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PubMed2001

Nurse practitioner preferences for distance education methods related to learning style, course content, and achievement.

The relationships among multiple distance delivery methods, preferred learning style, content, and achievement was sought for primary care nurse practitioner students. A researcher-designed questionnaire was completed by 86 (71%) participants, while 6 engaged in follow-up interviews. The results of the study included: participants preferred learning by "considering the big picture"; "setting own learning plans"; and "focusing on concrete examples." Several positive associations were found: learning on own with learning by reading, and setting own learning plans; small group with learning through discussion; large group with learning new things through hearing and with having learning plans set by others. The most preferred method was print-based material and the least preferred method was audio tape. The most suited method for content included video teleconferencing for counseling, political action, and transcultural issues; and video tape for physical assessment. Convenience, self-direction, and timing of learning were more important than delivery method or learning style. Preferred order of learning was reading, discussing, observing, doing, and reflecting. Recommended considerations when designing distance courses include a mix of delivery methods, specific content, outcomes, learner characteristics, and state of technology.

Achievement↗
PubMed2005

[Perception about problem-based learning in reflective journals among undergraduate nursing students].

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to explore the variation in perceptions about problem-based learning(PBL) according to the level of academic achievement and learning attitude in the nursing students of a junior college (3-year program). METHOD: Students (n=39) learned the respiratory and cardiac system with seven PBL packages and group-based learning for a semester in 2002. Students were asked to write reflective journals that focused on their learning perception after an experience with each learning package. A total of 208 journals were used for analysis. RESULT: Students positively perceived that PBL making them increase their sense of responsibility for learning and felt satisfaction with the learning process, and had a confidence in the use of clinical nursing interventions. On the other hand, they negatively perceived that PBL was a burden because it took more time than traditional learning tasks, and they experienced an anxiety about regular tests and felt conflicts and diffidences in the learning process. The negative perceptions were expressed more often from students with a low academic achievement and low learning attitude compared to others. CONCLUSION: Students perceived the PBL as effective in understanding the learning concepts in the clinical practice environment. PBL need to be supplemented by feedback-based lecture and facilitative strategies for academically low-achieved students.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Vector averaging occurs downstream from learning in smooth pursuit eye movements of monkeys.

How are sensory-motor transformations organized in a cortical motor system? In general, sensory information is transformed through a variety of signal processing operations in the context of distinct coordinate frameworks. We studied the interaction of two distinct operations in pursuit eye movements, learning and vector-averaging, to gain insight into their underlying coordinate frameworks and their sequence in sensory-motor processing. Learning was induced in the initiation of pursuit eye movements by targets that moved initially at one speed for 100 msec and then increased or decreased to a sustained final speed. Vector averaging was studied by comparing the initial eye acceleration evoked by the simultaneous motion of two targets with that evoked by each target singly. Learning caused specific effects on the direction of the vector-averaged responses to two-target stimuli that included one target moving in the direction used to induce learning. Learned increases or decreases in eye acceleration caused the direction of the responses to two-targets to rotate toward or away from the learning direction. Learning also caused nonspecific changes in the responses to two-target stimuli. After any learning protocol, two-target responses usually became smaller, and their directions rotated away from the axis of the target motion used for learning. Quantitative analysis showed that the specific effects of learning were predicted most closely by a model in which vector averaging occurs downstream from the site(s) of learning. We suggest that the pursuit system creates parallel commands for potential movements to each of the targets in two-target stimuli, and that learning occurs in the coordinates of the potential movements.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

How do our new graduates prefer to learn?

