effects have been evaluated in boys and girls from 0 to 11 years of age. The analysis of such research studies has shown that the results are inconsistent and that the methodology, that in our opinion is most appropriate to reveal these effects, has not always been used.