Understanding the learning approaches of first-year accounting students

This study evolves from the broader educational research that indicates the characteristics of the student and the perceptions of the teaching/learning environment influence the quality of student learning. The model of learning developed in the paper is based on Biggs' (1987a) model of student learning together with the congruence model of vocational interests and work environments proposed by Holland (1985,1992). The model of learning was tested using a sample of 826 first year accounting students using structural equation modelling (SEM).

The findings provide substantive information about the learning approaches of students with vocational interests congruent with the task demands of a first year accounting course. Additionally, there is strong support for the association between student perceptions of the teaching/learning environment and approaches to learning. In particular the re specified model of student learning identifies the relationship between student perceptions of the appropriateness of workload and the adoption of a surface approach to learning.

A steady state visually evoked potential investigation of memory and ageing

Old age is generally accompanied by a decline in memory performance. Specifically, neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies have revealed that there are age-related changes in the neural correlates of episodic and working memory. This study investigated age-associated changes in the steady state visually evoked potential (SSVEP) amplitude and latency associated with memory performance. Participants were 15 older (59-67 years) and 14 younger (20-30 years) adults who performed an object working memory (OWM) task and a contextual recognition memory (CRM) task, whilst the SSVEP was recorded from 64 electrode sites. Retention of a single object in the low demand OWM task was characterised by smaller frontal SSVEP amplitude and latency differences in older adults than in younger adults, indicative of an age-associated reduction in neural processes. Recognition of visual images in the more difficult CRM task was accompanied by larger, more sustained SSVEP amplitude and latency decreases over temporal parietal regions in older adults. In contrast, the more transient, frontally mediated pattern of activity demonstrated by younger adults suggests that younger and older adults utilize different neural resources to perform recognition judgements. The results provide support for compensatory processes in the aging brain; at lower task demands, older adults demonstrate reduced neural activity, whereas at greater task demands neural activity is increased.

Ageing effects on visual reaction time in a single task condition and when treadmill walking

Visual reaction time (RT) was measured in 10 older men (mean age, 71.1 years) and gender-matched controls (mean age, 26.3 years) when standing (single task) and when walking on a motor-driven treadmill (dual task). There were 90 quasirandomly presented trials over 15 min in each condition. Longer mean and median RTs were observed in the dual task compared to the single task. Older males had significantly slower mean and median RTs (315 and 304 ms, respectively) than the younger group (273 and 266 ms, respectively) in both task conditions. There were no age or condition effects on with in-subject variability. Both groups showed a trend of increasing RT over the 90 single task trials but when walking only the younger group slowed. These novel findings demonstrate high but sustained attention by older adults when walking. It is proposed that the motor task's attentional demands might contribute to their slower preferred walking speed.

Quantitative analysis of research mediums' consious experiences during a discarnate reading versus a control task : a pilot study

Mediums claim to be able to report accurate and specific information about the deceased loved ones (termed discarnates) of living people (termed sitters) even without any prior knowledge about the sitters or the discarnates and in the complete absence of any sensory feedback. Despite recent proof-focused experimental research investigating this phenomenon (e.g., Beischel & Schwartz, 2007), no published studies have attempted to quantify the phenomenological effects of discarnate readings. The aim of the present study was, thus, to investigate experimentally the phenomenological differences that arose psychologically in accordance with the demands of a discarnate reading task versus a control task. Seven mediums were administered counter-balanced sequences of a discarnate reading and control condition. The discarnate reading condition consisted of a phone reading including questions about a discarnate where only a blinded medium and a blinded experimenter were on the phone. The control condition consisted of a phone conversation between the medium and the same experimenter in which the medium was asked similar questions regarding a living person s/he (i.e., the medium) knew. Mediums’ phenomenology during each condition was retrospectively assessed using the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI). Phenomenology associated with the discarnate reading condition appeared to be significantly different from phenomenology associated with the control condition. Future research might use the PCI to address whether the phenomenology reported by mediums during discarnate readings is quantitatively different from their experiences during psychic telepathy readings for the living.

Comparable effects of nicotine in smokers and nonsmokers on a prospective memory task

In a double-blind placebo-controlled study, we examined the effect of nicotine, a cholinergic agonist, on performance of a prospective memory (ProM) task in young adult volunteers.

Volunteers were required to complete an ongoing lexical decision task while maintaining the ProM task (responding with a different button press to items containing particular target letters). Half of the volunteers were smokers, half were nonsmokers. Half of each group received a single dose (1 mg) of nicotine nasal spray before completing the task; the remaining volunteers received a matched inactive placebo spray.

Nicotine improved performance on the ProM task when volunteers were able to devote resources to that task. Under a variant procedure, where volunteers completed a concurrent auditory monitoring task, ProM performance was impaired under nicotine. Results are discussed in terms of the resource model of ProM, and the arousal model of drug effects.

