Using the regulation of accuracy to study performance when the correct answer is not known.

PubMed

Luna, Karlos; Martín-Luengo, Beatriz

2017-08-01

We examined memory performance in multiple-choice questions when correct answers were not always present. How do participants answer when they are aware that the correct alternative may not be present? To answer this question we allowed participants to decide on the number of alternatives in their final answer (the plurality option), and whether they wanted to report or withhold their answer (report option). We also studied the memory benefits when both the plurality and the report options were available. In two experiments participants watched a crime and then answered questions with five alternatives. Half of the questions were presented with the correct alternative and half were not. Participants selected one alternative and rated confidence, then selected three alternatives and again rated confidence, and finally indicated whether they preferred the answer with one or with three alternatives (plurality option). Lastly, they decided whether to report or withhold the answer (report option). Results showed that participants' confidence in their selections was higher, that they chose more single answers, and that they preferred to report more often when the correct alternative was presented. We also attempted to classify a posteriori questions as either presented with or without the correct alternative from participants' selection. Classification was better than chance, and encouraging, but the forensic application of the classification technique is still limited since there was a large percentage of responses that were incorrectly classified. Our results also showed that the memory benefits of both plurality and report options overlap. © 2017 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Effect of Guessing on Item Reliability under Answer-Until-Correct Scoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kane, Michael; Moloney, James

1978-01-01

The answer-until-correct (AUC) procedure requires that examinees respond to a multi-choice item until they answer it correctly. Using a modified version of Horst's model for examinee behavior, this paper compares the effect of guessing on item reliability for the AUC procedure and the zero-one scoring procedure. (Author/CTM)

The Challenges of Low-Frequency Radio Polarimetry: Lessons from the Murchison Widefield Array

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lenc, E.; Anderson, C. S.; Barry, N.; Bowman, J. D.; Cairns, I. H.; Farnes, J. S.; Gaensler, B. M.; Heald, G.; Johnston-Hollitt, M.; Kaplan, D. L.; Lynch, C. R.; McCauley, P. I.; Mitchell, D. A.; Morgan, J.; Morales, M. F.; Murphy, Tara; Offringa, A. R.; Ord, S. M.; Pindor, B.; Riseley, C.; Sadler, E. M.; Sobey, C.; Sokolowski, M.; Sullivan, I. S.; O'Sullivan, S. P.; Sun, X. H.; Tremblay, S. E.; Trott, C. M.; Wayth, R. B.

2017-09-01

We present techniques developed to calibrate and correct Murchison Widefield Array low-frequency (72-300 MHz) radio observations for polarimetry. The extremely wide field-of-view, excellent instantaneous (u, v)-coverage and sensitivity to degree-scale structure that the Murchison Widefield Array provides enable instrumental calibration, removal of instrumental artefacts, and correction for ionospheric Faraday rotation through imaging techniques. With the demonstrated polarimetric capabilities of the Murchison Widefield Array, we discuss future directions for polarimetric science at low frequencies to answer outstanding questions relating to polarised source counts, source depolarisation, pulsar science, low-mass stars, exoplanets, the nature of the interstellar and intergalactic media, and the solar environment.

Sure, or unsure? Measuring students' confidence and the potential impact on patient safety in multiple-choice questions.

PubMed

Rangel, Rafael Henrique; Möller, Leona; Sitter, Helmut; Stibane, Tina; Strzelczyk, Adam

2017-11-01

Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) provide useful information about correct and incorrect answers, but they do not offer information about students' confidence. Ninety and another 81 medical students participated each in a curricular neurology multiple-choice exam and indicated their confidence for every single MCQ. Each MCQ had a defined level of potential clinical impact on patient safety (uncritical, risky, harmful). Our first objective was to detect informed (IF), guessed (GU), misinformed (MI), and uninformed (UI) answers. Further, we evaluated whether there were significant differences for confidence at correct and incorrect answers. Then, we explored if clinical impact had a significant influence on students' confidence. There were 1818 IF, 635 GU, 71 MI, and 176 UI answers in exam I and 1453 IF, 613 GU, 92 MI, and 191 UI answers in exam II. Students' confidence was significantly higher for correct than for incorrect answers at both exams (p < 0.001). For exam I, students' confidence was significantly higher for incorrect harmful than for incorrect risky classified MCQs (p = 0.01). At exam II, students' confidence was significantly higher for incorrect harmful than for incorrect benign (p < 0.01) and significantly higher for correct benign than for correct harmful categorized MCQs (p = 0.01). We were pleased to see that there were more informed than guessed, more uninformed than misinformed answers and higher students' confidence for correct than for incorrect answers. Our expectation that students state higher confidence in correct and harmful and lower confidence in incorrect and harmful MCQs could not be confirmed.

Item Reliabilities for a Family of Answer-Until-Correct (AUC) Scoring Rules.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kane, Michael T.; Moloney, James M.

The Answer-Until-Correct (AUC) procedure has been proposed in order to increase the reliability of multiple-choice items. A model for examinees' behavior when they must respond to each item until they answer it correctly is presented. An expression for the reliability of AUC items, as a function of the characteristics of the item and the scoring…

A hygiene experiment in rural Bangladesh.

PubMed

Khanom, K; Leonard, R C

1989-01-01

In February 1987, 10 students from the health education department at the National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine of Bangladesh conducted a before after only health education experiment concerning intestinal worm infestation and sanitation by interviewing at least 160 individuals in a village outside of Dhaka. 74.5% initially believed that the only action to take for intestinal worm infestation was to visit a physician and take medicines. After 30 days of intense health education efforts, a 38% increase in those who gave preventive answers occurred among the lower class and a 52% increase among the middle class. Nevertheless 50% of the poor and 37% of the middle class still believed in curative care. In the pretest, 85% did not know how the worms entered the intestine and, in the posttest, this percent fell to 25%. The pretest showed that the typical village member only had 1 correct answer concerning adverse effects of the worms. After intense health education, the number of correct answers of the typical respondent climbed to 2. Moreover, before the intervention, only 20% reported washing their hands correctly after defecation using either rash or soap. After intervention, 96% did so. On the other hand, no change occurred in water sources (2 public tube wells or dirt storage ponds) or the latrine situation. Financial restraints and/or social class may have been responsible for the lack of changes. For example, a tube well is a status symbol of the rich and it would offend the rich if lesser families used them. Further, even the middle class could not afford a sanitary latrine. Therefore the health education intervention had little effect on 2 major sources of the worm infestation problem.

Source and Message Factors in Persuasion: A Reply to Stiff's Critique of the Elaboration Likelihood Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petty, Richard E.; And Others

1987-01-01

Answers James Stiff's criticism of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion. Corrects certain misperceptions of the ELM and criticizes Stiff's meta-analysis that compares ELM predictions with those derived from Kahneman's elastic capacity model. Argues that Stiff's presentation of the ELM and the conclusions he draws based on the data…

Collaborative exams: Cheating? Or learning?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jang, Hyewon; Lasry, Nathaniel; Miller, Kelly; Mazur, Eric

2017-03-01

Virtually all human activity involves collaboration, and yet, collaboration during an examination is typically considered cheating. Collaborative assessments have not been widely adopted because of the perceived lack of individual accountability and the notion that collaboration during assessments simply causes propagation of correct answers. Hence, collaboration could help weaker students without providing much benefit to stronger students. In this paper, we examine student performance in open-ended, two-stage collaborative assessments comprised of an individually accountable round followed by an automatically scored, collaborative round. We show that collaboration entails more than just propagation of correct answers. We find greater rates of correct answers after collaboration for all students, including the strongest members of a team. We also find that half of teams that begin without a correct answer to propagate still obtain the correct answer in the collaborative round. Our findings, combined with the convenience of automatic feedback and grading of open-ended questions, provide a strong argument for adopting collaborative assessments as an integral part of education.

The Swiss cheese model of safety incidents: are there holes in the metaphor?

PubMed Central

Perneger, Thomas V

2005-01-01

Background Reason's Swiss cheese model has become the dominant paradigm for analysing medical errors and patient safety incidents. The aim of this study was to determine if the components of the model are understood in the same way by quality and safety professionals. Methods Survey of a volunteer sample of persons who claimed familiarity with the model, recruited at a conference on quality in health care, and on the internet through quality-related websites. The questionnaire proposed several interpretations of components of the Swiss cheese model: a) slice of cheese, b) hole, c) arrow, d) active error, e) how to make the system safer. Eleven interpretations were compatible with this author's interpretation of the model, 12 were not. Results Eighty five respondents stated that they were very or quite familiar with the model. They gave on average 15.3 (SD 2.3, range 10 to 21) "correct" answers out of 23 (66.5%) – significantly more than 11.5 "correct" answers that would expected by chance (p < 0.001). Respondents gave on average 2.4 "correct" answers regarding the slice of cheese (out of 4), 2.7 "correct" answers about holes (out of 5), 2.8 "correct" answers about the arrow (out of 4), 3.3 "correct" answers about the active error (out of 5), and 4.1 "correct" answers about improving safety (out of 5). Conclusion The interpretations of specific features of the Swiss cheese model varied considerably among quality and safety professionals. Reaching consensus about concepts of patient safety requires further work. PMID:16280077

The frequency of item writing flaws in multiple-choice questions used in high stakes nursing assessments.

PubMed

Tarrant, Marie; Knierim, Aimee; Hayes, Sasha K; Ware, James

2006-12-01

Multiple-choice questions are a common assessment method in nursing examinations. Few nurse educators, however, have formal preparation in constructing multiple-choice questions. Consequently, questions used in baccalaureate nursing assessments often contain item-writing flaws, or violations to accepted item-writing guidelines. In one nursing department, 2770 MCQs were collected from tests and examinations administered over a five-year period from 2001 to 2005. Questions were evaluated for 19 frequently occurring item-writing flaws, for cognitive level, for question source, and for the distribution of correct answers. Results show that almost half (46.2%) of the questions contained violations of item-writing guidelines and over 90% were written at low cognitive levels. Only a small proportion of questions were teacher generated (14.1%), while 36.2% were taken from testbanks and almost half (49.4%) had no source identified. MCQs written at a lower cognitive level were significantly more likely to contain item-writing flaws. While there was no relationship between the source of the question and item-writing flaws, teacher-generated questions were more likely to be written at higher cognitive levels (p<0.001). Correct answers were evenly distributed across all four options and no bias was noted in the placement of correct options. Further training in item-writing is recommended for all faculty members who are responsible for developing tests. Pre-test review and quality assessment is also recommended to reduce the occurrence of item-writing flaws and to improve the quality of test questions.

A survey of university students' vitamin D-related knowledge.

PubMed

Boland, Shaunessey; Irwin, Jennifer D; Johnson, Andrew M

2015-01-01

To survey Canadian university students' vitamin D-related knowledge. Undergraduate university students (n = 1,088) were surveyed as to their vitamin D-related knowledge, including its sources, health benefits, and recommended intake. Overall, students answered 29% of questions correctly on the knowledge test. In addition, the overall test was subdivided into 3 subtests, and students scored 26% on vitamin D source knowledge, 23% on factors affecting vitamin D levels, and 37% on health effects of vitamin D. Only 8% of participants correctly identified the recommended vitamin D intake; 14% correctly identified the amount of time in the sun required to produce adequate vitamin D. These results suggest that Canadian university students have poor knowledge concerning vitamin D. Program planners should consider improving vitamin D knowledge as a component of future health promotion programs for university students. Copyright © 2015 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Web-Based Evaluation System to Measure Learning Effectiveness in Kampo Medicine

PubMed Central

Usuku, Koichiro; Segawa, Makoto; Wang, Yue; Ogashiwa, Kahori; Fujita, Yusuke; Ogihara, Hiroyuki; Tazuma, Susumu

2016-01-01

Measuring the learning effectiveness of Kampo Medicine (KM) education is challenging. The aim of this study was to develop a web-based test to measure the learning effectiveness of KM education among medical students (MSs). We used an open-source Moodle platform to test 30 multiple-choice questions classified into 8-type fields (eight basic concepts of KM) including “qi-blood-fluid” and “five-element” theories, on 117 fourth-year MSs. The mean (±standard deviation [SD]) score on the web-based test was 30.2 ± 11.9 (/100). The correct answer rate ranged from 17% to 36%. A pattern-based portfolio enabled these rates to be individualized in terms of KM proficiency. MSs with scores higher (n = 19) or lower (n = 14) than mean ± 1SD were defined as high or low achievers, respectively. Cluster analysis using the correct answer rates for the 8-type field questions revealed clear divisions between high and low achievers. Interestingly, each high achiever had a different proficiency pattern. In contrast, three major clusters were evident among low achievers, all of whom responded with a low percentage of or no correct answers. In addition, a combination of three questions accurately classified high and low achievers. These findings suggest that our web-based test allows individual quantitative assessment of the learning effectiveness of KM education among MSs. PMID:27738440

Web-Based Evaluation System to Measure Learning Effectiveness in Kampo Medicine.

PubMed

Iizuka, Norio; Usuku, Koichiro; Nakae, Hajime; Segawa, Makoto; Wang, Yue; Ogashiwa, Kahori; Fujita, Yusuke; Ogihara, Hiroyuki; Tazuma, Susumu; Hamamoto, Yoshihiko

2016-01-01

Measuring the learning effectiveness of Kampo Medicine (KM) education is challenging. The aim of this study was to develop a web-based test to measure the learning effectiveness of KM education among medical students (MSs). We used an open-source Moodle platform to test 30 multiple-choice questions classified into 8-type fields (eight basic concepts of KM) including "qi-blood-fluid" and "five-element" theories, on 117 fourth-year MSs. The mean (±standard deviation [SD]) score on the web-based test was 30.2 ± 11.9 (/100). The correct answer rate ranged from 17% to 36%. A pattern-based portfolio enabled these rates to be individualized in terms of KM proficiency. MSs with scores higher ( n = 19) or lower ( n = 14) than mean ± 1SD were defined as high or low achievers, respectively. Cluster analysis using the correct answer rates for the 8-type field questions revealed clear divisions between high and low achievers. Interestingly, each high achiever had a different proficiency pattern. In contrast, three major clusters were evident among low achievers, all of whom responded with a low percentage of or no correct answers. In addition, a combination of three questions accurately classified high and low achievers. These findings suggest that our web-based test allows individual quantitative assessment of the learning effectiveness of KM education among MSs.

Choice Latency as a Cue for Children's Subjective Confidence in the Correctness of Their Answers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koriat, Asher; Ackerman, Rakefet

2010-01-01

Research with adults indicates that confidence in the correctness of an answer decreases as a function of the amount of time it takes to reach that answer, suggesting that people use response latency as a mnemonic cue for subjective confidence. Experiment 1 extended investigation to 2nd, 3rd and 5th graders. When children chose the answer to…

A General Chemistry Demonstration: Student Observations and Explanations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silberman, Robert G.

1983-01-01

Out of 70 answers to questions concerning the chemistry involved in an "orange tornado" demonstration, only 10 were partially correct, others totally wrong or showing major errors in understanding, comprehension, and/or reasoning. Demonstration and reactions involved, selected incorrect answers, and a substantially correct answer are discussed.…

Deficits in allergy knowledge among physicians at academic medical centers.

PubMed

Stukus, David R; Green, Todd; Montandon, Shari V; Wada, Kara J

2015-07-01

Allergic conditions have high prevalence in the general population. Misconceptions regarding the diagnosis and management of allergic disease among physicians can lead to suboptimal clinical care. To determine the extent of allergy-related knowledge deficits among physicians. Pediatric and internal medicine resident and attending physicians from 2 separate academic medical centers were asked to answer an anonymous electronic survey. Survey questions addressed 7 different allergy content areas. Four hundred eight physicians completed surveys (23.9% response rate). Respondents had few correct answers (mean ± SD 1.91 ± 1.43). Pediatric respondents had a larger number of correct answers compared with medicine-trained physicians (P < .001). No individual answered every survey question correctly, and 50 respondents (12.3%) had no correct answer. Three hundred seventy-eight respondents (92.6%) were unable to provide correct answers for at least 50% of survey questions. Level of residency training and prior rotation through an allergy and immunology elective correlated with a larger number of correct responses (P < .01). Only 1 survey question had an overall correct response rate higher than 50% (n = 261, 64%). Correct response rate was lower than 30% for 7 of the 9 possible questions. There are significant knowledge deficits in many areas of allergy-related content among pediatric and internal medicine physicians and across all levels of training and specialty. Given the prevalence of allergic conditions, the potential implications of a negative impact on clinical care are staggering. Copyright © 2015 American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Using the Geoscience Concept Inventory to Understand how Students Learn about Geologic Time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Teed, R. E.

2009-12-01

108 pre-service teachers completed a standardized multiple-choice test at the beginning and at the end of a ten-week introductory survey course on geology. Four of the fifteen questions dealt explicitly with geologic time. Correct student answers that the age of the Earth is known from uranium-series dating increased significantly, but only from ~0% to about 20%. However, answers that included U-series dating with other (irrelevant) sources of evidence increased from ~10% to ~70%. On the pre-test, students avoided the U-series dating in favor of incorrect, but probably more familiar, dating techniques or combinations of dating techniques. They seem to have gained familiarity with, if not an understanding of U-series dating in the class. There was no real change in students’ conceptions of what the newly-formed Earth would have looked like. Most (70% on pre-test, 65% on post-test) chose an image that looked like the modern Earth with a single continent (which they may have believed to be Pangea). Interestingly, 78% of those who chose that image on the pre-test chose it on the post-test, so they were not guessing. This is a powerful misconception and remained intact in most cases despite the work the students did in the geology class. On the other hand, most students appeared to be guessing when they answered how long Pangea took to break up. There were no significant changes in the totals for any response, but about half students changed their answers between the pre- and post-test with no significant pattern in the changes. Responses to a choice of timelines which all included the formation of the Earth, the appearances of life, dinosaurs, and humans, and the disappearance of dinosaurs, were more complex. There was an increase in the number of students who chose the correct timeline (from 20% to 42%), and a decrease in the number who chose a timeline in which all life appears at once (from 14% to 10%). In this case some misconceptions (based on incorrect answers on the pre-test) were more likely than others to grow into a correct understanding. For example, students who chose “C”, an incorrect timeline with events in the correct order but incorrectly scaled, on the pretest, were more likely to choose correctly on the post-test than students who gave other incorrect answers on the pre-test.

Is the NIHSS Certification Process Too Lenient?

PubMed Central

Hills, Nancy K.; Josephson, S. Andrew; Lyden, Patrick D.; Johnston, S. Claiborne

2009-01-01

Background and Purpose The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) is a widely used measure of neurological function in clinical trials and patient assessment; inter-rater scoring variability could impact communications and trial power. The manner in which the rater certification test is scored yields multiple correct answers that have changed over time. We examined the range of possible total NIHSS scores from answers given in certification tests by over 7,000 individual raters who were certified. Methods We analyzed the results of all raters who completed one of two standard multiple-patient videotaped certification examinations between 1998 and 2004. The range for the correct score, calculated using NIHSS ‘correct answers’, was determined for each patient. The distribution of scores derived from those who passed the certification test then was examined. Results A total of 6,268 raters scored 5 patients on Test 1; 1,240 scored 6 patients on Test 2. Using a National Stroke Association (NSA) answer key, we found that correct total scores ranged from 2 correct scores to as many as 12 different correct total scores. Among raters who achieved a passing score and were therefore qualified to administer the NIHSS, score distributions were even wider, with 1 certification patient receiving 18 different correct total scores. Conclusions Allowing multiple acceptable answers for questions on the NIHSS certification test introduces scoring variability. It seems reasonable to assume that the wider the range of acceptable answers in the certification test, the greater the variability in the performance of the test in trials and clinical practice by certified examiners. Greater consistency may be achieved by deriving a set of ‘best’ answers through expert consensus on all questions where this is possible, then teaching raters how to derive these answers using a required interactive training module. PMID:19295205

The language of arithmetic across the hemispheres: An event-related potential investigation.

PubMed

Dickson, Danielle S; Federmeier, Kara D

2017-05-01

Arithmetic expressions, like verbal sentences, incrementally lead readers to anticipate potential appropriate completions. Existing work in the language domain has helped us understand how the two hemispheres differently participate in and contribute to the cognitive process of sentence reading, but comparatively little work has been done with mathematical equation processing. In this study, we address this gap by examining the ERP response to provided answers to simple multiplication problems, which varied both in levels of correctness (given an equation context) and in visual field of presentation (joint attention in central presentation, or biased processing to the left or right hemisphere through contralateral visual field presentation). When answers were presented to any of the visual fields (hemispheres), there was an effect of correctness prior to the traditional N400 timewindow, which we interpret as a P300 in response to a detected target item (the correct answer). In addition to this response, equation answers also elicited a late positive complex (LPC) for incorrect answers. Notably, this LPC effect was most prominent in the left visual field (right hemisphere), and it was also sensitive to the confusability of the wrong answer - incorrect answers that were closely related to the correct answer elicited a smaller LPC. This suggests a special, prolonged role for the right hemisphere during answer evaluation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[The comparison of 4th, 5th and 6th year medical students knowledge of rules and practical skills in the interpretation of electrocardiograms at Jagiellonian University].

PubMed

Pudło, Joanna; Wierdak, Mateusz; Macioł, Karolina; Gumul, Katarzyna; Lelakowski, Jacek

2012-01-01

The electrocardiogram (ECG) examination is one of the most frequent administered diagnostic tests. It is commonly ordered by General Practitioners, and it has became a routinely administered examination during admission to the hospital. During their studies, medical students has numerous opportunities to review and interpret the results of these tests. The aim of our research was to statistically compare and contrast the knowledge of the rules and practical skills in the interpretation of ECGs in 4th, 5th and 6th year medical students at Jagiellonian University. We wanted to better define in which year the students acquire the most of their clinical skills and determine if 6th year students have sufficient knowledge and skills to adequately perform in their future career. We additionally wanted to understand from which source students draw their knowledge of the ECG. The population of 249- 4th, 5th and 6th year medical students of Jagiellonian University were asked to reply to an anonymous questionnaire. The questionnaire was comprised of three parts. The fist part contains four simple ECGs (STEMI, RBBB, PVC, normogram--sinus rhythm). The second part contained six questions regarding their theoretical knowledge. The third part contained seven questions which evaluated the students' background and approach to the problem. Students filled the questionnaire without prior preparation to avoid the short-term "examination knowledge". The question that was most frequent answered correctly was question regarding the proper time (in milliseconds) of QRS complex (24.1%). Differences in the percentage of correct answers to questionnaire amongst 4th and 5th year students were statistically uncharacteristic. The percentage of correct answers of 6th year students increased by about 16% (p < 0.0001). The comparison of answers between 6th year students - who in prior semester completed a cardiology course (group A 6th year) and 6th year students who did not yet complete cardiology course (group B 6th year) showed significant improvement in group A in the percentage of correct answers for all questions about ECG. The percentage of correct answers in group A was an average 62% and in group B 45.5% (p < 0.00025). In case of 4th and 5th year students, the picture was uncharacteristic. Self study of ECG had a significant, positive influence in the percentage of correct answers amongst respondents, especially in the 6th year student population. Improvement was also seen in 4th and 5th students, but to a lesser degree. Among the 6th year students who benefited from self study, their percentage of correct answers was nearly two times then that of their fellow of 6th year students who did not self study (p < 0.0001). Only 3 of questioned students stated that they felt that their present knowledge of ECG is sufficient. 4th and 5th year students have comparable knowledge of ECG. 6th year students showed a significantly improved ability to interpret the ECG, especially those who had already completed cardiology course in present term. The increase in skills of interpretation of ECG is gained primarily by self study.

Confidence-Based Assessments within an Adult Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Novacek, Paul

2013-01-01

Traditional knowledge assessments rely on multiple-choice type questions that only report a right or wrong answer. The reliance within the education system on this technique infers that a student who provides a correct answer purely through guesswork possesses knowledge equivalent to a student who actually knows the correct answer. A more complete…

A Comparison of Answer until Correct Feedback and Knowledge of Correct Response Feedback under Two Conditions of Contextualization.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clariana, Roy B.

1990-01-01

Discussion of various types of feedback used in computer-assisted instruction focuses on a study of low-ability eleventh graders that compared the effectiveness of answer until correct (AUC) feedback with knowledge of correct response (KCR) feedback. Achievement data on posttests as well as time data are analyzed. (11 references) (LRW)

Do Online Information Retrieval Systems Help Experienced Clinicians Answer Clinical Questions?

PubMed Central

Westbrook, Johanna I.; Coiera, Enrico W.; Gosling, A. Sophie

2005-01-01

Objective: To assess the impact of clinicians' use of an online information retrieval system on their performance in answering clinical questions. Design: Pre-/post-intervention experimental design. Measurements: In a computer laboratory, 75 clinicians (26 hospital-based doctors, 18 family practitioners, and 31 clinical nurse consultants) provided 600 answers to eight clinical scenarios before and after the use of an online information retrieval system. We examined the proportion of correct answers pre- and post-intervention, direction of change in answers, and differences between professional groups. Results: System use resulted in a 21% improvement in clinicians' answers, from 29% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.4–32.6) correct pre- to 50% (95% CI 46.0–54.0) post-system use. In 33% (95% CI 29.1–36.9) answers were changed from incorrect to correct. In 21% (95% CI 17.1–23.9) correct pre-test answers were supported by evidence found using the system, and in 7% (95% CI 4.9–9.1) correct pre-test answers were changed incorrectly. For 40% (35.4–43.6) of scenarios, incorrect pre-test answers were not rectified following system use. Despite significant differences in professional groups' pre-test scores [family practitioners: 41% (95% CI 33.0–49.0), hospital doctors: 35% (95% CI 28.5–41.2), and clinical nurse consultants: 17% (95% CI 12.3–21.7; χ2 = 29.0, df = 2, p < 0.01)], there was no difference in post-test scores. (χ2 = 2.6, df = 2, p = 0.73). Conclusions: The use of an online information retrieval system was associated with a significant improvement in the quality of answers provided by clinicians to typical clinical problems. In a small proportion of cases, use of the system produced errors. While there was variation in the performance of clinical groups when answering questions unaided, performance did not differ significantly following system use. Online information retrieval systems can be an effective tool in improving the accuracy of clinicians' answers to clinical questions. PMID:15684126

Exploring General and Sports Nutrition and Food Knowledge in Elite Male Australian Athletes.

PubMed

Devlin, Brooke L; Belski, Regina

2015-06-01

Nutrition knowledge is believed to influence nutritional intake, which in turn influences performance in elite athletes. There is currently no published data on the nutrition knowledge of elite Australian Football (AF) players. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the current level of general and sports nutrition knowledge in elite male AF athletes. Forty six elite male AF players (23.5 ± 2.8 years) answered 123 questions relating to five areas of nutrition knowledge: dietary recommendations, sources of nutrients, choosing everyday foods, alcohol and sports nutrition. Demographic details and perceptions of nutrition knowledge were collected for all participants. The mean nutrition knowledge score was 74.4 ± 10.9 (60.5%). The highest score was obtained in sports nutrition section (17.9 ± 3.0, 61.7%). The dietitian was selected as the first source of information by 98% of athletes, with club trainer and teammates as second choice for 45.7% and 23.9% of athletes, respectively. The majority of athletes correctly answered questions regarding recommendations to increase fruit and vegetable intake and decrease fat intake (95.6%, 91.1% and 93.3% correct respectively). While 80% of the athletes were aware fat intake should predominately be made up of unsaturated fat, they were less able to identify food sources of unsaturated fats (35.6% and 24.4% correct for statements regarding monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, respectively). Broad nutrition messages and recommendations appear to be well understood; however, gaps in nutrition knowledge are evident. A better understanding of nutrition knowledge in athletes will allow nutrition education interventions to target areas in need of improvement.

Effect of Peer Instruction on the Likelihood for Choosing the Correct Response to a Physiology Question

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Relling, Alejandro E.; Giuliodori, Mauricio J.

2015-01-01

The aims of the present study were to measure the effects of individual answer (correct vs. incorrect), individual answer of group members (no vs. some vs. all correct), self-confidence about the responses (low vs. mid vs. high), sex (female vs. male students), and group size (2-4 students) on the odds for change and for correctness after peer…

Identification and analysis of student conceptions used to solve chemical equilibrium problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Voska, Kirk William

This study identified and quantified chemistry conceptions students use when solving chemical equilibrium problems requiring the application of Le Chatelier's principle, and explored the feasibility of designing a paper and pencil test for this purpose. It also demonstrated the utility of conditional probabilities to assess test quality. A 10-item pencil-and-paper, two-tier diagnostic instrument, the Test to Identify Student Conceptualizations (TISC) was developed and administered to 95 second-semester university general chemistry students after they received regular course instruction concerning equilibrium in homogeneous aqueous, heterogeneous aqueous, and homogeneous gaseous systems. The content validity of TISC was established through a review of TISC by a panel of experts; construct validity was established through semi-structured interviews and conditional probabilities. Nine students were then selected from a stratified random sample for interviews to validate TISC. The probability that TISC correctly identified an answer given by a student in an interview was p = .64, while the probability that TISC correctly identified a reason given by a student in an interview was p=.49. Each TISC item contained two parts. In the first part the student selected the correct answer to a problem from a set of four choices. In the second part students wrote reasons for their answer to the first part. TISC questions were designed to identify students' conceptions concerning the application of Le Chatelier's principle, the constancy of the equilibrium constant, K, and the effect of a catalyst. Eleven prevalent incorrect conceptions were identified. This study found students consistently selected correct answers more frequently (53% of the time) than they provided correct reasons (33% of the time). The association between student answers and respective reasons on each TISC item was quantified using conditional probabilities calculated from logistic regression coefficients. The probability a student provided correct reasoning (B) when the student selected a correct answer (A) ranged from P(B| A) =.32 to P(B| A) =.82. However, the probability a student selected a correct answer when they provided correct reasoning ranged from P(A| B) =.96 to P(A| B) = 1. The K-R 20 reliability for TISC was found to be.79.

A retrieval-based approach to eliminating hindsight bias.

PubMed

Van Boekel, Martin; Varma, Keisha; Varma, Sashank

2017-03-01

Individuals exhibit hindsight bias when they are unable to recall their original responses to novel questions after correct answers are provided to them. Prior studies have eliminated hindsight bias by modifying the conditions under which original judgments or correct answers are encoded. Here, we explored whether hindsight bias can be eliminated by manipulating the conditions that hold at retrieval. Our retrieval-based approach predicts that if the conditions at retrieval enable sufficient discrimination of memory representations of original judgments from memory representations of correct answers, then hindsight bias will be reduced or eliminated. Experiment 1 used the standard memory design to replicate the hindsight bias effect in middle-school students. Experiments 2 and 3 modified the retrieval phase of this design, instructing participants beforehand that they would be recalling both their original judgments and the correct answers. As predicted, this enabled participants to form compound retrieval cues that discriminated original judgment traces from correct answer traces, and eliminated hindsight bias. Experiment 4 found that when participants were not instructed beforehand that they would be making both recalls, they did not form discriminating retrieval cues, and hindsight bias returned. These experiments delineate the retrieval conditions that produce-and fail to produce-hindsight bias.

The role of cognitive switching in head-up displays. [to determine pilot ability to accurately extract information from either of two sources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fischer, E.

1979-01-01

The pilot's ability to accurately extract information from either one or both of two superimposed sources of information was determined. Static, aerial, color 35 mm slides of external runway environments and slides of corresponding static head-up display (HUD) symbology were used as the sources. A three channel tachistoscope was utilized to show either the HUD alone, the scene alone, or the two slides superimposed. Cognitive performance of the pilots was assessed by determining the percentage of correct answers given to two HUD related questions, two scene related questions, or one HUD and one scene related question.

Is there a relationship between students' knowledge of HIV/AIDS ways of transmission and their responses regarding their proximity to people living with HIV/AIDS?

PubMed

Santos, Vanessa Prado; Coelho, Maria Thereza Ávila Dantas; Macário, Estéfani Lima; Oliveira, Tâmara Cerqueira da Silva

2017-08-01

This paper aims to identify college students' knowledge of HIV ways of transmission and correlate it with their answers concerning the proximity to people living with HIV/AIDS. We applied a questionnaire from the Brazilian Ministry of Health to 591 health undergraduate students. We analyzed the 10 questions about the virus ways of transmission, evaluating the number of correct answers and verifying the association between the number of correct answers and questions related to the proximity to people living with HIV/AIDS. Most students (96%) answered correctly 7 to 10 questions related to HIV ways of transmission (Group A) and 4% answered correctly 3 to 6 questions (Group B). Correlating these two subgroups and the answers about the non-acceptance of proximity to people living with HIV/AIDS, we found significant association between Group B and the agreement that the employer should fire an employee living with HIV and the statement that they would feel uncomfortable if a child living with HIV/AIDS studied at the same school as their own children. Negative opinions concerning the proximity to people living with HIV/AIDS were less prevalent, but were correlated to the lower knowledge of HIV ways of transmission.

The Internet School of Medicine: use of electronic resources by medical trainees and the reliability of those resources.

PubMed

Egle, Jonathan P; Smeenge, David M; Kassem, Kamal M; Mittal, Vijay K

2015-01-01

Electronic sources of medical information are plentiful, and numerous studies have demonstrated the use of the Internet by patients and the variable reliability of these sources. Studies have investigated neither the use of web-based resources by residents, nor the reliability of the information available on these websites. A web-based survey was distributed to surgical residents in Michigan and third- and fourth-year medical students at an American allopathic and osteopathic medical school and a Caribbean allopathic school regarding their preferred sources of medical information in various situations. A set of 254 queries simulating those faced by medical trainees on rounds, on a written examination, or during patient care was developed. The top 5 electronic resources cited by the trainees were evaluated for their ability to answer these questions accurately, using standard textbooks as the point of reference. The respondents reported a wide variety of overall preferred resources. Most of the 73 responding medical trainees favored textbooks or board review books for prolonged studying, but electronic resources are frequently used for quick studying, clinical decision-making questions, and medication queries. The most commonly used electronic resources were UpToDate, Google, Medscape, Wikipedia, and Epocrates. UpToDate and Epocrates had the highest percentage of correct answers (47%) and Wikipedia had the lowest (26%). Epocrates also had the highest percentage of wrong answers (30%), whereas Google had the lowest percentage (18%). All resources had a significant number of questions that they were unable to answer. Though hardcopy books have not been completely replaced by electronic resources, more than half of medical students and nearly half of residents prefer web-based sources of information. For quick questions and studying, both groups prefer Internet sources. However, the most commonly used electronic resources fail to answer clinical queries more than half of the time and have an alarmingly high rate of inaccurate information. Copyright © 2014 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The influence of question design on the response to self-assessment in www.elearnSCI.org: a submodule pilot study.

PubMed

Liu, N; Li, X-W; Zhou, M-W; Biering-Sørensen, F

2015-08-01

This is an interventional training session. The objective of this study was to investigate the difference in response to self-assessment questions in the original and an adjusted version for a submodule of www.elearnSCI.org for student nurses. The study was conducted in a teaching hospital affiliated to Peking University, China. In all, 28 student nurses divided into two groups (groups A and B; 14 in each) received a print-out of a Chinese translation of the slides from the 'Maintaining skin integrity following spinal cord injury' submodule in www.elearnSCI.org for self-study. Both groups were then tested using the 10 self-assessment multiple-choice questions (MCQs) related to the same submodule. Group A used the original questions, whereas group B received an adjusted questionnaire. The responses to four conventional single-answer MCQs were nearly all correct in both groups. However, in three questions, group A, with the option 'All of the above', had a higher number of correct answers than group B, with multiple-answer MCQs. In addition, in another three questions, group A, using the original multiple-answer MCQs, had fewer correct answers than group B, where it was only necessary to tick a single incorrect answer. Variations in design influence the response to questions. The use of conventional single-answer MCQs should be reconsidered, as they only examine the recall of isolated knowledge facts. The 'All of the above' option should be avoided because it would increase the number of correct answers arrived at by guessing. When using multiple-answer MCQs, it is recommended that the questions asked should be in accordance with the content within the www.elearnSCI.org.

General practitioners' knowledge and concern about electromagnetic fields.

PubMed

Berg-Beckhoff, Gabriele; Breckenkamp, Jürgen; Larsen, Pia Veldt; Kowall, Bernd

2014-12-01

Our aim is to explore general practitioners' (GPs') knowledge about EMF, and to assess whether different knowledge structures are related to the GPs' concern about EMF. Random samples were drawn from lists of GPs in Germany in 2008. Knowledge about EMF was assessed by seven items. A latent class analysis was conducted to identify latent structures in GPs' knowledge. Further, the GPs' concern about EMF health risk was measured using a score comprising six items. The association between GPs' concern about EMF and their knowledge was analysed using multiple linear regression. In total 435 (response rate 23.3%) GPs participated in the study. Four groups were identified by the latent class analysis: 43.1% of the GPs gave mainly correct answers; 23.7% of the GPs answered low frequency EMF questions correctly; 19.2% answered only the questions relating EMF with health risks, and 14.0% answered mostly "don't know". There was no association between GPs' latent knowledge classes or between the number of correct answers given by the GPs and their EMF concern, whereas the number of incorrect answers was associated with EMF concern. Greater EMF concern in subjects with more incorrect answers suggests paying particular attention to misconceptions regarding EMF in risk communication.

A study of dietary knowledge and its religious relationship in patients receiving haemodialysis.