BACKGROUND: Learning preference refers to one's choice of specific learning situations or environments over the other. It is one of the factors needed to be considered in planning curriculum and in designing instructional units. OBJECTIVES: The primary objectives of this study were to characterize the learning preference of recent medical graduates of the National University of Singapore (NUS) and to identify any possible gender differences. This study is likely to be first of its kind in this learner population. INSTRUMENT: Rezler's Learning Preference Inventory. METHODS: Rezler's Learning Preference Inventory was administered among twenty-eight 1997 graduates (male 16, female 12) of NUS. The independent variable was the gender and the dependent variables were the scores in each of the learning categories: abstract, concrete, teacher-structured, student-structured, interpersonal, and independent. ANALYSIS: Frequency distribution of the learning preferences was counted manually. Independent samples t-test was used to compare two groups of dependent variables. RESULTS: Ninety-two percent female and sixty-nine percent male respondents preferred concrete learning. Only one male respondent and none of the female respondents preferred abstract learning. Among all the respondents, differences between concrete and abstract categories reached statistical, as well as meaningful, significance (p < 0.0001 and mean score difference of 19.9). Differences between student-structured and teacher-structured, and between interpersonal and independent categories did not reach statistical significance (p value of 0.51 and 0.78 respectively). Female respondents generally showed a trend towards greater preference for concrete and teacher-structured learning than their male counterparts. CONCLUSION: The learning preferences of recent graduates of the NUS is characterized by high inclination towards concrete learning. The results can be utilized in designing instructional methods for this group of learners.

Attitude↗
PubMed2004

Situated learning theory: adding rate and complexity effects via Kauffman's NK model.

For many firms, producing information, knowledge, and enhancing learning capability have become the primary basis of competitive advantage. A review of organizational learning theory identifies two approaches: (1) those that treat symbolic information processing as fundamental to learning, and (2) those that view the situated nature of cognition as fundamental. After noting that the former is inadequate because it focuses primarily on behavioral and cognitive aspects of individual learning, this paper argues the importance of studying learning as interactions among people in the context of their environment. It contributes to organizational learning in three ways. First, it argues that situated learning theory is to be preferred over traditional behavioral and cognitive learning theories, because it treats organizations as complex adaptive systems rather than mere information processors. Second, it adds rate and nonlinear learning effects. Third, following model-centered epistemology, it uses an agent-based computational model, in particular a "humanized" version of Kauffman's NK model, to study the situated nature of learning. Using simulation results, we test eight hypotheses extending situated learning theory in new directions. The paper ends with a discussion of possible extensions of the current study to better address key issues in situated learning.

Humans↗
PubMed2004

Self directed and lifelong learning.

Given the many changes that occur in medicine, health care and information technologies we need to prepare all our students to engage in self directed and life long learning. There is considerable opportunity for self-directed and lifelong learning in health informatics bringing together students in exciting global learning environments, where they have much greater freedom and flexibility in their studies and potentially a wider variety of resources available to them. Self-directed learning focuses on the process by which adults take control of their own learning, in particular how they set their own learning goals, locate appropriate resources, decide on which learning methods to use and evaluate their progress. Lifelong learning happens in a variety of formal and informal settings building on both intentional and incidental learning experiences. In a lifelong learning situation the tutor must relinquish the role of expert and assume the role of facilitator, guiding learners to uncover their own knowledge. Against a back drop of rapid advances in technology which can be used to both deliver course materials and provide enhanced learning opportunities, this chapter outlines the pedagogic principles and practices which underpin self-directed and lifelong learning.

Education, Continuing↗
PubMed1994

Inhibition of nitric oxide synthase does not impair spatial learning.

