Georgia Tech School of Psychology Theses and Dissertations
https://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/139
Original work in partial fulfillment of a graduate degree in the School of Psychology.2024-03-29T13:52:44ZInteraction of instructional material order and subgoal labels on learning in programming
https://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/1853/54459
Interaction of instructional material order and subgoal labels on learning in programming
Expository instructions, worked examples, and subgoal labels have all been shown to positively impact student learning and performance in computer science education. This study examined whether learning and problem solving performance differed based on the sequence of the instructional materials (expository and worked examples) and the presence of subgoal labels within the instructional materials. Participants were 138 undergraduate college students, age 17-25, who watched two instructional videos on creating an application in the App Inventor programming language before completing several learning assessments. A significant interaction showed that when learners were presented with the worked example followed by the expository instructions containing subgoal labels, the learner was better at outlining the procedure for creating an application. These manipulations did not affect cognitive load, novel problem solving performance, explanations of solutions, or the amount of time spent on instructions and completing the assessments. These results suggest that the order instructional materials are presented have has little impact on problem solving, although some benefit can be gained from presenting the worked example before the expository instructions when subgoal labels are included. This suggests the order the instructions are presented to learners does not impact learning. Previous studies demonstrating an effect of subgoal labels used text instructions as opposed to the video instructions used in the present study. Future research should investigate how these manipulations differ for text instructions and video instructions.
How acute stress during consolidation affects memory for negative materials with different arousal levels
https://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/1853/54465
How acute stress during consolidation affects memory for negative materials with different arousal levels
Both human and animal research has demonstrated that acute stress affects memory, and the nature of this effect depends on when the stress occurs. Stress during consolidation consistently enhances memory, but there is disagreement as to whether memory for emotional or neutral information is improved. The animal research suggests that only memory for emotionally arousing information is enhanced following stress during consolidation. However, human studies have found memory improvements for both emotional and neutral information. According to theory based on animal research, memory for the most arousing material should be enhanced as a result of stress during consolidation. Because of this discrepancy between the animal and the human literature, the current study investigated the effect of acute psychological stress on memory for both low arousal and high arousal negative stimuli. We predicted that stress during consolidation would enhance memory, particularly for the high arousal negative stimuli. We found that stress did not have an effect on item memory performance and that stress actually reduced participant’s confidence in their memory.
The effects of background music on video game play performance, behavior and experience in extraverts and introverts
https://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/1853/54462
The effects of background music on video game play performance, behavior and experience in extraverts and introverts
For many, listening to music is an enjoyable experience pursued throughout one’s lifetime. Nearly 200 years of music psychology research has revealed the various ways music listening can impact human emotional states, as well as cognitive and motor performance. Music in video games has come a long way from the first chiptunes of 1978 to the full scores written specifically for games today. However, very little is understood of how background game music impacts game performance, behavior and experience. Even less is known for how music variables might affect performance, behavior and experience by individual differences, such as personality type. In this study, 78 participants scoring in the top 30% for their age range of either extraversion or introversion played a cognitive-training game in four music conditions (silence, low tempo, medium tempo, and high tempo). Performance, game play behavior, and flow experience scores were analyzed for each music condition by level of extraversion. While no statistically significant differences were found in game performance scores by level of extraversion, there were statistically significant differences found for play behavior (physical mouse motions) and flow experience for the music conditions. These results suggest that music can both alter the nature of physical game inputs and also provide a more engaging game experience, while not necessarily impacting one’s ability to perform in a game.
Nurses' problem detection of infection risk: The effects of risk factors, expertise, and time pressure
https://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/1853/54372
Nurses' problem detection of infection risk: The effects of risk factors, expertise, and time pressure
Problem detection is a critical component in nursing, such that superior detection could lead to quicker intervention, even if the nature of the problem is not yet clear. A critical problem intensive care nurses typically engage in is detecting the threat of an impending hospital-acquired infection. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the presence of risk factors, expertise, and time pressure on problem detection. The results suggested that time pressure seemed to have a detrimental effect on problem detection, and nurses benefitted from the presence of more risk factors. When not under time pressure, nurses were more sensitive in their problem detection judgments, and only needed one risk factor to trigger problem detection. Experienced nurses were more sensitive to the type of infection at detection, and were more likely to identify the problem correctly after information had been accumulated. These results suggest that problem detection was differentially affected by risk factors based on the presence or absence of time pressure. In addition, experienced nurses took a different approach to problem detection when compared to novices. Finally, problem detection and problem identification can in some situations occur simultaneously, but are distinct processes.