PubMed

Giaramazidou, T; Giovreki, A; Morfakidou, L; Iliou, C; Karapanagiotou, P

2005-01-01

It is widely known that haemodialysis patients do not readily comply with nutrition guidance. At least 6 months after initiating haemodialysis, the patients' dietary knowledge was tested by use of a questionnaire. The relationship between patient dietary compliance and religion and educational level was studied. Seventy patients were included in the study (33 Christians and 37 Muslims), ages ranging from 24 to 87 years. All patients had received haemodialysis for a period of the time ranging from 6 to 216 months. The questionnaire included questions related to salt, potassium and phosphate. Regarding questions, concerning salt, the Christians answered 85.7 +/- 22.8% correctly whilst the Muslims answered 60.1 +/- 34.6% correctly, a difference which was statistically significant (p=0.0001). However, more Christians arrived at the hospital with pulmonary oedema over a two-year period for emergency haemodialysis than Muslims (p=0.017), whilst there was no difference in the number of patients with residual diuresis between the two groups (p=NS). The difference in the incidence of pulmonary oedema could be attributed to the fact that more Christians had heart failure than Muslims (12/33 vs 6/37, p=0.09). Regarding questions concerning potassium, the Christians answered 74.6 +/- 33.9% correctly whilst the Muslims answered 41.1 +/- 38.5% correctly, a difference that was statistically significant (p=0.0001). However despite this difference, no Muslims attended hospital for emergency haemodialysis related to hyperkalaemia over the two-year period. Finally, regarding questions concerning phosphates, the answers from both group of patients were disappointing. Specifically, Christians answered 49.1 +/- 43% correctly, whilst Muslims answered 19.1 +/- 3.3% of the questions correctly, a difference which was statistically significant (p=0.0001). Patients did not acquire the necessary dietary knowledge but despite insufficient knowledge, they had a low incidence of fluid overload, hyperkalaemia and hyperphosphataemia. The Christians, despite superior knowledge, compared to the Muslims had more episodes of fluid overload.

Effect of Immediate Feedback and Revision on Psychometric Properties of Open-Ended Sentence- Completion Items. ETS GRE Board Research Report No. 03-15. ETS RR-08-16

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Attali, Yigal; Powers, Don; Hawthorn, John

2008-01-01

Registered examinees for the GRE® General Test answered open-ended sentence-completion items. For half of the items, participants received immediate feedback on the correctness of their answers and up to two opportunities to revise their answers. A significant feedback-and-revision effect was found. Participants were able to correct many of their…

Large-scale Assessment Yields Evidence of Minimal Use of Reasoning Skills in Traditionally Taught Classes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thacker, Beth

2017-01-01

Large-scale assessment data from Texas Tech University yielded evidence that most students taught traditionally in large lecture classes with online homework and predominantly multiple choice question exams, when asked to answer free-response (FR) questions, did not support their answers with logical arguments grounded in physics concepts. In addition to a lack of conceptual understanding, incorrect and partially correct answers lacked evidence of the ability to apply even lower level reasoning skills in order to solve a problem. Correct answers, however, did show evidence of at least lower level thinking skills as coded using a rubric based on Bloom's taxonomy. With the introduction of evidence-based instruction into the labs and recitations of the large courses and in a small, completely laboratory-based, hands-on course, the percentage of correct answers with correct explanations increased. The FR format, unlike other assessment formats, allowed assessment of both conceptual understanding and the application of thinking skills, clearly pointing out weaknesses not revealed by other assessment instruments, and providing data on skills beyond conceptual understanding for course and program assessment. Supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) Challenge grant #1RC1GM090897-01.

Evaluation of knowledge of students in paediatric dentistry concerning cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills in children.

PubMed

De Mauro, L M; Oliveira, L B; Bergamaschi, C De Cássia; Ramacciato, J C; Motta, R H L

2018-05-10

The study evaluated the theoretical knowledge and practical ability of students in paediatric dentistry concerning basic life support (BLS) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in children and babies. Seventy paediatric dentistry students answered a questionnaire and also performed a simulation of the manoeuvres of BLS and CPR on baby and child manikins. The results showed that 41 (58%) students had never received BLS training. When questioned about the correct ratio of compression and ventilation during CPR, most students answered incorrectly. For the CPR of babies in the presence of a first responder only 19 (27.1%) answered correctly (30 × 2), and for babies with two rescuers, 23 (32.8%) answered correctly (15 × 2); in relation to the correct rhythm of chest compressions, 38 (54.4%) answered incorrectly; when asked if they felt prepared to deal with a medical emergency in their dental surgeries, only 12 (17.1%) stated "yes". In the practice evaluation, 51 (73%) students who had been assessed in CPR manoeuvres for children and 55 (78%) in the manoeuvres for babies scored inadequately. The evaluated students did not have adequate knowledge about CPR in children and babies.

Willingness and Ability of Older Adults in the Emergency Department to Provide Clinical Information Using a Tablet Computer.

PubMed

Brahmandam, Sruti; Holland, Wesley C; Mangipudi, Sowmya A; Braz, Valerie A; Medlin, Richard P; Hunold, Katherine M; Jones, Christopher W; Platts-Mills, Timothy F

2016-11-01

To estimate the proportion of older adults in the emergency department (ED) who are willing and able to use a tablet computer to answer questions. Prospective, ED-based cross-sectional study. Two U.S. academic EDs. Individuals aged 65 and older. As part of screening for another study, potential study participants were asked whether they would be willing to use a tablet computer to answer eight questions instead of answering questions orally. A custom user interface optimized for older adults was used. Trained research assistants observed study participants as they used the tablets. Ability to use the tablet was assessed based on need for assistance and number of questions answered correctly. Of 365 individuals approached, 248 (68%) were willing to answer screening questions, 121 of these (49%) were willing to use a tablet computer; of these, 91 (75%) were able to answer at least six questions correctly, and 35 (29%) did not require assistance. Only 14 (12%) were able to answer all eight questions correctly without assistance. Individuals aged 65 to 74 and those reporting use of a touchscreen device at least weekly were more likely to be willing and able to use the tablet computer. Of individuals with no or mild cognitive impairment, the percentage willing to use the tablet was 45%, and the percentage answering all questions correctly was 32%. Approximately half of this sample of older adults in the ED was willing to provide information using a tablet computer, but only a small minority of these were able to enter all information correctly without assistance. Tablet computers may provide an efficient means of collecting clinical information from some older adults in the ED, but at present, it will be ineffective for a significant portion of this population. © 2016, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2016, The American Geriatrics Society.

Exploring viewing behavior data from whole slide images to predict correctness of students' answers during practical exams in oral pathology.

PubMed

Walkowski, Slawomir; Lundin, Mikael; Szymas, Janusz; Lundin, Johan

2015-01-01

The way of viewing whole slide images (WSI) can be tracked and analyzed. In particular, it can be useful to learn how medical students view WSIs during exams and how their viewing behavior is correlated with correctness of the answers they give. We used software-based view path tracking method that enabled gathering data about viewing behavior of multiple simultaneous WSI users. This approach was implemented and applied during two practical exams in oral pathology in 2012 (88 students) and 2013 (91 students), which were based on questions with attached WSIs. Gathered data were visualized and analyzed in multiple ways. As a part of extended analysis, we tried to use machine learning approaches to predict correctness of students' answers based on how they viewed WSIs. We compared the results of analyses for years 2012 and 2013 - done for a single question, for student groups, and for a set of questions. The overall patterns were generally consistent across these 3 years. Moreover, viewing behavior data appeared to have certain potential for predicting answers' correctness and some outcomes of machine learning approaches were in the right direction. However, general prediction results were not satisfactory in terms of precision and recall. Our work confirmed that the view path tracking method is useful for discovering viewing behavior of students analyzing WSIs. It provided multiple useful insights in this area, and general results of our analyses were consistent across two exams. On the other hand, predicting answers' correctness appeared to be a difficult task - students' answers seem to be often unpredictable.

Going Beyond the Facts: Young Children Extend Knowledge by Integrating Episodes

PubMed Central

Bauer, Patricia J.; Souci, Priscilla San

2010-01-01

The major question posed in this research was whether 4- and 6-year-old children productively extend their knowledge by integrating information acquired in separate episodes. The vehicle was a read-aloud activity during which children were presented with a novel fact in each of two passages. In Experiment 1, both age groups showed evidence of integration between the passages. For 6-year-olds, the evidence came in the form of responses to open-ended questions. Four-year-olds recognized the correct answers, but did not generate them in the open-ended question format. The 6-year-olds who generated the correct answers also were likely to recall both of the individual facts presented in the passages. In Experiment 2, we tested whether 4-year-olds’ integration performance would improve if their memory for the individual facts improved. Extra exposure to the individual facts resulted in higher levels of integration performance in both recall and recognition testing. The roles of memory and other potential sources of age-related differences in integration performance are discussed. PMID:20663513

Evidence-based medicine Training: Kazakhstan experience.

PubMed

Kamalbekova, G; Kalieva, M

2015-01-01

Understanding principles of evidence-based medicine is of vital importance for improving quality of care, promoting public health and health system development. Understanding principles of evidence-based medicine allows using the most powerful information source, which have ever existed in medicine. To evaluate the effectiveness of teaching Evidence-Based Medicine, including long-term outcomes of training. The study was conducted at the Medical University of Astana, where the Scientific and Educational Center of Evidence-Based Medicine was established in 2010 with the help of the corresponding project of the World Bank. The participants of the study were the faculty trained in Evidence-Based Medicine at the workshop "Introduction to Evidence-Based Medicine" for the period of 2010-2015 years. There were a total of 16 workshops during the period, and 323 employees were trained. All participants were asked to complete our questionnaire two times: before the training - pre-training (to determine the initial level of a listener) and after the training - post-training (to determine the acquired level and get the feedback). Questionnaires were prepared in such a way, that the majority of questions before and after training were identical. Thus, it provided a clear picture of the effectiveness of training. Questions in the survey were open-ended so that the respondents had the opportunity to freely and fully express their views. The main part of the questionnaires included the following questions: "Do you understand what evidence-based medicine is", "how do you understand what the study design means", "what is randomization", "how research is classified", "do you know the steps of decision-making according to Evidence-Based Medicine, list them", "what literature do you prefer to use when searching for information (print, electronic, etc.)", "what resources on the Internet do you prefer to use". Only 30-35% of respondents gave correct answers to the questions on understanding EBM, understanding study designs, randomization. There were no correct or complete answers to the question on study classification. Again, 35% of respondents provided correct answer to the question about the stages of decision-making process from the perspective of EBM, 65% - provided no answer. One fourth (25%) of the respondents preferred using printed literature. Only very few respondents indicated Cochrane Library, Medline (PubMed), Tripdatabasa as preferred Internet sources of information, with 40% indicating Google and 60% - other sources.The results of post-training survey showed that nearly 90% of the respondents gave correct answers to all the questions.With the aim to identify knowledge survival (the long-term training outcomes) we conducted the third survey in May 2014 in previously trained people at the seminar "Introduction to Evidence-Based Medicine". The respondents were asked to answer 4 questions, and to assess previously obtained information on the basics of Evidence-Based Medicine on a 10-point scale.We found that 100% of the respondents answered «Yes» to the question: «Have you changed your behavior after the seminar?» To the question: «Have you encountered difficulties in implementing the principles of evidence-based medicine in the educational process?» 56% of the respondents answered that they had not encountered any difficulties. The other 44% faced the difficulties associated with implementation of Evidence-Based Medicine: lack of understanding by students, low knowledge survival rate among students, too many questions from the students, difficult disputes and discussions.To the question: «Have you encountered difficulties in implementing the principles of Evidence-Based Medicine in practical health-care?» only 37.5% of the respondents answered that they had not encountered difficulties. But the remaining 62.5% of the respondents faced the problems and difficulties in implementing the principles of evidence-based medicine in their practice. These were: failure in implementing, lack of understanding on the part of colleagues, commitment to traditional obsolete methods of treatment, discrepancy between some of the existing standards of diagnosis and treatment and principles of evidence-based medicine.To the question: «Are there any end products after listening to the seminar?» 67% of the respondents answered in affirmative. The end products were mainly marked by the publication of articles and abstracts, including international publications, and participation in the working group on the revision and development of clinical protocols. Barriers to implementation of Evidence-Based Medicine in education and practice are lack of funding to provide access to reliable sources of information, websites; outdated research methodology skills in medical education, lack of skills in critical evaluation of medical information; tradition of authoritarian relationships, use of past experience stencils; failure to comply with continuing education programs ("from training to professional development"). Knowledge of Evidence-Based Medicine, skills to perform searches for scientific data, to evaluate their validity and to transform scientific data into practical solutions are necessary for health workers in their daily activities. This culture needs to be rooted in modern medical education.

Immediate detailed feedback to test-enhanced learning: an effective online educational tool.

PubMed

Wojcikowski, Ken; Kirk, Leslie

2013-11-01

Test-enhanced learning has gained popularity because it is an effective way to increase retention of knowledge; provided the student receives the correct answer soon after the test is taken. To determine whether detailed feedback provided to test-enhanced learning questions is an effective online educational tool for improving performance on complex biomedical information exams. A series of online multiple choice tests were developed to test knowledge of biomedical information that students were expected to know after each patient-case. Following submission of the student answers, one cohort (n = 52) received answers only while the following year, a second cohort (n = 51) received the answers with detailed feedback explaining why each answer was correct or incorrect. Students in both groups progressed through the series of online tests with little assessor intervention. Students receiving the answers along with the explanations within their feedback performed significantly better in the final biomedical information exam than those students receiving correct answers only. This pilot study found that the detailed feedback to test-enhanced learning questions is an important online learning tool. The increase in student performance in the complex biomedical information exam in this study suggests that detailed feedback should be investigated not only for increasing knowledge, but also be investigated for its effect on retention and application of knowledge.

[Knowledge and practices on toxoplasmosis in physicians attending pregnant women in Durango, Mexico].

PubMed

Alvarado-Esquivel, Cosme; Sifuentes-Álvarez, Antonio; Estrada-Martínez, Sergio; Rojas-Rivera, Amparo

2011-01-01

To determine the level of knowledge and practices about toxoplasmosis in physicians attending pregnant women in Durango, Mexico. One hundred physicians attending pregnant women in Durango,Mexico were surveyed. Of them, 67 were general practitioners, 17 family physicians, and 16 obstetricians. They were asked about (i) the parasite Toxoplasma gondii; (ii) general aspects about toxoplasmosis including clinical manifestations,diagnosis, treatment, and epidemiology; and (iii) their practices and experiences on toxoplasmosis. From 66 to 89% (mean 78.5%) of physicians answered correctly about the parasite; 25 to 63% (mean 46.9%) answered correctly about clinical manifestations; and 36 to 45% (mean 40.5%) answered correctly about the serological diagnosis. Only 7% knew about the use of avidity test. Few physicians (23%) knew what medicaments are used against toxoplasmosis.From 12 to 86% (mean 40.3%) of participants answered correctly about transmission routes and only 7% got the right answer about susceptibility of infection. Fifty-nine percent of physicians never requested laboratory tests for detecting toxoplasmosis, and only 31% provide information for preventing infection to all their patients. Sixteen (16%) physicians had detected at least one case of Toxoplasma infection acquired during pregnancy. The physicians surveyed showed an incomplete knowledge about diagnosis and treatment of toxoplasmosis. Results are useful for optimal design of strategies in the medical education about toxoplasmosis.

Differences in Visual Attention between Those Who Correctly and Incorrectly Answer Physics Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Madsen, Adrian M.; Larson, Adam M.; Loschky, Lester C.; Rebello, N. Sanjay

2012-01-01

This study investigated how visual attention differed between those who correctly versus incorrectly answered introductory physics problems. We recorded eye movements of 24 individuals on six different conceptual physics problems where the necessary information to solve the problem was contained in a diagram. The problems also contained areas…

Overconfidence in Interval Estimates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soll, Jack B.; Klayman, Joshua

2004-01-01

Judges were asked to make numerical estimates (e.g., "In what year was the first flight of a hot air balloon?"). Judges provided high and low estimates such that they were X% sure that the correct answer lay between them. They exhibited substantial overconfidence: The correct answer fell inside their intervals much less than X% of the time. This…

Use of a web-based educational intervention to improve knowledge of healthy diet and lifestyle in women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus compared to standard clinic-based education.

PubMed

Sayakhot, Padaphet; Carolan-Olah, Mary; Steele, Cheryl

2016-08-05

This study introduced a web-based educational intervention for Australian women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). The aim was to improve knowledge on healthy diet and lifestyle in GDM. Evaluation of the intervention explored women's knowledge and understanding of GDM, healthy diet, healthy food, and healthy lifestyle, after using the web-based program compared to women receiving standard clinic-based GDM education. A total of 116 women, aged 18-45 years old, newly diagnosed with GDM, participated (Intervention (n) = 56 and control (n) = 60). Women were randomly allocated to the intervention or control groups and both groups attended a standard GDM education class. Group 1(Intervention) additionally used an online touch screen/computer program. All women completed a questionnaire following the computer program and/or the education class. All questions evaluating levels of knowledge had more than one correct answer and scores were graded from 0 to 1, with each correct component receiving a score, eg. 0.25 per each correct answer in a 4 answer question. Chi-square test was performed to compare the two groups regarding knowledge of GDM. Findings indicated that the majority of women in the intervention group reported correct answers for "types of carbohydrate foods" for pregnant women with GDM, compared to the control group (62.5 % vs 58.3 %, respectively). Most women in both groups had an excellent understanding of "fruits and vegetables" (98.2 % vs 98.3 %), and the majority of women in the intervention group understood that they should exercise daily for 30 min, compared to the control group (92.9 % vs 91.7 %). Both groups had a good understanding across all categories, however, the majority of women in the intervention group scored all correct answers (score = 1) in term of foetal effects (17.9 % vs 13.3 %, respectively), maternal predictors (5.4 % vs 5 %), care requirements (39.3 % vs 23.3 %), GDM perceptions (48.2 % vs 46.7 %) and GDM treatment (67.9 % vs 61.7 %), compared to women in the control group. The study suggested that both approaches, standard education and standard education plus web-based program, resulted in excellent knowledge scores, but not statistically significant difference between groups. Multiple and immediate access to the web-based education program at home may prove useful as a source of reference for women with GDM. Future study comparing results pre and post intervention is needed. ACTRN12615000697583 ; Date registered: 03/07/2015; Retrospectively registered.

Diabetes mellitus treatment-Related medical knowledge among health care providers.

PubMed

Shahla, Leena; Vasudev, Rahul; Chitturi, Chandrika; Rodriguez, Cindy; Paul, Namrata

To compare the knowledge of physicians, residents and medical students in diagnosis, use of insulin and oral medication in management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) working in different healthcare specialties. A cross sectional survey of faculty, residents and medical students of different subspecialties in a single center was conducted. Questionnaire consisting of 20 questions was used. These questions were designed to assess knowledge about diagnosis, nomenclature of different insulin/oral medications and management of DM. There were 4 answers to every question with only one correct answer based on ADA guidelines and most recent literature. The overall percentage correctly answered questions was ∼74% for IM faculty, 64% for EM faculty, 71% for IM residents, 60% for FM residents, 56% for EM residents and 59% for students. Questions based on knowledge of insulin nomenclature and characteristics were answered correctly 74% of the time by IM faculty, 62% by EM faculty, 66% by IM residents, 69% by FM residents, 45% by EM residents and 49% by medical students. Questions on the use of insulin and inpatient DM management were answered correctly 66% for IM faculty, 54% for EM faculty, 66% for IM residents, 46% for FM residents, 55% for EM Residents, and 44% medical students. Questions based on oral medications and DM diagnosis were answered correctly by 81% for IM faculty, 73% for EM faculty, 78% for IM Resident, 76% FM Resident, 64% for EM residents and 79% for students. This study demonstrates the need for focused educational initiatives required in all subspecialties involved in management of diabetes mellitus for safe and efficient management of diabetes mellitus. Copyright © 2016 Diabetes India. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

HOW TO PASS ARMED FORCES TESTS.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cowles Education Corp., New York, NY.

FOLLOWING THE CONTENT OF THE ARMED FORCES EXAMINATIONS, THIS BOOK IS PROGRAMED WITH STEP-BY-STEP DIRECTIONS, TESTS, AND CORRECT ANSWERS AND SOLUTIONS. THE CANDIDATE CAN SIMULATE TAKING THE ACTUAL EXAMS BY ANSWERING THE AUTHENTIC QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS, MARKING THE ANSWER SHEET, AND EVALUATING HIS OWN APTITUDE BY COMPARING HIS ANSWERS WITH THE…

Prenatal knowledge and informational priorities of pregnant adolescents.

PubMed

Smith, P B; Levenson, P M; Morrow, J R

1985-01-01

One hundred and forty-six indigent pregnant adolescents (12 to 18 years of age) were asked to complete a questionnaire concerning their prenatal care priorities (Scale I) and their knowledge of correct perinatal behaviors (Scale II). On Scale I, over 75% of teens considered parenting skills, infant care, and diet extremely important. On Scale II correctly answered items focused on the need to avoid substance abuse and smoking during pregnancy, visit the doctor, and eat balanced meals. The mean number of correct answers, however, was only 11.8 out of a total possible scale of 18 items. Less than 50% correctly answered statements about the effects of weight gain and other health behaviors on risk for high blood pressure and toxemia, safety of laxatives during pregnancy, possibility of becoming pregnant again before resuming menstruation, and the safety of various physical activities. Performance on both knowledge and health priority scales showed correct health information was limited to basic concrete facts. Abstract and technical aspects of health care did not appear to be easily assimilated.

Beyond Model Answers: Learners' Perceptions of Self-Assessment Materials in E-Learning Applications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Handley, Karen; Cox, Benita

2007-01-01

The importance of feedback as an aid to self-assessment is widely acknowledged. A common form of feedback that is used widely in e-learning is the use of model answers. However, model answers are deficient in many respects. In particular, the notion of a "model" answer implies the existence of a single correct answer applicable across multiple…

Metacognitive effects of initial question difficulty on subsequent memory performance.

PubMed

Pansky, Ainat; Goldsmith, Morris

2014-10-01

In two experiments, we examined whether relative retrieval fluency (the relative ease or difficulty of answering questions from memory) would be translated, via metacognitive monitoring and control processes, into an overt effect on the controlled behavior-that is, the decision whether to answer a question or abstain. Before answering a target set of multiple-choice general-knowledge questions (intermediate-difficulty questions in Exp. 1, deceptive questions in Exp. 2), the participants first answered either a set of difficult questions or a set of easy questions. For each question, they provided a forced-report answer, followed by a subjective assessment of the likelihood that their answer was correct (confidence) and by a free-report control decision-whether or not to report the answer for a potential monetary bonus (or penalty). The participants' ability to answer the target questions (forced-report proportion correct) was unaffected by the initial question difficulty. However, a predicted metacognitive contrast effect was observed: When the target questions were preceded by a set of difficult rather than easy questions, the participants were more confident in their answers to the target questions, and hence were more likely to report them, thus increasing the quantity of freely reported correct information. The option of free report was more beneficial after initial question difficulty than after initial question ease, in terms of both the gain in accuracy (Exp. 2) and a smaller cost in quantity (Exps. 1 and 2). These results demonstrate that changes in subjective experience can influence metacognitive monitoring and control, thereby affecting free-report memory performance independently of forced-report performance.

Peelle's pertinent puzzle using the Monte Carlo technique

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kawano, Toshihiko; Talou, Patrick; Burr, Thomas

2009-01-01

We try to understand the long-standing problem of the Peelle's Pertinent Puzzle (PPP) using the Monte Carlo technique. We allow the probability density functions to be any kind of form to assume the impact of distribution, and obtain the least-squares solution directly from numerical simulations. We found that the standard least squares method gives the correct answer if a weighting function is properly provided. Results from numerical simulations show that the correct answer of PPP is 1.1 {+-} 0.25 if the common error is multiplicative. The thought-provoking answer of 0.88 is also correct, if the common error is additive, andmore » if the error is proportional to the measured values. The least squares method correctly gives us the most probable case, where the additive component has a negative value. Finally, the standard method fails for PPP due to a distorted (non Gaussian) joint distribution.« less

Incorporating Partial Credit in Computer-Aided Assessment of Mathematics in Secondary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashton, Helen S.; Beevers, Cliff E.; Korabinski, Athol A.; Youngson, Martin A.

2006-01-01

In a mathematical examination on paper, partial credit is normally awarded for an answer that is not correct, but, nevertheless, contains some of the correct working. Assessment on computer normally marks an incorrect answer wrong and awards no marks. This can lead to discrepancies between marks awarded for the same examination given in the two…

Do Students Know if They Answered Particular Questions Correctly on a Psychology Exam?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenthal, Gary T.; Soper, Barlow; McKnight, Richard R.; Price, A. W.; Boudreaux, Monique; Rachal, K. Chris

2010-01-01

The current study explores students' abilities to make different metacognitive judgments about the same material. Sophomores in a psychology class indicated how confident they were that each answer on their final was correct (micro-level judgments) and pre- postdicted their overall score (macro-level judgments). Students made the series of simpler…

[Medical knowledge in immunological security of red blood cells transfusion in Tunisia: evaluation of a CD-ROM of auto-learning].

PubMed

Ben Salah, N; El Borgi, W; Aounallah Skhiri, H; Ben Lakhal, F; Mouelhi, H; Zoueri, B; Gouider, E; Hafsia, R

2013-09-01

In Tunisia, red blood cells (RBC) transfusion joins in a statutory frame but remains subject to failures because of the misunderstanding of legislation and regulations. Our purpose is to estimate the knowledge of the medical staff in the immunological safety of RBC transfusion before and after reading an auto-education CD-ROM. It is a study of evaluation of an intervention. Eighty physicians participated to the study. The evaluation was done using an anonymous questionnaire, containing seven questions with multiple choices (QMC) relating to several items. The rate of good answers (RGA) calculated by questions and by items took into account the impact of the CD-ROM on the improvement of the answers after reading. The global average mark is 2.9/7. The RGA to questions varies from 22.5 % to 76.3%. All participants answered correctly to more than 50% of all items. Two answered correctly to all items. Among the participants, 31.3% answered to all "important" items, concerning ABO blood groups compatibility and ultimate bedside test. The rate of participation to the final evaluation was 83%. The impact of the CD-ROM was important and statistically significant. In the final evaluation, the global mark raised from 2.9 to 5.8/7, 31.5% (vs 2%) answered correctly all the questions and 95.5% (vs 31.3%) answered correctly all "important" items. This study revealed a misunderstanding of the doctors in immunological safety of RBC transfusions. Auto-teaching by CD-ROM was efficient. An improvement of the knowledge by continuous training is necessary in our country. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Automatic extraction and identification of users' responses in Facebook medical quizzes.

PubMed

Rodríguez-González, Alejandro; Menasalvas Ruiz, Ernestina; Mayer Pujadas, Miguel A

2016-04-01

In the last few years the use of social media in medicine has grown exponentially, providing a new area of research based on the analysis and use of Web 2.0 capabilities. In addition, the use of social media in medical education is a subject of particular interest which has been addressed in several studies. One example of this application is the medical quizzes of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that regularly publishes a set of questions through their Facebook timeline. We present an approach for the automatic extraction of medical quizzes and their associated answers on a Facebook platform by means of a set of computer-based methods and algorithms. We have developed a tool for the extraction and analysis of medical quizzes stored on Facebook timeline at the NEJM Facebook page, based on a set of computer-based methods and algorithms using Java. The system is divided into two main modules: Crawler and Data retrieval. The system was launched on December 31, 2014 and crawled through a total of 3004 valid posts and 200,081 valid comments. The first post was dated on July 23, 2009 and the last one on December 30, 2014. 285 quizzes were analyzed with 32,780 different users providing answers to the aforementioned quizzes. Of the 285 quizzes, patterns were found in 261 (91.58%). From these 261 quizzes where trends were found, we saw that users follow trends of incorrect answers in 13 quizzes and trends of correct answers in 248. This tool is capable of automatically identifying the correct and wrong answers to a quiz provided on Facebook posts in a text format to a quiz, with a small rate of false negative cases and this approach could be applicable to the extraction and analysis of other sources after including some adaptations of the information on the Internet. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Systems 1 and 2 thinking processes and cognitive reflection testing in medical students

PubMed Central

Tay, Shu Wen; Ryan, Paul; Ryan, C Anthony

2016-01-01

Background Diagnostic decision-making is made through a combination of Systems 1 (intuition or pattern-recognition) and Systems 2 (analytic) thinking. The purpose of this study was to use the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) to evaluate and compare the level of Systems 1 and 2 thinking among medical students in pre-clinical and clinical programs. Methods The CRT is a three-question test designed to measure the ability of respondents to activate metacognitive processes and switch to System 2 (analytic) thinking where System 1 (intuitive) thinking would lead them astray. Each CRT question has a correct analytical (System 2) answer and an incorrect intuitive (System 1) answer. A group of medical students in Years 2 & 3 (pre-clinical) and Years 4 (in clinical practice) of a 5-year medical degree were studied. Results Ten percent (13/128) of students had the intuitive answers to the three questions (suggesting they generally relied on System 1 thinking) while almost half (44%) answered all three correctly (indicating full analytical, System 2 thinking). Only 3–13% had incorrect answers (i.e. that were neither the analytical nor the intuitive responses). Non-native English speaking students (n = 11) had a lower mean number of correct answers compared to native English speakers (n = 117: 1.0 s 2.12 respectfully: p < 0.01). As students progressed through questions 1 to 3, the percentage of correct System 2 answers increased and the percentage of intuitive answers decreased in both the pre-clinical and clinical students. Conclusions Up to half of the medical students demonstrated full or partial reliance on System 1 (intuitive) thinking in response to these analytical questions. While their CRT performance has no claims to make as to their future expertise as clinicians, the test may be used in helping students to understand the importance of awareness and regulation of their thinking processes in clinical practice. PMID:28344696

Systems 1 and 2 thinking processes and cognitive reflection testing in medical students.

PubMed

Tay, Shu Wen; Ryan, Paul; Ryan, C Anthony

2016-10-01

Diagnostic decision-making is made through a combination of Systems 1 (intuition or pattern-recognition) and Systems 2 (analytic) thinking. The purpose of this study was to use the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) to evaluate and compare the level of Systems 1 and 2 thinking among medical students in pre-clinical and clinical programs. The CRT is a three-question test designed to measure the ability of respondents to activate metacognitive processes and switch to System 2 (analytic) thinking where System 1 (intuitive) thinking would lead them astray. Each CRT question has a correct analytical (System 2) answer and an incorrect intuitive (System 1) answer. A group of medical students in Years 2 & 3 (pre-clinical) and Years 4 (in clinical practice) of a 5-year medical degree were studied. Ten percent (13/128) of students had the intuitive answers to the three questions (suggesting they generally relied on System 1 thinking) while almost half (44%) answered all three correctly (indicating full analytical, System 2 thinking). Only 3-13% had incorrect answers (i.e. that were neither the analytical nor the intuitive responses). Non-native English speaking students (n = 11) had a lower mean number of correct answers compared to native English speakers (n = 117: 1.0 s 2.12 respectfully: p < 0.01). As students progressed through questions 1 to 3, the percentage of correct System 2 answers increased and the percentage of intuitive answers decreased in both the pre-clinical and clinical students. Up to half of the medical students demonstrated full or partial reliance on System 1 (intuitive) thinking in response to these analytical questions. While their CRT performance has no claims to make as to their future expertise as clinicians, the test may be used in helping students to understand the importance of awareness and regulation of their thinking processes in clinical practice.

Decision making in family medicine

PubMed Central

Labrecque, Michel; Ratté, Stéphane; Frémont, Pierre; Cauchon, Michel; Ouellet, Jérôme; Hogg, William; McGowan, Jessie; Gagnon, Marie-Pierre; Njoya, Merlin; Légaré, France

2013-01-01

Abstract Objective To compare the ability of users of 2 medical search engines, InfoClinique and the Trip database, to provide correct answers to clinical questions and to explore the perceived effects of the tools on the clinical decision-making process. Design Randomized trial. Setting Three family medicine units of the family medicine program of the Faculty of Medicine at Laval University in Quebec city, Que. Participants Fifteen second-year family medicine residents. Intervention Residents generated 30 structured questions about therapy or preventive treatment (2 questions per resident) based on clinical encounters. Using an Internet platform designed for the trial, each resident answered 20 of these questions (their own 2, plus 18 of the questions formulated by other residents, selected randomly) before and after searching for information with 1 of the 2 search engines. For each question, 5 residents were randomly assigned to begin their search with InfoClinique and 5 with the Trip database. Main outcome measures The ability of residents to provide correct answers to clinical questions using the search engines, as determined by third-party evaluation. After answering each question, participants completed a questionnaire to assess their perception of the engine’s effect on the decision-making process in clinical practice. Results Of 300 possible pairs of answers (1 answer before and 1 after the initial search), 254 (85%) were produced by 14 residents. Of these, 132 (52%) and 122 (48%) pairs of answers concerned questions that had been assigned an initial search with InfoClinique and the Trip database, respectively. Both engines produced an important and similar absolute increase in the proportion of correct answers after searching (26% to 62% for InfoClinique, for an increase of 36%; 24% to 63% for the Trip database, for an increase of 39%; P = .68). For all 30 clinical questions, at least 1 resident produced the correct answer after searching with either search engine. The mean (SD) time of the initial search for each question was 23.5 (7.6) minutes with InfoClinique and 22.3 (7.8) minutes with the Trip database (P = .30). Participants’ perceptions of each engine’s effect on the decision-making process were very positive and similar for both search engines. Conclusion Family medicine residents’ ability to provide correct answers to clinical questions increased dramatically and similarly with the use of both InfoClinique and the Trip database. These tools have strong potential to increase the quality of medical care. PMID:24130286

Decision making in family medicine: randomized trial of the effects of the InfoClinique and Trip database search engines.

PubMed

Labrecque, Michel; Ratté, Stéphane; Frémont, Pierre; Cauchon, Michel; Ouellet, Jérôme; Hogg, William; McGowan, Jessie; Gagnon, Marie-Pierre; Njoya, Merlin; Légaré, France

2013-10-01

To compare the ability of users of 2 medical search engines, InfoClinique and the Trip database, to provide correct answers to clinical questions and to explore the perceived effects of the tools on the clinical decision-making process. Randomized trial. Three family medicine units of the family medicine program of the Faculty of Medicine at Laval University in Quebec city, Que. Fifteen second-year family medicine residents. Residents generated 30 structured questions about therapy or preventive treatment (2 questions per resident) based on clinical encounters. Using an Internet platform designed for the trial, each resident answered 20 of these questions (their own 2, plus 18 of the questions formulated by other residents, selected randomly) before and after searching for information with 1 of the 2 search engines. For each question, 5 residents were randomly assigned to begin their search with InfoClinique and 5 with the Trip database. The ability of residents to provide correct answers to clinical questions using the search engines, as determined by third-party evaluation. After answering each question, participants completed a questionnaire to assess their perception of the engine's effect on the decision-making process in clinical practice. Of 300 possible pairs of answers (1 answer before and 1 after the initial search), 254 (85%) were produced by 14 residents. Of these, 132 (52%) and 122 (48%) pairs of answers concerned questions that had been assigned an initial search with InfoClinique and the Trip database, respectively. Both engines produced an important and similar absolute increase in the proportion of correct answers after searching (26% to 62% for InfoClinique, for an increase of 36%; 24% to 63% for the Trip database, for an increase of 39%; P = .68). For all 30 clinical questions, at least 1 resident produced the correct answer after searching with either search engine. The mean (SD) time of the initial search for each question was 23.5 (7.6) minutes with InfoClinique and 22.3 (7.8) minutes with the Trip database (P = .30). Participants' perceptions of each engine's effect on the decision-making process were very positive and similar for both search engines. Family medicine residents' ability to provide correct answers to clinical questions increased dramatically and similarly with the use of both InfoClinique and the Trip database. These tools have strong potential to increase the quality of medical care.

Searching for answers to clinical questions using google versus evidence-based summary resources: a randomized controlled crossover study.

PubMed

Kim, Sarang; Noveck, Helaine; Galt, James; Hogshire, Lauren; Willett, Laura; O'Rourke, Kerry

2014-06-01

To compare the speed and accuracy of answering clinical questions using Google versus summary resources. In 2011 and 2012, 48 internal medicine interns from two classes at Rutgers University Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, who had been trained to use three evidence-based summary resources, performed four-minute computer searches to answer 10 clinical questions. Half were randomized to initiate searches for answers to questions 1 to 5 using Google; the other half initiated searches using a summary resource. They then crossed over and used the other resource for questions 6 to 10. They documented the time spent searching and the resource where the answer was found. Time to correct response and percentage of correct responses were compared between groups using t test and general estimating equations. Of 480 questions administered, interns found answers for 393 (82%). Interns initiating searches in Google used a wider variety of resources than those starting with summary resources. No significant difference was found in mean time to correct response (138.5 seconds for Google versus 136.1 seconds for summary resource; P = .72). Mean correct response rate was 58.4% for Google versus 61.5% for summary resource (mean difference -3.1%; 95% CI -10.3% to 4.2%; P = .40). The authors found no significant differences in speed or accuracy between searches initiated using Google versus summary resources. Although summary resources are considered to provide the highest quality of evidence, improvements to allow for better speed and accuracy are needed.

The Evaluation of a Temporal Reasoning System in Processing Clinical Discharge Summaries

PubMed Central

Zhou, Li; Parsons, Simon; Hripcsak, George

2008-01-01

Context TimeText is a temporal reasoning system designed to represent, extract, and reason about temporal information in clinical text. Objective To measure the accuracy of the TimeText for processing clinical discharge summaries. Design Six physicians with biomedical informatics training served as domain experts. Twenty discharge summaries were randomly selected for the evaluation. For each of the first 14 reports, 5 to 8 clinically important medical events were chosen. The temporal reasoning system generated temporal relations about the endpoints (start or finish) of pairs of medical events. Two experts (subjects) manually generated temporal relations for these medical events. The system and expert-generated results were assessed by four other experts (raters). All of the twenty discharge summaries were used to assess the system’s accuracy in answering time-oriented clinical questions. For each report, five to ten clinically plausible temporal questions about events were generated. Two experts generated answers to the questions to serve as the gold standard. We wrote queries to retrieve answers from system’s output. Measurements Correctness of generated temporal relations, recall of clinically important relations, and accuracy in answering temporal questions. Results The raters determined that 97% of subjects’ 295 generated temporal relations were correct and that 96.5% of the system’s 995 generated temporal relations were correct. The system captured 79% of 307 temporal relations determined to be clinically important by the subjects and raters. The system answered 84% of the temporal questions correctly. Conclusion The system encoded the majority of information identified by experts, and was able to answer simple temporal questions. PMID:17947618

Attitude toward plagiarism among Iranian medical faculty members.