Nitric oxide (NO), a putative intercellular messenger in the CNS, may be involved in certain forms of synaptic plasticity and learning. This article reports a series of experiments investigating the effects of N omega-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) upon various forms of learning and memory in the watermaze. L-NAME (75 mg/kg, i.p., sufficient to bring about > 90% inhibition of NO synthesis in brain) produced an apparent impairment in spatial learning when given to naive rats during acquisition (3 d, six training trials per day). This impairment was dose related, stereoselective, and attenuated by coadministration of L-arginine. A second study showed that L-NAME did not affect the retention of a previously learned spatial task. In addition, in a visual discrimination task, the rate at which criterion levels of performance were reached was unaffected by L-NAME. Thus, inhibition of NO synthase may cause a selective impairment of spatial learning without effect upon retention. However, analysis of the early training trials of the visual discrimination task revealed significantly elevated escape latencies in the L-NAME-treated rats, suggesting that inhibition of NO synthase may have more general effects. As normal rats learn the spatial task very rapidly, the possibility arises that the apparent deficit in learning is due to a disruption of some process other than learning per se. A further series of experiments investigated this possibility. L-NAME was found not to impair the learning of a new platform position in the same spatial environment. Surprisingly, L-NAME also had no effect on spatial learning in a second watermaze located in a novel spatial environment by rats well practiced with all aspects of watermaze training. Finally, L-NAME had no effect on spatial learning in naive rats trained with just one trial per day. Thus, systemic injection of an NO synthase inhibitor impairs behavioral performance in two tasks during their initial acquisition, but the basis of this functional disruption is unlikely to be due to any direct effect upon the mechanisms of spatial learning.

Amino Acid Oxidoreductases↗
PubMed1995

Learning and memory in the honeybee.

Insects are favorable subjects for neuroethological studies. Their nervous systems are relatively small and contain many individually identifiable cells. The CNS is highly compartmentalized with clear separations between multisensory higher order neuropiles in the brain and neuropiles serving sensory-motor routines in the ventral cord (Huber, 1974). The rich behavior of insects includes orientation in space and time, visual, chemical, and mechanical communication, and complex motor routines for flying, walking, swimming, nest building, defense, and attack. Learning and memory, though, are not usually considered to be a strong point of insects. Rather, insect behavior is often regarded as highly stereotyped and under tight control of genetically programmed neural circuits. This view, however, does not do justice to the insect order of Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants). Most Hymenopteran species care for their brood either as individual females or as a social group of females. Consequently, they regularly return to their nest site to feed, protect, and nurse the larvae, store food, and hide from adverse environmental conditions. Since they search for food (prey; nectar and pollen on flowers) at unpredictable sites, they have to learn the celestial and terrestrial cues that guide their foraging trips over long distances and allow them to find their nest sites (central place foraging; von Frisch, 1967; Seeley, 1985). They learn to relate the sun's position and sky pattern of polarized light to the time of the day (Lindauer, 1959), and landmarks are learned in relationship to the nest site within the framework of the time-compensated sun compass. The honeybee communicates direction and distance of a feeding place to hive mates by performing a ritualized body movement, the waggle dance (von Frisch, 1967). Associative learning is an essential component of the bee's central place foraging behavior and dance communication. Hive mates attending a dance performance learn the odor emanating from the dancing bee and seek it at the indicated food site. The odor, color, and shape of flowers are learned when the bee experiences these stimuli shortly before it finds food (nectar, pollen). This appetitive learning in bees has many characteristics of associative learning well known from mammalian learning studies (Menzel, 1985, 1990; Bitterman, 1988). It follows the rules of classical and operant conditioning, respectively, so that stimuli or behavioral acts are associated with evaluating stimuli. Since associative learning, especially of the classical type, is well described at the phenomenological and operational level (Rescorla, 1988), it provides a favorable approach in the search for the neural substrate underlying learning and memory.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Motor sequence learning: a study with positron emission tomography.

We have used positron emission tomography to study the functional anatomy of motor sequence learning. Subjects learned sequences of keypresses by trial and error using auditory feedback. They were scanned with eyes closed under three conditions: at rest, while performing a sequence that was practiced before scanning until overlearned, and while learning new sequences at the same rate of performance. Compared with rest, both sequence tasks activated the contralateral sensorimotor cortex to the same extent. Comparing new learning with performance of the prelearned sequence, differences in activation were identified in other areas. (1) Prefrontal cortex was only activated during new sequence learning. (2) Lateral premotor cortex was significantly more activated during new learning, whereas the supplementary motor area was more activated during performance of the prelearned sequence. (3) Activation of parietal association cortex was present during both motor tasks, but was significantly greater during new learning. (4) The putamen was equally activated by both conditions. (5) The cerebellum was activated by both conditions, but the activation was more extensive and greater in degree during new learning. There was an extensive decrease in the activity of prestriate cortex, inferotemporal cortex, and the hippocampus in both active conditions, when compared with rest. These decreases were significantly greater during new learning. We draw three main conclusions. (1) The cerebellum is involved in the process by which motor tasks become automatic, whereas the putamen is equally activated by sequence learning and retrieval, and may play a similar role in both. (2) When subjects learn new sequences of motor actions, prefrontal cortex is activated. This may reflect the need to generate new responses. (3) Reduced activity of areas concerned with visual processing, particularly during new learning, suggests that selective attention may involve depressing the activity of cells in modalities that are not engaged by the task.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Involuntary, unreinforced (pure) spatial learning is impaired by fimbria-fornix but not by dorsal hippocampus lesions.