Efficacy of Cognitive Processes in Young People with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder Using a Novel Visual Information-Processing Task

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterised by a unique pattern of preserved abilities and deficits within and across cognitive domains. The Complex Information Processing Theory proposes this pattern reflects an altered capacity to respond to cognitive demands. This study compared how complexity induced by time constraints on processing affect cognitive function in individuals with ASD and typically-developing individuals. On a visual information-processing task, the Subtle Cognitive Impairment Test, both groups exhibited sensitivity to time-constraints. Further, 65 % of individuals with ASD demonstrated deficits in processing efficiency, possibly attributable to the effects of age and clinical comorbidities, like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. These findings suggest that for some ASD individuals there are significant impairments in processing efficiency, which may have implications for education and interventions. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Type-aware task placement in geo-distributed data centers with low OPEX using data center resizing

With the rising demands on cloud services, the electricity consumption has been increasing drastically as the main operational expenditure (OPEX) to data center providers. The geographical heterogeneity of electricity prices motivates us to study the type-aware task placement problem over geo-distributed data centers. With the consideration of the diversity of user requests and server clusters in modern data centers, we formulate an optimization problem that minimizes OPEX while guaranteeing the quality-of-service, i.e., the expected response time of tasks. Furthermore, an efficient solution is designed for this formulated problem. The experimental results show that our proposal achieves much higher cost-efficiency than the greedy algorithm and much approaches the optimal results. © 2014 IEEE.

Optimal task placement with QoS constraints in geo-distributed data centers using DVFS

 With the rising demands on cloud services, the electricity consumption has been increasing drastically as the main operational expenditure (OPEX) to data center providers. The geographical heterogeneity of electricity prices motivates us to study the task placement problem over geo-distributed data centers. We exploit the dynamic frequency scaling technique and formulate an optimization problem that minimizes OPEX while guaranteeing the quality-of-service, i.e., the expected response time of tasks. Furthermore, an optimal solution is discovered for this formulated problem. The experimental results show that our proposal achieves much higher cost-efficiency than the traditional resizing scheme, i.e., by activating/deactivating certain servers in data centers.

Numeracy across the curriculum: recognising and responding to the demands and numeracy opportunities inherent in secondary teaching

The 1998 Report of the National Standards and Guidelines for Initial Teacher Education Project, 'Preparing a Profession' illustrates the emphasis being placed in Australia on the development of numeracy skills amongst not only primary but also secondary school pupils. This report demands that graduates of all initial teacher training courses should not only be numerate themselves, but should also understand the contribution of numeracy to education and daily life, and be able to identify and respond to pupils' numeracy learning needs. This report and its implementation in Victoria through the 'Guidelines for the Evaluation of Teacher Education Courses' led to the introduction in 1999 of a compulsory unit 'Numeracy across the curriculum' for all Deakin University students in the final year of their secondary teacher training course. This paper discusses the nature of the current emphasis on numeracy. It also describes the rationale, development and delivery of the first year of the 'Numeracy across the curriculum' unit, provides a brief evaluation from the perspective of staff and students, and discusses what impact such teacher education programs might have on secondary schools' approaches to numeracy.

The Influence of Task Characteristics on the Intermanual Asymmetry of Motor Overflow

The two studies reported here were designed to test the proposition that greater motor overflow occurs when movements are performed by the non-dominant hand. Unlike previous studies using normal adults, the task in these studies did not require force production. In the first study, a group of 19 right-handed participants performed unweighted finger lifting. That the frequency of motor overflow occurrence was the same regardless of which hand performed the task, did not support findings from other studies where tasks involving force production resulted in more overflow when performed by the non-dominant hand. To investigate further the influence of task characteristics on motor overflow occurrence, in the second study participants were required to remember and reproduce a prescribed sequence of four finger lifts. Left- and right-handed participants ( N =30) performed both single and sequenced finger lifting. The relative frequency of motor overflow (unintended lifts of fingers of the passive hand) was compared between hand preference groups, active hand and task type (single/sequenced). Contrary to the expectation that motor overflow would be greater for the sequenced finger lifting task, overflow was exhibited with a significantly greater frequency on single finger lifting. This finding indicates that task characteristics influence the pattern of overflow occurrence in normal adults. The task used in this study did not involve force production and did not result in an intermanual asymmetry of motor overflow. This contrasts with findings from other studies requiring adults to exert forces where greater overflow occurred when the non-dominant hand was active. However, this study confirms previous findings which show that left-handers produce greater overflow compared to right-handers regardless of the task being performed and the hand performing the task.