PubMed

Ghajarzadeh, Mahsa; Norouzi-Javidan, Abbas; Hassanpour, Kiana; Aramesh, Kiarash; Emami-Razavi, Seyed Hassan

2012-01-01

The goal of this study was to assess attitude towards plagiarism in faculty members of Medical School at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. One hundred and twenty medical faculty members of Tehran University of Medical Sciences were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. They were asked to answer to valid and reliable Persian version of attitude towards plagiarism questionnaire. Attitude toward plagiarism, positive attitude toward self-plagiarism and plagiarism acceptance were assessed. Eighty seven filled-up questionnaires were collected. Mean total number of correct answers was 11.6±3.1. Mean number of correct answers to questions evaluating self-plagiarism was 1.7±0.4 and mean number of correct answers to questions evaluating plagiarism acceptance was 1.4±0.2. There was no significant correlation between plagiarism acceptance and self-plagiarism (r=0.17, P=0.1). It is essential to provide materials (such as workshops, leaflets and mandatory courses) to make Iranian medical faculty members familiar with medical research ethics issues such as plagiarism.

Neural Correlates of Feigned Memory Impairment are Distinguishable from Answering Randomly and Answering Incorrectly: An fMRI and Behavioral Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liang, Chun-Yu; Xu, Zhi-Yuan; Mei, Wei; Wang, Li-Li; Xue, Li; Lu, De Jian; Zhao, Hu

2012-01-01

Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have identified activation in the prefrontal-parietal-sub-cortical circuit during feigned memory impairment when comparing with truthful telling. Here, we used fMRI to determine whether neural activity can differentiate between answering correctly, answering randomly, answering…

What Are the "Right" Questions and the "Right" Answers in Teaching Practice Supervision?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jyrhama, Riitta

This paper links the problem of questioning and answering in student teacher supervision with teachers' pedagogical thinking. The first section discusses whether asking the right questions or giving the right answers is more important and what is actually involved when the questions and answers are correct. The second section discusses the…

Quantifying errors in trace species transport modeling.

PubMed

Prather, Michael J; Zhu, Xin; Strahan, Susan E; Steenrod, Stephen D; Rodriguez, Jose M

2008-12-16

One expectation when computationally solving an Earth system model is that a correct answer exists, that with adequate physical approximations and numerical methods our solutions will converge to that single answer. With such hubris, we performed a controlled numerical test of the atmospheric transport of CO(2) using 2 models known for accurate transport of trace species. Resulting differences were unexpectedly large, indicating that in some cases, scientific conclusions may err because of lack of knowledge of the numerical errors in tracer transport models. By doubling the resolution, thereby reducing numerical error, both models show some convergence to the same answer. Now, under realistic conditions, we identify a practical approach for finding the correct answer and thus quantifying the advection error.

Use of context in pragmatic language comprehension by children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism.

PubMed

Loukusa, Soile; Leinonen, Eeva; Kuusikko, Sanna; Jussila, Katja; Mattila, Marja-Leena; Ryder, Nuala; Ebeling, Hanna; Moilanen, Irma

2007-07-01

Utilizing relevance theory, this study investigated the ability of children with Asperger syndrome (AS) and high-functioning autism (HFA) to use context when answering questions and when giving explanations for their correct answers. Three groups participated in this study: younger AS/HFA group (age 7-9, n=16), older AS/HFA group (age 10-12, n=23) and a normally functioning control group (age 7-9, n=23). The results indicated that the younger AS/HFA group did less well when answering contextually demanding questions compared to the control group, and the performance of the older AS/HFA group fell in between the younger AS/HFA group and the control group. Both AS/HFA groups had difficulties explaining their correct answers, suggesting that they are not always aware of how they have derived answers from the context.

Score Increase and Partial-Credit Validity When Administering Multiple-Choice Tests Using an Answer-Until-Correct Format

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slepkov, Aaron D.; Vreugdenhil, Andrew J.; Shiell, Ralph C.

2016-01-01

There are numerous benefits to answer-until-correct (AUC) approaches to multiple-choice testing, not the least of which is the straightforward allotment of partial credit. However, the benefits of granting partial credit can be tempered by the inevitable increase in test scores and by fears that such increases are further contaminated by a large…

A New Rhythm for Responding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, Jackie Acree; Sattes, Beth Dankert

2015-01-01

The authors have seen an inspiring phenomenon in certain classrooms--students thinking through their answers to teacher questions, responding thoughtfully to other students' answers, even self-correcting or providing more information after they've answered a teacher aloud. The strategy behind these student actions is a skillful use of "wait…

Recent study, but not retrieval, of knowledge protects against learning errors.

PubMed

Mullet, Hillary G; Umanath, Sharda; Marsh, Elizabeth J

2014-11-01

Surprisingly, people incorporate errors into their knowledge bases even when they have the correct knowledge stored in memory (e.g., Fazio, Barber, Rajaram, Ornstein, & Marsh, 2013). We examined whether heightening the accessibility of correct knowledge would protect people from later reproducing misleading information that they encountered in fictional stories. In Experiment 1, participants studied a series of target general knowledge questions and their correct answers either a few minutes (high accessibility of knowledge) or 1 week (low accessibility of knowledge) before exposure to misleading story references. In Experiments 2a and 2b, participants instead retrieved the answers to the target general knowledge questions either a few minutes or 1 week before the rest of the experiment. Reading the relevant knowledge directly before the story-reading phase protected against reproduction of the misleading story answers on a later general knowledge test, but retrieving that same correct information did not. Retrieving stored knowledge from memory might actually enhance the encoding of relevant misinformation.

Does prevalence matter to physicians in estimating post-test probability of disease? A randomized trial.

PubMed

Agoritsas, Thomas; Courvoisier, Delphine S; Combescure, Christophe; Deom, Marie; Perneger, Thomas V

2011-04-01

The probability of a disease following a diagnostic test depends on the sensitivity and specificity of the test, but also on the prevalence of the disease in the population of interest (or pre-test probability). How physicians use this information is not well known. To assess whether physicians correctly estimate post-test probability according to various levels of prevalence and explore this skill across respondent groups. Randomized trial. Population-based sample of 1,361 physicians of all clinical specialties. We described a scenario of a highly accurate screening test (sensitivity 99% and specificity 99%) in which we randomly manipulated the prevalence of the disease (1%, 2%, 10%, 25%, 95%, or no information). We asked physicians to estimate the probability of disease following a positive test (categorized as <60%, 60-79%, 80-94%, 95-99.9%, and >99.9%). Each answer was correct for a different version of the scenario, and no answer was possible in the "no information" scenario. We estimated the proportion of physicians proficient in assessing post-test probability as the proportion of correct answers beyond the distribution of answers attributable to guessing. Most respondents in each of the six groups (67%-82%) selected a post-test probability of 95-99.9%, regardless of the prevalence of disease and even when no information on prevalence was provided. This answer was correct only for a prevalence of 25%. We estimated that 9.1% (95% CI 6.0-14.0) of respondents knew how to assess correctly the post-test probability. This proportion did not vary with clinical experience or practice setting. Most physicians do not take into account the prevalence of disease when interpreting a positive test result. This may cause unnecessary testing and diagnostic errors.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS): knowledge, attitudes, practices and sources of information among physicians answering a SARS fever hotline service.

PubMed

Deng, J-F; Olowokure, B; Kaydos-Daniels, S C; Chang, H-J; Barwick, R S; Lee, M-L; Deng, C-Y; Factor, S H; Chiang, C-E; Maloney, S A

2006-01-01

In June 2003, Taiwan introduced a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) telephone hotline service to provide concerned callers with rapid access to information, advice and appropriate referral where necessary. This paper reports an evaluation of the knowledge, attitude, practices and sources of information relating to SARS among physicians who staffed the SARS fever hotline service. A retrospective survey was conducted using a self-administered postal questionnaire. Participants were physicians who staffed a SARS hotline during the SARS epidemic in Taipei, Taiwan from June 1 to 10, 2003. A response rate of 83% was obtained. All respondents knew the causative agent of SARS, and knowledge regarding SARS features and preventive practices was good. However, only 54% of respondents knew the incubation period of SARS. Hospital guidelines and news media were the major information sources. In responding to two case scenarios most physicians were likely to triage callers at high risk of SARS appropriately, but not callers at low risk. Less than half of all respondents answered both scenarios correctly. The results obtained suggest that knowledge of SARS was generally good although obtained from both medical and non-medical sources. Specific knowledge was however lacking in certain areas and this affected the ability to appropriately triage callers. Standardized education and assessment of prior knowledge of SARS could improve the ability of physicians to triage callers in future outbreaks.

Proportional reasoning as a heuristic-based process: time constraint and dual task considerations.

PubMed

Gillard, Ellen; Van Dooren, Wim; Schaeken, Walter; Verschaffel, Lieven

2009-01-01

The present study interprets the overuse of proportional solution methods from a dual process framework. Dual process theories claim that analytic operations involve time-consuming executive processing, whereas heuristic operations are fast and automatic. In two experiments to test whether proportional reasoning is heuristic-based, the participants solved "proportional" problems, for which proportional solution methods provide correct answers, and "nonproportional" problems known to elicit incorrect answers based on the assumption of proportionality. In Experiment 1, the available solution time was restricted. In Experiment 2, the executive resources were burdened with a secondary task. Both manipulations induced an increase in proportional answers and a decrease in correct answers to nonproportional problems. These results support the hypothesis that the choice for proportional methods is heuristic-based.

Certainty rating in pre-and post-tests of study modules in an online clinical pharmacy course - A pilot study to evaluate teaching and learning.

PubMed

Luetsch, Karen; Burrows, Judith

2016-10-14

Graduate and post-graduate education for health professionals is increasingly delivered in an e-learning environment, where automated, continuous formative testing with integrated feedback can guide students' self-assessment and learning. Asking students to rate the certainty they assign to the correctness of their answers to test questions can potentially provide deeper insights into the success of teaching, with test results informing course designers whether learning outcomes have been achieved. It may also have implications for decision making in clinical practice. A study of pre-and post-tests for five study modules was designed to evaluate the teaching and learning within a pharmacotherapeutic course in an online postgraduate clinical pharmacy program. Certainty based marking of multiple choice questions (MCQ) was adapted for formative pre- and post-study module testing by asking students to rate their certainty of correctness of MCQ answers. Paired t-tests and a coding scheme were used to analyse changes in answers and certainty between pre-and post-tests. A survey evaluated students' experience with the novel formative testing design. Twenty-nine pharmacists enrolled in the postgraduate program participated in the study. Overall 1315 matched pairs of MCQ answers and certainty ratings between pre- and post-module tests were available for evaluation. Most students identified correct answers in post-tests and increased their certainty compared to pre-tests. Evaluation of certainty ratings in addition to correctness of answers identified MCQs and topic areas for revision to course designers. A survey of students showed that assigning certainty ratings to their answers assisted in structuring and focusing their learning throughout online study modules, facilitating identification of areas of uncertainty and gaps in their clinical knowledge. Adding certainty ratings to MCQ answers seems to engage students with formative testing and feedback and focus their learning in a web-based postgraduate pharmacy course. It also offers deeper insight into the successful delivery of online course content, identifying areas for improvement of teaching and content delivery as well as test question design.

Pre-service middle school mathematics teachers' evaluations of discussions: the case of proof by contradiction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Demiray, Esra; Işıksal Bostan, Mine

2017-03-01

The purposes of this study are to investigate whether pre-service middle school mathematics teachers evaluate discussions in the cases regarding proof by contradiction correctly, to what extent they explain their correct evaluations by referring to proof by contradiction, and the reasons of their misinterpretations of discussions in the cases regarding proof by contradiction. Data were collected from pre-service middle school mathematics teachers enrolled in a state university in Ankara, Turkey, by asking them to evaluate discussions in two cases related to proof by contradiction. In data analysis, descriptive statistics and item-based analysis were employed. The results of the study indicated that pre-service middle school mathematics teachers are successful in evaluating discussions in the cases regarding proof by contradiction. In terms of year level, it was found that the percentage of the second year students' correct answers was the lowest in both cases. Moreover, the first year students were the most successful group in the first case, and the third year students were the most successful group in the second case. Nearly half of the students explained their correct answers by referring to proof by contradiction in the first case while the percentage of students who explained their correct answers by mentioning proof by contradiction in the second case was considerably low. When incorrect answers of pre-service middle school mathematics teachers were analyzed, two reasons of their misinterpretations of discussions were emerged as "misunderstanding of the assumption" and "perceiving proof as unnecessary".

Setting health research priorities using the CHNRI method: V. Quantitative properties of human collective knowledge.

PubMed

Rudan, Igor; Yoshida, Sachiyo; Wazny, Kerri; Chan, Kit Yee; Cousens, Simon

2016-06-01

The CHNRI method for setting health research priorities has crowdsourcing as the major component. It uses the collective opinion of a group of experts to generate, assess and prioritize between many competing health research ideas. It is difficult to compare the accuracy of human individual and collective opinions in predicting uncertain future outcomes before the outcomes are known. However, this limitation does not apply to existing knowledge, which is an important component underlying opinion. In this paper, we report several experiments to explore the quantitative properties of human collective knowledge and discuss their relevance to the CHNRI method. We conducted a series of experiments in groups of about 160 (range: 122-175) undergraduate Year 2 medical students to compare their collective knowledge to their individual knowledge. We asked them to answer 10 questions on each of the following: (i) an area in which they have a degree of expertise (undergraduate Year 1 medical curriculum); (ii) an area in which they likely have some knowledge (general knowledge); and (iii) an area in which they are not expected to have any knowledge (astronomy). We also presented them with 20 pairs of well-known celebrities and asked them to identify the older person of the pair. In all these experiments our goal was to examine how the collective answer compares to the distribution of students' individual answers. When answering the questions in their own area of expertise, the collective answer (the median) was in the top 20.83% of the most accurate individual responses; in general knowledge, it was in the top 11.93%; and in an area with no expertise, the group answer was in the top 7.02%. However, the collective answer based on mean values fared much worse, ranging from top 75.60% to top 95.91%. Also, when confronted with guessing the older of the two celebrities, the collective response was correct in 18/20 cases (90%), while the 8 most successful individuals among the students had 19/20 correct answers (95%). However, when the system in which the students who were not sure of the correct answer were allowed to either choose an award of half of the point in all such instances, or withdraw from responding, in order to improve the score of the collective, the collective was correct in 19/20 cases (95%), while the 3 most successful individuals were correct in 17/20 cases (85%). Our experiments showed that the collective knowledge of a group with expertise in the subject should always be very close to the true value. In most cases and under most assumption, the collective knowledge will be more accurate than the knowledge of an "average" individual, but there always seems to be a small group of individuals who manage to out-perform the collective. The accuracy of collective prediction may be enhanced by allowing the individuals with low confidence in their answer to withdraw from answering.

Knowledge and perceptions of sexual and reproductive health and HIV among perinatally HIV-infected adolescents in rural China.

PubMed

Mu, Weiwei; Zhao, Yan; Khoshnood, Kaveh; Cheng, Yuewu; Sun, Xin; Liu, Xia; Xu, Wenqing; Wang, Shuiwang; Ma, Ye; Zhang, Fujie

2015-01-01

Due to the success of highly active antiretroviral therapy, more children infected with HIV perinatally are living to adolescence. This brings new challenges on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs and psychosocial support specific to adolescents. To improve such efforts on long-term care of this vulnerable population, we assessed SRH and HIV knowledge and perceptions among perinatally HIV-infected adolescents (PHIVA). This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted between July and September 2013 in a rural HIV clinic. A structured questionnaire focusing on SRH and HIV was administered to 124 PHIVA attending quarterly medical visit. Multivariable logistic regression was used to detect associated factors with knowledge acquisition. Among participants, 79% had never discussed puberty development or sexuality with parents. Over 50% had never heard of condoms and 20% reported not having any informational source of SRH and HIV knowledge. Only 5% correctly answered all questions regarding HIV knowledge and pregnancy, with 18% correctly answered questions regarding contraception. Adolescents older than age of 15 and who had been disclosed of HIV status were more likely to acquire correct knowledge of SRH and HIV. Most PHIVA did not report having access to comprehensive information on SRH and HIV, in part because of the early death of caretakers or unfavorable family status. Further integration of SRH services with HIV treatment programs is needed to provide comprehensive care for adolescents and prepare them for the transition to adult care.

Does Incorrect Guessing Impair Fact Learning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kang, Sean H. K.; Pashler, Harold; Cepeda, Nicholas J.; Rohrer, Doug; Carpenter, Shana K.; Mozer, Michael C.

2011-01-01

Taking a test has been shown to produce enhanced retention of the retrieved information. On tests, however, students often encounter questions the answers for which they are unsure. Should they guess anyway, even if they are likely to answer incorrectly? Or are errors engrained, impairing subsequent learning of the correct answer? We sought to…

Semi-Automatic Grading of Students' Answers Written in Free Text

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Escudeiro, Nuno; Escudeiro, Paula; Cruz, Augusto

2011-01-01

The correct grading of free text answers to exam questions during an assessment process is time consuming and subject to fluctuations in the application of evaluation criteria, particularly when the number of answers is high (in the hundreds). In consequence of these fluctuations, inherent to human nature, and largely determined by emotional…

Accurate and Inaccurate Conceptions about Osmosis That Accompanied Meaningful Problem Solving.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zuckerman, June Trop

This study focused on the knowledge of six outstanding science students who solved an osmosis problem meaningfully. That is, they used appropriate and substantially accurate conceptual knowledge to generate an answer. Three generated a correct answer; three, an incorrect answer. This paper identifies both the accurate and inaccurate conceptions…

Quantum Change Point

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sentís, Gael; Bagan, Emilio; Calsamiglia, John; Chiribella, Giulio; Muñoz-Tapia, Ramon

2016-10-01

Sudden changes are ubiquitous in nature. Identifying them is crucial for a number of applications in biology, medicine, and social sciences. Here we take the problem of detecting sudden changes to the quantum domain. We consider a source that emits quantum particles in a default state, until a point where a mutation occurs that causes the source to switch to another state. The problem is then to find out where the change occurred. We determine the maximum probability of correctly identifying the change point, allowing for collective measurements on the whole sequence of particles emitted by the source. Then, we devise online strategies where the particles are measured individually and an answer is provided as soon as a new particle is received. We show that these online strategies substantially underperform the optimal quantum measurement, indicating that quantum sudden changes, although happening locally, are better detected globally.

Telephone survey of hospital staff knowledge of medical device surveillance in a Paris hospital.

PubMed

Mazeau, Valérie; Grenier-Sennelier, Catherine; Paturel, Denys Xavier; Mokhtari, Mostafa; Vidal-Trecan, Gwenaëlle

2004-12-01

Reporting of incidents or near incidents because of medical devices in French hospitals relies on procedures following European and national guidelines. The authors intend to evaluate hospital staff knowledge on these surveillance procedures as a marker of appropriate application. A telephone survey is conducted on a sample of Paris University hospital staff (n = 327) using a structured questionnaire. Two-hundred sixteen persons completed the questionnaire. The response rate was lower among physicians, especially surgeons paid on an hourly basis. Rates of correct answers were different according to age, seniority, job, and department categories. Physicians and nurses correctly answered questions on theoretical knowledge more often than the other job categories. However, on questions dealing with actual practice conditions, correct answers depended more on age and seniority with a U-shaped distribution (minimum rates in intermediate categories of age and seniority).

Hypercorrection of high-confidence errors in the classroom.

PubMed

Carpenter, Shana K; Haynes, Cynthia L; Corral, Daniel; Yeung, Kam Leung

2018-05-19

People often have erroneous knowledge about the world that is firmly entrenched in memory and endorsed with high confidence. Although strong errors in memory would seem difficult to "un-learn," evidence suggests that errors are more likely to be corrected through feedback when they are originally endorsed with high confidence compared to low confidence. This hypercorrection effect has been predominantly studied in laboratory settings with general knowledge (i.e., trivia) questions, however, and has not been systematically explored in authentic classroom contexts. In the current study, college students in an introductory horticulture class answered questions about the course content, rated their confidence in their answers, received feedback of the correct answers, and then later completed a posttest. Results revealed a significant hypercorrection effect, along with a tendency for students with higher prior knowledge of the material to express higher confidence in, and in turn more effective correction of, their error responses.

Level of knowledge concerning diet in type 2 diabetic patients and nurses.

PubMed

Napierała, Małgorzata Urszula; Hermann, Dorota; Homa, Katarzyna; Bryśkiewicz, Marta Ewa; Majkowska, Liliana

Among patients with diabetes, there are many myths concerning food products which are believed to lower or not influence the blood glucose (BG) level. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge of patients with diabetes and hospital nurses concerning popular food products and their impact on BG levels. The study group consisted of 250 patients with diabetes (DM), members of the Polish Diabetes Association; the other group consisted of 123 healthy nurses (N) from 3 hospitals in Szczecin, Poland. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire on products common in diabetic diet (grapefruit, honey, coffee substitute, diabetic chocolate, milk soup, pork neck) and their influence on BG levels. The highest percentage of wrong answers was given for pork (DM 71%; N 83%, NS) and grapefruit (DM 51%; N 77%, p < 0.01), while the most correct answers were for honey (DM 69%; N 80%; p < 0.05) and milk soup (DM 64%; N 67%, NS). Negative correlation was found between the number of correct answers and the age of patients (r(s) = −0,14; p < 0.01;) and no correlation between the number of correct answers and the duration of diabetes mellitus (NS). Patients treated with insulin provided correct answers significantly more frequently than patients on oral medication only (44% vs 34.8%; p < 0.01). 1. The level of knowledge concerning products commonly used in diabetic diet among patients with diabetes and hospital nurses is low. 2. Both groups, patients and hospital nurses, need education about diabetic diet.

Undergraduate Students’ Initial Ability in Understanding Phylogenetic Tree

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sa'adah, S.; Hidayat, T.; Sudargo, Fransisca

2017-04-01

The Phylogenetic tree is a visual representation depicts a hypothesis about the evolutionary relationship among taxa. Evolutionary experts use this representation to evaluate the evidence for evolution. The phylogenetic tree is currently growing for many disciplines in biology. Consequently, learning about the phylogenetic tree has become an important part of biological education and an interesting area of biology education research. Skill to understanding and reasoning of the phylogenetic tree, (called tree thinking) is an important skill for biology students. However, research showed many students have difficulty in interpreting, constructing, and comparing among the phylogenetic tree, as well as experiencing a misconception in the understanding of the phylogenetic tree. Students are often not taught how to reason about evolutionary relationship depicted in the diagram. Students are also not provided with information about the underlying theory and process of phylogenetic. This study aims to investigate the initial ability of undergraduate students in understanding and reasoning of the phylogenetic tree. The research method is the descriptive method. Students are given multiple choice questions and an essay that representative by tree thinking elements. Each correct answer made percentages. Each student is also given questionnaires. The results showed that the undergraduate students’ initial ability in understanding and reasoning phylogenetic tree is low. Many students are not able to answer questions about the phylogenetic tree. Only 19 % undergraduate student who answered correctly on indicator evaluate the evolutionary relationship among taxa, 25% undergraduate student who answered correctly on indicator applying concepts of the clade, 17% undergraduate student who answered correctly on indicator determines the character evolution, and only a few undergraduate student who can construct the phylogenetic tree.

A community survey on knowledge of the impact of environmental and epigenetic factors on health and disease.

PubMed

Miller, Marian; Bailey, Banita; Govindarajah, Vinothini; Levin, Linda; Metzger, Traci; Pinney, Susan M; Leung, Yuet-Kin; Ho, Shuk-Mei

2016-11-01

An outreach effort was designed to survey breast cancer survivors, supporters and their families and friends with respect to their interest in, and knowledge of, the potential impact of the environment and epigenetics on health. Two nearly identical questionnaires (one for adolescents and one for adults) were designed to gauge the perception of this community as to whether the environment impacts health and cancer risk through processes other than genetics. The questionnaires were filled out at casual social gatherings, fundraisers and wellness campaigns as well as in schools (730 participants). The differences among correct (scientific consensus) versus other responses (incorrect and not known) were evaluated. Each answer was first analysed individually and then grouped into one of three categories (diet, inheritance and environment) with age, race and gender. Differences for each response, question or group were compared by repeated measures analysis of variance. Respondents generally acknowledged that many factors could be associated with breast cancer although answers to key questions related to epigenetics based on diet, inheritance and environment were often incorrect or not known. The adult participants tended to answer more questions correctly than adolescents did. The majority of participants preferred the Internet as a major source for obtaining further information. The growing awareness and educational needs for adolescents may bring new paradigm-related environmental risk factors, which may minimise negative epigenetic outcome in subsequent generations. There is an educational opportunity, especially using electronic media, for public education concerning the impact of the environment on human health. © Royal Society for Public Health 2016.

Accuracy of Answers Provided by Digital/Face-to-Face Reference Services in Japanese Public Libraries and Q & A Sites

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsuji, Keita; To, Haruna; Hara, Atsuyuki

2011-01-01

We asked the same 60 questions using DRS (digital reference services) in Japanese public libraries, face-to-face reference services and Q & A (question and answer) sites. It was found that: (1) The correct answer ratio of DRS is higher than that of Q & A sites; (2) DRS takes longer to provide answers as compared to Q & A sites; and (3)…

Pharmacists' knowledge and interest in developing counseling skills relating to oral contraceptives.

PubMed

Amin, Mohamed E K

2016-04-01

Possessing correct therapeutic information on oral contraceptives is an important prerequisite for the provision of sound advice to women who are using these products. This study examines Egyptian pharmacists' knowledge of pharmacotherapeutic aspects of oral contraceptives as well as interest in developing skills in providing counseling on oral contraceptive pills. Community pharmacies throughout Alexandria, Egypt. A cross-sectional survey was self-administered by a random sample of community pharmacists in Alexandria, Egypt. Five multiple choice questions likely to arise when counseling women on oral contraceptives were constructed. Questions covered compatibility with breastfeeding, precautions, health risks and managing missed pills of oral contraceptives. Using ordered logistic regression, a model was estimated to predict pharmacists' interest in developing skills in providing counseling on oral contraceptives. Pharmacists' aggregate scores for knowledge questions and pharmacists' interest in developing skills in providing counseling on oral contraceptive pills. Of the 181 approached pharmacists, 92 % participated. Twenty one pharmacists (13 %) did not know the correct answer to any question, 122 (73 %) answered one-two correctly, 23 (14 %) answered three-four correctly. No pharmacist answered all five questions correctly. For pharmacists' interest in developing skills in providing counseling on oral contraceptives, the percentage values for answers were: not interested at all (10.2 %), slightly interested (27.0 %), somewhat interested (23.4 %), interested (30.0 %) and extremely interested (9.6 %). Pharmacists' interest in developing skills in providing counseling on oral contraceptives was significantly associated with the number of women who requested advice from the pharmacists on oral contraceptives (OR 1.54, CI 1.24-1.91). In terms of the learning method of preference, percentage values for answers were: attending a workshop (4 %), online course (18 %), publications distributed to pharmacy (44 %), other methods (1 %) and more than one method (23 %). Ten percent were not interested in developing their skills on oral contraceptives. This study identifies considerable gaps among community pharmacists' knowledge of oral contraceptives. It also shows variation in willingness and choice of learning strategies among pharmacists to develop their skills in providing counseling on oral contraceptives.

[Evaluation of knowledge about colon cancer prevention versus other tumors].

PubMed

Sanguinetti, José María; Henry, Nicolás; Ocaña, Domingo; Polesel, Julio Lotero

2015-06-01

In Argentina almost 7% of deaths are due to different cancers with screening strategies. Evaluate knowledge about cancer prevention compared with other tumors. Materials. A descriptive and comparative study. A survey between April and June 2013 in Salta City, province of Salta, Argentina. Correct answers were considered. Statistical analysis: Descriptive (mean and percentage), comparative Chi square Test (significance level P<0,05). 100 surveys. Correct answers: 36% Colon (CI 0,27-0,45), 46% Prostate (CI 0,33-0,52) and 69 (CI 0,59-0,77) and 58 (CI 0,48-0,67)for mama and cervix. 20% (CI 0,13-0,28) knew that colon cancer has a genetic predisposition and 58% (CI 0,48-0,67) about mama. 73% (CI 0,63-0,8) received information about cancer prevention. The main source of information was the physician. 46% (CI 0,36-0,55) received medical care in private institutions. Those who had social security, higher educational levels and medical care in private institutions had better knowledge about cancer prevention except in colon cancer. The global results showed levels below 70% in general but extremely low in colon cancer. Not having social security, receiving medical care in public institutions and having a low educational level are related with poor knowledge about cancer prevention except for colon and prostate cancer.

Correlating Student Knowledge and Confidence Using a Graded Knowledge Survey to Assess Student Learning in a General Microbiology Classroom †

PubMed Central

Favazzo, Lacey; Willford, John D.; Watson, Rachel M.

2014-01-01

Knowledge surveys are a type of confidence survey in which students rate their confidence in their ability to answer questions rather than answering the questions. These surveys have been discussed as a tool to evaluate student in-class or curriculum-wide learning. However, disagreement exists as to whether confidence is actually an accurate measure of knowledge. With the concomitant goals of assessing content-based learning objectives and addressing this disagreement, we present herein a pretest/posttest knowledge survey study that demonstrates a significant difference correctness on graded test questions at different levels of reported confidence in a multi-semester timeframe. Questions were organized into Bloom’s taxonomy, allowing for the data collected to further provide statistical analyses on strengths and deficits in various levels of Bloom’s reasoning with regard to mean correctness. Collectively, students showed increasing confidence and correctness in all levels of thought but struggled with synthesis-level questions. However, when students were only asked to rate confidence and not answer the accompanying test questions, they reported significantly higher confidence than the control group which was asked to do both. This indicates that when students do not attempt to answer questions, they have significantly greater confidence in their ability to answer those questions. Additionally, when students rate only confidence without answering the question, resolution across Bloom’s levels of reasoning is lost. Based upon our findings, knowledge surveys can be an effective tool for assessment of both breadth and depth of knowledge, but may require students to answer questions in addition to rating confidence to provide the most accurate data. PMID:25574291

[Assessment of municipal management of oral health in primary care: data collection instrument accuracy].

PubMed

Pires, Diego Anselmi; Colussi, Claudia Flemming; Calvo, Maria Cristina Marino

2014-11-01

This validation study seeks to check the accuracy of an evaluation model. In an evaluation, it is necessary to validate the precision and reliability of the data collection instrument. In this study, the Management Assessment of Oral Health in Primary Care in Santa Catarina was used as a benchmark to calculate the indicators. Its model analyzes primary data, collected via an electronic form, and secondary data, available in the Unified Health System (SUS) database. For this study, the form was applied in the cities of Santa Catarina's Coal Region at two different moments to check its reproducibility, followed by a discussion over the answers with the researcher. The results obtained were analyzed and debated in a consensus workshop with specialists in the field, detecting inaccuracies relating to the concept, the source used and the profile of the respondents themselves. The gross agreement rate in the two data collections was 87%, and the inaccuracies amounted to 36% of the answers. Preferential source suggestions, question modifications and guidelines for the correct filling out of the form were some of the proposed changes, improving the original matrix and the data collection instrument.

"The new history of psychology: Some (different) answers to Lovett's five questions": Correction to Brock (2017).

PubMed

2017-05-01

Reports an error in "The New History of Psychology: Some (Different) Answers to Lovett's Five Questions" by Adrian C. Brock ( History of Psychology , Advanced Online Publication, Jun 27, 2016, np). In this article there was an error in the 11th paragraph of the Lovett's Five Questions for the New Historians section. The conference paper "The "new" history of science: Implications for philosophy of science" by Rachel Laudan (1992) was wrongly attributed to her husband, Larry Laudan. All versions of this article have been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2016-31594-001.) The professionalization of the history of psychology from the 1960s led to significant changes in the way that history was written. Several authors tried to summarize these changes in the 1980s, and Laurel Furumoto's (1989) G. Stanley Hall lecture, "The new history of psychology" is the best-known example of this genre. This journal published a critique of the new history by Benjamin R. Lovett (2006) with the title, "The new history of psychology: A review and critique," and it is still being cited as an authoritative source. The article consists of 3 parts. First, the author attempts to show that the new history is not as different from the old as its proponents claim. He then discusses some problems that he considers to be unique to the new history, and he presents them in the form of 5 questions for the new historians, which he then goes on to answer himself. Finally, he discusses the problematic relationship between critical history and psychology. This article is a reply to Lovett's article. The author argues that the new history is different from the old in every way that Lovett claims that it is not. It critically analyzes Lovett's answers to his own 5 questions and offers some alternative answers to these questions. It also suggests that many psychologist-historians are opposed to new history of psychology, especially in its critical versions, and that this explains why Lovett's article has been uncritically received. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Counterfactual Reasoning: Developing a sense of “nearest possible world”

PubMed Central

Rafetseder, Eva; Cristi-Vargas, Renate; Perner, Josef

2011-01-01

We investigated at what point in development 3- to 6-year-old children begin to demonstrate counterfactual reasoning by controlling for fortuitously correct answers that result from basic conditional reasoning. Basic conditional reasoning occurs when one applies typical regularities (such as “If it doesn’t rain the street is dry”) to counterfactual questions (such as “If it had not rained, would the street be wet or dry?”) without regard to actual events (for example, if street cleaners had just been washing the street). In counterfactual reasoning, however, the conditional reasoning must be constrained by actual events (according to the “nearest possible world”). In situations when counterfactual reasoning and basic conditional reasoning would yield the same answers, even the youngest children gave mostly correct answers. However, tasks in which the two reasoning strategies resulted in different answers proved unusually difficult even for the older children. PMID:20331674

Visual Turing test for computer vision systems

PubMed Central

Geman, Donald; Geman, Stuart; Hallonquist, Neil; Younes, Laurent

2015-01-01

Today, computer vision systems are tested by their accuracy in detecting and localizing instances of objects. As an alternative, and motivated by the ability of humans to provide far richer descriptions and even tell a story about an image, we construct a “visual Turing test”: an operator-assisted device that produces a stochastic sequence of binary questions from a given test image. The query engine proposes a question; the operator either provides the correct answer or rejects the question as ambiguous; the engine proposes the next question (“just-in-time truthing”). The test is then administered to the computer-vision system, one question at a time. After the system’s answer is recorded, the system is provided the correct answer and the next question. Parsing is trivial and deterministic; the system being tested requires no natural language processing. The query engine employs statistical constraints, learned from a training set, to produce questions with essentially unpredictable answers—the answer to a question, given the history of questions and their correct answers, is nearly equally likely to be positive or negative. In this sense, the test is only about vision. The system is designed to produce streams of questions that follow natural story lines, from the instantiation of a unique object, through an exploration of its properties, and on to its relationships with other uniquely instantiated objects. PMID:25755262

The new history of psychology: Some (different) answers to Lovett's five questions.

PubMed

Brock, Adrian C

2017-05-01

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 20(2) of History of Psychology (see record 2016-53552-001). In this article there was an error in the 11th paragraph of the Lovett's Five Questions for the New Historians section. The conference paper "The "new" history of science: Implications for philosophy of science" by Rachel Laudan (1992) was wrongly attributed to her husband, Larry Laudan. All versions of this article have been corrected.] The professionalization of the history of psychology from the 1960s led to significant changes in the way that history was written. Several authors tried to summarize these changes in the 1980s, and Laurel Furumoto's (1989) G. Stanley Hall lecture, "The new history of psychology" is the best-known example of this genre. This journal published a critique of the new history by Benjamin R. Lovett (2006) with the title, "The new history of psychology: A review and critique," and it is still being cited as an authoritative source. The article consists of 3 parts. First, the author attempts to show that the new history is not as different from the old as its proponents claim. He then discusses some problems that he considers to be unique to the new history, and he presents them in the form of 5 questions for the new historians, which he then goes on to answer himself. Finally, he discusses the problematic relationship between critical history and psychology. This article is a reply to Lovett's article. The author argues that the new history is different from the old in every way that Lovett claims that it is not. It critically analyzes Lovett's answers to his own 5 questions and offers some alternative answers to these questions. It also suggests that many psychologist-historians are opposed to new history of psychology, especially in its critical versions, and that this explains why Lovett's article has been uncritically received. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Patients with schizophrenia activate behavioural intentions facilitated by counterfactual reasoning.

PubMed

Contreras, Fernando; Albacete, Auria; Tebé, Cristian; Benejam, Bessy; Caño, Agnes; Menchón, José Manuel

2017-01-01

The main variables assessed were: answer to complete a target task (wrong or correctly), and percentage gain in the reaction time (RT) to complete a target task correctly depending on whether the prime was a counterfactual or a neutral-control cue. These variables were assessed in 37 patients with schizophrenia and 37 healthy controls. Potential associations with clinical status and socio-demographic characteristics were also explored. When a counterfactual prime was presented, the probability of giving an incorrect answer was lower for the entire sample than when a neutral prime was presented (OR 0.58; CI 95% 0.42 to 0.79), but the schizophrenia patients showed a higher probability than the controls of giving an incorrect answer (OR 3.89; CI 95% 2.0 to 7.6). Both the schizophrenia patients and the controls showed a similar percentage gain in RT to a correct answer of 8%. Challenging the results of previous research, our findings suggest a normal activation of behavioural intentions facilitated by CFT in schizophrenia. Nevertheless, the patients showed more difficulty than the controls with the task, adding support to the concept of CFT as a potential new target for consideration in future therapeutic approaches for this illness.

Using Clickers to Facilitate Development of Problem-Solving Skills

PubMed Central

Levesque, Aime A.