Pure spatial learning occurs when rats acquire information about an environment while exploring it in the absence of reinforcers. We previously reported that voluntary, unreinforced exploration of a radial maze retards subsequent reinforced conditioned cue preference (CCP) learning in the same maze. In the present experiment, we examined the effects of involuntary, unreinforced pre-exposure to a radial maze. During pre-exposure, rats were moved by an experimenter between the ends of two arms of a radial maze five times in 30 min. This form of pre-exposure retarded CCP learning, whereas rats that were not pre-exposed and rats that were pre-exposed to a maze in a different room displayed normal CCP learning. These findings suggest that some information specific to the maze environment was acquired during involuntary unreinforced pre-exposure to it. In experiment 2, the retardation of reinforced CCP learning by involuntary unreinforced pre-exposure was eliminated by fimbria-fornix lesions made before pre-exposure but was unaffected by fimbria-fornix lesions made after pre-exposure but before training. Large neurotoxic lesions of the dorsal hippocampus made before pre-exposure had no effect on the retardation of CCP learning, but the rats with these lesions were impaired on a standard test of reinforced spatial learning in a water maze. The lesion effects in experiment 2 are similar to those previously reported for voluntary exploration and suggest that pure spatial learning may occur during both voluntary exploration of and involuntary exposure to an environment in the absence of reinforcers. Pure spatial learning can apparently occur with exposure to two different locations within an environment, but the rats do not have to move between the locations voluntarily. An intact fimbria-fornix is required for acquisition but not expression of this form of learning. The hippocampus is not involved in this form of learning.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Dissociation of visual associative and motor learning in Drosophila at the flight simulator.

Ever since operant conditioning was studied experimentally, the relationship between associative learning and possible motor learning has become controversial. Although motor learning and its underlying neural substrates have been extensively studied in mammals, it is still poorly understood in invertebrates. The visual discriminative avoidance paradigm of Drosophila at the flight simulator has been widely used to study the flies' visual associative learning and related functions, but it has not been used to study the motor learning process. In this study, newly-designed data analysis was employed to examine the flies' solitary behavioural variable that was recorded at the flight simulator-yaw torque. Analysis was conducted to explore torque distributions of both wild-type and mutant flies in conditioning, with the following results: (1) Wild-type Canton-S flies had motor learning performance in conditioning, which was proved by modifications of the animal's behavioural mode in conditioning. (2) Repetition of training improved the motor learning performance of wild-type Canton-S flies. (3) Although mutant dunce(1) flies were defective in visual associative learning, they showed essentially normal motor learning performance in terms of yaw torque distribution in conditioning. Finally, we tentatively proposed that both visual associative learning and motor learning were involved in the visual operant conditioning of Drosophila at the flight simulator, that the two learning forms could be dissociated and they might have different neural bases.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2000

The effects of sequence structure and reward schedule on serial reaction time learning in the monkey.

