Depressive Rumination and the Mood-as-Input Hypothesis: The Role of Reverse Catastrophizing

The mood-as-input hypothesis (MAIH) has been consistently examined in relation to worry, but few studies have examined its role in depressive rumination. Fewer studies have examined congruency effects, such that conditions of mood and perseverative task are congruent (i.e., negative mood and negative preservative task vs. positive mood and positive perseverative task). The current study thus examines the MAIH’s applicability to depressive rumination, includes further investigation on mood congruency, and incorporates a newly constructed positive rumination task to further assess the impact of the valency of a ruminative task. Undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions based on the rumination interview type (positive vs. negative), mood (happy vs. sad), and stop-rule (as-many-as-can (AMA) and feel-like-stopping (FL)). It was hypothesized that participants would generate more perseverative steps in mood-congruent conditions, depending on the assigned stop-rules, and that they would default to that assigned stop-rule in mood-incongruent conditions. Results determined that, under mood-congruent conditions, participants generated more perseverative steps. In particular, they ruminated more if assigned to the AMA stop-rule while in the negative rumination interview and primed with sad mood, whereas more rumination also occurred for participants with the FL stop-rule while in the positive rumination interview and primed with happy mood. These findings are consistent with the MAIH. As hypothesized, participants also defaulted to the AMA stop-rule under mood-incongruent conditions. The current study’s findings show support for the body of research relating to the MAIH, but also provides additional findings in the limited studies regarding congruency and the lack of research surrounding positive rumination

Determinants of problem solving performance: basis for mathematical model development

This study aimed to look into the determinants of problem solving performance among the pre-service mathematics teachers with the end view of developing a mathematical model. Specifically, it looked for the description of the pre-service mathematics teachers in terms of the following variables: epistemological belief, motivation, curiosity, cognition, and metacognition; level of problem solving performance, relationship of the predictor variables under study and the mathematics problem solving performance, best predictor of mathematics problem solving if taken singly or in combination. Mathematical model was developed as output of the study. A researcher-made questionnaire and test were the instruments used in gathering the data needed in the correlational research. Purposive sampling method was used to obtain the 118 pre-service mathematics teachers who served as respondents. The statistical tools used were weighted mean , mean and standard deviation, Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression analysis. The study revealed that the pre-service mathematics teachers had strong epistemological belief, strong motivational belief, belief in curiosity, belief in cognitive style and metacognitive learning style as reflected in strong agreement with those variables. It also revealed that the pre-service mathematics teachers had average performance in mathematics problem solving as shown in the result in problem solving performance test. Findings also revealed that the problem solving performance was significantly related to epistemological belief, curiosity, cognitive and metacognitive learning style. When taken singly, the best predictor among those variables was the epistemological belief and when in combination, their epistemological belief, cognitive and the metacognitive learning style gave the best results. As a result of this study, a mathematical PSP model was produced to enhance the mathematics problem solving performance of pre-service mathematics teachers

Multilateral Relationship between Information Literacy, Self-Concept and Metacognitive Ability

This study examined information literacy, metacognitive abilities and self-concept capabilities. The evaluation of this research indicated that self-concept is the totality of psychological, emotional, psychosomatic and mental development that provide confidence to individual in the ability to search, use, appraise and assess information resources, which are critical qualities needed to enable information literacy; an individual needs to be conscious and develop aptitude to identify useful information. Metacognitive ability is important because of the age of information overload which an individual is overwhelmed with which signified that information available is exceeding processing capacity of an average individual. Accordingly, once information overload ensues, it is possible that a decrease or decline in quality of decision-making will happen. In view of this, metacognitive ability becomes necessary in order to equip people with the critical ability to contemplate rigorously before action is taken. The objective of this research is to embark on content analysis of the subject matter of information literacy, metacognitive abilities and self-concept in which existing research was thoroughly evaluated in order to identify gap in research and bring out new knowledge. This research uses qualitative content analysis as a method of data collection in which existing journals and other information resources were evaluated. Research has been silenced on the triangular relationship of metacognitive ability, self-concept and information literacy, that is, the gap this research attempt to bridge

The Sociocultural Mediation of Metacognition During Problem Solving in Undergraduate Mathematics Classroom Communities of Practice