2011-01-01

Classroom response systems, or clickers, have become pedagogical staples of the undergraduate science curriculum at many universities. In this study, the effectiveness of clickers in promoting problem-solving skills in a genetics class was investigated. Students were presented with problems requiring application of concepts covered in lecture and were polled for the correct answer. A histogram of class responses was displayed, and students were encouraged to discuss the problem, which enabled them to better understand the correct answer. Students were then presented with a similar problem and were again polled. My results indicate that those students who were initially unable to solve the problem were then able to figure out how to solve similar types of problems through a combination of trial and error and class discussion. This was reflected in student performance on exams, where there was a statistically significant positive correlation between grades and the percentage of clicker questions answered. Interestingly, there was no clear correlation between exam grades and the percentage of clicker questions answered correctly. These results suggest that students who attempt to solve problems in class are better equipped to solve problems on exams. PMID:22135374

Setting health research priorities using the CHNRI method: V. Quantitative properties of human collective knowledge

PubMed Central

Rudan, Igor; Yoshida, Sachiyo; Wazny, Kerri; Chan, Kit Yee; Cousens, Simon

2016-01-01

Introduction The CHNRI method for setting health research priorities has crowdsourcing as the major component. It uses the collective opinion of a group of experts to generate, assess and prioritize between many competing health research ideas. It is difficult to compare the accuracy of human individual and collective opinions in predicting uncertain future outcomes before the outcomes are known. However, this limitation does not apply to existing knowledge, which is an important component underlying opinion. In this paper, we report several experiments to explore the quantitative properties of human collective knowledge and discuss their relevance to the CHNRI method. Methods We conducted a series of experiments in groups of about 160 (range: 122–175) undergraduate Year 2 medical students to compare their collective knowledge to their individual knowledge. We asked them to answer 10 questions on each of the following: (i) an area in which they have a degree of expertise (undergraduate Year 1 medical curriculum); (ii) an area in which they likely have some knowledge (general knowledge); and (iii) an area in which they are not expected to have any knowledge (astronomy). We also presented them with 20 pairs of well–known celebrities and asked them to identify the older person of the pair. In all these experiments our goal was to examine how the collective answer compares to the distribution of students’ individual answers. Results When answering the questions in their own area of expertise, the collective answer (the median) was in the top 20.83% of the most accurate individual responses; in general knowledge, it was in the top 11.93%; and in an area with no expertise, the group answer was in the top 7.02%. However, the collective answer based on mean values fared much worse, ranging from top 75.60% to top 95.91%. Also, when confronted with guessing the older of the two celebrities, the collective response was correct in 18/20 cases (90%), while the 8 most successful individuals among the students had 19/20 correct answers (95%). However, when the system in which the students who were not sure of the correct answer were allowed to either choose an award of half of the point in all such instances, or withdraw from responding, in order to improve the score of the collective, the collective was correct in 19/20 cases (95%), while the 3 most successful individuals were correct in 17/20 cases (85%). Conclusions Our experiments showed that the collective knowledge of a group with expertise in the subject should always be very close to the true value. In most cases and under most assumption, the collective knowledge will be more accurate than the knowledge of an “average” individual, but there always seems to be a small group of individuals who manage to out–perform the collective. The accuracy of collective prediction may be enhanced by allowing the individuals with low confidence in their answer to withdraw from answering. PMID:27350873

Technology Talks: clickers and gender in the classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Willoughby, Shannon

2007-05-01

Clickers are gaining popularity around college campuses, but research on clicker use in the classroom has been limited thus far. However, the manner in which clickers are used in the classroom seems to vary widely. Mark James^1 studied use of grading incentive in different sections of astronomy, with students in some sections getting points simply for clicking any answer, and other sections earning more points for clicking the correct answer. In our study, different sections again had different grading schema and groups were recorded periodically during discussions. Two points were given for a correct answer (1 point for incorrect) in section one, and two points for any answer in section two. Similar to James' results, we have found that students in section 1 are more likely overall to choose the correct answer than students in section 2. In section 2, students are more likely to choose the answer they think is correct, possibly because there is not threat of losing points due to choosing incorrectly. Talking amongst group members was encouraged in both sections, and 7 randomly chosen groups were recorded during the semester. There were 3 recording all semester. The recorded data was broken down by gender, in order to measure how gender dynamics affected the dialogue. Preliminary results show that group members were all contributing equally to the discussions, regardless of the overall gender makeup of the group, or the section (and hence the grading scheme). This result seems to be at odds with that found by Adams^2 et al. (2002), which involved classroom observations of student groups. Additional data will be analyzed from this course and further compared to the findings of Adams. *M. James, American Journal of Physics, 74, 689 (2006). *J. P. Adams, G. Brissenden, et al. Astronomy Education Review 1, 25 (2002). To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2007.NWS07.E1.5

The self-consistency model of subjective confidence.

PubMed

Koriat, Asher

2012-01-01

How do people monitor the correctness of their answers? A self-consistency model is proposed for the process underlying confidence judgments and their accuracy. In answering a 2-alternative question, participants are assumed to retrieve a sample of representations of the question and base their confidence on the consistency with which the chosen answer is supported across representations. Confidence is modeled by analogy to the calculation of statistical level of confidence (SLC) in testing hypotheses about a population and represents the participant's assessment of the likelihood that a new sample will yield the same choice. Assuming that participants draw representations from a commonly shared item-specific population of representations, predictions were derived regarding the function relating confidence to inter-participant consensus and intra-participant consistency for the more preferred (majority) and the less preferred (minority) choices. The predicted pattern was confirmed for several different tasks. The confidence-accuracy relationship was shown to be a by-product of the consistency-correctness relationship: It is positive because the answers that are consistently chosen are generally correct, but negative when the wrong answers tend to be favored. The overconfidence bias stems from the reliability-validity discrepancy: Confidence monitors reliability (or self-consistency), but its accuracy is evaluated in calibration studies against correctness. Simulation and empirical results suggest that response speed is a frugal cue for self-consistency, and its validity depends on the validity of self-consistency in predicting performance. Another mnemonic cue-accessibility, which is the overall amount of information that comes to mind-makes an added, independent contribution. Self-consistency and accessibility may correspond to the 2 parameters that affect SLC: sample variance and sample size.

Sex knowledge and attitudes of moderately retarded males.

PubMed

Edmonson, B; Wish, J

1975-09-01

In semistructured interview sessions, 18 moderately retarded men undergoing deinstitutional training, were questioned to determine their understanding of pictures of homosexual embrace, masturbation, dating, marriage, intercourse, pregnancy, childbirth, drunkenness, and their knowledge of anatomical terminology. The frequencies of various response categories revealed a range of comprehension, the lowest answering only 10 percent correctly, the median consisting of 28 percent correct, and only 1 subject correctly answering as many as one-half of the items. Correct conceptual responses significantly correlated with WAIS Full Scale and Verbal IQs and were also significantly related to the Adaptive Behavior Scale domains of Language, Socialization, and Responsibility. Serious errors of fact and conceptual confusion, though most prevalent in responses by the low comprehenders, were found in at least some responses by all of the men.

Meningococcal disease awareness and meningoccocal vaccination among Greek students planning to travel abroad.

PubMed

Pavli, Androula; Katerelos, Panagiotis; Maltezou, Helena C

2017-06-09

Objective Students living in dormitories are at increased risk for meningococcal disease. Our aim was to evaluate Greek students planning to study abroad about their level of meningococcal disease awareness and attitudes and practices towards meningococcal vaccination. Methods We studied 231 Greek ERASMUS students using a questionnaire. Results Students had a mean number of 4.1 correct answers out of six questions. In particular 66.5% 79.3%, 72.3% and 82.3% of them answered correctly about the etiology, transmission, epidemiology and treatment of meningococcal disease, respectively. Only 23.4% were vaccinated, whereas 14.7% were planning to do so in the near future. Students who answered correctly ≥5 questions were more likely to be male, vaccinated against meningococcal meningitis and science students. Conclusion We found an overall good level of knowledge about meningococcal disease among Greek students planning to study or already studying abroad. Knowledge about meningococcal disease was associated with vaccine uptake. However, vaccination rate against meningococcal disease was low.

Measuring University students' understanding of the greenhouse effect - a comparison of multiple-choice, short answer and concept sketch assessment tools with respect to students' mental models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gold, A. U.; Harris, S. E.

2013-12-01

The greenhouse effect comes up in most discussions about climate and is a key concept related to climate change. Existing studies have shown that students and adults alike lack a detailed understanding of this important concept or might hold misconceptions. We studied the effectiveness of different interventions on University-level students' understanding of the greenhouse effect. Introductory level science students were tested for their pre-knowledge of the greenhouse effect using validated multiple-choice questions, short answers and concept sketches. All students participated in a common lesson about the greenhouse effect and were then randomly assigned to one of two lab groups. One group explored an existing simulation about the greenhouse effect (PhET-lesson) and the other group worked with absorption spectra of different greenhouse gases (Data-lesson) to deepen the understanding of the greenhouse effect. All students completed the same assessment including multiple choice, short answers and concept sketches after participation in their lab lesson. 164 students completed all the assessments, 76 completed the PhET lesson and 77 completed the data lesson. 11 students missed the contrasting lesson. In this presentation we show the comparison between the multiple-choice questions, short answer questions and the concept sketches of students. We explore how well each of these assessment types represents student's knowledge. We also identify items that are indicators of the level of understanding of the greenhouse effect as measured in correspondence of student answers to an expert mental model and expert responses. Preliminary data analysis shows that student who produce concept sketch drawings that come close to expert drawings also choose correct multiple-choice answers. However, correct multiple-choice answers are not necessarily an indicator that a student produces an expert-like correlating concept sketch items. Multiple-choice questions that require detailed knowledge of the greenhouse effect (e.g. direction of re-emission of infrared energy from greenhouse gas) are significantly more likely to be answered correctly by students who also produce expert-like concept sketch items than by students who don't include this aspect in their sketch and don't answer the multiple choice questions correctly. This difference is not as apparent for less technical multiple-choice questions (e.g. type of radiation emitted by Sun). Our findings explore the formation of student's mental models throughout different interventions and how well the different assessment techniques used in this study represent the student understanding of the overall concept.

Towards a full reference library of MS(n) spectra. Testing of a library containing 3126 MS2 spectra of 1743 compounds.

PubMed

Milman, Boris L

2005-01-01

A library consisting of 3766 MS(n) spectra of 1743 compounds, including 3126 MS2 spectra acquired mainly using ion trap (IT) and triple-quadrupole (QqQ) instruments, was composed of numerous collections/sources. Ionization techniques were mainly electrospray ionization and also atmospheric pressure chemical ionization and chemical ionization. The library was tested for the performance in identification of unknowns, and in this context this work is believed to be the largest of all known tests of product-ion mass spectral libraries. The MS2 spectra of the same compounds from different collections were in turn divided into spectra of 'unknown' and reference compounds. For each particular compound, library searches were performed resulting in selection by taking into account the best matches for each spectral collection/source. Within each collection/source, replicate MS2 spectra differed in the collision energy used. Overall, there were up to 950 search results giving the best match factors and their ranks in corresponding hit lists. In general, the correct answers were obtained as the 1st rank in up to 60% of the search results when retrieved with (on average) 2.2 'unknown' and 6.2 reference replicates per compound. With two or more replicates of both 'unknown' and reference spectra (the average numbers of replicates were 4.0 and 7.8, respectively), the fraction of correct answers in the 1st rank increased to 77%. This value is close to the performance of established electron ionization mass spectra libraries (up to 79%) found by other workers. The hypothesis that MS2 spectra better match reference spectra acquired using the same type of tandem mass spectrometer (IT or QqQ) was neither strongly proved nor rejected here. The present work shows that MS2 spectral libraries containing sufficiently numerous different entries for each compound are sufficiently efficient for identification of unknowns and suitable for use with different tandem mass spectrometers. 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Answering Fixed Response Items in Chemistry: A Pilot Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hateley, R. J.

1979-01-01

Presents a pilot study on student thinking in chemistry. Verbal comments of a group of six college students were recorded and analyzed to identify how each student arrives at the correct answer in fixed response items in chemisty. (HM)

Set of Criteria for Efficiency of the Process Forming the Answers to Multiple-Choice Test Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rybanov, Alexander Aleksandrovich

2013-01-01

Is offered the set of criteria for assessing efficiency of the process forming the answers to multiple-choice test items. To increase accuracy of computer-assisted testing results, it is suggested to assess dynamics of the process of forming the final answer using the following factors: loss of time factor and correct choice factor. The model…

Sources of adult mesenchymal stem cells for ligament and tendon tissue engineering.

PubMed

Dhinsa, Baljinder S; Mahapatra, Anant N; Khan, Wasim S

2015-01-01

Tendon and ligament injuries are common, and repair slowly with reduced biomechanical properties. With increasing financial demands on the health service and patients to recover from tendon and ligament injuries faster, and with less morbidity, health professionals are exploring new treatment options. Tissue engineering may provide the answer, with its unlimited source of natural cells that in the correct environment may improve repair and regeneration of tendon and ligament tissue. Mesenchymal stem cells have demonstrated the ability to self renew and have multilineage differentiation potential. The use of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells has been reported, however significant in vitro culture expansion is required due to the low yield of cells, which has financial implications. Harvesting of bone marrow cells also has associated morbidity. Several studies have looked at alternative sources for mesenchymal stem cells. Reports in literature from animal studies have been encouraging, however further work is required. This review assesses the potential sources of mesenchymal stem cells for tissue engineering in tendons and ligaments.

Effect of ethanol on psychomotor performance and on risk taking behaviour.

PubMed

Farquhar, K; Lambert, K; Drummond, G B; Tiplady, B; Wright, P

2002-12-01

Ethanol may increase the willingness to take risks, but this issue remains controversial. We used a risk-taking paradigm in which volunteers answered a series of general knowledge questions with numerical answers and were asked to judge the length of a line that would just fit into a given gap. A maximum score was given for an exactly correct answer. For answers that were less than the correct value, the score was reduced gradually to zero, while answers even slightly over the correct value were penalized considerably. Total points were rewarded by cash payments, so volunteers were taking real risks when making their responses. Performance was assessed in a two-period, double-blind crossover study, comparing ethanol (0.7 g/kg) with placebo in 20 female volunteers aged 19-20 years. Tests were carried out before and at 45 min after dosing. Mean (SD) ethanol blood alcohol concentrations were 65 (10.5) mg/100 ml. Ethanol impaired the skill/ability measure of the length estimation test (SD of difference between length of line and gap), which increased from 5.9 to 6.6 (p < 0.05), indicating a reduced accuracy of estimation. The risk measures in both tasks were not significantly affected. The skill/ability measure in the general knowledge task was not significantly affected. Other performance tests showed that ethanol produced the expected impairment of both speed and accuracy. These results suggest that risk-taking is not increased by ethanol at doses approaching the UK legal limit for driving.

Dental Students' Use of AMSTAR to Critically Appraise Systematic Reviews.

PubMed

Teich, Sorin T; Heima, Masahiro; Lang, Lisa

2015-09-01

The idea of basing clinical procedures upon evidence gathered by observation is less than 200 years old, with the first set of evidence-based position papers dating back only to the early 1970s. The relationship between evidence-based education and health outcomes is difficult to test and may be indirect, but teaching critical appraisal skills may be beneficial in developing knowledge. Systematic reviews have a central role in the process of clinical decision making in practice and therefore should be of high quality, following a rigorous protocol that can be evaluated with validated tools. The aim of this study was to assess how dental students utilized the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) appraisal tool to evaluate systematic reviews in the context of a treatment planning course. During the in-class final exam, students were required to appraise the quality of a systematic review and to justify their answers. Of the 74 third-year students who took the exam, 100% answered all questions on the AMSTAR form. The mean number of correct answers was nine (SD=1.047, Min=6, Max=10), with no student providing all 11 correct answers. The fact that nearly 90% of the students provided eight or more correct answers suggests that AMSTAR can be used by students to evaluate the methodological quality of systematic reviews. It also was evident that although the AMSTAR tool requires less than 15 minutes to complete an evaluation, using it requires extensive training and repetition to achieve consistent and reliable results.

Working memory and the memory distortion component of hindsight bias.

PubMed

Calvillo, Dustin P

2012-01-01

One component of hindsight bias is memory distortion: Individuals' recollections of their predictions are biased towards known outcomes. The present study examined the role of working memory in the memory distortion component of hindsight bias. Participants answered almanac-like questions, completed a measure of working memory capacity, were provided with the correct answers, and attempted to recollect their original judgements in two conditions: with and without a concurrent working memory load. Participants' recalled judgements were more biased by feedback when they recalled these judgements with a concurrent memory load and working memory capacity was negatively correlated with memory distortion. These findings are consistent with reconstruction accounts of the memory distortion component of hindsight bias and, more generally, with dual process theories of cognition. These results also relate the memory distortion component of hindsight bias with other cognitive errors, such as source monitoring errors, the belief bias in syllogistic reasoning and anchoring effects. Implications for the separate components view of hindsight bias are discussed.

The P.A.C.E.S. Grading Rubric: Creating a Student-Owned Assessment Tool for Projects-The Design Brief Brings out All Kinds of "Out of the Box" Thinking, with Many Correct Answers to Solve the Problem

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tufte, Robert B., Jr.

2005-01-01

P.A.C.E.S. stands for Participation, Appearance, Cleanup, Engineering, and Safety. The author has traditionally used design briefs to set the limits on processes and materials to solve a given problem. The design brief brings out all kinds of "out of the box" thinking, with many correct answers to solve the problem. The P.A.C.E.S. rubric ties the…

Impression formation of tests: retrospective judgments of performance are higher when easier questions come first.

PubMed

Jackson, Abigail; Greene, Robert L

2014-11-01

Four experiments are reported on the importance of retrospective judgments of performance (postdictions) on tests. Participants answered general knowledge questions and estimated how many questions they answered correctly. They gave higher postdictions when easy questions preceded difficult questions. This was true when time to answer each question was equalized and constrained, when participants were instructed not to write answers, and when questions were presented in a multiple-choice format. Results are consistent with the notion that first impressions predominate in overall perception of test difficulty.

Food safety knowledge, attitude and practices of meat handler in abattoir and retail meat shops of Jigjiga Town, Ethiopia.

PubMed

Tegegne, H A; Phyo, H W W

2017-12-01

A cross-sectional survey was carried out among 91 meat handlers by using structured questionnaire to determine the food safety knowledge, attitude and practices in abattoir and retail meat shops of Jigjiga Town. The result shows that majority of the meat handlers were illiterate (30.8%) and primary school leaver (52.7%), and no one went through any food safety training except one meat inspector. The food-handlers' knowledge and safety practices were below acceptable level with the mean score of 13.12 ± 2.33 and 7.7 ± 2.1 respectively. Only few respondents knew about Staphylococcus aureus (3.3% correct answer), hepatitis A virus (19.8% correct answer), and E. coli (5.5% correct answer) as food borne pathogens. About 64% of meat handlers have good attitude about safety of food with mean of total score 14.4 ± 2. All respondents answer correctly questions about proper meat handling and hand washing but they did not translate into strict food hygiene practices. Chi2 analysis testing for the association between knowledge, attitude and practices did not show any significant association. It may be due to meat handlers' below acceptable level safety practices regardless of sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge and attitude. However, there was strong association between level of education and knowledge, and knowledge and hand washing (p < 0.05). There was also association between age and knowledge though it was not statistically significant. Thus, continuous education and hands on training for meat handlers that can enhance good safety practices through better understanding and positive attitude.

Food safety knowledge, attitude and practices of meat handler in abattoir and retail meat shops of Jigjiga Town, Ethiopia

PubMed Central

TEGEGNE, H.A.; PHYO, H.W.W.

2017-01-01

Summary A cross-sectional survey was carried out among 91 meat handlers by using structured questionnaire to determine the food safety knowledge, attitude and practices in abattoir and retail meat shops of Jigjiga Town. The result shows that majority of the meat handlers were illiterate (30.8%) and primary school leaver (52.7%), and no one went through any food safety training except one meat inspector. The food-handlers’ knowledge and safety practices were below acceptable level with the mean score of 13.12 ± 2.33 and 7.7 ± 2.1 respectively. Only few respondents knew about Staphylococcus aureus (3.3% correct answer), hepatitis A virus (19.8% correct answer), and E. coli (5.5% correct answer) as food borne pathogens. About 64% of meat handlers have good attitude about safety of food with mean of total score 14.4 ± 2. All respondents answer correctly questions about proper meat handling and hand washing but they did not translate into strict food hygiene practices. Chi2 analysis testing for the association between knowledge, attitude and practices did not show any significant association. It may be due to meat handlers’ below acceptable level safety practices regardless of sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge and attitude. However, there was strong association between level of education and knowledge, and knowledge and hand washing (p < 0.05). There was also association between age and knowledge though it was not statistically significant. Thus, continuous education and hands on training for meat handlers that can enhance good safety practices through better understanding and positive attitude. PMID:29707664

The Written Corrective Feedback Debate: Next Steps for Classroom Teachers and Practitioners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Dan

2012-01-01

Language teachers spend much of their time providing corrective feedback on students' writing in hope of helping them improve grammatical accuracy. Turning to research for guidance, however, can leave practitioners with few concrete answers as to the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (CF). Debate in the literature continues, reflecting…

[Educational usefulness of lung auscultation training with an auscultation simulator].

PubMed

Arimura, Yasuji; Komatsu, Hiroyuki; Yanagi, Shigehisa; Matsumoto, Nobuhiro; Okayama, Akihiko; Hayashi, Katsuhiro; Nakazato, Masamitsu

2011-06-01

We examined the educational usefulness of lung auscultation training with an auscultation simulator "Mr. Lung". Auscultation training was conducted for fifth-year students of the Medical Department of the University of Miyazaki, and consisted of a lecture by a pulmonologist (Board Certified Member of the Japanese Respiratory Society) and skill training using Mr. Lung for a total of 90 min. We compared the percentages of students who correctly identified 4 adventitious sounds before and after training. We also investigated the responses to a self-report questionnaire on self-evaluation after training, auscultation experiences before training, and opinions regarding medical education with the simulator. The subjects' correct answer rate before training was 40% or less and that for the correct identification of rhonchi was the lowest (5%). The correct answer rate, which was not influenced by previous experience of auscultation, significantly increased after training (80% or more). In the self-report questionnaire, about 90% of the students answered that the ability to identify lung sounds by auscultation was necessary for all doctors and that the simulator was effective for acquiring this skill. The auscultation simulator may be useful for medical students not only to enhance auscultatory skills but also to realize the importance of auscultation in clinical examination.

Conceptual question response times in Peer Instruction classrooms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, Kelly; Lasry, Nathaniel; Lukoff, Brian; Schell, Julie; Mazur, Eric

2014-12-01

Classroom response systems are widely used in interactive teaching environments as a way to engage students by asking them questions. Previous research on the time taken by students to respond to conceptual questions has yielded insights on how students think and change conceptions. We measure the amount of time students take to respond to in-class, conceptual questions [ConcepTests (CTs)] in two introductory physics courses taught using Peer Instruction and use item response theory to determine the difficulty of the CTs. We examine response time differences between correct and incorrect answers both before and after the peer discussion for CTs of varying difficulty. We also determine the relationship between response time and student performance on a standardized test of incoming physics knowledge, precourse self-efficacy, and gender. Our data reveal three results of interest. First, response time for correct answers is significantly faster than for incorrect answers, both before and after peer discussion, especially for easy CTs. Second, students with greater incoming physics knowledge and higher self-efficacy respond faster in both rounds. Third, there is no gender difference in response rate after controlling for incoming physics knowledge scores, although males register significantly more attempts before committing to a final answer than do female students. These results provide insight into effective CT pacing during Peer Instruction. In particular, in order to maintain a pace that keeps everyone engaged, students should not be given too much time to respond. When around 80% of the answers are in, the ratio of correct to incorrect responses rapidly approaches levels indicating random guessing and instructors should close the poll.

Randomized, noninferiority study between video versus hand ultrasound with wet foam dressing materials to simulate B-lines in lung ultrasound: A CONSORT-compliant article.

PubMed

Park, Eun Jung; Yoon, Young Tak; Hong, Chong Kun; Ha, Young Rock; Ahn, Jung Hwan

2017-07-01

This study evaluated the efficacy of a teaching method using simulated B-lines of hand ultrasound with a wet foam dressing material. This prospective, randomized, noninferiority study was conducted on emergency medical technician students without any relevant training in ultrasound. Following a lecture including simulated (SG) or real video clips (RG) of B-lines, a posttest was conducted and a retention test was performed after 2 months. The test consisted of questions about B-lines in 40 randomly mixed video clips (20 simulated and 20 real videos) with 4 answer scores (R-1 [the correct answer score for the real video clips] vs S-1 [the correct answer score for the simulated video clips] in the posttest, R-2 [the correct answer score for the real video clips] vs S-2 [the correct answer score for the simulated video clips] in the retention test). A total of 77 and 73 volunteers participated in the posttest (RG, 38; SG, 39) and retention test (RG, 36; SG, 37), respectively. There was no significant (P > .05) difference in scores of R-1, S-1, R-2, or S-2 between RG and SG. The mean score differences between RG and SG were -0.6 (95% confidence interval [CI]: -1.49 to 0.11) in R-1, -0.1 (95% CI: -1.04 to 0.86) in S-1, 0 (95% CI: -1.57 to 1.50) in R-2, and -0.2 (95% CI: -1.52 to 0.25) in S-2. The mean differences and 95% CIs for all parameters fell within the noninferiority margin of 2 points (10%). Simulated B-lines of hand ultrasound with a wet foam dressing material were not inferior to real B-lines. They were effective for teaching and simulations. The study was registered with the Clinical Trial Registry of Korea: https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/index.jsp (KCT0002144).

Representing Uncertainty on Model Analysis Plots

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Trevor I.

2016-01-01

Model analysis provides a mechanism for representing student learning as measured by standard multiple-choice surveys. The model plot contains information regarding both how likely students in a particular class are to choose the correct answer and how likely they are to choose an answer consistent with a well-documented conceptual model.…

Questions and Answers on Disciplining Students with Disabilities. OSEP Memorandum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heumann, Judith E.; Hehir, Thomas

This document, presented in question and answer format, provides guidance about legal requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) concerning the misconduct of students with disabilities and corrects the misunderstanding that students with disabilities are exempt from discipline under current law. It discusses recent…

Inter-identity amnesia in dissociative identity disorder: a simulated memory impairment?

PubMed

Huntjens, Rafaële J C; Peters, Madelon L; Woertman, Liesbeth; Bovenschen, Loes M; Martin, Roy C; Postma, Albert

2006-06-01

Although included in the current edition of the DSM, there does not seem to be consensus among mental health professionals regarding the diagnostic status and scientific validity of dissociative identity disorder (DID). This study was aimed at the detection of simulation of inter-identity amnesia in DID. A sample of 22 DID patients was included, together with a matched control sample of subjects instructed to simulate inter-identity amnesia, a guessor group that had no knowledge of the stimulus material and a normal control group. A multiple-choice recognition test was included. The rate of incorrect answers was determined. Moreover, the specific simulation strategy used was examined by providing subjects with a range of choices that varied in extent of disagreement with the correct answer and determining whether plausible or implausible answer alternatives were selected. On the recognition test DID patients selected incorrect answers above chance like simulators. Patients thus seem to use their knowledge of the correct answer in determining their given answer. They were not characterized by a well-thought-out simulating behaviour style, as indicated by the differences in selection of specific answer alternatives found between patients and simulators. DID patients were found not to be characterized by an actual memory retrieval inability, in contrast to their subjective reports. Instead, it is suggested that DID may more accurately be considered a disorder characterized by meta-memory problems, holding incorrect beliefs about their own memory functioning.

Comparison between Long-Menu and Open-Ended Questions in computerized medical assessments. A randomized controlled trial

PubMed Central

Rotthoff, Thomas; Baehring, Thomas; Dicken, Hans-Dieter; Fahron, Urte; Richter, Bernd; Fischer, Martin R; Scherbaum, Werner A

2006-01-01

Background Long-menu questions (LMQs) are viewed as an alternative method for answering open-ended questions (OEQs) in computerized assessment. So far this question type and its influence on examination scores have not been studied sufficiently. However, the increasing use of computerized assessments will also lead to an increasing use of this question type. Using a summative online key feature (KF) examination we evaluated whether LMQs can be compared with OEQs in regard to the level of difficulty, performance and response times. We also evaluated the content for its suitability for LMQs. Methods We randomized 146 fourth year medical students into two groups. For the purpose of this study we created 7 peer-reviewed KF-cases with a total of 25 questions. All questions had the same content in both groups, but nine questions had a different answer type. Group A answered 9 questions with an LM type, group B with an OE type. In addition to the LM answer, group A could give an OE answer if the appropriate answer was not included in the list. Results The average number of correct answers for LMQs and OEQs showed no significant difference (p = 0.93). Among all 630 LM answers only one correct term (0.32%) was not included in the list of answers. The response time for LMQs did not significantly differ from that of OEQs (p = 0.65). Conclusion LMQs and OEQs do not differ significantly. Compared to standard multiple-choice questions (MCQs), the response time for LMQs and OEQs is longer. This is probably due to the fact that they require active problem solving skills and more practice. LMQs correspond more suitable to Short answer questions (SAQ) then to OEQ and should only be used when the answers can be clearly phrased, using only a few, precise synonyms. LMQs can decrease cueing effects and significantly simplify the scoring in computerized assessment. PMID:17032439

Prevalence of answers to orthopaedic in-training examination questions in 3 commonly used orthopedic review sources.

PubMed

Krueger, Chad A; Shakir, Irshad; Fuller, Brian C

2012-09-01

One of the greatest predictors for resident success on the Orthopaedic In-Training Examination (OITE) is reviewing previous OITE questions. However, no studies have examined which review sources contain the most answers to previously asked OITE questions. The goal of this study was to determine which review source contains the most answers to previously asked OITE questions. Each question from the 2006 to 2010 OITEs was examined. The questions were placed into 1 of 13 categories based on their topic. The publication date of the recommended readings associated with each question was recorded. The answer to each question was then searched for in 3 commonly used review sources: Miller's Review of Orthopaedics, 5th edition (MRO), American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Comprehensive Orthopaedic Review (COR), and www.orthobullets.com (OB). Searchable electronic versions of each textbook were used, and each question had a 12-minute time limit. Of 1358 questions, 665 (49%) were found in all 3 sources. Significantly more answers were found on OB (99.4%) compared with MRO (60%) and COR (62%) (P<.0001). Significantly more answers to questions in each question category were found on OB compared with MRO or COR (P<.0001). More than 50% of all recommended readings for OITE questions were published within 5 years of the OITE. Residents using OB to review for the OITE will be exposed to significantly more answers of previously asked OITE questions than residents using MRO or COR (P<.0001). Copyright 2012, SLACK Incorporated.

Gaps in food safety professionals' knowledge about noroviruses.

PubMed

Kosa, Katherine M; Cates, Sheryl C; Hall, Aron J; Brophy, Jenna E; Fraser, Angela

2014-08-01

Noroviruses (NoVs) are the most common etiologic agents of endemic and epidemic foodborne disease in the United States. Food safety professionals play an important role in protecting the public from foodborne illness. A survey of food safety professionals (n = 314) was conducted to characterize their knowledge of NoVs and to identify gaps in this knowledge. To recruit individuals, 25 professional organizations promoted the survey via their Web sites, newsletters, and/or e-mail distribution lists. The survey used true or false and open-ended questions to assess knowledge about NoVs, including attribution, transmission, and prevention and control strategies, including food handling practices. The online survey was available from mid-October 2012 to mid-January 2013. Of the 314 respondents, 66.2% correctly identified NoVs as one of the three most common causes of foodborne disease in the United States. Only 5.4% of respondents correctly identified the three most common settings for NoV infections, and 65.0% of respondents had the misperception that cruise ships are one of the three most common settings. Seventeen respondents (5.4%) answered all 20 true-or-false questions correctly, 33 respondents (10.5%) answered at least 19 of the 20 questions correctly, and 186 respondents (65.0%) answered at least 15 of the 20 questions correctly (i.e., a score of 75% or higher). The content domain in which respondents had the most incorrect answers was food handling practices. Thirty-eight percent of respondents incorrectly responded that it is safe for restaurant workers infected with NoVs to handle packaged food, food equipment, and utensils. About half of respondents did not know the recommended sanitizing solution for eliminating NoVs from a contaminated surface. The survey findings identified several important gaps in food safety professionals' knowledge of NoVs. The study results will inform the development of a Web-based educational module on NoVs to improve efforts to prevent the spread of NoVs in retail and institutional food establishments.

Gaps in Food Safety Professionals' Knowledge about Noroviruses

PubMed Central

Kosa, Katherine M.; Cates, Sheryl C.; Hall, Aron J.; Brophy, Jenna E.; Fraser, Angela

2017-01-01

Noroviruses (NoVs) are the most common etiologic agents of endemic and epidemic foodborne disease in the United States. Food safety professionals play an important role in protecting the public from foodborne illness. A survey of food safety professionals (n = 314) was conducted to characterize their knowledge of NoVs and to identify gaps in this knowledge. To recruit individuals, 25 professional organizations promoted the survey via their Web sites, newsletters, and/or e-mail distribution lists. The survey used true or false and open-ended questions to assess knowledge about NoVs, including attribution, transmission, and prevention and control strategies, including food handling practices. The online survey was available from mid-October 2012 to mid-January 2013. Of the 314 respondents, 66.2% correctly identified NoVs as one of the three most common causes of foodborne disease in the United States. Only 5.4% of respondents correctly identified the three most common settings for NoV infections, and 65.0% of respondents had the misperception that cruise ships are one of the three most common settings. Seventeen respondents (5.4%) answered all 20 true-or-false questions correctly, 33 respondents (10.5%) answered at least 19 of the 20 questions correctly, and 186 respondents (65.0%) answered at least 15 of the 20 questions correctly (i.e., a score of 75% or higher). The content domain in which respondents had the most incorrect answers was food handling practices. Thirty-eight percent of respondents incorrectly responded that it is safe for restaurant workers infected with NoVs to handle packaged food, food equipment, and utensils. About half of respondents did not know the recommended sanitizing solution for eliminating NoVs from a contaminated surface. The survey findings identified several important gaps in food safety professionals' knowledge of NoVs. The study results will inform the development of a Web-based educational module on NoVs to improve efforts to prevent the spread of NoVs in retail and institutional food establishments. PMID:25198594

Do People Experience Cognitive Biases while Searching for Information?

PubMed Central

Lau, Annie Y.S.; Coiera, Enrico W.

2007-01-01

Objective To test whether individuals experience cognitive biases whilst searching using information retrieval systems. Biases investigated are anchoring, order, exposure and reinforcement. Design A retrospective analysis and a prospective experiment were conducted to investigate whether cognitive biases affect the way that documentary evidence is interpreted while searching online. The retrospective analysis was conducted on the search and decision behaviors of 75 clinicians (44 doctors, 31 nurses), answering questions for 8 clinical scenarios within 80 minutes in a controlled setting. The prospective study was conducted on 227 undergraduate students, who used the same search engine to answer two of six randomly assigned consumer health questions. Measurements Frequencies of correct answers pre- and post- search, and confidence in answers were collected. The impact of reading a document on the final decision was measured by the population likelihood ratio (LR) of the frequency of reading the document and the frequency of obtaining a correct answer. Documents with a LR > 1 were most likely to be associated with a correct answer, and those with a LR < 1 were most likely to be associated with an incorrect answer to a question. Agreement between a subject and the evidence they read was estimated by a concurrence rate, which measured the frequency that subjects’ answers agreed with the likelihood ratios of a group of documents, normalized for document order, time exposure or reinforcement through repeated access. Serial position curves were plotted for the relationship between subjects’ pre-search confidence, document order, the number of times and length of time a document was accessed, and concurrence with post-search answers. Chi-square analyses tested for the presence of biases, and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test checked for equality of distribution of evidence in the comparison populations. Results A person’s prior belief (anchoring) has a significant impact on their post-search answer (retrospective: P < 0.001; prospective: P < 0.001). Documents accessed at different positions in a search session (order effect [retrospective: P = 0.76; prospective: P = 0.026]), and documents processed for different lengths of time (exposure effect [retrospective: P = 0.27; prospective: P = 0.0081]) also influenced decision post-search more than expected in the prospective experiment but not in the retrospective analysis. Reinforcement through repeated exposure to a document did not yield statistical differences in decision outcome post-search (retrospective: P = 0.31; prospective: P = 0.81). Conclusion People may experience anchoring, exposure and order biases while searching for information, and these biases may influence the quality of decision making during and after the use of information retrieval systems. PMID:17600097

Central Distractors in Force Concept Inventory Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Terry F.; Schumayer, Dániel

2018-01-01

The Force Concept Inventory was designed to poll the Newtonian conception of force. While there are many in-depth studies analyzing response data that look at the structure of the correct answers, we believe that the incorrect answers also carry revealing information about the students' worldview. The inventory was originally designed so that the…

The Riddle of the Smart Machines

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howell, Dusti D.

2010-01-01

Hundreds of graduate students were introduced to the fields of instructional design and educational technology with the riddle of the smart machines, yet over the years no one has answered it correctly. After revealing the surprising answer to this riddle, both the negative and positive impacts of smart machines are analyzed. An example of this is…

Engaging Students in the Classroom with "WeBWorK" CLASS

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Engelke, Nicole; Karakok, Gulden; Wangberg, Aaron

2016-01-01

"WeBWorK" CLASS combines the best features of online homework and digital whiteboards to create a system that provides instructors with information on students' problem-solving processes, as well as their final answer. The system's utilization of tools that can sort students based on correct and incorrect homework and quiz answers and…

Making Inferences in Adulthood: Falling Leaves Mean It's Fall.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zandi, Taher; Gregory, Monica E.