The metabolic and cognitive energy costs of stabilising a high-energy interlimb coordination task

Kinematic (relative phase error), metabolic (oxygen consumption, heart rate) and attentional (baseline and cycling reaction times) variables were measured while participants practised a high energy-demanding, intrinsically unstable 90° relative phase coordination pattern on independent bicycle ergometers. The variables were found to be strongly inter-correlated, suggesting a link between emerging performance stability with practice and minimal metabolic and attentional cost. The effects of practice of 90° relative phase coordination on the performance of in-phase (0°-phase) and antiphase (180°-phase) coordination were investigated by measuring the relative phase attractor layouts and recording the metabolic and attentional cost of the three coordination patterns before and after practice. The attentional variables did not differ significantly between coordination patterns and did not change with practice. Before practice, the coordination performance was most accurate and stable for in-phase cycling, with antiphase next and 90°-phase the poorest. However, metabolic cost was lower for antiphase than either in-phase or 90°-phase cycling, and the pre-practice attractor layout deviated from that predicted on the basis of dynamic stability as an attractor state, revealing an attraction to antiphase cycling. After practice of 90°-phase cycling, in-phase cycling remained the most accurate and stable, with 90°-phase next and antiphase the poorest, but antiphase retained the lowest metabolic energy cost. The attractor layout had changed, with new attractors formed at the practised 90°-phase pattern and its symmetrical partner of 270°-phase. Considering both the pre- and post-practice results, attractors were formed at either a low metabolic energy cost but less stable (antiphase) pattern or at a more stable but higher metabolic energy cost (90°-phase) pattern, but in neither case at the most stable and accurate (in-phase) pattern. The results suggest that energetic factors affect coordination dynamics and that coordination modes lower in metabolic energy expenditure may compete with dynamically stable modes.

Aging effects on the metabolic and cognitive energy cost of interlimb coordination

Many everyday motor tasks have high metabolic energy demands, and some require extended practice to learn the required coordination between limbs. Eight older (73.1 6 4.4 years) and 8 younger (23.3 6 5.9) men practiced a  high-energy two-hand coordination task with both 1808 and 908 target  relative phase. The older group showed greater performance error in both conditions, and performance at 908 was strongly attracted to antiphase coordination (1808). In a retention test one week following the acquisition trials, the older group had learned the 1808 condition but did not learn the 908 condition. Metabolic energy cost was not different between groups, but the older men showed higher heart rate and both conditions imposed  greater cognitive demands as revealed in auditory probe reaction time. Older adults’ motor learning may be inhibited by elevated heart rate at the same  oxygen cost, increased cognitive cost, and an attraction toward more  established low-energy in-phase or antiphase coordination.

Learning to minimize energy costs and maximize mechanical work in a bimanual coordination task

The authors addressed the hypothesis that economy in motor coordination is a learning phenomenon realized by both reduced energy cost for a given workload and more external work at the same prepractice metabolic and attentional energy expenditure. "Self-optimization" of movement parameters has been proposed to reflect learned motor adaptations that minimize energy costs. Twelve men aged 22.3 [+ or -] 3.9 years practiced a 90[degrees] relative phase, upper limb, independent ergometer cycling task at 60 rpm, followed by a transfer test of unpracticed (45 and 75 rpm) and self-paced cadences. Performance in all conditions was initially unstable, inaccurate, and relatively high in both metabolic and attentional energy costs. With practice, coordinative stability increased, more work was performed for the same metabolic and attentional costs, and the same work was done at a reduced energy cost. Self-paced cycling was initially below the metabolically optimal, but following practice at 60 rpm was closer to optimal cadence. Given the many behavioral options of the motor system in meeting a variety of everyday movement task goals, optimal metabolic and attentional energy criteria may provide a solution to the problem of selecting the most adaptive coordination and control parameters.

Understanding student expectations in developing environmental science courses

Developing relevant and innovative University courses is a complex and often difficult task. This is particularly true when developing environmental science courses as the banner of environmental science has the potential to include an extremely vast array of subject material and course content. Added to this is the diversity of students entering these courses, and their associated course expectations and aspirations. A third component that cannot be ignored when developing courses includes employer demands and expectations of graduates at course completion. As tertiary educators we therefore have the challenge of developing innovative environmental science courses that are academically challenging, but meet the expectations of students, staff and potential future employers. To ensure that we meet this challenge it is vital that we determine the expectations of all relevant parties (students, staff, and potential employers) and develop our courses accordingly.  Here we report on the 'student expectations' component of this. To determine student expectations we conducted a survey of all commencing first year environmental science students. The survey asked students to provide information on drivers for course selection, preferred learning styles, the importance of different approaches to teaching, subject interest areas and employment aspirations. Our results found that environmental science students have a preference for fieldwork and hands-on experience and are very supportive of teaching that combines different teaching methods. On-line teaching was not supported by commencing environmental science students. Commencing students showed a very strong interest in key subject areas of environmental science such as Wildlife, animal conservation, national and marine parks, conservation and marine Wildlife; however, some of the critical areas of environmental science such as population statistics, social sciences and chemistry did not attract the same level of interest. Most commencing students had some idea on where they would like to gain employment on course completion. Knowledge relating to student expectations is Vital, particularly when designing courses, developing specific unit content and undertaking marketing and course information sessions. With this knowledge we can be confident that students enrolling in environmental science will, to a large extent, have their expectations met.