Metacognition has long been identified as an essential component of the problem-solving process. While the language of metacognition has been conveyed in teaching, research, and policy, much of the research on metacognition does not describe the explicit role metacognition plays during students’ real-time problem-solving process. Moreover, metacognitive interventions are typically disconnected from the natural mathematical activity and discourse within a classroom community. Research concerning metacognition and metacognitive interventions has historically adopted an acquisition metaphor for learning. This qualitative study takes a participationist lens to consider metacognition as a problem-solving habit of mind, a normative way of thinking to which students become attuned by participating in authentic problem-solving situations. This study explored one such situation, in which “portfolio” problem-solving sessions and write-ups were used to mediate metacognitive thinking in a first-year mathematics content course for pre-service elementary teachers. Six qualitative data sources were collected and analyzed: (1) recorded classroom sessions, (2) three individual interviews with 15 of the 24 students, (3) two interviews with the instructor of record, (4) students’ written artifacts, (5) recorded planning sessions with the instructor, and (6) journal reflections written by the instructor and myself, the researcher, after each class session. Two levels of analysis were employed to characterize sociocultural complexity surrounding students’ problem-solving activity. Results of micro-level analysis revealed a shift from product- to process-focused metacognitive norms. Through participation in authentic problem-solving situations, namely the portfolio problems, students problem-solving activity transformed in a way that afforded them opportunities to readily engage in process-focused metacognitive actions. Macro-level analysis utilized activity theory to operationalize the participation structure of the classroom and document the development of metacognitive norms, highlighting social mediators of activity and contradictions as catalysts for change. Results of macro-level analysis illustrated a correspondence between the shift in normative metacognitive actions identified in micro-level analysis, broader transformations of students’ problem-solving activity, and the teacher’s shifting goals and actions in response to students’ problem solving. This work extends previous research on metacognitive interventions, demonstrating that “embeddedness” of metacognitive activity during problem solving is beyond just the content, but also embedded in the collective classroom culture. Moreover, activity theory captured students’ agency in negotiating their problem-solving activity, suggesting its continued use by researchers wishing to adopt an anti-deficit framing. This research has additional implications for teaching content courses for pre-service teachers. Students’ metacognitive activity was very much situated in the sociocultural context of the classroom, especially their dual identities as current mathematics students and future teachers. For the pre-service teachers to value mathematical problem-solving habits of mind, legitimate participation meant as students, not just as future teachers, of mathematics. Finally, this study provides broader insight into how instructors can support undergraduate students’ process-focused metacognitive activity during problem solving through a combination of Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) techniques and explicit reflection on real-time problem-solving processes

3. Toward a Cognitive Theory for the Measu rement of Achievement

INTRODUCTION Given the demands for higher levels of learning in our schools and the press for education in the skilled trades, the professions, and the sciences, we must develop more powerful and specific methods for assessing achievement. We need forms of assessment that educators can use to improve educational practice and to diagnose individual progress by monitoring the outcomes of learning and training. Compared to the well-developed technology for aptitude measurement and selection testing, however, the measurement of achievement and diagnosis of learning problems is underdeveloped. This is because the correlational models that support prediction are insufficient for the task of prescribing remediation or other instructional interventions. Tests can predict fa ilure without a theory of what causes success, but intervening to prevent failure and enhance competence requires deeper understanding. The study of the nature of learning is therefore integral to the assessment of achievement. We must use what we know about the cognitive properties of acquired proficiency and about the structures and processes that develop as a student becomes competent in a domain . We know that learning is not simply a matter of the accretion of subject-matter concepts and procedures; it consists rather of organizing and restructuring of this information to enable skillful procedures and processes of problem representation and solution. Somehow, tests must be sensitive to how well this structuring has proceeded in the student being tested. The usual forms of achievement tests are not effective diagnostic aids. In order for tests to become usefully prescriptive, they must identify performance components that facilitate or interfere with current proficiency and the attainment of eventual higher levels of achievement. Curriculum analysis of the content and skill to be learned in a subject matter does not automatically provide information about how students attain competence about the difficulties they meet in attaining it. An array of subject-matter subtests differing in difficulty is not enough for useful diagnosis. Rather, qualitative indicators of specific properties of performance that influence learning and characterize levels of competence need to be identified. In order to ascertain the critical differences between successful and unsuccessful student performance, we need to appraise the knowledge structures and cognitive processes that reveal degrees of competence in a field of study. We need a fuller understanding of what to test and how test items relate to target knowledge. In contrast, most of current testing technology is post hoc and has focused on what to do after test items are constructed. Analysis of item difficulty, development of discrimination indices, scaling and norming procedures, and analysis of test dimensions and factorial composition take place after the item is written. A theory of acquisition and performance is needed before and during item design

Predicting attribution of letter writing performance in secondary school: A machine learning approach

The learning research literature has identified the complex and multidimensional nature of learning tasks, involving not only (meta) cognitive processes but also affective, linguistic, and behavioral contextualized aspects. The present study aims to analyze the interactions among activated domainspecific information, context-sensitive appraisals, and emotions, and their impact on task engagement as well as task satisfaction and attribution of the perceived learning outcome, using a machine learning approach. Data was collected from 1130 vocational high-school students of both genders, between 15 and 20 years of age. Prospective questionnaires were used to collect information about the students’ home environment and domainspecific variables. Motivation processes activated during the learning episode were measured with Boekaerts’ on-line motivation questionnaire. The traces that students left behind were also inspected (e.g., time spent, use of provided tools, content, and technical aspects of writing). Artificial neural networks (ANN) were used to provide information on the multiple interactions between the measured domain-specific variables, situation-specific appraisals and emotions, trace data, and background variables. ANN could identify with high precision students who used a writing skill, affect, and self-regulation strategies attribution on the basis of domain variables, appraisals, emotions, and performance indicators. ANN detected important differences in the factors that seem to underlie the students’ causal attributions.Penvoerder Self - Regulated Writing Project (PSRWP) - Koning Willem I College from Netherlands AGI-1802-2006/