1988-01-01

Assessed age differences in making inferences from prose. Older adults correctly answered mean of 10 questions related to implicit information and 8 related to explicit information. Young adults answered mean of 7 implicit and 12 explicit information questions. In spite of poorer recall of factual details, older subjects made inferences to greater…

Control over Grain Size in Memory Reporting--with and without Satisficing Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ackerman, Rakefet; Goldsmith, Morris

2008-01-01

When answering questions from memory, respondents strategically control the precision or coarseness of their answers. This grain control process is guided by 2 countervailing aims: to be informative and to be correct. Previously, M. Goldsmith, A. Koriat, and A. Weinberg Eliezer (2002) proposed a "satisficing model" in which respondents…

Improving the Measurement of Cognitive Skills through Automated Conversations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, G. Tanner; Castellano, Katherine E.; Brockway, Debra; Lehman, Blair

2018-01-01

Open-ended, short-answer questions, referred to as constructed responses (CR), allow students to express knowledge and skills through their own words. While CRs can reduce the likelihood of guessing correct answers, they also enable students to provide errant responses due to a lack of knowledge or a misunderstanding of the question.…

Whither Does the Sun Rove?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gangui, Alejandro

2011-01-01

If one asked some friends where on the horizon they should expect to see the sunrise, half of the answers would be in the east. Of course, something analogous would happen with the sunset and the west. However, sunrise and sunset virtually never occur at these cardinal points. In fact, those answers correctly describe observations only during the…

Long-Term Follow-Up of Echolalia and Question Answering.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foxx, R. M.; Faw, Gerald D.

1990-01-01

A long-term followup (from 26 to 57 months) of echolalia and correct question-answering was conducted with six mentally retarded adult subjects identified from three previously published studies. Echolalia was lower than in baseline in 80.6 percent of the followups. Issues related to the study of maintenance are discussed. (Author/DB)

Replacing Maladaptive Speech with Verbal Labeling Responses: An Analysis of Generalized Responding.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foxx, R. M.; And Others

1988-01-01

Three mentally handicapped students (aged 13, 36, and 40) with maladaptive speech received training to answer questions with verbal labels. The results of their cues-pause-point training showed that the students replaced their maladaptive speech with correct labels (answers) to questions in the training setting and three generalization settings.…

Carelessness and Affect in an Intelligent Tutoring System for Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

San Pedro, Maria Ofelia Z.; de Baker, Ryan S. J.; Rodrigo, Ma. Mercedes T.

2014-01-01

We investigate the relationship between students' affect and their frequency of careless errors while using an Intelligent Tutoring System for middle school mathematics. A student is said to have committed a careless error when the student's answer is wrong despite knowing the skill required to provide the correct answer. We operationalize the…

From Answer-Getters to Problem Solvers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flynn, Mike

2017-01-01

In some math classrooms, students are taught to follow and memorize procedures to arrive at the correct solution to problems. In this article, author Mike Flynn suggests a way to move beyond answer-getting to true problem solving. He describes an instructional approach called three-act tasks in which students solve an engaging math problem in…

Young Children Show a Dissociation in Looking and Pointing Behavior in Falling Events

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Vivian; Kuhlmeier, Valerie A.

2013-01-01

Studies of social cognitive reasoning have demonstrated instances of children engaging in eye gaze patterns toward correct answers even when pointing or verbal responses are directed toward incorrect answers. Findings such as these have spawned seminal theories, yet no consensus has been reached regarding the characteristics of the knowledge…

A Module for Hospital Central Processing Technicians on Decontamination, Assembly and Wrapping Concepts of GYN Hysterectomy Instruments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wojcik, Roseann B.; Moseley, James L.

This learning module can be used as an orientation guide, inservice tool, or resource guide for hospital central processing department technicians and instructors. It contains information sheets, worksheets, worksheet answers, a posttest, and posttest answers on correct procedures for decontaminating, assembling, and wrapping the medical…

Survey of Obstetrician-Gynecologists in the United States About Taeniasis and Cysticercosis

PubMed Central

Hall, Rebecca L.; Anderson, Britta; Schulkin, Jay; Cantey, Paul T.; Montgomery, Susan P.; Jones, Jeffrey L.

2017-01-01

An estimated 50 million persons worldwide are infected with cysticerci, the larval forms of the Taenia solium tapeworm. Neurocysticercosis can cause seizures, epilepsy, and hydrocephalus, and fatal cases have been reported in the United States in immigrants and in travelers returning from endemic countries. Pregnant women with symptomatic neurocysticercosis present treatment challenges, whereas those with the adult tapeworm infection (i.e., taeniasis) can put their infants and other family members, as well as obstetrician-gynecologists and their staff, at risk for cysticercosis. A questionnaire developed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists was sent to a representative sample of 1,000 physicians to assess their awareness of T. solium infection and the potential for it to be encountered in an obstetrics and gynecology setting. In total, 31.4% of respondents correctly answered that taeniasis is caused by eating undercooked pork containing T. solium cysts (95% confidence interval [CI] = 26.6–36.5). While only 14.5% (95% CI = 11.0–18.6) of respondents correctly answered that cysticercosis is acquired by ingesting tapeworm eggs shed in human stools, twice that number (30.3%; 95% CI = 25.5–35.3) correctly answered that a mother with taeniasis can cause cysticercosis in her infant. Practicing in a state in which cysticercosis was reportable at the time of the survey was not significantly associated with answering any of the 12 knowledge questions correctly. Overall, knowledge of T. solium infection among U.S. obstetricians-gynecologists is limited. This may result in missed opportunities to diagnose and treat pregnant women with taeniasis, which may put family members and obstetrics clinical staff at risk for cysticercosis. PMID:28077749

Survey of Obstetrician-Gynecologists in the United States About Taeniasis and Cysticercosis.

PubMed

Hall, Rebecca L; Anderson, Britta; Schulkin, Jay; Cantey, Paul T; Montgomery, Susan P; Jones, Jeffrey L

2017-01-11

An estimated 50 million persons worldwide are infected with cysticerci, the larval forms of the Taenia solium tapeworm. Neurocysticercosis can cause seizures, epilepsy, and hydrocephalus, and fatal cases have been reported in the United States in immigrants and in travelers returning from endemic countries. Pregnant women with symptomatic neurocysticercosis present treatment challenges, whereas those with the adult tapeworm infection (i.e., taeniasis) can put their infants and other family members, as well as obstetrician-gynecologists and their staff, at risk for cysticercosis. A questionnaire developed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists was sent to a representative sample of 1,000 physicians to assess their awareness of T. solium infection and the potential for it to be encountered in an obstetrics and gynecology setting. In total, 31.4% of respondents correctly answered that taeniasis is caused by eating undercooked pork containing T. solium cysts (95% confidence interval [CI] = 26.6-36.5). While only 14.5% (95% CI = 11.0-18.6) of respondents correctly answered that cysticercosis is acquired by ingesting tapeworm eggs shed in human stools, twice that number (30.3%; 95% CI = 25.5-35.3) correctly answered that a mother with taeniasis can cause cysticercosis in her infant. Practicing in a state in which cysticercosis was reportable at the time of the survey was not significantly associated with answering any of the 12 knowledge questions correctly. Overall, knowledge of T. solium infection among U.S. obstetricians-gynecologists is limited. This may result in missed opportunities to diagnose and treat pregnant women with taeniasis, which may put family members and obstetrics clinical staff at risk for cysticercosis. © The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

[Cardiovascular diseases risk factors knowledge among soldiers of the Polish army].

PubMed

Olszewski, Robert; Grabysa, Radosław; Kwasiborski, Przemysław J; Makowski, Tomasz; Warmiński, Janusz; Szczechowicz, Robert; Kubik, Leszek

2009-10-01

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the main cause of death and disability in Poland. There are many risk factors of CVD which are modifiable due to preventive strategies. Knowledge about these factors among population at risk of CVD is the most important condition for success of them. To evaluate the knowledge of CVD risk factors among soldiers of the Polish Army and try to identify a demographic factors influenced on them. Authors investigated the level of knowledge about CVD risk factors among 644 soldiers (aged between 18 to 62 years) using the special questionnaire. Whole group was analyzed according to a place of origin: city, town and village and according to a function: professionals and conscripts. Soldiers achieved a total score of 58.4% correct answers. Commonly known risk factors of CVD (average 82% of correct answers) in studied group were: obesity, tobacco smoking, high level of cholesterol and hypertension. Knowledge about above risk factors was significantly higher (p < 0.01) than about other. Lesser known risk factors (average 54% of correct answers) were: male gender, abnormal diet, sedentary lifestyle, family history of CVDs, diabetes, family history of heart infarction below 55 yrs and peripheral atherosclerosis. residents achieved 64.5% correct answers, town--61.5%, and village--58%. Professionals achieved 65.1% vs. 58.8% for conscripts. The level of knowledge about CVD risk factors are significantly higher among professionals than in urban population. Our data confirm the need of continuation and developing new CVDs preventive strategies in Poland, especially among poor educated and village populations. There is a need to emphasize the role of lesser known, modifiable CVD risk factors (e.g., obesity, sedentary lifestyle) in existing and future health programs.

The Impact of 3-Option Responses to Multiple-Choice Questions on Guessing Strategies and Cut Score Determinations

PubMed Central

ROYAL, KENNETH D.; STOCKDALE, MYRAH R.

2017-01-01

Introduction: Research has asserted MCQ items using three response options (one correct answer with two distractors) is comparable to, and possibly preferable over, traditional MCQ item formats consisting of four response options (e.g., one correct answer with three distractors), or five response options (e.g., one correct answer with four distractors). Some medical educators have also adopted the practice of using 3-option responses on MCQ exams as a response to the difficulty experienced in generating additional plausible distractors. To date, however, little work has explored how 3-option responses might impact validity threats stemming from random guessing strategies, and what impact 3-option responses might have on cut-score determinations, particularly in the context of medical education classroom assessments. The purpose of this work is to further explore these critically important considerations that largely have gone ignored in the medical education literature to this point. Methods: A cumulative binomial distribution formula was used to calculate the probability that an examinee will answer at random a given number of items correctly on any exam (of any length). By way of a demonstration, a variety of scenarios were presented to illustrate how examination length and the number of response options impact examinees’ chances of passing a given examination, and how subsequent cut-score decisions may be impacted by these factors. Results: As a general rule, classroom assessments containing fewer items should utilize traditional 4-option or 5-option responses, whereas assessments of greater length are afforded greater flexibility in potentially utilizing 3-option responses. Conclusions: More research on items with 3-option responses is needed to better understand what value, if any, 3-option responses truly add to classroom assessments, and in what contexts potential benefits might be discernible. PMID:28367465

The Impact of 3-Option Responses to Multiple-Choice Questions on Guessing Strategies and Cut Score Determinations.

PubMed

Royal, Kenneth D; Stockdale, Myrah R

2017-04-01

Research has asserted MCQ items using three response options (one correct answer with two distractors) is comparable to, and possibly preferable over, traditional MCQ item formats consisting of four response options (e.g., one correct answer with three distractors), or five response options (e.g., one correct answer with four distractors). Some medical educators have also adopted the practice of using 3-option responses on MCQ exams as a response to the difficulty experienced in generating additional plausible distractors. To date, however, little work has explored how 3-option responses might impact validity threats stemming from random guessing strategies, and what impact 3-option responses might have on cut-score determinations, particularly in the context of medical education classroom assessments. The purpose of this work is to further explore these critically important considerations that largely have gone ignored in the medical education literature to this point. A cumulative binomial distribution formula was used to calculate the probability that an examinee will answer at random a given number of items correctly on any exam (of any length). By way of a demonstration, a variety of scenarios were presented to illustrate how examination length and the number of response options impact examinees' chances of passing a given examination, and how subsequent cut-score decisions may be impacted by these factors. As a general rule, classroom assessments containing fewer items should utilize traditional 4-option or 5-option responses, whereas assessments of greater length are afforded greater flexibility in potentially utilizing 3-option responses. More research on items with 3-option responses is needed to better understand what value, if any, 3-option responses truly add to classroom assessments, and in what contexts potential benefits might be discernible.

Semiotics and semiology of Nursing: evaluation of undergraduate students' knowledge on procedures.

PubMed

Melo, Gabriela de Sousa Martins; Tibúrcio, Manuela Pinto; Freitas, Camylla Cavalcante Soares de; Vasconcelos, Quinídia Lúcia Duarte de Almeida Quithé de; Costa, Isabel Karolyne Fernandes; Torres, Gilson de Vasconcelos

2017-04-01

to assess the knowledge of scholars on Nursing regarding simple hands hygiene (SHH), blood pressure measurement (BP), peripheral venipuncture (PV) with venous catheter and male urethral catheterization delay (UCD) procedures. quantitative study carried out between February and May 2014, with 186 undergraduate Nursing students from 5th to 9th period of a public university of Rio Grande do Norte, with application of four questionnaires. One carried out descriptive and analytic analysis. the students presented low average percentage of right answers, especially in blood pressure measurement (55.5%); SHH's average was higher than 70%. The average of correct answers was the highest in SHH (8.6), followed by UCD (7.8), PV (7.4) and BP (6.7). The questions regarding the topic "concepts" showed less correct answers when comparing it to the topic "technique steps". it is necessary to establish knowledge monitoring strategies, in order to stimulate the constant improvement.

The development of children's ability to fill the gaps in their knowledge by consulting experts.

PubMed

Aguiar, Naomi R; Stoess, Caryn J; Taylor, Marjorie

2012-01-01

This research investigated children's ability to recognize gaps in their knowledge and seek missing information from appropriate informants. In Experiment 1, forty-five 4- and 5-year-olds were adept in assigning questions from 3 domains (medicine, firefighting, and farming) to corresponding experts (doctor, firefighter, or farmer). However, when given the options of answering the same questions themselves or assigning them to an expert (Experiment 2), only 6-year-olds were consistently able to recognize when they did not know answers and then assign test questions correctly. Four- and 5-year-olds tended to overestimate their own knowledge or assign questions to the wrong expert. This result was replicated in Experiment 3, in which 5-year-olds were given incentives for correct answers. © 2012 The Authors. Child Development © 2012 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Early metacognitive abilities: the interplay of monitoring and control processes in 5- to 7-year-old children.

PubMed

Destan, Nesrin; Hembacher, Emily; Ghetti, Simona; Roebers, Claudia M

2014-10-01

The goal of the current investigation was to compare two monitoring processes (judgments of learning [JOLs] and confidence judgments [CJs]) and their corresponding control processes (allocation of study time and selection of answers to maximize accuracy, respectively) in 5-, 6-, and 7-year-old children (N=101). Children learned the meanings of Japanese characters and provided JOLs after a study phase and CJs after a memory test. They were given the opportunity to control their learning in self-paced study phases and to control their accuracy by placing correct answers in a treasure chest and placing incorrect answers in a trash can. All three age groups gave significantly higher CJs for correct answers compared with incorrect answers, with no age-related differences in the magnitude of this difference, suggesting robust metacognitive monitoring skills in children as young as 5 years. Furthermore, a link between JOLs and study time was found in 6- and 7-year-olds, such that children spent more time studying items with low JOLs compared with items with high JOLs. In addition, 6- and 7-year-olds, but not 5-year-olds, spent more time studying difficult items compared with easier items. Moreover, age-related improvements were found in children's use of CJs to guide their selection of answers; although children as young as 5 years placed their most confident answers in the treasure chest and placed their least confident answers in the trash can, this pattern was more robust in older children. Overall, results support the view that some metacognitive judgments may be acted on with greater ease than others among young children. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Integration of mobile technology in educational materials improves participation: creation of a novel smartphone application for resident education.

PubMed

Shaw, Christiana M; Tan, Sanda A

2015-01-01

Traditional education consists of didactics and book learning. Recently, technology has been integrated into graduate medical education, primarily in the form of simulation. The primary aim of this study was to investigate if a novel smartphone application using technology to engage learners would improve participation in an educational activity when compared with a daily e-mail format and how this use translated to performance on standardized testing. The UF Surgery App (App), which is a smartphone application, was developed to deliver 2 questions from a general surgery educational database every weekday from October to February 2013. The App, developed for iOS, featured a notification alarm and a reminder icon to actively engage the learner. Learners who used the App responded to multiple-choice questions and were provided instantaneous feedback in the form of a correct answer with an explanation. The response rate and answers were collected prospectively and compared with the American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination score. University of Florida, College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, a university teaching hospital. A total of 46 general surgical residents were enrolled in a university training program. Participation was voluntary. Overall, 26 of 46 (57%) residents participated. Of the users, 70% answered more than 20% of the questions, while 46% responded to more than 70% of questions. The percentage of correct answers on the App was positively correlated with standardized score (p = 0.005), percentage correct (p = 0.02), and percentile (p = 0.034) on the ABSITE examination. Technology can be used to actively engage residents. Deployment of this novel App improved participation over a daily question-answer e-mail format, and answers correlated with standardized test performance. The effect of the App on overall education is unclear, and a multi-institutional study has been initiated. Copyright © 2015 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. All rights reserved.

Electronic Learning-Spaced Education to Facilitate Resident Knowledge and Guide Program Didactics.

PubMed

Gandhi, Manisha; Beasley, Anitra; Vinas, Emily; Sangi-Haghpeykar, Haleh; Ramin, Susan M; Kilpatrick, Charlie C

2016-10-01

To evaluate the use of mobile technology to facilitate resident learning, assess clinical knowledge, and guide curricular development in a busy clinical environment. This was a cross-sectional study conducted in a large (N=48) urban obstetrics and gynecology residency program. Question sets were created in the following areas: office gynecology, general obstetrics, gynecologic surgery and urogynecology, maternal-fetal medicine and ultrasonography, reproductive endocrinology and pediatric gynecology, and gynecologic oncology. Using an educational mobile application (app), questions were sent monthly to resident smartphones with immediate feedback on answer accuracy along with answer explanation and references. Outcomes included app use, which was determined by how quickly participants answered questions (very active-active indicates questions answered within 7 days) and proficiency (mean percentage correct) calculated for individuals, resident class level, and by content area. All 48 residents participated and 77.4% were very active or active app users. On average, participants answered correctly 61.0% on the first attempt and improved to 78.3% on repeat attempt (P<.001). Proficiency was lowest for gynecologic surgery and highest for general obstetrics. A mobile app to support e-learning was successfully implemented in our program; its use was associated with knowledge retention and identification of low-proficiency topics to guide curriculum development.

Research and Teaching: Beyond Correctness--Using Qualitative Methods to Uncover Nuances of Student Learning in Undergraduate STEM Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dósa, Katalin; Russ, Rosemary

2016-01-01

Learning in higher education today is measured overwhelmingly on the basis of "correctness," that is, whether students sufficiently approached the preset "expert" answer to a test question. We posit that although conceptual correctness is at the core of good learning, there is much information instructors miss out on by relying…

Sexuality and HIV/AIDS: an exploration of older heterosexual women's knowledge levels.

PubMed

Ross, Pamela; Humble, Áine M; Blum, Ilya

2013-01-01

Sexuality research tends to ignore older populations, and little is known about older women's sexual health knowledge. To fill this research gap, 186 Canadian heterosexual women 50 years and older were surveyed about their knowledge regarding sexuality and HIV/AIDS. Respondents had moderate levels of overall knowledge of sexual health and aging, correctly answering, on average, 60% of the 35 questions. They had lower levels of HIV/AIDS knowledge, correctly answering just over 50% of the 25 questions. Results indicate the need for social awareness and education in this group regarding both general sexual health later in life and HIV/AIDS.

Flow diagram or prose: does the format of practice guidelines matter?

PubMed

Hardern, R D; Hodgson, L C; Hamer, D W

1998-06-01

The aim of this study was to compare the performance of two formats (prose and flow diagram) of the guidelines for management of paracetamol poisoning, and to assess the likely performance without access to the guidelines. A prospective questionnaire study of the management of seven hypothetical cases of paracetamol ingestion was carried out by accident and emergency senior house officers at a regional induction course. No differences were found between the two formats. The proportion of correct answers was 37% in the flow diagram and 31% in the prose group (95% confidence interval for the difference -8% to 20%). In the group with neither format of the guideline the proportion of correct answers was lower: 19% (95% confidence interval for the difference between this group and the group with flow charts 6.9% to 30.6%, for the difference between this group and the group with the prose format 0.4% to 24.8%). The time taken to answer the questions did not vary between the groups. These data do not support the exclusive use of either format. They suggest that management of paracetamol poisoning is less likely to be correct if staff do not have access to the guidelines.

The hypercorrection effect in younger and older adults.

PubMed

Eich, Teal S; Stern, Yaakov; Metcalfe, Janet

2013-01-01

ABSTRACT The hypercorrection effect, which refers to the finding that errors committed with high confidence are more likely to be corrected than are low confidence errors, has been replicated many times, and with both young adults and children. In the present study, we contrasted older with younger adults. Participants answered general-information questions, made confidence ratings about their answers, were given corrective feedback, and then were retested on questions that they had gotten wrong. While younger adults showed the hypercorrection effect, older adults, despite higher overall accuracy on the general-information questions and excellent basic metacognitive ability, showed a diminished hypercorrection effect. Indeed, the correspondence between their confidence in their errors and the probability of correction was not significantly greater than zero, showing, for the first time, that a particular participant population is selectively impaired on this error correction task. These results potentially offer leverage both on the mechanisms underlying the hypercorrection effect and on reasons for older adults' memory impairments, as well as on memory functions that are spared.

Modeling Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff in Adaptive System for Practicing Estimation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nižnan, Juraj

2015-01-01

Estimation is useful in situations where an exact answer is not as important as a quick answer that is good enough. A web-based adaptive system for practicing estimates is currently being developed. We propose a simple model for estimating student's latent skill of estimation. This model combines a continuous measure of correctness and response…

Choice, numeracy, and physicians-in-training performance: the case of Medicare Part D.

PubMed

Hanoch, Yaniv; Miron-Shatz, Talya; Cole, Helen; Himmelstein, Mary; Federman, Alex D

2010-07-01

In this study, we examined the effect of choice-set size and numeracy levels on a physician-in-training's ability to choose appropriate Medicare drug plans. Medical students and internal medicine residents (N = 100) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 surveys, differing only in the number of plans to be evaluated (3, 10, and 20). After reviewing information about stand-alone Medicare prescription drug plans, participants answered questions about what plan they would advise 2 hypothetical patients to choose on the basis of a brief summary of the relevant concerns of each patient. Participants also completed an 11-item numeracy scale. Ability to answer correctly questions about hypothetical Medicare Part D insurance plans and numeracy levels. Consistent with our hypotheses, increases in choice sets correlated significantly with fewer correct answers, and higher numeracy levels were associated with more correct answers. Hence, our data further highlight the role of numeracy in financial- and health-related decision making, and also raise concerns about physicians' ability to help patients choose the optimal Part D plan. Our data indicate that even physicians-in-training perform more poorly when choice size is larger, thus raising concerns about the capacity of physicians-in-training to successfully navigate Medicare Part D and help their patients pick the best drug plan. Our results also illustrate the importance of numeracy in evaluating insurance-related information and the need for enhancing numeracy skills among medical students and physicians. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved

Hemolysis from a nurses' standpoint--survey from four Croatian hospitals.

PubMed

Dorotić, Adrijana; Antončić, Dragana; Biljak, Vanja Radišić; Nedić, Dara; Beletić, Andjelo

2015-01-01

Hemolysis can occur during sample collection, handling and transport. It is more frequent when the non-laboratory staff performs sampling. The aim of this study was to assess nurses' knowledge on the causes of hemolysis and consequential impact on the laboratory tests results. Additionally, the differences in knowledge, related to work experience, professional degree and previous education about hemolysis were explored. An anonymus survey, containing 11 questions on demographics, causes of hemolysis, its impact on biochemical parameters and nurses' attitude towards additional education in preanalytics, was conducted in four Croatian hospitals. The answers were compared by Chi-squared and Fischer exact test. In total, 562 survey results were collected. Majority of nurses declared familiarity with the term "hemolysis" (99.6%). There were 77% of correct answers regarding questions about the causes of hemolysis, but only 50% when it comes to questions about interference in biochemical tests. The percentage of correct answers about causes was significantly lower (P=0.029) among more experienced nurses, and higher (P=0.027) in those with higher professional degree, while influence of previous education was not significant. Also, higher percentage of correct answers about interferences was encountered in nurses with longer work experience (P=0.039). More than 70% of nurses declared that additional education about preanalytical factors would be beneficial. Croatian nurses are familiar with the definition of hemolysis, but a lack of knowledge about causes and influence on laboratory test results is evident. Nurses are eager to improve their knowledge in this field of preanalytical phase.

[A new medical education using a lung sound auscultation simulator called "Mr. Lung"].

PubMed

Yoshii, Chiharu; Anzai, Takashi; Yatera, Kazuhiro; Kawajiri, Tatsunori; Nakashima, Yasuhide; Kido, Masamitsu

2002-09-01

We developed a lung sound auscultation simulator "Mr. Lung" in 2001. To improve the auscultation skills of lung sounds, we utilized this new device in our educational training facility. From June 2001 to March 2002, we used "Mr. Lung" for our small group training in which one hundred of the fifth year medical students were divided into small groups from which one group was taught every other week. The class consisted of ninety-minute training periods for auscultation of lung sounds. At first, we explained the classification of lung sounds, and then auscultation tests were performed. Namely, students listened to three cases of abnormal or adventitious lung sounds on "Mr. Lung" through their stethoscopes. Next they answered questions corresponding to the portion and quality of the sounds. Then, we explained the correct answers and how to differentiate lung sounds on "Mr. Lung". Additionally, at the beginning and the end of the lecture, five degrees of self-assessment for the auscultation of the lung sounds were performed. The ratio of correct answers for lung sounds were 36.9% for differences between bilateral lung sounds, 52.5% for coarse crackles, 34.1% for fine crackles, 69.2% for wheezes, 62.1% for rhonchi and 22.2% for stridor. Self-assessment scores were significantly higher after the class than before. The ratio of correct lung sound answers was surprisingly low among medical students. We believe repetitive auscultation of the simulator to be extremely helpful for medical education.

Flow-Centric, Back-in-Time Debugging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lienhard, Adrian; Fierz, Julien; Nierstrasz, Oscar

Conventional debugging tools present developers with means to explore the run-time context in which an error has occurred. In many cases this is enough to help the developer discover the faulty source code and correct it. However, rather often errors occur due to code that has executed in the past, leaving certain objects in an inconsistent state. The actual run-time error only occurs when these inconsistent objects are used later in the program. So-called back-in-time debuggers help developers step back through earlier states of the program and explore execution contexts not available to conventional debuggers. Nevertheless, even Back-in-Time Debuggers do not help answer the question, “Where did this object come from?” The Object-Flow Virtual Machine, which we have proposed in previous work, tracks the flow of objects to answer precisely such questions, but this VM does not provide dedicated debugging support to explore faulty programs. In this paper we present a novel debugger, called Compass, to navigate between conventional run-time stack-oriented control flow views and object flows. Compass enables a developer to effectively navigate from an object contributing to an error back-in-time through all the code that has touched the object. We present the design and implementation of Compass, and we demonstrate how flow-centric, back-in-time debugging can be used to effectively locate the source of hard-to-find bugs.

Mastery Multiplied

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shumway, Jessica F.; Kyriopoulos, Joan

2014-01-01

Being able to find the correct answer to a math problem does not always indicate solid mathematics mastery. A student who knows how to apply the basic algorithms can correctly solve problems without understanding the relationships between numbers or why the algorithms work. The Common Core standards require that students actually understand…

Community pharmacists' knowledge of diabetes management during Ramadan in Egypt.

PubMed

Amin, Mohamed E K; Chewning, Betty

2014-12-01

Although Muslim diabetic patients may be aware of their religious exemption from fasting, many still fast and adjust their medication regimens accordingly. Pharmacists have a significant potential to identify and prevent harm from medication misuse in Ramadan. This study examines Egyptian pharmacists' knowledge regarding management of diabetes during Ramadan. It also explores pharmacists' willingness to attend a 1 day workshop on medication regimen adjustment during Ramadan. Community pharmacies throughout Alexandria, Egypt. A cross-sectional study using a pretested self-administered survey was conducted among a random sample of community pharmacists. The survey included three knowledge questions relevant to counseling diabetic patients during Ramadan. Questions covered the recommended timing and dosing for metformin and insulin as well as the safe blood glucose range required for diabetic patients to safely continue their fast. Using logistic regression, a model was estimated to predict pharmacists' willingness to attend a workshop on the adjustment of medication regimens during Ramadan. Content analysis was used to analyze pharmacists' answers to the question concerning what they would like the workshop to cover. Pharmacists' aggregate scores for all three diabetes management knowledge questions and pharmacists' willingness to attend a workshop on the adjustment of medication regimens during Ramadan. Ninety three percent of the 298 approached pharmacists agreed to participate. Forty three pharmacists (15.9%) did not know the correct answer to any question, 118(43.7%) 24 answered one correctly, 86 (31.9%) answered two correctly and only 23 (8.5%) answered all 25 three correctly. Confidence in therapeutic knowledge regarding medication regimen 26 adjustment during Ramadan was not associated with the pharmacists' knowledge of diabetes management during Ramadan. One hundred seventy five (63.6%) pharmacists wanted to attend a workshop on adjusting medication regimens during Ramadan. This was significantly associated with pharmacists being Muslim (OR 3.52, CI 1.70-7.27) and of younger age (OR 30 = 0.98, CI 0.96-0.99978). Pharmacists offered specific content and communication process 31 suggestions for the workshop content. This study identifies variability among community pharmacists' knowledge of diabetes management during Ramadan. It also shows willingness among the majority of pharmacists to learn more about the topic.

National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Area Source Standards for Prepared Feeds Manufacturing: Commonly Asked Questions and Answers

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This 2011 document answers common questions about the NESHAP for Area Sources for Prepared Feeds Manufacturing. The questions range in topics including applicability, specific requirements, and recordkeeping.

Different answers to different audiences: effects of social context on the accuracy-informativeness trade-off.

PubMed

Martín-Luengo, Beatriz; Shtyrov, Yury; Luna, Karlos; Myachykov, Andriy

2018-08-01

Research on conversational exchanges shows that people attempt to optimise their responses' relevance when they definitely know the correct answer (e.g., "What time is it?"). However, such certainty is often unavailable while speakers may still be under social pressure to provide an answer. We investigated how social context influences the informativeness level when answering questions under uncertainty. In three experiments, participants answered difficult general-knowledge questions placed in different social contexts (formal vs. informal). Participants generated their answers, then they were presented with a given context, and decided on the number of alternative responses they wanted to provide (single, with one alternative vs. plural, with several alternatives) and whether the answer should be reported or withheld (report option). Participants reported more answers in the informal context. In the formal context, single answers were preferred, and they were more frequently reported. We conclude that social context influences the level of informativeness in a conversation, affecting achievable accuracy. Our results also show the joint influence of the confidence and the social context on willingness to share information.

Use of Inappropriate and Inaccurate Conceptual Knowledge to Solve an Osmosis Problem.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zuckerman, June Trop

1995-01-01

Presents correct solutions to an osmosis problem of two high school science students who relied on inaccurate and inappropriate conceptual knowledge. Identifies characteristics of the problem solvers, salient properties of the problem that could contribute to the problem misrepresentation, and spurious correct answers. (27 references) (Author/MKR)

Meeting Individual Reading Needs Through Individualized, Self-Directed Correction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schubert, Delwyn G.

Individualized, self-directed correction in elementary level reading instruction becomes a reality when pupils can work independently with materials that provide instruction and practice in the skills in which they are deficient and can check the accuracy of their own answers. Commercially prepared teacher-directed materials can be converted to…

Reasoning, Not Recipes: Helping Your Students Develop Statistical Understanding and Enjoy the Experience!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mooney, Gai

2010-01-01

Statistics is often presented to students as a series of algorithms to be learnt by heart and applied at the appropriate time to get "the correct answer". This approach, while it may in fact produce the right answer, has been shown to be minimally effective at helping students understand the underlying statistical concepts. As Holmes noted,…

Beginning Students May Be Less Capable of Proportional Reasoning than They Appear to Be

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gläser, Kathrin; Riegler, Peter

2015-01-01

We analyse students' answers to a set of tasks designed to gain information about their ability to reason proportionally. These tasks have been particularly designed to control for false positive, i.e. that students arrive at the correct answer for the wrong reasons, an effect we actually observe with respect to students' ability to reason…

The Effect of the Immediate Feedback by the Collaborative Education Tool ViLLE on Learning for Business Mathematics in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuikka, Matti; Laakso, Mikko-Jussi; Joshi, Marjo

2016-01-01

This article outlines the effect of the collaborative educational tool ViLLE when learning business mathematics in higher education. ViLLE validates students' answers during the assessment process and provides immediate feedback, enabling students to receive feedback and guidance about the correctness of their answers. The learning results in the…

Getting Lucky: How Guessing Threatens the Validity of Performance Classifications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foley, Brett P.

2016-01-01

There is always a chance that examinees will answer multiple choice (MC) items correctly by guessing. Design choices in some modern exams have created situations where guessing at random through the full exam--rather than only for a subset of items where the examinee does not know the answer--can be an effective strategy to pass the exam. This…

Creating illusions of knowledge: learning errors that contradict prior knowledge.

PubMed

Fazio, Lisa K; Barber, Sarah J; Rajaram, Suparna; Ornstein, Peter A; Marsh, Elizabeth J

2013-02-01

Most people know that the Pacific is the largest ocean on Earth and that Edison invented the light bulb. Our question is whether this knowledge is stable, or if people will incorporate errors into their knowledge bases, even if they have the correct knowledge stored in memory. To test this, we asked participants general-knowledge questions 2 weeks before they read stories that contained errors (e.g., "Franklin invented the light bulb"). On a later general-knowledge test, participants reproduced story errors despite previously answering the questions correctly. This misinformation effect was found even for questions that were answered correctly on the initial test with the highest level of confidence. Furthermore, prior knowledge offered no protection against errors entering the knowledge base; the misinformation effect was equivalent for previously known and unknown facts. Errors can enter the knowledge base even when learners have the knowledge necessary to catch the errors. 2013 APA, all rights reserved

Regulation of memory accuracy with multiple answers: the plurality option.

PubMed

Luna, Karlos; Higham, Philip A; Martín-Luengo, Beatriz

2011-06-01

We report two experiments that investigated the regulation of memory accuracy with a new regulatory mechanism: the plurality option. This mechanism is closely related to the grain-size option but involves control over the number of alternatives contained in an answer rather than the quantitative boundaries of a single answer. Participants were presented with a slideshow depicting a robbery (Experiment 1) or a murder (Experiment 2), and their memory was tested with five-alternative multiple-choice questions. For each question, participants were asked to generate two answers: a single answer consisting of one alternative and a plural answer consisting of the single answer and two other alternatives. Each answer was rated for confidence (Experiment 1) or for the likelihood of being correct (Experiment 2), and one of the answers was selected for reporting. Results showed that participants used the plurality option to regulate accuracy, selecting single answers when their accuracy and confidence were high, but opting for plural answers when they were low. Although accuracy was higher for selected plural than for selected single answers, the opposite pattern was evident for confidence or likelihood ratings. This dissociation between confidence and accuracy for selected answers was the result of marked overconfidence in single answers coupled with underconfidence in plural answers. We hypothesize that these results can be attributed to overly dichotomous metacognitive beliefs about personal knowledge states that cause subjective confidence to be extreme.

New Semantic Learning in Patients With Large Medial Temporal Lobe Lesions

PubMed Central

Bayley, P.J.; O'Reilly, R.C.; Curran, T.; Squire, L.R.

2008-01-01

Two patients with large lesions of the medial temporal lobe were given four tests of semantic knowledge that could only have been acquired after the onset of their amnesia. In contrast to previous studies of postmorbid semantic learning, correct answers could be based on a simple, nonspecific sense of familiarity about single words, faces, or objects. According to recent computational models (for example, Norman and O'Reilly (2003) Psychol Rev 110:611–646), this characteristic should be optimal for detecting the kind of semantic learning that might be supported directly by the neocortex. Both patients exhibited some capacity for new learning, albeit at a level substantially below control performances. Notably, the correct answers appeared to reflect declarative memory. It was not the case that the correct answers simply popped out in some automatic way in the absence of any additional knowledge about the items. Rather, the few correct choices made by the patients tended to be accompanied by additional information about the chosen items, and the available knowledge appeared to be similar qualitatively to the kind of factual knowledge that healthy individuals gradually acquire over the years. The results are consistent with the idea that neocortical structures outside the medial temporal lobe are able to support some semantic learning, albeit to a very limited extent. Alternatively, the small amount of learning detected in the present study could depend on tissue within the posterior medial temporal lobe that remains intact in both patients. PMID:18306299

Municipal Solid Waste Landfill New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and Emission Guidelines (EG) -- Questions and Answers

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This November 1998 document of questions and answers are provided as a guide for those subject to the new source performance standards (NSPS) or emission guidelines (EG), as well as those implementing the NSPS or EG.

Awareness of a rape crisis center and knowledge about sexual violence among high school adolescents.

PubMed

Lee, Sara H; Stark, Amrita K; O'Riordan, Mary Ann; Lazebnik, Rina

2015-02-01

This study examined awareness among adolescents of a local rape crisis center as well as their knowledge about sexual violence. The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center (CRCC) conducts sexual violence prevention programs for high school students. A written, anonymous survey was distributed to students prior to the start of the program. Students were asked if they had heard of the CRCC; knowledge about sexual violence was assessed with a series of 7 statements (rape myths) that participants identified as true or false. Surveys were reviewed retrospectively. Analyses were carried out for individual questions and frequencies compared using chi-square analysis. A total of 1633 surveys were collected; 1118 (68.5%) participants were female and 514 (31.5%) were male; ages ranged from 12 to 19 years. Respondents described themselves as being of European descent (45.9%), African descent (26.2%), or mixed race (17.7%). Just over half (863, 52.9%) of survey respondents had heard of the CRCC. Over half (950, 58.2%) of participants answered 5 or more questions correctly (range of correct answers 0 to 7). In general, more participants who were aware of the CRCC were able to identify statements about rape correctly (P < .01 for statements 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7, P < .001 for ≥ 5 correct). Age, gender, and race were all significantly associated with knowledge about rape. Females were consistently more likely to get an answer correct, as were participants of European descent. Awareness of the CRCC was associated with increased knowledge about sexual violence. Copyright © 2015 North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The thermochemistry of london dispersion-driven transition metal reactions: getting the 'right answer for the right reason'.

