Memes and consciousness: Friend or foe?

Besides the renowned biologist, Richard Dawkins, Dennett is amongst the first to be cognizance of the importance of memes, making it central in the formulation of a Dennettian theory of consciousness. The importance of memes in Dennett's theory of consciousness lies second only to his heterophenomenological theory. This paper argues that Dennett's conception of meme and consciousness is flawed. It raises difficult and thorny issues that could not be easily resolved and hence discrediting Dennett's theorizing of consciousness generally

The Academic Self-Efficacy Among Undergraduates: The Role of Gender, CGPA and Trait Emotional Intelligence

Academic self-efficacy is important for students which will help them to perform better in studies. This study aims to explore the level of academic self-efficacy among UNIMAS undergraduates based on gender, CGPA and trait emotional intelligence. The samples ofstudy involved are 50 male and 50 female participants which consists of final year students from Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development. The academic self-efficacy of the students is measured using the questionnaire adopted from a study by Sachitra and Bandara (2017) and The Short Form (TEIQue-SF) Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire is used to measure the trait emotional intelligence of the undergraduates. The result was analyzed using descriptive analysis and inferential analysis; independent samples t-test, One-Way ANOVA and Pearson’s correlation. The results of the study have shown that female students have higher academic self-efficacy compared to male students. In addition, students who obtain a higher CGPA also have higher self-efficacy. There was also a small positive correlation between trait emotional intelligence and academic self-efficacy

The Goodness-Of-Fit Of Dass-21models Among University Students

Depression, anxiety and stress are the most prevalent mental health problems among university students, which may adversely influence their psychological wellbeing. Considering these problems, the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) may hold more promise as a screening tool. The present study sought to assess competing models of the latent factor structure of the DASS-21 utilizing Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and also to examine the multi group invariance. An exploratory cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate students recruited from a public university in Sarawak, Malaysia. The self-report English language questionnaire was administered to 254 students. SPSS version 21 was used for data analysis. Overall, the DASS-21 exhibited adequate reliability, with the three-factor model showing good fit to the data from the current study. Gender invariance was also adequately demonstrated. However, high inter correlations indicated that depression, anxiety and stress may not be distinguishable constructs, as was originally perceived

Sociodemographic Determinants of Acculturation Stress Among International University Students

The study attempted to identify which sociodemographic factors predict acculturation stress and also to examine the levels of acculturation stress amongst 208 international students enrolled in a Malaysian university. A convenience sampling technique was implemented for data collection by utilizing a self-reported questionnaire. As for the sociodemographic factors predict acculturation stress multiple regression analyses demonstrated that among the independent variables, family support, year of study, difficulties in comprehending lectures, and strains of relationship with boyfriend/girlfriend had significant predictive effects on acculturation stress. Young and male international students expressed significantly higher levels of acculturation stress than their older and female counterparts. Students who acknowledged strong family support and were single depicted lesser acculturative stress compared to those with inadequate support and were in a romantic relationship. As for the levels of acculturation stress, findings revealed that acculturation stress was relatively high amongst most of the international students. Perceptions of discrimination and rejection, as well as feelings of homesickness and fear were portrayed by large numbers of students

Emotional Intelligence, Math Anxiety and Math Performance in Malaysia

This study aims to investigate how Trait Emotional Intelligence (TEI) and mathematics anxiety could impact on math performance in a public university in Malaysia. A quantitative study with a specific cohort of Cognitive Science students comprising the 2nd and 3rd year students were carried out. More than 90% of the samples in the cohort were sampled. The questionnaire contained a component on demographic component, and sections on math anxiety (MARSSV) and Trait emotional intelligence questionnaires (TEIQue). The performance of the students in this study was measured by the mean score of math subjects. The result of the study showed that math performance was adversely related to math anxiety. However, Trait EI did not appear to influence math performance and neither did it have an impact on math anxiety. This finding is important as it suggests that more works need to be done to determine the leading predictor of math anxiety in the Malaysian context for subsequent effective intervention. This is among the very few study which explores the relationship between emotional self-efficacy using TEIQue, even though more than 2000 studies had been carried out using TEIQue (Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionaire)

Protein Classification Using Neural Networks : A Review

This chapter presents an overview on the application of neural networks (NN) in bioinformatics, specifically in the classification of protein family/superfamily. Protein classification is important for both biological data analysis and knowledge discovery. NN has been one of the most widely used methods for protein classification. In this paper, detailed discussion of protein classification processes using NN is presented with emphasis on the various protein sequences feature extraction and neural classifier design. Some other related issues and future challenges are discussed at the end of the chapter

Effectiveness of an Online Social Constructivist Mathematical Problem Solving Course for Malaysian Pre-Service Teachers

This study assessed the effectiveness of an online mathematical problem solving course designed using a social constructivist approach for pre-service teachers. Thirty-seven pre-service teachers at the Batu Lintang Teacher Institute, Sarawak, Malaysia were randomly selected to participate in the study. The participants were required to complete the course online without the typical face-to-face classes and they were also required to solve authentic mathematical problems in small groups of 4-5 participants based on the Polya’s Problem Solving Model via asynchronous online discussions. Quantitative and qualitative methods such as questionnaires and interviews were used to evaluate the effects of the online learning course. Findings showed that a majority of the participants were satisfied with their learning experiences in the course. There were no significant changes in the participants’ attitudes toward mathematics, while the participants’ skills in problem solving for “understand the problem” and “devise a plan” steps based on the Polya’s Model were significantly enhanced, though no improvement was apparent for “carry out the plan” and “review”. The results also showed that there were significant improvements in the participants’ critical thinking skills. Furthermore, participants with higher initial computer skills were also found to show higher performance in mathematical problem solving as compared to those with lower computer skills. However, there were no significant differences in the participants’ achievements in the course based on gender. Generally, the online social constructivist mathematical problem solving course is beneficial to the participants and ought to be given the attention it deserves as an alternative to traditional classes. Nonetheless, careful considerations need to be made in the designing and implementing of online courses to minimize problems that participants might encounter while participating in such courses