Cognitive Bias in Clinical Medicine

Cognitive bias is increasingly recognised as an important source of medical error, and is both ubiquitous across clinical practice yet incompletely understood. This increasing awareness of bias has resulted in a surge in clinical and psychological research in the area and development of various ‘debiasing strategies’. This paper describes the potential origins of bias based on ‘dual process thinking’, discusses and illustrates a number of the important biases that occur in clinical practice, and considers potential strategies that might be used to mitigate their effect

The Relationship between Executive Functions, Working Memory, and Intelligence in Kindergarten Children.

Executive functions (EF), working memory (WM), and intelligence are closely associated, but distinct constructs. What underlies the associations between these constructs, especially in childhood, is not well understood. In this pre-registered study, along with the traditional aggregate accuracy and RT-based measures of EF, we investigated post-error slowing (PES) in EF as a manifestation of metacognitive processes (i.e., monitoring and cognitive control) in relation to WM and intelligence. Thereby, we aimed to elucidate whether these metacognitive processes may be one underlying component to explain the associations between these constructs. We tested kindergarten children (Mage = 6.4 years, SDage = 0.3) in an EF, WM (verbal and visuospatial), and fluid (non-verbal) intelligence task. We found significant associations of mainly the inhibition component of EF with fluid intelligence and verbal WM, and between verbal WM and intelligence. No significant associations emerged between the PES in EF and intelligence or WM. These results suggest that in the kindergarten age, inhibition rather than monitoring and cognitive control might be the underlying component that explains the associations between EF, WM, and intelligence

The Difficulties in Reading Comprehension Faced by the third Semester students of Cokroaminoto University of Palopo

: The objectives of this research were to find out (1) Reading difficulties encountered by the third semester in reading text of Cokroaminoto of Palopo (2) The strategies used by the third semester students of Cokroaminoto of palopo to solve their reading problem. The researcher applied descriptive qualitative method. The subjects of this research were the students of English department of Cokroaminoto Palopo University. The researcher collected data by interview, the researcher used audio recorder to record all the students’ answer, and transcript the recording to identify and analyze the data. The result of the research revealed that (1)Reading difficulties encountered by the students, namely: limited vocabulary, slow reading rate of the text, weakness in attack, low comprehension of the words, and low recognition words. (2) the students used strategies to solve their reading difficulties in limited vocabulary by: memorizing vocabularies, opening the dictionary, looking the meaning by mobile phone, asking to their friends, and always practice to speak with their friends. Keywords: Difficulties, Reading Comprehensio

Exploring Metacognitive Online Reading Strategies of Non-Native English-Speaking Translation Students

International students, a growing population in US universities, need to possess excellent reading skills in order to succeed. American universities also benefit from admitting students who do not require remedial English classes. Reading online has become an integrated part of college education, which requires students to have additional skills. Awareness and usage of online reading strategies, known as metacognitive online reading strategies, are proven tools to enhance reading skills in online environments. The purpose of this mixed-method study was to investigate the metacognitive online reading strategies employed by highly proficient non-native English-speaking graduate students of Translation, Interpretation and Language Education at Middlebury Institute of International Studies to find out the types of reading strategies students report using, and how they use them when reading an academic text online on a laptop. Two conceptual frameworks were employed to analyze the data: metacognition theory and metacognition model. Quantitative data were collected from 46 students through the Online Survey of Reading Strategies (OSORS). Qualitative data were obtained through recording think-aloud sessions with six volunteers who individually read a TOEFL practice passage and said what they thought as they read the passage. The quantitative findings revealed that students used most of OSORS strategies in the three categories or Global strategies, Problem-solving strategies, and Support strategies. They used problem-solving strategies the most and support strategies the least. The qualitative data analysis revealed that students used most of the strategies that were relevant to the reading task. Moreover, they gave precedence to focusing and maintaining a steady reading pace over other strategies, and bundled related strategies to understand difficult text. Strategies such as slowing the speed of reading, rereading, reading aloud, and guessing meanings were activated together. Data also showed that they students decided on using various computer skills depending on their reading needs, engaging in a parallel metacognitive processing to their reading. Finally, the participants valued reading as part of their career, and made comments on contents of the passage in relation with the real world. Thus, comprehension was not the last step in the metacognitive process, internalizing and remembering the new information was