PubMed

Hansen, Andreas; Bannwarth, Christoph; Grimme, Stefan; Petrović, Predrag; Werlé, Christophe; Djukic, Jean-Pierre

2014-10-01

Reliable thermochemical measurements and theoretical predictions for reactions involving large transition metal complexes in which long-range intramolecular London dispersion interactions contribute significantly to their stabilization are still a challenge, particularly for reactions in solution. As an illustrative and chemically important example, two reactions are investigated where a large dipalladium complex is quenched by bulky phosphane ligands (triphenylphosphane and tricyclohexylphosphane). Reaction enthalpies and Gibbs free energies were measured by isotherm titration calorimetry (ITC) and theoretically 'back-corrected' to yield 0 K gas-phase reaction energies (ΔE). It is shown that the Gibbs free solvation energy calculated with continuum models represents the largest source of error in theoretical thermochemistry protocols. The ('back-corrected') experimental reaction energies were used to benchmark (dispersion-corrected) density functional and wave function theory methods. Particularly, we investigated whether the atom-pairwise D3 dispersion correction is also accurate for transition metal chemistry, and how accurately recently developed local coupled-cluster methods describe the important long-range electron correlation contributions. Both, modern dispersion-corrected density functions (e.g., PW6B95-D3(BJ) or B3LYP-NL), as well as the now possible DLPNO-CCSD(T) calculations, are within the 'experimental' gas phase reference value. The remaining uncertainties of 2-3 kcal mol(-1) can be essentially attributed to the solvation models. Hence, the future for accurate theoretical thermochemistry of large transition metal reactions in solution is very promising.

Evaluating associations between sources of information, knowledge of the human papillomavirus, and human papillomavirus vaccine uptake for adult women in California.

PubMed

Almeida, Cristina M; Tiro, Jasmin A; Rodriguez, Michael A; Diamant, Allison L

2012-04-19

Vaccines have the potential to reduce morbidity from HPV infections if age-eligible patients receive and parents know about them. Content analyses have demonstrated significant range in the quality of HPV information obtained from different sources. The purpose of this study was to determine the pattern of associations between information source and level of knowledge about HPV and vaccine receipt/intention. We analyzed the 2007 California Health Interview Survey, a population-based, statewide random digit dial survey, using data on adult females ages 18-65 who had heard about HPV (n=16,806). One-way ANOVA and multivariate logistic regression assessed the associations between source of information (advertisement only, advertisement plus other sources, and non-advertisement sources) and knowledge of HPV (3 or greater correct on a 4-point scale). Multivariate logistic regressions were conducted on a subsample of vaccine-eligible women and parents to assess vaccine uptake or intention. Less than half of respondents (43%) correctly answered 3 or more of the HPV knowledge questions. Mean knowledge scores were significantly different when comparing women who reported advertisement only, non-advertisement, and advertisement plus other sources of information (p<0.001). In multivariate analysis, women who reported non-advertisement sources (OR 2.44, 95% CI 2.07-2.87) and advertisements plus other sources (OR 3.03, 95% CI 2.57-3.58) were more likely to have knowledge scores above the 75% level than women who relied on advertisements alone. In the subsample of vaccine-eligible women and parents, those who reported advertisements plus other sources (OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.30-2.62) were more likely to have received or intend to receive the vaccine than those who reported advertisements as their sole information source. Advertisements are the most commonly reported source of information about HPV, and while they inform women of the existence of the vaccine, they do not contribute to accurate knowledge about the virus, nor do they appear to influence vaccine uptake. Other sources may play a larger role in refining knowledge and/or improving uptake. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hemolysis from a nurses’ standpoint – survey from four Croatian hospitals

PubMed Central

Dorotić, Adrijana; Antončić, Dragana; Biljak, Vanja Radišić; Nedić, Dara; Beletić, Andjelo

2015-01-01

Introduction Hemolysis can occur during sample collection, handling and transport. It is more frequent when the non-laboratory staff performs sampling. The aim of this study was to assess nurses’ knowledge on the causes of hemolysis and consequential impact on the laboratory tests results. Additionally, the differences in knowledge, related to work experience, professional degree and previous education about hemolysis were explored. Materials and methods An anonymus survey, containing 11 questions on demographics, causes of hemolysis, its impact on biochemical parameters and nurses’ attitude towards additional education in preanalytics, was conducted in four Croatian hospitals. The answers were compared by Chi-squared and Fischer exact test. Results In total, 562 survey results were collected. Majority of nurses declared familiarity with the term “hemolysis” (99.6%). There were 77% of correct answers regarding questions about the causes of hemolysis, but only 50% when it comes to questions about interference in biochemical tests. The percentage of correct answers about causes was significantly lower (P = 0.029) among more experienced nurses, and higher (P = 0.027) in those with higher professional degree, while influence of previous education was not significant. Also, higher percentage of correct answers about interferences was encountered in nurses with longer work experience (P = 0.039). More than 70% of nurses declared that additional education about preanalytical factors would be beneficial. Conclusion Croatian nurses are familiar with the definition of hemolysis, but a lack of knowledge about causes and influence on laboratory test results is evident. Nurses are eager to improve their knowledge in this field of preanalytical phase. PMID:26525069

Deficits in metacognitive monitoring in mathematics assessments in learners with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Brosnan, Mark; Johnson, Hilary; Grawemeyer, Beate; Chapman, Emma; Antoniadou, Konstantina; Hollinworth, Melissa

2016-05-01

Children and adults with autism spectrum disorder have been found to have deficits in metacognition that could impact upon their learning. This study explored metacognitive monitoring in 28 (23 males and 5 females) participants with autism spectrum disorder and 56 (16 males and 40 females) typically developing controls who were being educated at the same level. Participants were asked a series of mathematics questions. Based upon previous research, after each question they were asked two metacognitive questions: (1) whether they thought they had got the answer correct or not (or 'don't know') and (2) whether they meant to get the answer correct or not (or 'don't know'). Participants with autism spectrum disorder were significantly more likely than the typically developing group to erroneously think that they had got an incorrect answer correct. Having made an error, those with autism spectrum disorder were also significantly more likely to report that they had meant to make the error. Different patterns in the types of errors made were also identified between the two groups. Deficits in metacognition were identified for the autism spectrum disorder group in the learning of mathematics. This is consistent with metacognitive research from different contexts and the implications for supporting learning in autism spectrum disorder are discussed. © The Author(s) 2015.

Answering questions at the point of care: do residents practice EBM or manage information sources?

PubMed

McCord, Gary; Smucker, William D; Selius, Brian A; Hannan, Scott; Davidson, Elliot; Schrop, Susan Labuda; Rao, Vinod; Albrecht, Paula

2007-03-01

To determine the types of information sources that evidence-based medicine (EBM)-trained, family medicine residents use to answer clinical questions at the point of care, to assess whether the sources are evidence-based, and to provide suggestions for more effective information-management strategies in residency training. In 2005, trained medical students directly observed (for two half-days per physician) how 25 third-year family medicine residents retrieved information to answer clinical questions arising at the point of care and documented the type and name of each source, the retrieval location, and the estimated time spent consulting the source. An end-of-study questionnaire asked 37 full-time faculty and the participating residents about the best information sources available, subscriptions owned, why they use a personal digital assistant (PDA) to practice medicine, and their experience in preventing medical errors using a PDA. Forty-four percent of questions were answered by attending physicians, 23% by consulting PDAs, and 20% from books. Seventy-two percent of questions were answered within two minutes. Residents rated UptoDate as the best source for evidence-based information, but they used this source only five times. PDAs were used because of ease of use, time factors, and accessibility. All examples of medical errors discovered or prevented with PDA programs were medication related. None of the participants' residencies required the use of a specific medical information resource. The results support the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality's call for medical system improvements at the point of care. Additionally, it may be necessary to teach residents better information-management skills in addition to EBM skills.

Three New Methods for Analysis of Answer Changes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sinharay, Sandip; Johnson, Matthew S.

2017-01-01

In a pioneering research article, Wollack and colleagues suggested the "erasure detection index" (EDI) to detect test tampering. The EDI can be used with or without a continuity correction and is assumed to follow the standard normal distribution under the null hypothesis of no test tampering. When used without a continuity correction,…

Supporting Second Chances: Education and Employment Strategies For People Returning from Correctional Facilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jobs For the Future, 2015

2015-01-01

This brief highlights strategies for strengthening education and employment pathways for youth and adults returning from correctional facilities and notes key questions that new research should answer. It also explores barriers to employment for people with criminal records--whether or not they have been incarcerated--and potential policy…

Comparative Effects of Ability and Feedback Form in Computer-Assisted Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clariana, Roy B.; Smith, Lana J.

A study involving 50 experimental and 99 control subjects (graduate education majors) was undertaken to assess the interchangeability of knowledge of correct response feedback (KRC) and answer until correct feedback (AUC) in computer-assisted instruction. P. L. Smith's model (1988) suggests that AUC in better for high-ability students. W. Dick and…

Long-term follow-up of echolalia and question answering.

PubMed

Foxx, R M; Faw, G D

1990-01-01

A long-term follow-up of echolalia and correct question answering was conducted for 6 subjects from three previously published studies. The follow-up periods ranged from 26 to 57 months. In a training site follow-up, subjects were exposed to baseline/posttraining conditions in which the original trainer and/or a novel person(s) presented trained and untrained questions. Four subjects displayed echolalia below baseline levels, and another did so in some assessments. Overall, echolalia was lower than in baseline in 80.6% of the follow-ups. Five subjects displayed correct responding above baseline levels. No clear differences were noted in correct responding or echolalia between the trainer and novel-person presentations or between trained and untrained questions. In a follow-up in a natural environment conducted by a novel person, lower than baseline levels of echolalia were displayed by 3 subjects; 2 subjects displayed lower than baseline levels in some assessments. Two subjects consistently displayed correct responding above baseline, and 3 did so occasionally. Issues related to the study of maintenance are discussed.

Long-term follow-up of echolalia and question answering.

PubMed Central

Foxx, R M; Faw, G D

1990-01-01

A long-term follow-up of echolalia and correct question answering was conducted for 6 subjects from three previously published studies. The follow-up periods ranged from 26 to 57 months. In a training site follow-up, subjects were exposed to baseline/posttraining conditions in which the original trainer and/or a novel person(s) presented trained and untrained questions. Four subjects displayed echolalia below baseline levels, and another did so in some assessments. Overall, echolalia was lower than in baseline in 80.6% of the follow-ups. Five subjects displayed correct responding above baseline levels. No clear differences were noted in correct responding or echolalia between the trainer and novel-person presentations or between trained and untrained questions. In a follow-up in a natural environment conducted by a novel person, lower than baseline levels of echolalia were displayed by 3 subjects; 2 subjects displayed lower than baseline levels in some assessments. Two subjects consistently displayed correct responding above baseline, and 3 did so occasionally. Issues related to the study of maintenance are discussed. PMID:2249974

Use of Context in Pragmatic Language Comprehension by Children with Asperger Syndrome or High-Functioning Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loukusa, Soile; Leinonen, Eeva; Kuusikko, Sanna; Jussila, Katja; Mattila, Marja-Leena; Ryder, Nuala; Ebeling, Hanna; Moilanen, Irma

2007-01-01

Utilizing relevance theory, this study investigated the ability of children with Asperger syndrome (AS) and high-functioning autism (HFA) to use context when answering questions and when giving explanations for their correct answers. Three groups participated in this study: younger AS/HFA group (age 7-9, n = 16), older AS/HFA group (age 10-12, n =…

Probing the Natural World, Level III, Record Book, Teacher's Guide: What's Up? Intermediate Science Curriculum Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonar, John R., Ed.; Hathway, James A., Ed.

This is the teacher's edition of the Record Book for the unit "What's Up" of the Intermediate Science Curriculum Study (ISCS) for level III students (grade 9). The correct answers to the questions from the student text are recorded. An introductory note to the teacher explains how to use the book. Answers are included for the activities…

Estimating the Number of Examinees Who Did Not Reach the Last Item of a Section.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wainer, Howard

It is important to estimate the number of examinees who reached a test item, because item difficulty is defined by the number who answered correctly divided by the number who reached the item. A new method is presented and compared to the previously used definition of three categories of response to an item: (1) answered; (2) omitted--a…

LOGMIS Programmed Texts, Tests and Answers.

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-04-01

This publication contains the programmed text and related test and answer booklets produced to teach field users correct procedures for utilization of the Army’s Logistics Management Information System (LOGMIS). It was prepared by ARINC Research Corporation under Contract DAEA18-77-C-0184 for the Logistics Evaluation Branch, Plans and Programs Division of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Logistics, U.S. Army Communications Command. (Author)

Development and Evaluation of a Pedagogical Tool to Improve Understanding of a Quality Checklist: A Randomised Controlled Trial

PubMed Central

Fourcade, Lola; Boutron, Isabelle; Moher, David; Ronceray, Lucie; Baron, Gabriel; Ravaud, Philippe

2007-01-01

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a pedagogical tool to enhance the understanding of a checklist that evaluates reports of nonpharmacological trials (CLEAR NPT). Design: Paired randomised controlled trial. Participants: Clinicians and systematic reviewers. Interventions: We developed an Internet-based computer learning system (ICLS). This pedagogical tool used many examples from published randomised controlled trials to demonstrate the main coding difficulties encountered when using this checklist. Randomised participants received either a specific Web-based training with the ICLS (intervention group) or no specific training. Outcome measures: The primary outcome was the rate of correct answers compared to a criterion standard for coding a report of randomised controlled trials with the CLEAR NPT. Results: Between April and June 2006, 78 participants were randomly assigned to receive training with the ICLS (39) or no training (39). Participants trained by the ICLS did not differ from the control group in performance on the CLEAR NPT. The mean paired difference and corresponding 95% confidence interval was 0.5 (−5.1 to 6.1). The rate of correct answers did not differ between the two groups regardless of the CLEAR NPT item. Combining both groups, the rate of correct answers was high or items related to allocation sequence (79.5%), description of the intervention (82.0%), blinding of patients (79.5%), and follow-up schedule (83.3%). The rate of correct answers was low for items related to allocation concealment (46.1%), co-interventions (30.3%), blinding of outcome assessors (53.8%), specific measures to avoid ascertainment bias (28.6%), and intention-to-treat analysis (60.2%). Conclusions: Although we showed no difference in effect between the intervention and control groups, our results highlight the gap in knowledge and urgency for education on important aspects of trial conduct. PMID:17479163

Is emotion recognition the only problem in ADHD? effects of pharmacotherapy on face and emotion recognition in children with ADHD.

PubMed

Demirci, Esra; Erdogan, Ayten

2016-12-01

The objectives of this study were to evaluate both face and emotion recognition, to detect differences among attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) subgroups, to identify effects of the gender and to assess the effects of methylphenidate and atomoxetine treatment on both face and emotion recognition in patients with ADHD. The study sample consisted of 41 male, 29 female patients, 8-15 years of age, who were diagnosed as having combined type ADHD (N = 26), hyperactive/impulsive type ADHD (N = 21) or inattentive type ADHD (N = 23) but had not previously used any medication for ADHD and 35 male, 25 female healthy individuals. Long-acting methylphenidate (OROS-MPH) was prescribed to 38 patients, whereas atomoxetine was prescribed to 32 patients. The reading the mind in the eyes test (RMET) and Benton face recognition test (BFRT) were applied to all participants before and after treatment. The patients with ADHD had a significantly lower number of correct answers in child and adolescent RMET and in BFRT than the healthy controls. Among the ADHD subtypes, the hyperactive/impulsive subtype had a lower number of correct answers in the RMET than the inattentive subtypes, and the hyperactive/impulsive subtype had a lower number of correct answers in short and long form of BFRT than the combined and inattentive subtypes. Male and female patients with ADHD did not differ significantly with respect to the number of correct answers on the RMET and BFRT. The patients showed significant improvement in RMET and BFRT after treatment with OROS-MPH or atomoxetine. Patients with ADHD have difficulties in face recognition as well as emotion recognition. Both OROS-MPH and atomoxetine affect emotion recognition. However, further studies on the face and emotion recognition are needed in ADHD.

A Descriptive, Cross-sectional Survey of Turkish Nurses' Knowledge of Pressure Ulcer Risk, Prevention, and Staging.

PubMed

Gul, Asiye; Andsoy, Isil Isik; Ozkaya, Birgul; Zeydan, Ayten

2017-06-01

Nurses' knowledge of pressure ulcer (PU) prevention and management is an important first step in the provision of optimal care. To evaluate PU prevention/risk, staging, and wound description knowledge, a descriptive, cross-sectional survey was conducted among nurses working in an acute care Turkish hospital. The survey instrument was a modified and translated version of the Pieper Pressure Ulcer Knowledge Test (PUKT), and its validity and reliability were established. Nurses completed a Personal Characteristics Form, including sociodemographic information and exposure to educational presentations and information about and experience with PUs, followed by the 49-item modified PUKT which includes 33 prevention/risk items, 9 staging items, and 7 wound description items. All items are true/false questions with an I don't know option (scoring: minimum 0, maximum 49). Correct answers received 1 point and incorrect/unknown answers received 0 points. The paper-pencil questionnaires were distributed by 2 researchers to all nurses in the participating hospital and completed by those willing to be included. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Pearson's correlation test was used to examine the relationship between quantitative variables, and mean scores were compared using the Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Among the 308 participating nurses (mean age 29.5 ± 8.1 [range 19-56] years) most were women (257, 83.4%) with 7.3 ± 7.8 (range 1-36) years of experience. The mean knowledge score for the entire sample was 29.7 ± 6.7 (range 8-42). The overall percentage of correct answers was 60.6% to 61.8% for PU prevention/risk assessment, 60% for wound description, and 56.6% for PU staging. Knowledge scores were significantly (P <.05) higher for participants who attended at least 1 lecture/conference/course on PUs in the last year, read articles/books about PUs, cared for patients with PUs, or believed their patients were at risk for PU development. Most participants (180, 58.4%) scored 60% or more correct; 8 (2.6%) correctly answered 80% or more of the items. The lowest number of correct answers was for the item, "Bunny boots and gel pads relieve pressure on the heels" (22, 7.1%). The results of this study suggest education and experience caring for patients who are at risk for or have a PU affect nurses' knowledge. This study, and additional research examining nurse knowledge, will help the development of much-needed education programs.

[Investigation on malaria knowledge and demands on related training for CDC staff in Qinghai Province, China].

PubMed

Shao-Sen, Zhang; Hui-Xia, Cai; Hong, Tu; He, Yan; Na, Liu; Jun-Ying, Ma

2017-04-07

To investigate the malaria knowledge of CDC staff and their demands on related training in malaria non-endemic areas, so as to provide the reference for planning the appropriate curriculum. All the participants who were the staff of county CDCs all over Qinghai Province and attended the provincial training workshop were surveyed. A self-administered questionnaire survey was carried out and the data was statistically analyzed. A total of 115 participants were involved in this survey. They were mostly (85.21%) from county CDCs. The general knowledge of malaria among the respondents was well, and the average rate of correct answers was 70.35%. However, the answers to the general knowledge of malaria and anti-malaria treatment were not well enough. The rates of correct answers were 61.96% and 48.99% respectively. The differences among the groups of job title ranking, department of working and level of CDC were not significant ( F = 0.13-2.02, all P > 0.05). The number of correct answers was significantly increased after the training course. The average score after the training was 79.20±15.16 while the pre-training score was 70.34±17.46 ( t = 3.86, P < 0.05), especially in the answers to general malaria knowledge and malaria surveillance and response ( t = 4.30, 4.97, both P < 0.05). The general knowledge of malaria was considered as the most need of training as 80% of the respondents voted "Yes", according to the demand analysis. There was no significant difference among the different groups ( F = 0.61-3.11, both P > 0.05). The malaria knowledge is well mastered by the staff of CDCs in Qinghai Province, and the further training courses are requested and addressed in the target areas such as general malaria knowledge, anti-malaria treatment, malaria surveillance and response.

A multicenter survey of contraceptive knowledge among adolescents in North America.

PubMed

Sokkary, Nancy; Mansouri, Roshanak; Yoost, Jennie; Focseneanu, Mariel; Dumont, Tania; Nathwani, Meera; Allen, Lisa; Hertweck, S Paige; Dietrich, Jennifer E

2013-10-01

To assess knowledge about contraceptive efficacy and side effects in an adolescent population seen in Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology referral centers. This is a multisite cross-sectional survey study. A 23-question survey assessing knowledge of contraception and demographic information was administered. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, simple paired t tests, and chi-square analyses using SAS 9.3. Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology clinics in 4 tertiary care centers. The study was conducted in 3 institutions in the United States and 1 institution in Canada. A convenience sample of 354 female patients aged 10-24 y seeking reproductive healthcare at participating institutions. None The percentage of correct answers to questions assessing general knowledge about contraception, familiarity with different contraceptive methods, and comparison of results between study sites. The mean percentage of correct answers among all participants was 55.8% ± 17%. Younger participants (age 10-13 years) scored significantly lower than their older counterparts (49%, 55%, and 60% respectively, P < .05). There was no correlation between score and ethnicity or location of the participating site. Subjects reporting the internet as a source of information, those who were sexually active, and those familiar with long acting reversible contraceptives scored significantly higher. Of all contraceptive methods, participants were least likely to have heard of etonogestrel implants (18%), rhythm method/natural family planning (28%), and IUDs (32%). Adolescents and young adults performed poorly overall demonstrating both the lack of overall knowledge regarding methods of contraception and misinformation about side effects. Copyright © 2013 North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Can workers answer their questions about occupational safety and health: challenges and solutions.

PubMed

Rhebergen, Martijn; Van Dijk, Frank; Hulshof, Carel

2012-01-01

Many workers have questions about occupational safety and health (OSH). Answers to these questions empower them to further improve their knowledge about OSH, make good decisions about OSH matters and improve OSH practice when necessary. Nevertheless, many workers fail to find the answers to their questions. This paper explores the challenges workers may face when seeking answers to their OSH questions. Findings suggest that many workers may lack the skills, experience or motivation to formulate an answerable question, seek and find information, appraise information, compose correct answers and apply information in OSH practice. Simultaneously, OSH knowledge infrastructures often insufficiently support workers in answering their OSH questions. This paper discusses several potentially attractive strategies for developing and improving OSH knowledge infrastructures: 1) providing courses that teach workers to ask answerable questions and to train them to find, appraise and apply information, 2) developing information and communication technology tools or facilities that support workers as they complete one or more stages in the process from question to answer and 3) tailoring information and implementation strategies to the workers' needs and context to ensure that the information can be applied to OSH practice more easily.

An effective multisource informed consent procedure for research and clinical practice: an observational study of patient understanding and awareness of their roles as research stakeholders in a cancer biobank.

PubMed

Cervo, Silvia; Rovina, Jane; Talamini, Renato; Perin, Tiziana; Canzonieri, Vincenzo; De Paoli, Paolo; Steffan, Agostino

2013-07-30

Efforts to improve patients' understanding of their own medical treatments or research in which they are involved are progressing, especially with regard to informed consent procedures. We aimed to design a multisource informed consent procedure that is easily adaptable to both clinical and research applications, and to evaluate its effectiveness in terms of understanding and awareness, even in less educated patients. We designed a multisource informed consent procedure for patients' enrolment in a Cancer Institute Biobank (CRO-Biobank). From October 2009 to July 2011, a total of 550 cancer patients admitted to the Centro di Riferimento Oncologico IRCCS Aviano, who agreed to contribute to its biobank, were consecutively enrolled. Participants were asked to answer a self-administered questionnaire aim at exploring their understanding of biobanks and their needs for information on this topic, before and after study participation. Chi-square tests were performed on the questionnaire answers, according to gender or education. Of the 430 patients who returned the questionnaire, only 36.5% knew what a biobank was before participating in the study. Patients with less formal education were less informed by some sources (the Internet, newspapers, magazines, and our Institute). The final assessment test, taken after the multisource informed consent procedure, showed more than 95% correct answers. The information received was judged to be very or fairly understandable in almost all cases. More than 95% of patients were aware of participating in a biobank project, and gave helping cancer research (67.5%), moral obligation, and supporting cancer care as main reasons for their involvement. Our multisource informed consent information system allowed a high rate of understanding and awareness of study participation, even among less-educated participants, and could be an effective and easy-to-apply model for others to consider to contribute to a well-informed decision making process in several fields, from clinical practice to research.Further studies are needed to explore the effects on the study comprehension by each source of information, and by other sources suggested by participants in the questionnaire.

Interactions between children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and their mothers.

PubMed

Power, Thomas G; Dahlquist, Lynnda M; Thompson, Suzanne M; Warren, Robert

2003-01-01

To determine the degree to which mothers of children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) show an overprotective or highly controlling interaction style. We videotaped 84 mother-child pairs (42 JRA and 42 healthy, ages 6 to 13) while working on a collaborative problem-solving task. Based on physical therapy evaluations, children in the JRA group were assigned to "more severe" (n = 19) and "milder" (n = 22) arthritis subgroups. Results showed numerous differences between mothers of children with more severe arthritis and the other mothers (no differences between the milder arthritis and healthy comparison groups were found). Compared to mothers in the other two groups, mothers of children with more severe arthritis were more directive of their children's behavior during the task, showing higher rates of structure and rule setting, general clues, and prompting the child for an answer. Sequential analyses showed that mothers in the more severe group appeared to treat the task in a more evaluative manner, being more likely than other mothers to respond to correct answers with positive feedback and to incorrect answers with structure and rule setting. Mothers in the other groups were more likely to respond to both correct and incorrect answers with specific clues. We discuss how these differences in interactional style might impact the social development of children with JRA.

When pretesting fails to enhance learning concepts from reading texts.

PubMed

Hausman, Hannah; Rhodes, Matthew G

2018-05-03

Prior research suggests that people can learn more from reading a text when they attempt to answer pretest questions first. Specifically, pretests on factual information explicitly stated in a text increases the likelihood that participants can answer identical questions after reading than if they had not answered pretest questions. Yet, a central goal of education is to develop deep conceptual understanding. The present experiments investigated whether conceptual pretests facilitate learning concepts from reading texts. In Experiment 1, participants were given factual or conceptual pretest questions; a control group was not given a pretest. Participants then read a passage and took a final test consisting of both factual and conceptual questions. Some of the final test questions were repeated from the pretest and some were new. Although factual pretesting improved learning for identical factual questions, conceptual pretesting did not enhance conceptual learning. Conceptual pretest errors were significantly more likely to be repeated on the final test than factual pretest errors. Providing correct answers (Experiment 2) or correct/incorrect feedback (Experiment 3) following pretest questions enhanced performance on repeated conceptual test items, although these benefits likely reflect memorization and not conceptual understanding. Thus, pretesting appears to provide little benefit for learning conceptual information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

A topic clustering approach to finding similar questions from large question and answer archives.

PubMed

Zhang, Wei-Nan; Liu, Ting; Yang, Yang; Cao, Liujuan; Zhang, Yu; Ji, Rongrong

2014-01-01

With the blooming of Web 2.0, Community Question Answering (CQA) services such as Yahoo! Answers (http://answers.yahoo.com), WikiAnswer (http://wiki.answers.com), and Baidu Zhidao (http://zhidao.baidu.com), etc., have emerged as alternatives for knowledge and information acquisition. Over time, a large number of question and answer (Q&A) pairs with high quality devoted by human intelligence have been accumulated as a comprehensive knowledge base. Unlike the search engines, which return long lists of results, searching in the CQA services can obtain the correct answers to the question queries by automatically finding similar questions that have already been answered by other users. Hence, it greatly improves the efficiency of the online information retrieval. However, given a question query, finding the similar and well-answered questions is a non-trivial task. The main challenge is the word mismatch between question query (query) and candidate question for retrieval (question). To investigate this problem, in this study, we capture the word semantic similarity between query and question by introducing the topic modeling approach. We then propose an unsupervised machine-learning approach to finding similar questions on CQA Q&A archives. The experimental results show that our proposed approach significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.

Lucky Fractions: Where Bad Arithmetic Gives Correct Results

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Osler, Thomas J.

2007-01-01

The fraction 16 over 64 has a well known, interesting property. If one incorrectly cancels the sixes, a correct answer of 1 over 4 is obtained. This is an example of a lucky fraction. In this article, the author presents several examples of lucky fractions and proves two interesting properties of these fractions. This article provides students the…

Effects of Video Games as Reinforcers for Computerized Addition Performance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Axelrod, Saul; And Others

1987-01-01

Four 2nd-grade students completed addition problems on a computer, using video games as reinforcers. Two variable ratio schedules of reinforcement failed to increase student accuracy or the rate of correct responses. In a no-games reinforcement condition, students had more opportunities to respond and had a greater number of correct answers.…

Can Eyewitnesses Correct for External Influences on Their Lineup Identifications? The Actual/Counterfactual Assessment Paradigm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Charman, Steve D.; Wells, Gary L.

2008-01-01

Real-world eyewitnesses are often asked whether their lineup responses were affected by various external influences, but it is unknown whether they can accurately answer these types of questions. The witness-report-of-influence mental-correction model is proposed to explain witnesses' reports of influence. Two experiments used a new paradigm (the…

A Comparison of Equality in Computer Algebra and Correctness in Mathematical Pedagogy (II)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bradford, Russell; Davenport, James H.; Sangwin, Chris

2010-01-01

A perennial problem in computer-aided assessment is that "a right answer", pedagogically speaking, is not the same thing as "a mathematically correct expression", as verified by a computer algebra system, or indeed other techniques such as random evaluation. Paper I in this series considered the difference in cases where there was "the right…

Use of Absolute and Comparative Performance Feedback in Absolute and Comparative Judgments and Decisions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Don A.; Klein, William M. P.

2008-01-01

Which matters more--beliefs about absolute ability or ability relative to others? This study set out to compare the effects of such beliefs on satisfaction with performance, self-evaluations, and bets on future performance. In Experiment 1, undergraduate participants were told they had answered 20% correct, 80% correct, or were not given their…

Augmenting Fellow Education Through Spaced Multiple-Choice Questions.

PubMed

Barsoumian, Alice E; Yun, Heather C

2018-01-01

The San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium Infectious Disease Fellowship program historically included a monthly short-answer and multiple-choice quiz. The intent was to ensure medical knowledge in relevant content areas that may not be addressed through clinical rotations, such as operationally relevant infectious disease. After completion, it was discussed in a small group with faculty. Over time, faculty noted increasing dissatisfaction with the activity. Spaced interval education is useful in retention of medical knowledge and skills by medical students and residents. Its use in infectious disease fellow education has not been described. To improve the quiz experience, we assessed the introduction of spaced education curriculum in our program. A pre-intervention survey was distributed to assess the monthly quiz with Likert scale and open-ended questions. A multiple-choice question spaced education curriculum was created using the Qstream(R) platform in 2011. Faculty development on question writing was conducted. Two questions were delivered every 2 d. Incorrectly and correctly answered questions were repeated after 7 and 13 d, respectively. Questions needed to be answered correctly twice to be retired. Fellow satisfaction was assessed at semi-annual fellowship reviews over 5 yr and by a one-time repeat survey. Pre-intervention survey of six fellows indicated dissatisfaction with the time commitment of the monthly quiz (median Likert score of 2, mean 6.5 h to complete), neutral in perceived utility, but satisfaction with knowledge retention (Likert score 4). Eighteen fellows over 5 yr participated in the spaced education curriculum. Three quizzes with 20, 39, and 48 questions were designed. Seventeen percentage of questions addressed operationally relevant topics. Fifty-nine percentage of questions were answered correctly on first attempt, improving to 93% correct answer rate at the end of the analysis. Questions were attempted 2,999 times. Fellows consistently indicated that the platform was "highly enjoyed," "beneficial," a "fun format," and "completely satisfied." Fellows additionally commented that they desired more questions and considered the platform helpful in board preparation. Formal survey data post-intervention found that the fellows were satisfied with the new approach, found it to be useful in board preparation, overall educational value, and in-line with their personal learning style (median Likert score of 4 for all queries). Fellows were satisfied with time commitment, spending a mean of 47 min on the spaced education curriculum questions per month. Introduction of a spaced education curriculum resulted in a sustained positive learner experience for >5 yr with demonstrated mastery of material. Spaced education learning is a viable addition to augment training experience, especially in areas of curricular gaps such as operational medicine. Correct answer data may also be useful to perform Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-required objective assessment of knowledge. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States 2017. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

Area Source Boiler National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), 40 CFR Part 63, Subpart JJJJJJ: Questions and Answers

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This October 2016 question and answer (Q&A) document is in response to a number of questions the EPA has received from delegated state and local agencies and the regulated community regarding the NESHAP for Area source boilers. Document updates 4/2014 PDF.

Solving the Mystery of the Short-Hard Gamma-Ray Bursts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fox, Derek

2004-07-01

Seven years after the afterglow detections that revolutionized studies of the long-soft gamma-ray bursts, not even one afterglow of a short-hard GRB has been seen, and the nature of these events has become one of the most important problems in GRB research. The forthcoming Swift satellite will report few-arcsecond localizations for short-hard bursts in minutes, however, enabling prompt, deep optical afterglow searches for the first time. Discovery and observation of the first short-hard optical afterglows will answer most of the critical questions about these events: What are their distances and energies? Do they occur in distant galaxies, and if so, in which regions of those galaxies? Are they the result of collimated or quasi-spherical explosions? In combination with an extensive rapid-response ground-based campaign, we propose to make the critical high-sensitivity HST TOO observations that will allow us to answer these questions. If theorists are correct in attributing the short-hard bursts to binary neutron star coalescence events, then the short-hard bursts are signposts to the primary targeted source population for ground-based gravitational-wave detectors, and short-hard burst studies will have a vital role to play in guiding their observations.

Adolescents’ Knowledge of Breastfeeding and Their Intention to Breastfeed in the Future

PubMed Central

Čatipović, Marija; Voskresensky Baričić, Tamara; Rokvić, Sunčana; Grgurić, Josip

2017-01-01

The aim of this paper is to analyze third-year secondary school students’ knowledge of breastfeeding and intention to breastfeed their children, based on the results of a questionnaire. The respondents were 154 students (101 female/43 male) of two secondary schools in Bjelovar. The students completed a questionnaire which consisted of 23 questions regarding knowledge and intention to breastfeed. The answers were analyzed statistically and different results were compared by nonparametric tests. About half of the respondents think that both partners should decide on breastfeeding and recognize the role that fathers have in initiating and maintaining breastfeeding. Only 13.64% of the respondents know that breastfeeding is to be done only on demand. Exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, as recommended by the medical profession, is recognized by 70.13% of the students. The question on how justified is the initiation of formula together with the mother’s milk was answered correctly by 29.22% of the students. Secondary school students’ knowledge of breastfeeding is insufficient, and schools, families, social communities and other sources of information should share the responsibility for improving this. We consider it necessary to pay more attention to improving students’ knowledge of breastfeeding through school curricula. PMID:28632193

Patients' misunderstanding of common orthopaedic terminology: the need for clarity

PubMed Central

Bagley, CHM; Hunter, AR; Bacarese-Hamilton, IA

2011-01-01

INTRODUCTION Patients' understanding of their medical problems is essential to allow them to make competent decisions, comply with treatment and enable recovery. We investigated Patients' understanding of orthopaedic terms to identify those words surgeons should make the most effort to explain. METHODS This questionnaire-based study recruited patients attending the orthopaedic clinics. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected using free text boxes for the Patients' written definitions and multiple choice questions (MCQs). RESULTS A total of 133 patients took part. Of these, 74% identified English as their first language. ‘Broken bone’ was correctly defined by 71% of respondents whereas ‘fractured bone’ was only correctly defined by 33%. ‘Sprain’ was correctly defined by 17% of respondents, with 29% being almost correct, 25% wrong and 29% unsure. In the MCQs, 51% of respondents answered correctly for ‘fracture’, 55% for ‘arthroscopy’, 46% for ‘meniscus’, 35% for ‘tendon’ and 23% for ‘ligament’. ‘Sprained’ caused confusion, with only 11% of patients answering correctly. Speaking English as a second language was a significant predictive factor for patients who had difficulty with definitions. There was no significant variation among different age groups. CONCLUSIONS Care should be taken by surgeons when using basic and common orthopaedic terminology in order to avoid misunderstanding. Educating patients in clinic is a routine part of practice. PMID:21943466

447 Asthma Knowledge among Parents and/or Caregivers of Asthmatic Children Attending a Practical Allergy Course

PubMed Central

Sandoval-Ramírez, Eunice; Livano Prez, Mayra Alondra; Tercero-Quintanilla, Gabriela; Rosas-Vargas, Miguel Angel; del Rio, Blanca; del Río-Chivardí, Jaime Mariano

2012-01-01

Background Asthma is one of the most frequent chronic diseases, with worldwide prevalence of 1 to 18%. Patient and the patient's family education is considered by all International Guides fundamental to achieve this disease control. The aim of this study is to asses the asthma knowledge among parents and/or caregivers of pediatric asthmatic patients before and after attending to a Practical Allergy Course given at Hospital Infantil de Mexico Federico Gomez by the Pediatric Allergy Department. Methods Transversal Study that included 115 persons attending to a Practical Allergy Course that answered the previously validated instrument to asses the asthma knowledge among parents or caregivers NAKQ (Newcastle Asthma Knowledge Questionnaire); its Spanish version consisting in 31 questions; before and after the practical course. A descriptive annalysis was made; usefullness of the course was determinated by x2. Stadistical packagge used was SPSS 17. Results A total of 115 questionnaires were applied, only 99 were properly answered and were included in the analysis; from these 35 were male and 64 female; 80% with high-school and middle school schooling; 92% were small families with 1 to 3 children; 90% of the families had only one child with asthma; 63% was receiving the practical course for the first time. Before attending the practical course the mean answered questions was 30 and after attending the mean answered questions was 31 (LR = 57.465; P < 0.000); for the first evaluation the mean correct answers was 19 and the latter 22 correct answers, finding statistical significant differences (LR = 30.253; P < 0.000). Conclusions We found improved asthma knowledge among parents and caregivers of asthmatic children after attending to a Practical Allergy Course.