This research tests the hypothesis that sequence learning performance in non-human primates will be modulated both by the structure of the sequences to be learned and by the schedule of reward applied during learning. Sequence learning in humans has been extensively explored with serial reaction time (SRT) protocols where learning is revealed by reduced reaction times for stimuli presented in repeating sequences vs. stimuli presented in random series. The SRT protocol has been used to demonstrate that different types of sequential structure may be learned under different awareness conditions. Here, we consider surface and abstract structure of sensorimotor sequences such that sequences ABCBAC and DEFEDF (where A to F correspond to spatial locations on a touch sensitive screen) have different serial order or surface structure, but share the same abstract structure 123213, and are thus considered isomorphic. In four experiments, we manipulated the type of sequential structure to be learned, and the schedule of reward in spatial sequence learning tasks. Both of the two monkeys tested demonstrated significant SRT learning for serial order or surface structure, while they failed to learn and transfer abstract structure. Their learning performance was also modulated by the schedule of reward. These results are in support of our hypothesis and are discussed in the context of existing models of sensorimotor sequence learning.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

4.1 Web-based interactive learning programmes.

In the future, the training of competent dentists will need to take advantage of up-to-date digital technologies and learning practices. In order to accomplish this, the following goals should be considered: i) the design of 'customizable' web-based curriculum matrices that accommodate the training philosophies and resources of individual dental schools; ii) the development of digital instructional modules that can be incorporated or downloaded into specific parts of a curriculum; iii) the establishment of an e-consortium, which provides peer view and guidance in the design of teaching modules, and which is responsible for the storage, maintenance, and distribution of teaching modules within the consortium; iv) the development of central human and physical resources at each dental school to enable the seamless delivery of instructional modules in a variety of learning environments; and v) the assessment and provision of ICT training to students and faculty with respect to the use of computers and related digital technologies and educational software programmes. These goals should lead to the creation of a 'virtual dental school'. Within this project summative and formative evaluations should be performed during both the production and development of teaching material (e-learning material) and the learning process. During the learning process the following aspects should be measured and evaluated: i) students' behaviour; and ii) effectiveness, retention and the transfer of e-learned material into the clinical situation. To obtain evidence of the efficacy of e-learning material a certain amount of research has to be done in the near future. It is suggested that all parameters currently known have to be implemented during the development of a learning programme. Previous workers have evaluated the following elements with e-learning: i) planning, ii) programming and technical development, iii) learning behaviours, iv) learning outcomes of both the programme and the student, v) the acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitude and vi) the transfer of e-learned skills into clinical situations.

Competency-Based Education↗
PubMed2006

Improving signal prediction performance of neural networks through multiresolution learning approach.

In this paper, we extend the original work on multiresolution learning for neural networks, and present new developments on the multiresolution learning paradigm. The contributions of this paper include: (1) proposing a new concept and method of adjustable neural activation functions in multiresolution learning to improve neural network learning efficacy and generalization performance for signal predictions; (2) providing new insightful explanations for the multiresolution learning paradigm from a multiresolution optimization perspective; (3) exploring underlying ideas why the multiresolution learning scheme associated with adjustable activation functions would be more appropriate for the multiresolution learning paradigm; and (4) providing rigorous validations to evaluate the multiresolution learning paradigm with adjustable activation functions and comparing it with the schemes of multiresolution learning with fixed activation functions and traditional learning. This paper presents systematically new analytical and experimental results on the multiresolution learning approach for training an individual neural network model, demonstrates our integral solution on neural network learning efficacy, and illustrates the significant improvements on neural networks' generalization performance and robustness for nonlinear signal predictions.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1998

Modifications of reward expectation-related neuronal activity during learning in primate striatum.