An online spaced-education game to teach and assess residents: a multi-institutional prospective trial.

PubMed

Kerfoot, B Price; Baker, Harley

2012-03-01

While games are frequently used in resident education, there is little evidence supporting their efficacy. We investigated whether a spaced-education (SE) game can be both a reliable and valid method of assessing residents' knowledge and an effective means of teaching core content. The SE game consisted of 100 validated multiple-choice questions and explanations on core urology content. Residents were sent 2 questions each day via email. Adaptive game mechanics re-sent the questions in 2 or 6 weeks if answered incorrectly and correctly, respectively. Questions expired if not answered on time (appointment dynamic). Residents retired questions by answering each correctly twice in a row (progression dynamic). Competition was fostered by posting relative performance among residents. Main outcomes measures were baseline scores (percentage of questions answered correctly on initial presentation) and completion scores (percentage of questions retired). Nine hundred thirty-one US and Canadian residents enrolled in the 45-week trial. Cronbach alpha reliability for the SE baseline scores was 0.87. Baseline scores (median 62%, interquartile range [IQR] 17%) correlated with scores on the 2008 American Urological Association in-service examination (ISE08), 2009 American Board of Urology qualifying examination (QE09), and ISE09 (r = 0.76, 0.46, and 0.64, respectively; all p < 0.001). Baseline scores varied by sex, country, medical degree, and year of training (all p ≤ 0.001). Completion scores (median 100%, IQR 2%) correlated with ISE08 and ISE09 scores (r = 0.35, p < 0.001 for both). Seventy-two percent of enrollees (667 of 931) requested to participate in future SE games. An SE game is a reliable and valid means to assess residents' knowledge and is a well-accepted method by which residents can master core content. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Patients with schizophrenia activate behavioural intentions facilitated by counterfactual reasoning

PubMed Central

Tebé, Cristian; Benejam, Bessy; Caño, Agnes; Menchón, José Manuel

2017-01-01

Previous research has associated schizophrenia with an inability to activate behavioural intentions facilitated by counterfactual thinking (CFT) as a step to improving performance. Consequently, these findings suggest that rehabilitation strategies will be entirely ineffective. To extend previous research, we evaluated the influence of CFT in the activation of behavioural intentions using a novel sequential priming paradigm in the largest sample of subjects explored to date. Method The main variables assessed were: answer to complete a target task (wrong or correctly), and percentage gain in the reaction time (RT) to complete a target task correctly depending on whether the prime was a counterfactual or a neutral-control cue. These variables were assessed in 37 patients with schizophrenia and 37 healthy controls. Potential associations with clinical status and socio-demographic characteristics were also explored. Results When a counterfactual prime was presented, the probability of giving an incorrect answer was lower for the entire sample than when a neutral prime was presented (OR 0.58; CI 95% 0.42 to 0.79), but the schizophrenia patients showed a higher probability than the controls of giving an incorrect answer (OR 3.89; CI 95% 2.0 to 7.6). Both the schizophrenia patients and the controls showed a similar percentage gain in RT to a correct answer of 8%. Conclusions Challenging the results of previous research, our findings suggest a normal activation of behavioural intentions facilitated by CFT in schizophrenia. Nevertheless, the patients showed more difficulty than the controls with the task, adding support to the concept of CFT as a potential new target for consideration in future therapeutic approaches for this illness. PMID:28586400

How much does the specialist know about cardiogastroenterology?

PubMed

Aguilar-Nájera, O; Valdovinos-García, L R; Tepox-Padrón, A; Valdovinos-Díaz, M A

Cardiovascular disease is a growing public health problem. Forty percent of the general population will suffer from the disease by 2030, consequently requiring antithrombotic therapy. Cardiogastroenterology is a new area of knowledge that evaluates the gastrointestinal effects and complications of antithrombotic therapy. Our aim was to evaluate, through a validated questionnaire, the knowledge held by a group of specialists and residents in the areas of gastroenterology and internal medicine, about pharmacology and drug prescription, as well as gastrointestinal risks and complications, in relation to antithrombotic therapy. A validated questionnaire composed of 30 items was applied to a group of specialists and residents in the areas of gastroenterology and internal medicine. The questions were on indications, pharmacology, evaluation of risks for gastrointestinal bleeding and thromboembolic events, and use of antithrombotic therapy during endoscopic procedures. Sufficient knowledge was defined as 18 or more (≥ 60%) correct answers. The questionnaire was answered by 194 physicians: 82 (42%) internal medicine residents and gastroenterology residents and 112 (58%) specialists. Only 40 (20.6%) of the participants had sufficient knowledge of cardiogastroenterology. Residents had a higher number of correct answers than specialists (53 vs. 36%, P<.0001). The gastroenterology residents had more correct answers than the internal medicine residents, gastroenterologists, and internists (70 vs. 53, 40, and 46%, respectively, P<.001). Only residents had sufficient knowledge regarding pharmacology and the use of antithrombotic therapy in endoscopy (P<.0001). All groups had insufficient knowledge in evaluating the risk for gastrointestinal bleeding and thrombosis. Knowledge of cardiogastroenterology was insufficient in the group of residents and specialists surveyed. There is a need for medical education programs on the appropriate use of antithrombotic therapy. Copyright © 2017 Asociación Mexicana de Gastroenterología. Publicado por Masson Doyma México S.A. All rights reserved.

A generalized approach for producing, quantifying, and validating citizen science data from wildlife images.

PubMed

Swanson, Alexandra; Kosmala, Margaret; Lintott, Chris; Packer, Craig

2016-06-01

Citizen science has the potential to expand the scope and scale of research in ecology and conservation, but many professional researchers remain skeptical of data produced by nonexperts. We devised an approach for producing accurate, reliable data from untrained, nonexpert volunteers. On the citizen science website www.snapshotserengeti.org, more than 28,000 volunteers classified 1.51 million images taken in a large-scale camera-trap survey in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Each image was circulated to, on average, 27 volunteers, and their classifications were aggregated using a simple plurality algorithm. We validated the aggregated answers against a data set of 3829 images verified by experts and calculated 3 certainty metrics-level of agreement among classifications (evenness), fraction of classifications supporting the aggregated answer (fraction support), and fraction of classifiers who reported "nothing here" for an image that was ultimately classified as containing an animal (fraction blank)-to measure confidence that an aggregated answer was correct. Overall, aggregated volunteer answers agreed with the expert-verified data on 98% of images, but accuracy differed by species commonness such that rare species had higher rates of false positives and false negatives. Easily calculated analysis of variance and post-hoc Tukey tests indicated that the certainty metrics were significant indicators of whether each image was correctly classified or classifiable. Thus, the certainty metrics can be used to identify images for expert review. Bootstrapping analyses further indicated that 90% of images were correctly classified with just 5 volunteers per image. Species classifications based on the plurality vote of multiple citizen scientists can provide a reliable foundation for large-scale monitoring of African wildlife. © 2016 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology.

A generalized approach for producing, quantifying, and validating citizen science data from wildlife images

PubMed Central

Kosmala, Margaret; Lintott, Chris; Packer, Craig

2016-01-01

Abstract Citizen science has the potential to expand the scope and scale of research in ecology and conservation, but many professional researchers remain skeptical of data produced by nonexperts. We devised an approach for producing accurate, reliable data from untrained, nonexpert volunteers. On the citizen science website www.snapshotserengeti.org, more than 28,000 volunteers classified 1.51 million images taken in a large‐scale camera‐trap survey in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Each image was circulated to, on average, 27 volunteers, and their classifications were aggregated using a simple plurality algorithm. We validated the aggregated answers against a data set of 3829 images verified by experts and calculated 3 certainty metrics—level of agreement among classifications (evenness), fraction of classifications supporting the aggregated answer (fraction support), and fraction of classifiers who reported “nothing here” for an image that was ultimately classified as containing an animal (fraction blank)—to measure confidence that an aggregated answer was correct. Overall, aggregated volunteer answers agreed with the expert‐verified data on 98% of images, but accuracy differed by species commonness such that rare species had higher rates of false positives and false negatives. Easily calculated analysis of variance and post‐hoc Tukey tests indicated that the certainty metrics were significant indicators of whether each image was correctly classified or classifiable. Thus, the certainty metrics can be used to identify images for expert review. Bootstrapping analyses further indicated that 90% of images were correctly classified with just 5 volunteers per image. Species classifications based on the plurality vote of multiple citizen scientists can provide a reliable foundation for large‐scale monitoring of African wildlife. PMID:27111678

Using Pre-Assessment and In-Class Questions to Change Student Understanding of Molecular Movements †

PubMed Central

Shi, J.; Knight, Jennifer K.; Chun, Hyonho; Guild, Nancy A.; Martin, Jennifer M.

2017-01-01

Understanding how different types of molecules move through cell membranes is a fundamental part of cell biology. To identify and address student misconceptions surrounding molecular movement through cell membranes, we surveyed student understanding on this topic using pre-class questions, in-class clicker questions, and subsequent exam questions in a large introductory biology course. Common misconceptions identified in student responses to the pre-class assessment questions were used to generate distractors for clicker questions. Two-tier diagnostic clicker questions were used to probe incoming common student misconceptions (first tier) and their reasoning (second tier). Two subsequent lectures with assessment clicker questions were used to help students construct a new framework to understand molecular movement through cell membranes. Comparison of pre-assessment and post-assessment (exam) performance showed dramatic improvement in students’ understanding of molecular movement: student answers to exam questions were 74.6% correct with correct reasoning while only 1.3% of the student answers were correct with correct reasoning on the pre-class assessment. Our results show that students’ conceptual understanding of molecular movement through cell membranes progressively increases through discussions of a series of clicker questions and suggest that this clicker-based teaching strategy was highly effective in correcting common student misconceptions on this topic. PMID:28512521

Utilization management and data acquisition: a case study.

PubMed

Blackwood, M J

1994-01-01

The more a company knows about the source and nature of its health care costs, the more likely it is to make good cost-effective decisions. Three different companies, with the help of health care management vendors, were able to make significant health cost savings by organizing their data in creative ways. Combining different sources of cost data enabled them to answer questions they could not have answered through any single source.

As a Potential Source of Error, Measuring the Tendency of University Students to Copy the Answers: A Scale Development Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Demir, Ergul

2018-01-01

Purpose: The answer-copying tendency has the potential to detect suspicious answer patterns for prior distributions of statistical detection techniques. The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable measurement tool as a scale in order to observe the tendency of university students' copying of answers. Also, it is aimed to provide…

Answers to Health Questions: Internet Search Results Versus Online Health Community Responses.

PubMed

Kanthawala, Shaheen; Vermeesch, Amber; Given, Barbara; Huh, Jina

2016-04-28

About 6 million people search for health information on the Internet each day in the United States. Both patients and caregivers search for information about prescribed courses of treatments, unanswered questions after a visit to their providers, or diet and exercise regimens. Past literature has indicated potential challenges around quality in health information available on the Internet. However, diverse information exists on the Internet-ranging from government-initiated webpages to personal blog pages. Yet we do not fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of different types of information available on the Internet. The objective of this research was to investigate the strengths and challenges of various types of health information available online and to suggest what information sources best fit various question types. We collected questions posted to and the responses they received from an online diabetes community and classified them according to Rothwell's classification of question types (fact, policy, or value questions). We selected 60 questions (20 each of fact, policy, and value) and the replies the questions received from the community. We then searched for responses to the same questions using a search engine and recorded the Community responses answered more questions than did search results overall. Search results were most effective in answering value questions and least effective in answering policy questions. Community responses answered questions across question types at an equivalent rate, but most answered policy questions and the least answered fact questions. Value questions were most answered by community responses, but some of these answers provided by the community were incorrect. Fact question search results were the most clinically valid. The Internet is a prevalent source of health information for people. The information quality people encounter online can have a large impact on them. We present what kinds of questions people ask online and the advantages and disadvantages of various information sources in getting answers to those questions. This study contributes to addressing people's online health information needs.

An Expert System Model of Organizational Climate and Performance

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-01-01

In 0. Meister, Behavioral analysis and measurement methods, New York: Wiley. Farace , R.V., and MacDonald, D. (1974). New directions in the study of...efficiency and resource use (EFFICIENCY). (Berlo in Farace and MacDonald, 1974) Commitment Communications Groups with greater commitment to goals...my work are correct and accurate (Muchlnsky, 1977; Klauss, 1977). ANSWERS.AVAIL S- 2. It’s easy to get answers in my organization ( Farace and MacDonald

Understanding the Factors Influencing User Experience of Social Question and Answer Services

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deng, Shengli; Fang, Yuling; Liu, Yong; Li, Hongxiu

2015-01-01

Introduction: The popularity of social question and answer sites has made it an important and convenient source for obtaining knowledge. This study quantifies how three different system characteristics (interface design, interaction and answer quality) affect users' perceptions (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment),…

Predicting Correctness of Problem Solving from Low-Level Log Data in Intelligent Tutoring Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cetintas, Suleyman; Si, Luo; Xin, Yan Ping; Hord, Casey

2009-01-01

This paper proposes a learning based method that can automatically determine how likely a student is to give a correct answer to a problem in an intelligent tutoring system. Only log files that record students' actions with the system are used to train the model, therefore the modeling process doesn't require expert knowledge for identifying…

The Effect of Error Correction vs. Error Detection on Iranian Pre-Intermediate EFL Learners' Writing Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abedi, Razie; Latifi, Mehdi; Moinzadeh, Ahmad

2010-01-01

This study tries to answer some ever-existent questions in writing fields regarding approaching the most effective ways to give feedback to students' errors in writing by comparing the effect of error correction and error detection on the improvement of students' writing ability. In order to achieve this goal, 60 pre-intermediate English learners…

The Value of Written Corrective Feedback for Migrant and International Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bitchener, John; Knoch, Ute

2008-01-01

This article provides an overview of research that has investigated the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) on ESL student writing. In doing so, it highlights a number of shortcomings in the design of some studies and explains what needs to be done in future research so that answers to the issues that have been raised can be…

Understanding Clicker Discussions: Student Reasoning and the Impact of Instructional Cues

PubMed Central

Knight, Jennifer K.; Wise, Sarah B.; Southard, Katelyn M.

2013-01-01

Previous research has shown that undergraduate science students learn from peer discussions of in-class clicker questions. However, the features that characterize such discussions are largely unknown, as are the instructional factors that may lead students into productive discussions. To explore these questions, we recorded and transcribed 83 discussions among groups of students discussing 34 different clicker questions in an upper-level developmental biology class. Discussion transcripts were analyzed for features such as making claims, questioning, and explaining reasoning. In addition, transcripts were categorized by the quality of reasoning students used and for performance features, such as percent correct on initial vote, percent correct on revote, and normalized learning change. We found that the majority of student discussions included exchanges of reasoning that used evidence and that many such exchanges resulted in students achieving the correct answer. Students also had discussions in which ideas were exchanged, but the correct answer not achieved. Importantly, instructor prompts that asked students to use reasoning resulted in significantly more discussions containing reasoning connected to evidence than without such prompts. Overall, these results suggest that these upper-level biology students readily employ reasoning in their discussions and are positively influenced by instructor cues. PMID:24297291

Three- to four-year-olds' recognition that symbols have a stable meaning: pictures are understood before written words.

PubMed

Apperly, Ian A; Williams, Emily; Williams, Joelle

2004-01-01

In 4 experiments 120 three- to four-year-old nonreaders were asked the identity of a symbolic representation as it appeared with different objects. Consistent with Bialystok (2000), many children judged the identity of written words to vary according to the object with which they appeared but few made such errors with recognizable pictures. Children also made few errors when the symbols were unrecognizable pictures. In Experiments 2 to 4 this pattern of responses was preserved in conditions that made it unlikely or impossible for children to answer correctly by taking the symbol to refer to one of the objects with which it appeared. Instead, correct answers required children to appreciate that the symbol had a generic, abstract meaning.

Promoting an active form of learning out-of-class via answering online "study questions" leads to higher than expected exam scores in General Biology.

PubMed

Gibson, Susan I

2015-01-01

A rising need for workers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields has fueled interest in improving teaching within STEM disciplines. Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits of active learning approaches on student learning outcomes. However, many of these studies have been conducted in experimental, rather than real-life class, settings. In addition, most of these studies have focused on in-class active learning exercises. This study tested the effects of answering questions outside of class on exam performance for General Biology students at the University of Minnesota. An online database of 1,020 multiple-choice questions covering material from the first half of the course was generated. Students in seven course sections (with an average of ∼265 students per section) were given unlimited access to the online study questions. These students made extensive use of the online questions, with students answering an average of 1,323 questions covering material from the half of the semester for which the questions were available. After students answered a set of questions, they were shown the correct answers for those questions. More specific feedback describing how to arrive at the correct answer was provided for the 73% of the questions for which the correct answers were not deemed to be self-explanatory. The extent to which access to the online study questions improved student learning outcomes was assessed by comparing the performance on exam questions of students in the seven course sections with access to the online study questions with the performance of students in course sections without access to the online study questions. Student performance was analyzed for a total of 89 different exams questions that were not included in the study questions, but that covered the same material covered by the study questions. Each of these 89 questions was used on one to five exams given to students in course sections that had access to the online study questions and on three to 77 exams given to students in sections that lacked such access. Data from over 1,800 students in sections with access to the online study questions show that those students scored a statistically significant average of 6.6% points higher on the exam questions analyzed than students in sections without access to the study questions. This difference was greater than the average amount necessary to raise students' exam grades by one grade (e.g., from a "B-" to a "B"). In addition, there was a higher correlation between number of questions answered and success on exam questions on material related to the study questions than between number of questions answered and success on exam questions on material unrelated to the study questions. The online study question system required substantial effort to set up, but required minimal effort to maintain and was effective in significantly raising average exam scores for even very large course sections.

Do doctors understand the test characteristics of lung cancer screening?

PubMed

Schmidt, Richard; Breyer, Marie; Breyer-Kohansal, Robab; Urban, Matthias; Funk, Georg-Christian

2018-04-01

Screening for lung cancer with a low-dose computed tomography (CT) scan is estimated to prevent 3 deaths per 1000 individuals at high risk; however, false positive results and radiation exposure are relevant harms and deserve careful consideration. Screening candidates can only make an autonomous decision if doctors correctly inform them of the pros and cons of the method; therefore, this study aimed to evaluate whether doctors understand the test characteristics of lung cancer screening. In a randomized trial 556 doctors (members of the Austrian Respiratory Society) were invited to answer questions regarding lung cancer screening based on online case vignettes. Half of the participants were randomized to the group 'solutions provided' and received the correct solutions in advance. The group 'solutions withheld' had to rely on prior knowledge or estimates. The primary endpoint was the between-group difference in the estimated number of deaths preventable by screening. Secondary endpoints were the between-group differences in the prevalence of lung cancer, prevalence of a positive screening results, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and false negative rate. Estimations were also compared with current data from the literature. The response rate was 29% in both groups. The reduction in the number of deaths due to screening was overestimated six-fold (95% confidence interval CI: 4-8) compared with the actual data, and there was no effect of group allocation. Providing the correct solutions to doctors had no systematic effect on their answers. Doctors poorly understand the test characteristics of lung cancer screening. Providing the correct solutions in advance did not improve the answers. Continuing education regarding lung cancer screening and the interpretation of test characteristics may be a simple remedy. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02542332).

Evaluation of a 3D serious game for advanced life support retraining.

PubMed

Buttussi, Fabio; Pellis, Tommaso; Cabas Vidani, Alberto; Pausler, Daniele; Carchietti, Elio; Chittaro, Luca

2013-09-01

Advanced life support (ALS) knowledge and skills decrease in as little as three months, but only a few ALS providers actually attend retraining courses. We assess the effectiveness of a 3D serious game as a new tool for frequent ALS retraining. We developed a 3D serious game for scenario-based ALS retraining. The serious game, called EMSAVE, was designed to promote self-correction while playing. We organized a retraining course in which 40 ALS providers played two cardiac arrest scenarios with EMSAVE and took a test with 38 multiple-choice questions before and after playing. We administered the same test again 3 months later to evaluate retention. Participants also rated EMSAVE and the overall retraining experience. After using EMSAVE, the number of correct answers per participant increased by 4.8 (95%CI +3.4, +6.2, p<0.001) and all but one participant improved. After 3 months, despite an expected decrease in ALS knowledge and skills (-1.9 correct answers, 95%CI -0.6, -3.3, p<0.01), there was a significant retention benefit (+2.9 correct answers per participant, 95%CI +1.5, +4.2, p<0.001). Moreover, all but one participant regarded EMSAVE as a valuable tool to refresh ALS knowledge and skills, and 85% of participants were also willing to devote 1h/month to retrain with the serious game. A 3D serious game for scenario-based retraining proved effective to retrain in ALS and supported retention of acquired knowledge and skills at 3 months. EMSAVE also positively engaged and motivated participants. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Results of a novel screening tool measuring dietary sodium knowledge in patients with chronic kidney disease.

PubMed

Wright Nunes, Julie A; Anderson, Cheryl A M; Greene, Jane H; Ikizler, Talat Alp; Cavanaugh, Kerri L

2015-03-31

Reducing dietary sodium has potential to benefit patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Little research is available defining dietary sodium knowledge gaps in patients with pre-dialysis CKD. We designed a brief screening tool to rapidly identify patient knowledge gaps related to dietary sodium for patients with CKD not yet on dialysis. A Short Sodium Knowledge Survey (SSKS) was developed and administered to patients with pre-dialysis CKD. We also asked patients if they received counseling on dietary sodium reduction and about recommended intake limits. We performed logistic regression to examine the association between sodium knowledge and patient characteristics. Characteristics of patients who answered all SSKS questions correctly were compared to those who did not. One-hundred fifty-five patients were surveyed. The mean (SD) age was 56.6 (15.1) years, 84 (54%) were men, and 119 (77%) were white. Sixty-seven patients (43.2%) correctly identified their daily intake sodium limit. Fifty-eight (37.4%) were unable to answer all survey questions correctly. In analysis adjusted for age, sex, race, education, health literacy, CKD stage, self-reported hypertension and attendance in a kidney education class, women and patients of non-white race had lower odds of correctly answering survey questions (0.36 [0.16,0.81]; p = 0.01 women versus men and 0.33 [0.14,0.76]; p = 0.01 non-white versus white, respectively). Our survey provides a mechanism to quickly identify dietary sodium knowledge gaps in patients with CKD. Women and patients of non-white race may have knowledge barriers impeding adherence to sodium reduction advice.

Detecting Answer Copying Using Alternate Test Forms and Seat Locations in Small-Scale Examinations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Ark, L. Andries; Emons, Wilco H. M.; Sijtsma, Klaas

2008-01-01

Two types of answer-copying statistics for detecting copiers in small-scale examinations are proposed. One statistic identifies the "copier-source" pair, and the other in addition suggests who is copier and who is source. Both types of statistics can be used when the examination has alternate test forms. A simulation study shows that the…

Questions and Answers About Nuclear Power Plants.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC.

This pamphlet is designed to answer many of the questions that have arisen about nuclear power plants and the environment. It is organized into a question and answer format, with the questions taken from those most often asked by the public. Topics include regulation of nuclear power sources, potential dangers to people's health, whether nuclear…

Knowledge of severe acute respiratory syndrome among community physicians, nurses, and emergency medical responders.

PubMed

Tice, Alan Douglas; Kishimoto, Mitsumasa; Dinh, Chuong Hoang; Lam, Geoffrey Tak-Kin; Marineau, Michelle

2006-01-01

The preparedness levels of front-line clinicians including physicians, nurses, emergency medical responders (EMRs), and other medical staff working in clinics, offices and ambulatory care centers must be assessed, so these personnel are able to deal with communicable and potentially lethal diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). In order to determine the knowledge of these clinicians, a survey of their understanding of SARS and their use of educational resources was administered. A questionnaire was distributed to physicians, nurses, and EMRs attending conferences on SARS in the summer of 2003. Questions related to information sources, knowledge of SARS, and plans implemented in their workplace to deal with it. Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (10.1 Program, SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois). A total of 201 community healthcare providers (HCPs) participated in the study. A total of 51% of the participants correctly identified the incubation period of SARS; 48% correctly identified the symptoms of SARS; and 60% knew the recommended infection control precautions to take for families. There was little difference in knowledge among the physicians, nurses, and EMRs evaluated. Media outlets such as newspapers, journals, television, and radio were reported as the main sources of information on SARS. However, there appears to be a growing use of the Internet, which correlated best with the correct answers on symptoms of SARS. Fewer than one-third of respondents were aware of a protocol for SARS in their workplace. A total of 60% reported that N-95 masks were available in their workplace. These findings suggest the need for more effective means of education and training for front-line clinicians, as well as the institution of policies and procedures in medical offices, clinics, and emergency services in the community.

[Comparative analysis of visual function and the quality of life index with eyeglasses or a progressive contact lens].

PubMed

Sant'Anna, Neusa Vidal; Schor, Paulo; Lipener, César; Uras, Ricardo

2006-01-01

To compare the visual function and the answers to a questionnaire of quality of life of patients wearing a progressive contact lens or eyeglasses. The Focus Progressive contact lens had been fitted in 35 patients with far visual acuity with progressive-addition eyeglasses equal to zero (log MAR) and near J1 (Jaeger). The far and near visual acuities and the measurement of contrast sensitivity were compared when the patients were wearing the eyeglasses or the contact lens and the patients' results of the scores of the quality of life questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25) were analyzed statistically considering the type of ametropy and the age. The far and near visual acuities and the contrast sensitivity measurement were worse with the contact lens than with eyeglasses. The answers to the questionnaire did not differ when were comparing the same patients wearing eyeglasses or contact lens, no matter the type of ametropy. The myopic and the hyperopic subgroups had worse answers to the quality of life questionnaire when corrected with the contact lens than with eyeglasses, both with age equal to or less than their median. The visual function was worse with the contact lens. The type of ametropy did not influence the answers to the quality of life questionnaire considering the optical correction, but age did.

Initial knowledge at radiation protection courses from 2005-2013 (3): tendencies and conclusions.

PubMed

Haverkamp, U F; Pruemer, B A; Fahrmer, A

2013-11-01

The necessity of refresher courses is controversial and is frequently questioned. The present study examines whether the courses have a lasting effect and whether improvements are indicated. With the help of a questionnaire (9 questions) to be answered before the course, a self-assessment was performed and questions about the knowledge and structure of radiation protection were asked. 1361 participants were surveyed (55 % physicians, 31 % doctor's assistants, 13 % technicians, 1 % medical physicists) in the period of 2005 - 2013 (3) and 39 courses were evaluated. The assessment entailed the comparison of 3 subgroups: 2005 - 2007, 2008 - 2010, 2011 - 2013. The self-assessment is about 3.0 (1 - very good, 5 - very poor) with fluctuations regarding time course and occupation. For all questions, there was an increase in correct answers from the period 2005 - 2007 to the period 2008 - 2010 (+ 15 %), while the rate fell again for the period 2011 - 2013 (3) (- 8 %). The questions were answered significantly better for organization-related topics than knowledge-based topics. Overall 53 % of the answers were correct. This study shows an increase in knowledge since starting refresher courses. However, recently the effect has decreased again. In order to maintain the knowledge, the yearly instruction must be held on time, which according to participants' statements actually occurs in only 60 % of cases. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Cancer prevention knowledge of people with profound hearing loss.

PubMed

Zazove, Philip; Meador, Helen E; Reed, Barbara D; Sen, Ananda; Gorenflo, Daniel W

2009-03-01

Deaf persons, a documented minority population, have low reading levels and difficulty communicating with physicians. The effect of these on their knowledge of cancer prevention recommendations is unknown. A cross-sectional study of 222 d/Deaf persons in Michigan, age 18 and older, chose one of four ways (voice, video of a certified American Sign Language interpreter, captions, or printed English) to complete a self-administered computer video questionnaire about demographics, hearing loss, language history, health-care utilization, and health-care information sources, as well as family and social variables. Twelve questions tested their knowledge of cancer prevention recommendations. The outcome measures were the percentage of correct answers to the questions and the association of multiple variables with these responses. Participants averaged 22.9% correct answers with no gender difference. Univariate analysis revealed that smoking history, types of medical problems, last physician visit, and women having previous cancer preventive tests did not affect scores. Improved scores occurred with computer use (p = 0.05), higher education (p < 0.01) and income (p = 0.01), hearing spouses (p < 0.01), speaking English in multiple situations (p < 0.001), and in men with previous prostate cancer testing (p = 0.04). Obtaining health information from books (p = 0.05), physicians (p = 0.008), nurses (p = 0.03) or the internet (p = 0.02), and believing that smoking is bad (p < 0.001) also improved scores. Multivariate analysis revealed that English use (p = 0.01) and believing that smoking was bad (p = 0.05) were associated with improved scores. Persons with profound hearing loss have poor knowledge of recommended cancer prevention interventions. English use in multiple settings was strongly associated with increased knowledge.

Cancer Prevention Knowledge of People with Profound Hearing Loss

PubMed Central

Meador, Helen E.; Reed, Barbara D.; Sen, Ananda; Gorenflo, Daniel W.

2009-01-01

BACKGROUND Deaf persons, a documented minority population, have low reading levels and difficulty communicating with physicians. The effect of these on their knowledge of cancer prevention recommendations is unknown. METHODS A cross-sectional study of 222 d/Deaf persons in Michigan, age 18 and older, chose one of four ways (voice, video of a certified American Sign Language interpreter, captions, or printed English) to complete a self-administered computer video questionnaire about demographics, hearing loss, language history, health-care utilization, and health-care information sources, as well as family and social variables. Twelve questions tested their knowledge of cancer prevention recommendations. The outcome measures were the percentage of correct answers to the questions and the association of multiple variables with these responses. RESULTS Participants averaged 22.9% correct answers with no gender difference. Univariate analysis revealed that smoking history, types of medical problems, last physician visit, and women having previous cancer preventive tests did not affect scores. Improved scores occurred with computer use (p = 0.05), higher education (p < 0.01) and income (p = 0.01), hearing spouses (p < 0.01), speaking English in multiple situations (p < 0.001), and in men with previous prostate cancer testing (p = 0.04). Obtaining health information from books (p = 0.05), physicians (p = 0.008), nurses (p = 0.03) or the internet (p = 0.02), and believing that smoking is bad (p < 0.001) also improved scores. Multivariate analysis revealed that English use (p = 0.01) and believing that smoking was bad (p = 0.05) were associated with improved scores. CONCLUSION Persons with profound hearing loss have poor knowledge of recommended cancer prevention interventions. English use in multiple settings was strongly associated with increased knowledge. PMID:19132325

A randomized, controlled trial to teach middle school children to recognize stroke and call 911: the kids identifying and defeating stroke project.

PubMed

Morgenstern, Lewis B; Gonzales, Nicole R; Maddox, Katherine E; Brown, Devin L; Karim, Asha P; Espinosa, Nina; Moyé, Lemuel A; Pary, Jennifer K; Grotta, James C; Lisabeth, Lynda D; Conley, Kathleen M

2007-11-01

Underutilization of acute stroke therapy is driven by delay to hospital arrival. We present the primary results of a pilot, randomized, controlled trial to encourage calling 911 for witnessed stroke among middle school children and their parents. This project occurred in Corpus Christi, an urban Texas community of 325,000. Three intervention and 3 control schools were randomly selected. The intervention contained 12 hours of classroom instruction divided among sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Parents were educated indirectly through homework assignments. Two-sample t tests were used to compare pretest and posttest responses. Domain 1 test questions involved stroke pathophysiology. Intervention students improved from 29% to 34% correct; control students changed from 28% to 25%. Domain 2 test questions involved stroke symptom knowledge. Intervention school students changed from 28% correct to 43%; control school students answered 25% correctly on the pretest and 29% on the posttest. Domain 3 test questions involved what to do for witnessed stroke. Intervention school students answered 36% of questions correctly on the pretest and 54% correctly on the posttest, whereas control students changed from 32% correct to 34%. A comparison of change in the mean proportion correct over time between intervention and control students was P<0.001 for each of the 3 individual domains. A poor parental response rate impaired the ability to assess parental improvement. A scientific, theory-based, educational intervention can potentially improve intent to call 911 for stroke among middle school children. A different mechanism is needed to effectively diffuse the curriculum to parents.

New Poster Puzzler | Poster

Cancer.gov

Your challenge is to correctly identify the item and its location from the picture at left. Clue: It’s somewhere at the NCI campus at Frederick or Fort Detrick. All entries must be received by Wednesday, July 1, 2015, and the winner will be drawn from all correct answers received by that date. Kids can win a McDonald’s gift certificate, and parents can win a framed photograph

Why do they not answer and do they really learn? A case study in analysing student response flows in introductory physics using an audience response system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jääskeläinen, Markku; Lagerkvist, Andreas

2017-07-01

In this paper we investigate teaching with a classroom response system in introductory physics with emphasis on two issues. First, we discuss retention between question rounds and the reasons why students avoid answering the question a second time. A question with declining response rate was followed by a question addressing the student reasons for not answering. We find that there appear to be several reasons for the observed decline, and that the students need to be reminded. We argue that small drops are unimportant as the process appears to work despite the drops. Second, we discuss the dynamics of learning in a concept-sequence in electromagnetism, where a majority of the students, despite poor statistics in a first round, manage to answer a followup question correctly. In addition, we analyse the response times for both situations to connect with research on student reasoning on situations with misconception-like answers. From the combination of the answer flows and response time behaviours we find it plausible that conceptual learning occurred during the discussion phase.

Monitoring item and source information: evidence for a negative generation effect in source memory.

PubMed

Jurica, P J; Shimamura, A P

1999-07-01

Item memory and source memory were assessed in a task that simulated a social conversation. Participants generated answers to questions or read statements presented by one of three sources (faces on a computer screen). Positive generation effects were observed for item memory. That is, participants remembered topics of conversation better if they were asked questions about the topics than if they simply read statements about topics. However, a negative generation effect occurred for source memory. That is, remembering the source of some information was disrupted if participants were required to answer questions pertaining to that information. These findings support the notion that item and source memory are mediated, as least in part, by different processes during encoding.

Rural women and osteoporosis: awareness and educational needs.

PubMed

Matthews, Hollie L; Laya, Mary; DeWitt, Dawn E

2006-01-01

Little is known about rural women's knowledge about osteoporosis. To explore what women from high-prevalence rural communities know about osteoporosis and to assess their learning preferences. We surveyed 437 women in rural Washington and Oregon. The response rate was 93% (N = 406). The mean age of respondents was 63 years (range 16-95) and 74% (n = 301) of women were postmenopausal. While 27% over age 40 (n = 111) reported having a fracture as an adult, less than half of this group (42%, n = 47) considered themselves at risk for osteoporosis. Of the 42% (n = 171) who rated their knowledge of osteoporosis good or excellent, only 18% (n = 30) answered calcium and vitamin D questions correctly. About half (53%; n = 214) exercised 3 or more times per week. Reported sources of osteoporosis information included television, magazines, health care providers, and personal contacts. Over half of the women in this study wanted more information about osteoporosis, most wanted it before age 50, and health care providers were a preferred source. Less than half of participants reported having Internet access. While many participants underestimated their osteoporosis risk, most women wanted to learn more about osteoporosis and health care providers remain a preferred source of information.

The incidental orgasm: the presence of clitoral knowledge and the absence of orgasm for women.

PubMed

Wade, Lisa D; Kremer, Emily C; Brown, Jessica

2005-01-01

Women report anorgasmia and other difficulties achieving orgasm. One approach to alleviating this problem is to teach women about the clitoris. This assumes that women lack information about the clitoris and that knowledge about the clitoris is correlated with orgasm. Using a non-random sample of 833 undergraduate students, our study investigates both assumptions. First, we test the amount of knowledge about the clitoris, the reported sources of this knowledge, and the correlation between citing a source and actual knowledge. Second, we measure the correlation between clitoral knowledge and orgasm in both masturbation and partnered sex. Among a sample of undergraduate students, the most frequently cited sources of clitoral knowledge (school and friends) were associated with the least amount of tested knowledge. The source most likely to correlate with clitoral knowledge (self-exploration) was among the most rarely cited. Despite this, respondents correctly answered, on average, three of the five clitoral knowledge measures. Knowledge correlated significantly with the frequency of women's orgasm in masturbation but not partnered sex. Our results are discussed in light of gender inequality and a social construction of sexuality, endorsed by both men and women, that privileges men's sexual pleasure over women's, such that orgasm for women is pleasing, but ultimately incidental.

How do primary care physicians seek answers to clinical questions? A literature review.

PubMed

Coumou, Herma C H; Meijman, Frans J

2006-01-01

The authors investigated the extent to which changes occurred between 1992 and 2005 in the ways that primary care physicians seek answers to clinical problems. What search strategies are used? How much time is spent on them? How do primary care physicians evaluate various search activities and information sources? Can a clinical librarian be useful to a primary care physician? Twenty-one original research papers and three literature reviews were examined. No systematic reviews were identified. Primary care physicians seek answers to only a limited number of questions about which they first consult colleagues and paper sources. This practice has basically not changed over the years despite the enormous increase in and better accessibility to electronic information sources. One of the major obstacles is the time it takes to search for information. Other difficulties primary care physicians experience are related to formulating an appropriate search question, finding an optimal search strategy, and interpreting the evidence found. Some studies have been done on the supporting role of a clinical librarian in general practice. However, the effects on professional behavior of the primary care physician and on patient outcome have not been studied. A small group of primary care physicians prefer this support to developing their own search skills. Primary care physicians have several options for finding quick answers: building a question-and-answer database, consulting filtered information sources, or using an intermediary such as a clinical librarian.

How do primary care physicians seek answers to clinical questions? A literature review

PubMed Central

Coumou, Herma C. H.; Meijman, Frans J.