This study investigated neuronal activity in the anterior striatum while monkeys repeatedly learned to associate new instruction stimuli with known behavioral reactions and reinforcers. In a delayed go-nogo task with several trial types, an initial picture instructed the animal to execute or withhold a reaching movement and to expect a liquid reward or not. During learning, new instruction pictures were presented, and animals guessed and performed one of the trial types according to a trial-and-error strategy. Learning of a large number of pictures resulted in a learning set in which learning took place in a few trials and correct performance exceeded 80% in the first 60-90 trials. About 200 task-related striatal neurons studied in both familiar and learning conditions showed three forms of changes during learning. Activations related to the preparation and execution of behavioral reactions and the expectation of reward were maintained in many neurons but occurred in inappropriate trial types when behavioral errors were made. The activations became appropriate for individual trial types when the animals' behavior adapted to the new task contingencies. In particular, reward expectation-related activations occurred initially in both rewarded and unrewarded movement trials and became subsequently restricted to rewarded trials. These changes occurred in parallel with the visible adaptation of reward expectations by the animals. The second learning change consisted in decreases of task-related activations that were either restricted to the initial trials of new learning problems or persisted during the subsequent consolidation phase. They probably reflected reductions in the expectation and preparation of upcoming task events, including reward. The third learning change consisted in transient or sustained increases of activations. These might reflect the increased attention accompanying learning and serve to induce synaptic changes underlying the behavioral adaptations. Both decreases and increases often induced changes in the trial selective occurrence of activations. In conclusion, neurons in anterior striatum showed changes related to adaptations or reductions of expectations in new task situations and displayed activations that might serve to induce structural changes during learning.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Declarative and procedural learning in children and adolescents with posterior fossa tumours.

BACKGROUND: This quasi-experimental study was designed to assess two important learning types - procedural and declarative--in children and adolescents affected by posterior fossa tumours (astrocytoma vs. medulloblastoma), given that memory has an important impact on the child's academic achievement and personal development. METHODS: We had three groups: two clinical (eighteen subjects) and one control (twelve subjects). The learning types in these groups were assessed by two experimental tasks evaluating procedural-implicit and declarative memory. A Serial Reaction-Time Task was used to measure procedural sequence learning, and the Spanish version 1 of the California Verbal Learning Test-Children's Version- CVLT- 2 to measure declarative-explicit learning. The learning capacity was assessed considering only the blocks that represent learning, and were compared with MANOVA in clinical and normal subjects. The Raven, simple reaction-time, finger-tapping test, and grooved pegboard tests were used to assess the overall functioning of subjects. The results were compared with those from a control group of the same age, and with Spanish norm-referenced tools where available. RESULTS: The results indicate the absence of procedural-implicit learning in both clinical groups, whereas declarative-explicit learning is maintained in both groups. CONCLUSION: The clinical groups showed a conservation of declarative learning and a clear impairment of procedural learning. The results support the role of the cerebellum in the early phase of procedural learning.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Learning science from museums.

This article provides an overview of current understandings of the science learning that occurs as a consequence of visiting a free-choice learning setting like a science museum. The best available evidence indicates that if you want to understand learning at the level of individuals within the real world, learning does functionally differ depending upon the conditions, i.e., the context, under which it occurs. Hence, learning in museums is different than learning in any other setting. The contextual model of learning provides a way to organize the myriad specifics and details that give richness and authenticity to the museum learning process while still allowing a holistic picture of visitor learning. The results of a recent research investigation are used to show how this model elucidates the complex nature of science learning from museums. This study demonstrates that learning form museums can be meaningfully analyzed and described. The article concludes by stating that only by appreciating and accounting for the full complexities of the museum experience will a useful understanding of how and what visitors learn from science museums emerge.

Education↗
PubMed1999

Service learning: a strategy to develop group collaboration and research skills.

Many colleges and universities currently are implementing service learning as an educational strategy into their curricula. The goal of service learning is a dynamic partnership between educational institutions and communities resulting in the mutual benefits of service and learning. Although service learning has significance for teaching nursing students, educators must differentiate service learning from clinical practicum. This article provides a definition of service learning, identifies the relevance of service learning for nursing education, presents an example of service learning integrated into a nursing course, and evaluates service learning as a methodology for teaching group collaboration and research skills. Student surveys, a focus group, and community partner evaluations indicated service learning contributed to the development of group collaboration and research skills among baccalaureate nursing students. To enhance faculty, student, and community partner satisfaction with service learning, instructors should clearly define service learning experiences for a specific setting and offer structured guidance that does not interfere with student decision-making.

Community Health Nursing↗