2006-01-01

Objectives: The authors investigated the extent to which changes occurred between 1992 and 2005 in the ways that primary care physicians seek answers to clinical problems. What search strategies are used? How much time is spent on them? How do primary care physicians evaluate various search activities and information sources? Can a clinical librarian be useful to a primary care physician? Methods: Twenty-one original research papers and three literature reviews were examined. No systematic reviews were identified. Results: Primary care physicians seek answers to only a limited number of questions about which they first consult colleagues and paper sources. This practice has basically not changed over the years despite the enormous increase in and better accessibility to electronic information sources. One of the major obstacles is the time it takes to search for information. Other difficulties primary care physicians experience are related to formulating an appropriate search question, finding an optimal search strategy, and interpreting the evidence found. Some studies have been done on the supporting role of a clinical librarian in general practice. However, the effects on professional behavior of the primary care physician and on patient outcome have not been studied. A small group of primary care physicians prefer this support to developing their own search skills. Discussion: Primary care physicians have several options for finding quick answers: building a question-and-answer database, consulting filtered information sources, or using an intermediary such as a clinical librarian. PMID:16404470

Transition Matrices: A Tool to Assess Student Learning and Improve Instruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morris, Gary A.; Walter, Paul; Skees, Spencer; Schwartz, Samantha

2017-03-01

This paper introduces a new spreadsheet tool for adoption by high school or college-level physics teachers who use common assessments in a pre-instruction/post-instruction mode to diagnose student learning and teaching effectiveness. The spreadsheet creates a simple matrix that identifies the percentage of students who select each possible pre-/post-test answer combination on each question of the diagnostic exam. Leveraging analysis of the quality of the incorrect answer choices, one can order the answer choices from worst to best (i.e., correct), resulting in "transition matrices" that can provide deeper insight into student learning and the success or failure of the pedagogical approach than traditional analyses that employ dichotomous scoring.

Choice numeracy and physicians-in-training performance: the case of Medicare Part D

PubMed Central

Hanoch, Yaniv; Miron-Shatz, Talya; Cole, Helen; Himmelstein, Mary; Federman, Alex D.

2017-01-01

In choosing a prescription plan, Medicare beneficiaries in the US usually face over 50 options. Many have turned to their physicians for help with this complex task. However, exactly how well do physicians navigate information on Part D plans is still an open question. In this study, we explored this unanswered question by examining the effect of choice-set size and numeracy levels on a physician-in-training’s ability to choose appropriate Medicare drug plans. Consistent with our hypotheses, increases in choice sets correlated significantly with fewer correct answers, and higher numeracy levels were associated with more correct answers. Hence, our data further highlight the role of numeracy in financial- and health-related decision making, and also raise concerns about physicians’ ability to help patients choose the optimal Part D plan. PMID:20658834

Replacing maladaptive speech with verbal labeling responses: an analysis of generalized responding.

PubMed Central

Foxx, R M; Faw, G D; McMorrow, M J; Kyle, M S; Bittle, R G

1988-01-01

We taught three mentally handicapped students to answer questions with verbal labels and evaluated the generalized effects of this training on their maladaptive speech (e.g., echolalia) and correct responding to untrained questions. The students received cues-pause-point training on an initial question set followed by generalization assessments on a different set in another setting. Probes were conducted on novel questions in three other settings to determine the strength and spread of the generalization effect. A multiple baseline across subjects design revealed that maladaptive speech was replaced with correct labels (answers) to questions in the training and all generalization settings. These results replicate and extend previous research that suggested that cues-pause-point procedures may be useful in replacing maladaptive speech patterns by teaching students to use their verbal labeling repertoires. PMID:3225258

Radiology Residents' Awareness about Ionizing Radiation Doses in Imaging Studies and Their Cancer Risk during Radiological Examinations

PubMed Central

Divrik Gökçe, Senem; Coşkun, Melek

2012-01-01

Objective Imaging methods that use ionizing radiation have been more frequent in various medical fields with advances in imaging technology. The aim of our study was to make residents be aware of the radiation dose they are subjected to when they conduct radiological imaging methods, and of cancer risk. Materials and Methods A total of 364 residents participated in this descriptive study which was conducted during the period between October, 2008 and January, 2009. The questionnaires were completed under strict control on a one-to-one basis from each department. A χ2-test was used for the evaluation of data obtained. Results Only 7% of residents correctly answered to the question about the ionizing radiation dose of a posteroanterior (PA) chest X-ray. The question asking about the equivalent number of PA chest X-rays to the ionizing dose of a brain CT was answered correctly by 24% of residents; the same question regarding abdominal CT was answered correctly by 16% of residents, thorax CT by 16%, thyroid scintigraphy by 15%, intravenous pyelography by 9%, and lumbar spine radiography by 2%. The risk of developing a cancer throughout lifetime by a brain and abdominal CT were 33% and 28%, respectively. Conclusion Radiologic residents should have updated knowledge about radiation dose content and attendant cancer risks of various radiological imaging methods during both basic medical training period and following practice period. PMID:22438688

On disciplinary fragmentation and scientific progress.

PubMed

Balietti, Stefano; Mäs, Michael; Helbing, Dirk

2015-01-01

Why are some scientific disciplines, such as sociology and psychology, more fragmented into conflicting schools of thought than other fields, such as physics and biology? Furthermore, why does high fragmentation tend to coincide with limited scientific progress? We analyzed a formal model where scientists seek to identify the correct answer to a research question. Each scientist is influenced by three forces: (i) signals received from the correct answer to the question; (ii) peer influence; and (iii) noise. We observed the emergence of different macroscopic patterns of collective exploration, and studied how the three forces affect the degree to which disciplines fall apart into divergent fragments, or so-called "schools of thought". We conducted two simulation experiments where we tested (A) whether the three forces foster or hamper progress, and (B) whether disciplinary fragmentation causally affects scientific progress and vice versa. We found that fragmentation critically limits scientific progress. Strikingly, there is no effect in the opposite causal direction. What is more, our results shows that at the heart of the mechanisms driving scientific progress we find (i) social interactions, and (ii) peer disagreement. In fact, fragmentation is increased and progress limited if the simulated scientists are open to influence only by peers with very similar views, or when within-school diversity is lost. Finally, disciplines where the scientists received strong signals from the correct answer were less fragmented and experienced faster progress. We discuss model's implications for the design of social institutions fostering interdisciplinarity and participation in science.

On Disciplinary Fragmentation and Scientific Progress

PubMed Central

Balietti, Stefano; Mäs, Michael; Helbing, Dirk

2015-01-01

Why are some scientific disciplines, such as sociology and psychology, more fragmented into conflicting schools of thought than other fields, such as physics and biology? Furthermore, why does high fragmentation tend to coincide with limited scientific progress? We analyzed a formal model where scientists seek to identify the correct answer to a research question. Each scientist is influenced by three forces: (i) signals received from the correct answer to the question; (ii) peer influence; and (iii) noise. We observed the emergence of different macroscopic patterns of collective exploration, and studied how the three forces affect the degree to which disciplines fall apart into divergent fragments, or so-called “schools of thought”. We conducted two simulation experiments where we tested (A) whether the three forces foster or hamper progress, and (B) whether disciplinary fragmentation causally affects scientific progress and vice versa. We found that fragmentation critically limits scientific progress. Strikingly, there is no effect in the opposite causal direction. What is more, our results shows that at the heart of the mechanisms driving scientific progress we find (i) social interactions, and (ii) peer disagreement. In fact, fragmentation is increased and progress limited if the simulated scientists are open to influence only by peers with very similar views, or when within-school diversity is lost. Finally, disciplines where the scientists received strong signals from the correct answer were less fragmented and experienced faster progress. We discuss model’s implications for the design of social institutions fostering interdisciplinarity and participation in science. PMID:25790025

Attentiveness of pediatricians to primary immunodeficiency disorders

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Primary immunodeficiency (PID) is a cluster of serious disorders that requires special alertness on the part of the medical staff for prompt diagnosis and management of the patient. This study explored PID knowledge and experience among pediatricians of wide educational backgrounds, practicing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Method A self-administered questionnaire was used to determine the competency of pediatricians in their knowledge of PID disorders. This study questionnaire included questions on PID signs and symptoms, syndromes associated with immunodeficiency, screening tests, interpreting laboratory tests and case management. The participants were 263 pediatricians of diverse education working in the 27 governmental hospitals in all regions of UAE. Results The overall performance of the pediatricians did not differ based on their age, gender, origin of certification, rank, or years of experience. Of the 50 questions, 20% of pediatricians answered correctly <60% of the questions, 76% answered correctly 60 to 79% of the questions, and 4% answered correctly ≥80% of the questions. Seventeen of the 19 PID signs and symptoms were identified by 55 to 97%. Four of 5 syndromes associated with immunodeficiency were identified by 50 to 90%. Appropriate screening tests were chosen by 64 to 96%. Attention to the laboratory reference range values as function of patient age was notably limited. Conclusions There was a noteworthy deficiency in PID work-up. Therefore, implementing effective educational strategies is needed to improve the competency of pediatricians to diagnose and manage PID disorders. PMID:22846098

Effects of stroke education of junior high school students on stroke knowledge of their parents: Tochigi project.

PubMed

Matsuzono, Kosuke; Yokota, Chiaki; Takekawa, Hidehiro; Okamura, Tomonori; Miyamatsu, Naomi; Nakayama, Hirofumi; Nishimura, Kunihiro; Ohyama, Satoshi; Ishigami, Akiko; Okumura, Kosuke; Toyoda, Kazunori; Miyamoto, Yoshihiro; Minematsu, Kazuo

2015-02-01

Educating the youth about stroke is a promising approach for spreading stroke knowledge. The aim of this study was to verify communication of stroke knowledge to parents by educating junior high school students about stroke. We enrolled 1127 junior high school students (age, 13-15 years) and their parents in the Tochigi prefecture, Japan. All students received a stroke lesson, watched an animated cartoon, and read the related Manga comic as educational aids. The students took back home the Manga and discussed what they learned with their parents. Questionnaires on stroke knowledge were given to all at baseline and immediately after the lesson. A total of 1125 students and 915 parents answered the questionnaires. In the students, the frequency of correct answers increased significantly for all questions on stroke symptoms except for headache, and for all questions on risk factors after the lesson. In the parents, the correct answer rates increased for stroke symptoms except for headache and numbness in one side of the body, and for all questions on risk factors except for hypertension. Ninety-one percent of students and 92.7% of parents correctly understood the Face, Arm, Speech, and Time (FAST) mnemonic after the lesson. Improvement of stroke knowledge immediately after the stroke lesson was observed in parents as well as their children, which indicated that our teaching materials using the Manga was effective in delivering the stroke knowledge to parents through their children. © 2014 American Heart Association, Inc.

Conceptual coherence of non-Newtonian worldviews in Force Concept Inventory data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scott, Terry F.; Schumayer, Dániel

2017-06-01

The Force Concept Inventory is one of the most popular and most analyzed multiple-choice concept tests used to investigate students' understanding of Newtonian mechanics. The correct answers poll a set of underlying Newtonian concepts and the coherence of these underlying concepts has been found in the data. However, this inventory was constructed after several years of research into the common preconceptions held by students and using these preconceptions as distractors in the questions. Their sole purpose is to deflect non-Newtonian candidates away from the correct answer. Alternatively, one can argue that the responses could also be treated as polling these preconceptions. In this paper we shift the emphasis of the analysis away from the correlation structure of the correct answers and look at the latent traits underlying the incorrect responses. Our analysis models the data employing exploratory factor analysis, which uses regularities in the data to suggest the existence of underlying structures in the cognitive processing of the students. This analysis allows us to determine whether the data support the claim that there are alternate non-Newtonian worldviews on which students' incorrect responses are based. The existence of such worldviews, and their coherence, could explain the resilience of non-Newtonian preconceptions and would have significant implications to the design of instruction methods. We find that there are indeed coherent alternate conceptions of the world which can be categorized using the results of the research that led to the construction of the Force Concept Inventory.

The role of video technology in on-line lectures for the deaf.

PubMed

Debevc, Matjaz; Peljhan, Ziva

2004-09-02

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effectiveness of web-based video lectures on demand for the deaf in comparison to the traditional method of teaching using a sign language interpreter. The web-based lectures presented are specifically designed for the deaf in education and in rehabilitation. Sixty-three deaf students and adults were divided into four groups. All of the groups were made up of users who shared similar knowledge in the field of computers, but with different abilities in using computers, from beginners to advanced users. All of the groups were of mixed gender. The first two groups (consisting of 23 test users) graded the usability of the user interface for web-based lecture on demand with the help of the standardized SUMI questionnaire. After that, two groups (20 students from high school and 20 adults) joined in a 45-min informational program on the history of the deaf. Both groups were then divided into two smaller subgroups of 10 participants. The first subgroup in the first part of the learning program followed a traditional teaching style with the help of a teacher and an interpreter for Slovenian sign language. Meanwhile, the second group observed a 12-min web-based video lecture on demand and still had available an additional 18 min for a more detailed observation of the video. At the end of the lecture, the teacher used the questionnaire to review the participants' understanding of the content of the lecture in both of the groups. During the entire testing period, the interpreter used Slovenian sign language. By using the SUMI questionnaire, we determined the usability of the user interface for comprehension and gathering of knowledge. We discovered that the system was usable according to the standards. The global Median results (Global Median=51) were in the range of 50. In the second part of testing, we determined the level of significance between the traditional and web-based lectures. The results were statistically evaluated using the t-tests and the ANOVA test. From the t-tests we established the hypothesis that the number of correct answers for both groups (group 1: web-based, group 2: traditional) differed. The t-test used for the age groups rejected the hypothesis that the number of correct answers for both groups differed, where group 1 was comprised of adults and group 2 was comprised of students. Additionally, the ANOVA test showed that the number of correct answers for adults using traditional lectures differed significantly from the number of correct answers for both adult and student web-based users. The ANOVA test showed no differences between any of the remaining groups. We can conclude that for deaf people it is extremely important to introduce the use of information and communications technology on all levels of education and rehabilitation. This increases their ability to learn and improves their understanding of learning materials, especially if the applications are designed specifically for their needs. Through daily exposure to a larger number of such materials, we can positively influence the literacy (reading and writing skills) of the deaf. With increased literacy, the deaf would be able to read literature, and subtitles, enabling them to receive information through written sources. Therefore, we can expect them to have a higher self-esteem, more easily integrate into society and have more opportunities for employment.

Answers to Health Questions: Internet Search Results Versus Online Health Community Responses

PubMed Central

Vermeesch, Amber; Given, Barbara; Huh, Jina

2016-01-01

Background About 6 million people search for health information on the Internet each day in the United States. Both patients and caregivers search for information about prescribed courses of treatments, unanswered questions after a visit to their providers, or diet and exercise regimens. Past literature has indicated potential challenges around quality in health information available on the Internet. However, diverse information exists on the Internet—ranging from government-initiated webpages to personal blog pages. Yet we do not fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of different types of information available on the Internet. Objective The objective of this research was to investigate the strengths and challenges of various types of health information available online and to suggest what information sources best fit various question types. Methods We collected questions posted to and the responses they received from an online diabetes community and classified them according to Rothwell’s classification of question types (fact, policy, or value questions). We selected 60 questions (20 each of fact, policy, and value) and the replies the questions received from the community. We then searched for responses to the same questions using a search engine and recorded the Results Community responses answered more questions than did search results overall. Search results were most effective in answering value questions and least effective in answering policy questions. Community responses answered questions across question types at an equivalent rate, but most answered policy questions and the least answered fact questions. Value questions were most answered by community responses, but some of these answers provided by the community were incorrect. Fact question search results were the most clinically valid. Conclusions The Internet is a prevalent source of health information for people. The information quality people encounter online can have a large impact on them. We present what kinds of questions people ask online and the advantages and disadvantages of various information sources in getting answers to those questions. This study contributes to addressing people’s online health information needs. PMID:27125622

Ironic Effects of Drawing Attention to Story Errors

PubMed Central

Eslick, Andrea N.; Fazio, Lisa K.; Marsh, Elizabeth J.

2014-01-01

Readers learn errors embedded in fictional stories and use them to answer later general knowledge questions (Marsh, Meade, & Roediger, 2003). Suggestibility is robust and occurs even when story errors contradict well-known facts. The current study evaluated whether suggestibility is linked to participants’ inability to judge story content as correct versus incorrect. Specifically, participants read stories containing correct and misleading information about the world; some information was familiar (making error discovery possible), while some was more obscure. To improve participants’ monitoring ability, we highlighted (in red font) a subset of story phrases requiring evaluation; readers no longer needed to find factual information. Rather, they simply needed to evaluate its correctness. Readers were more likely to answer questions with story errors if they were highlighted in red font, even if they contradicted well-known facts. Though highlighting to-be-evaluated information freed cognitive resources for monitoring, an ironic effect occurred: Drawing attention to specific errors increased rather than decreased later suggestibility. Failure to monitor for errors, not failure to identify the information requiring evaluation, leads to suggestibility. PMID:21294039

Searching for memories, Sudoku, implicit check bits, and the iterative use of not-always-correct rapid neural computation.

PubMed

Hopfield, J J

2008-05-01

The algorithms that simple feedback neural circuits representing a brain area can rapidly carry out are often adequate to solve easy problems but for more difficult problems can return incorrect answers. A new excitatory-inhibitory circuit model of associative memory displays the common human problem of failing to rapidly find a memory when only a small clue is present. The memory model and a related computational network for solving Sudoku puzzles produce answers that contain implicit check bits in the representation of information across neurons, allowing a rapid evaluation of whether the putative answer is correct or incorrect through a computation related to visual pop-out. This fact may account for our strong psychological feeling of right or wrong when we retrieve a nominal memory from a minimal clue. This information allows more difficult computations or memory retrievals to be done in a serial fashion by using the fast but limited capabilities of a computational module multiple times. The mathematics of the excitatory-inhibitory circuits for associative memory and for Sudoku, both of which are understood in terms of energy or Lyapunov functions, is described in detail.

When Talking Is Better Than Staying Quiet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lasry, Nathaniel; Charles, Elizabeth; Whittaker, Chris; Lautman, Michael

2009-11-01

The effectiveness of Peer Instruction is often associated to the importance of in-class discussions between peers. Typically, a greater number of students have correct answers after peer discussions. However, other cognitive and metacognitive processes such as reflection or time-on-task may also explain this increase because students answering conceptual questions reflect more and spend more time thinking about their understanding. An identical sequence of conceptual questions was given to three groups of students. All groups were polled twice on each question. Between polls, students were asked either to discuss their choice with a peer, or to reflect for a minute (no discussion), or were given a distraction task (sequence of cartoons: no discussion and no reflection). Increases in the rates of correct answers between the first and the second poll were found across all conditions. The `Distract' condition had a small but positive increase (3.4%). The `Reflect' condition had a greater increase (9.7%) while the `Discuss' condition had the greatest (21.0%). All conditions showed gains, possibly because of `testing effects', though peer-discussions clearly yield greatest increases. Our findings show that learning gains through peer discussions cannot be explained only by additional time-on-task or self-reflection.

A comparison of intraverbal training procedures for children with autism.

PubMed

Kodak, Tiffany; Fuchtman, Rashea; Paden, Amber

2012-01-01

We compared the effectiveness of three training procedures, echoic and tact prompting plus error correction and a cues-pause-point (CPP) procedure, for increasing intraverbals in 2 children with autism. We also measured echoic behavior that may have interfered with appropriate question answering. Results indicated that echoic prompting with error correction was most effective and the CPP procedure was least effective for increasing intraverbals and decreasing echoic behavior.

Children with Essential Tremor

MedlinePlus

... or the blackboard. • Encourage oral responses, even in math. • Allow the use of a computer for written ... X” can mark the correct answer. More accommodations Math class. • Allow verbal testing. • Allow inaccuracy when drawing ...

Five-Year-Olds' Systematic Errors in Second-Order False Belief Tasks Are Due to First-Order Theory of Mind Strategy Selection: A Computational Modeling Study.

PubMed

Arslan, Burcu; Taatgen, Niels A; Verbrugge, Rineke

2017-01-01

The focus of studies on second-order false belief reasoning generally was on investigating the roles of executive functions and language with correlational studies. Different from those studies, we focus on the question how 5-year-olds select and revise reasoning strategies in second-order false belief tasks by constructing two computational cognitive models of this process: an instance-based learning model and a reinforcement learning model. Unlike the reinforcement learning model, the instance-based learning model predicted that children who fail second-order false belief tasks would give answers based on first-order theory of mind (ToM) reasoning as opposed to zero-order reasoning. This prediction was confirmed with an empirical study that we conducted with 72 5- to 6-year-old children. The results showed that 17% of the answers were correct and 83% of the answers were wrong. In line with our prediction, 65% of the wrong answers were based on a first-order ToM strategy, while only 29% of them were based on a zero-order strategy (the remaining 6% of subjects did not provide any answer). Based on our instance-based learning model, we propose that when children get feedback "Wrong," they explicitly revise their strategy to a higher level instead of implicitly selecting one of the available ToM strategies. Moreover, we predict that children's failures are due to lack of experience and that with exposure to second-order false belief reasoning, children can revise their wrong first-order reasoning strategy to a correct second-order reasoning strategy.

Five-Year-Olds’ Systematic Errors in Second-Order False Belief Tasks Are Due to First-Order Theory of Mind Strategy Selection: A Computational Modeling Study

PubMed Central

Arslan, Burcu; Taatgen, Niels A.; Verbrugge, Rineke

2017-01-01

The focus of studies on second-order false belief reasoning generally was on investigating the roles of executive functions and language with correlational studies. Different from those studies, we focus on the question how 5-year-olds select and revise reasoning strategies in second-order false belief tasks by constructing two computational cognitive models of this process: an instance-based learning model and a reinforcement learning model. Unlike the reinforcement learning model, the instance-based learning model predicted that children who fail second-order false belief tasks would give answers based on first-order theory of mind (ToM) reasoning as opposed to zero-order reasoning. This prediction was confirmed with an empirical study that we conducted with 72 5- to 6-year-old children. The results showed that 17% of the answers were correct and 83% of the answers were wrong. In line with our prediction, 65% of the wrong answers were based on a first-order ToM strategy, while only 29% of them were based on a zero-order strategy (the remaining 6% of subjects did not provide any answer). Based on our instance-based learning model, we propose that when children get feedback “Wrong,” they explicitly revise their strategy to a higher level instead of implicitly selecting one of the available ToM strategies. Moreover, we predict that children’s failures are due to lack of experience and that with exposure to second-order false belief reasoning, children can revise their wrong first-order reasoning strategy to a correct second-order reasoning strategy. PMID:28293206

Comparison of paragraph comprehension test scores with reading versus listening-reading and multiple-choice versus nominal recall administration techniques: justification for the bypass approach.

PubMed

Weinberg, W A; McLean, A; Snider, R L; Rintelmann, J W; Brumback, R A

1989-12-01

Eight groups of learning disabled children (N = 100), categorized by the clinical Lexical Paradigm as good readers or poor readers, were individually administered the Gilmore Oral Reading Test, Form D, by one of four input/retrieval methods: (1) the standardized method of administration in which the child reads each paragraph aloud and then answers five questions relating to the paragraph [read/recall method]; (2) the child reads each paragraph aloud and then for each question selects the correct answer from among three choices read by the examiner [read/choice method]; (3) the examiner reads each paragraph aloud and reads each of the five questions to the child to answer [listen/recall method]; and (4) the examiner reads each paragraph aloud and then for each question reads three multiple-choice answers from which the child selects the correct answer [listen/choice method]. The major difference in scores was between the groups tested by the recall versus the orally read multiple-choice methods. This study indicated that poor readers who listened to the material and were tested by orally read multiple-choice format could perform as well as good readers. The performance of good readers was not affected by listening or by the method of testing. The multiple-choice testing improved the performance of poor readers independent of the input method. This supports the arguments made previously that a "bypass approach" to education of poor readers in which testing is accomplished using an orally read multiple-choice format can enhance the child's school performance on reading-related tasks. Using a listening while reading input method may further enhance performance.

A survey on the beliefs and knowledge of gout management in new medical graduates - New South Wales, Australia.

PubMed

Terrill, Matthew; Riordan, John

2018-02-01

To assess the beliefs and knowledge of gout management in new medical graduates. A survey on gout management was sent to new medical graduates during their orientation week, New South Wales, Australia. Of 15 hospital networks, 11 agreed to participate. From these, 168 graduates responded (23.7% response rate). Most (81.1%) felt that gout was a serious disease, 51.2% answered that they had been taught adequately to manage acute gout, only 37.2% for chronic gout. In an acute gout flare, 63.4% answered they would continue urate lowering therapy and 67.2% were aware of first-line pharmacological management options; 28% answered the correct dosing regimen for colchicine. Chronic management was answered poorly. Only 42.0% stated they would titrate allopurinol dosing to a target urate level; 23.5% would check the urate level monthly. More than half, 56.8%, were aware that medical prophylaxis is indicated when initiating urate lowering therapy. Of this subgroup, 46.7% (25.9% overall) knew that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and colchicine were recommended and 28.4% (15.4% overall) answered the correct timeframe of use. Close to one-third (35.0%), were aware of febuxostat, probenecid and benzbromarone as second-line urate lowering therapy. The findings of this study suggest that new graduates' knowledge of gout management, especially chronic management, is suboptimal. Many felt their teaching on gout management inadequate; this is a potential target for intervention. Up to date university education which covers chronic management may lead to better clinical outcomes for this burdensome disease. © 2017 Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Solving the Mystery of the Short-Hard Gamma-Ray Bursts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fox, Derek

2005-07-01

Eight years after the afterglow detections that revolutionized studies of the long-soft gamma-ray bursts, not even one afterglow of a short-hard GRB has been seen, and the nature of these events has become one of the most important problems in GRB research. The Swift satellite, expected to be in full operation throughout Cycle 14, will report few-arcsecond localizations for short-hard bursts in minutes, enabling prompt, deep optical afterglow searches for the first time. Discovery and observation of the first short-hard optical afterglows will answer most of the critical questions about these events: What are their distances and energies? Do they occur in distant galaxies, and if so, in which regions of those galaxies? Are they the result of collimated or quasi-spherical explosions? In combination with an extensive rapid-response ground-based campaign, we propose to make the critical high-sensitivity HST TOO observations that will allow us to answer these questions. If theorists are correct in attributing the short-hard bursts to binary neutron star coalescence events, then they will serve as signposts to the primary targeted source population for ground-based gravitational-wave detectors, and short-hard burst studies will have a vital role to play in guiding those observations.

Investigations of Human Question Answering

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-02-01

information sources and search through the structures systematically. The formal,,ms and insights from these fields obviously must be tested in psychological ...experiments before we can incorporate them into psychological models of human question answering. One objective of this ONR contract was to test some... psychological model of human question answering. Tests of the QUEST Model QUEST was tested in four different informational contexts. These contexts

Coupling Conceptual and Quantitative Problems to Develop Expertise in Introductory Physics Students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, Chandralekha

2008-10-01

We discuss the effect of administering conceptual and quantitative isomorphic problem pairs (CQIPP) back to back vs. asking students to solve only one of the problems in the CQIPP in introductory physics courses. Students who answered both questions in a CQIPP often performed better on the conceptual questions than those who answered the corresponding conceptual questions only. Although students often took advantage of the quantitative counterpart to answer a conceptual question of a CQIPP correctly, when only given the conceptual question, students seldom tried to convert it into a quantitative question, solve it and then reason about the solution conceptually. Even in individual interviews, when students who were only given conceptual questions had difficulty and the interviewer explicitly encouraged them to convert the conceptual question into the corresponding quantitative problem by choosing appropriate variables, a majority of students were reluctant and preferred to guess the answer to the conceptual question based upon their gut feeling.

Promoting an active form of learning out-of-class via answering online “study questions” leads to higher than expected exam scores in General Biology

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

A rising need for workers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields has fueled interest in improving teaching within STEM disciplines. Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits of active learning approaches on student learning outcomes. However, many of these studies have been conducted in experimental, rather than real-life class, settings. In addition, most of these studies have focused on in-class active learning exercises. This study tested the effects of answering questions outside of class on exam performance for General Biology students at the University of Minnesota. An online database of 1,020 multiple-choice questions covering material from the first half of the course was generated. Students in seven course sections (with an average of ∼265 students per section) were given unlimited access to the online study questions. These students made extensive use of the online questions, with students answering an average of 1,323 questions covering material from the half of the semester for which the questions were available. After students answered a set of questions, they were shown the correct answers for those questions. More specific feedback describing how to arrive at the correct answer was provided for the 73% of the questions for which the correct answers were not deemed to be self-explanatory. The extent to which access to the online study questions improved student learning outcomes was assessed by comparing the performance on exam questions of students in the seven course sections with access to the online study questions with the performance of students in course sections without access to the online study questions. Student performance was analyzed for a total of 89 different exams questions that were not included in the study questions, but that covered the same material covered by the study questions. Each of these 89 questions was used on one to five exams given to students in course sections that had access to the online study questions and on three to 77 exams given to students in sections that lacked such access. Data from over 1,800 students in sections with access to the online study questions show that those students scored a statistically significant average of 6.6% points higher on the exam questions analyzed than students in sections without access to the study questions. This difference was greater than the average amount necessary to raise students’ exam grades by one grade (e.g., from a “B-” to a “B”). In addition, there was a higher correlation between number of questions answered and success on exam questions on material related to the study questions than between number of questions answered and success on exam questions on material unrelated to the study questions. The online study question system required substantial effort to set up, but required minimal effort to maintain and was effective in significantly raising average exam scores for even very large course sections. PMID:26500828

Prototypical Concepts and Misconceptions of Plate Tectonic Boundaries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sibley, D. F.; Patino, L. C.

2003-12-01

Students of geology encounter many prototypical/exemplar concepts* that include representative, but not necessarily defining, features and characteristics. This study of students' prototypical representations of plate tectonic boundaries indicates that their representations are rich sources of information about their misconceptions about plate tectonics. After lectures in plate tectonics and mountain building, 353 students in a general education geology class were asked to draw a continent-continent convergent boundary. For this study, a correct answer is defined as having the major features in correct proportions as depicted in the plate boundary diagrams on the USGS web. Fifty-two percent of the drawings were either incorrect or incomplete such that they could not be interpreted. Only 48% were readily interpretable, and of these 22% drew the boundary correctly, showing a thickening of crust where two continents collide. Thirty-three percent drew the boundary showing concave slabs of continental crust as one might imagine two pieces of firm rubber pushed together on a rigid surface and 45% depicted mountains as one might imagine inverted ice cream cones on a rigid plank. Twenty-one senior class geology majors and graduate students were given the same assignment. Forty-eight percent rendered a correct drawing, whereas 38% drew the same ice cream cone on a plank type picture that 45% of the general education students drew. In a second class of 12 geology majors, only 1 student drew a cross section of a continent-ocean boundary similar to standard representation. Four of 12 drew mountains on the top of continental crust over a subduction zone but did not draw a compensating mass within the crust or lithosphere. Prototypical drawings provide more information about students' concepts than do most multiple-choice questions. For example, sixty-two percent of theses students who drew mountains similar to foam rubber pads pushed together on a desk or ice cream cones on a plank correctly answered a multiple-choice question that would appear to indicate a better understanding than the drawings reveal. Furthermore, 12 interviewed students made statements that could be interpreted to indicate that they understood the concept of mountain building at plate tectonic boundaries better than their drawings suggest. Incoherence of multiple-choice responses, verbal statements and drawings may be common in novice learners. If cognitive scientists are correct in their model of multiple types of mental representations for the same term, then the fact that novices may hold inconsistent representations is not surprising. The fact that students at various academic levels draw very similar prototypes that are incorrect is evidence that students have distinct and persistent prototype misconceptions. * Cognitive scientists define a prototypical/exemplar concept as a mental representation of the best examples or central tendencies of a term.

An online spaced-education game for global continuing medical education: a randomized trial.

PubMed

Kerfoot, B Price; Baker, Harley

2012-07-01

To assess the efficacy of a "spaced-education" game as a method of continuing medical education (CME) among physicians across the globe. The efficacy of educational games for the CME has yet to be established. We created a novel online educational game by incorporating game mechanics into "spaced education" (SE), an evidence-based method of online CME. This 34-week randomized trial enrolled practicing urologists across the globe. The SE game consisted of 40 validated multiple-choice questions and explanations on urology clinical guidelines. Enrollees were randomized to 2 cohorts: cohort A physicians were sent 2 questions via an automated e-mail system every 2 days, and cohort B physicians were sent 4 questions every 4 days. Adaptive game mechanics re-sent the questions in 12 or 24 days if answered incorrectly and correctly, respectively. Questions expired if not answered on time (appointment dynamic). Physicians retired questions by answering each correctly twice-in-a-row (progression dynamic). Competition was fostered by posting relative performance among physicians. Main outcome measures were baseline scores (percentage of questions answered correctly upon initial presentation) and completion scores (percentage of questions retired). A total of 1470 physicians from 63 countries enrolled. Median baseline score was 48% (interquartile range [IQR] 17) and, in multivariate analyses, was found to vary significantly by region (Cohen dmax = 0.31, P = 0.001) and age (dmax = 0.41, P < 0.001). Median completion score was 98% (IQR 25) and varied significantly by age (dmax = 0.21, P < 0.001) and American Board of Urology certification (d = 0.10, P = 0.033) but not by region (multivariate analyses). Question clustering reduced physicians' performance (d = 0.43, P < 0.001). Seventy-six percent of enrollees (1111/1470) requested to participate in future SE games. An online SE game can substantially improve guidelines knowledge and is a well-accepted method of global CME delivery.

Levels of line graph question interpretation with intermediate elementary students of varying scientific and mathematical knowledge and ability: A think aloud study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keller, Stacy Kathryn

This study examined how intermediate elementary students' mathematics and science background knowledge affected their interpretation of line graphs and how their interpretations were affected by graph question levels. A purposive sample of 14 6th-grade students engaged in think aloud interviews (Ericsson & Simon, 1993) while completing an excerpted Test of Graphing in Science (TOGS) (McKenzie & Padilla, 1986). Hand gestures were video recorded. Student performance on the TOGS was assessed using an assessment rubric created from previously cited factors affecting students' graphing ability. Factors were categorized using Bertin's (1983) three graph question levels. The assessment rubric was validated by Padilla and a veteran mathematics and science teacher. Observational notes were also collected. Data were analyzed using Roth and Bowen's semiotic process of reading graphs (2001). Key findings from this analysis included differences in the use of heuristics, self-generated questions, science knowledge, and self-motivation. Students with higher prior achievement used a greater number and variety of heuristics and more often chose appropriate heuristics. They also monitored their understanding of the question and the adequacy of their strategy and answer by asking themselves questions. Most used their science knowledge spontaneously to check their understanding of the question and the adequacy of their answers. Students with lower and moderate prior achievement favored one heuristic even when it was not useful for answering the question and rarely asked their own questions. In some cases, if students with lower prior achievement had thought about their answers in the context of their science knowledge, they would have been able to recognize their errors. One student with lower prior achievement motivated herself when she thought the questions were too difficult. In addition, students answered the TOGS in one of three ways: as if they were mathematics word problems, science data to be analyzed, or they were confused and had to guess. A second set of findings corroborated how science background knowledge affected graph interpretation: correct science knowledge supported students' reasoning, but it was not necessary to answer any question correctly; correct science knowledge could not compensate for incomplete mathematics knowledge; and incorrect science knowledge often distracted students when they tried to use it while answering a question. Finally, using Roth and Bowen's (2001) two-stage semiotic model of reading graphs, representative vignettes showed emerging patterns from the study. This study added to our understanding of the role of science content knowledge during line graph interpretation, highlighted the importance of heuristics and mathematics procedural knowledge, and documented the importance of perception attentions, motivation, and students' self-generated questions. Recommendations were made for future research in line graph interpretation in mathematics and science education and for improving instruction in this area.

Evaluation of employees in public day care centers knowledge about breastfeeding and complementary feeding.

PubMed

Souza, Joelânia Pires de O; Prudente, Amanda Moura; Silva, Dyene Aparecida; Pereira, Leandro Alves; Rinaldi, Ana Elisa M

2013-12-01

To evaluate the knowledge of public day care centers employees about breastfeeding and complementary feeding. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 15 public day care centers randomly selected in the city of Uberlandia, Southeast Brazil. A questionnaire applied to school principals, teachers, educators and general services assistants (GSA) included demographic and socioeconomic variables and questions about knowledge on breastfeeding, complementary feeding besides employees' perceptions about these subjects. Kruskal-Wallis with multiple comparison and chi-square tests were used to compare variables by professional category. 304 employees participated in the study. The highest percentages of correct answers were noted for questions about exclusive breastfeeding: definition - 97% (n=296) and duration - 65% (n=199). Regarding complementary feeding, 61% (n=187) correctly answered about the appropriate age to introduce it, with a lower percentage for meat (56%; n=170) and sugar (16%; n=50). Concerning employees' perceptions, 9% (n=29) believed that there is weak breast milk, 79% (n=241) and 51% (n=157) reported the negative influence of bottle feeding and pacifier use on breastfeeding. Among the interviewed subjects, 77% (n=234) answered that they had a positive influence on the quality of the food given to the children. There were no differences in the answers according to professional category, except for the negative influence of pacifiers on breastfeeding. Employees of public day care centers knew more about breastfeeding than about complementary feeding. Educational activities about breastfeeding and complementary feeding are necessary for day care centers employees.

77 FR 67562 - Filing of Privileged Materials and Answers to Motions; Correction

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-11-13

... Commission's efforts to comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Government Paperwork Elimination Act and the E- Government Act of 2002. DATES: The effective date of this rule is December 28, 2012. FOR...

Skin Allergy Quiz

MedlinePlus

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Health Knowledge Among the Millennial Generation

PubMed Central

Lloyd, Tom; Shaffer, Michele L.; Christy, Stetter; Widome, Mark D.; Repke, John; Weitekamp, Michael R.; Eslinger, Paul J.; Bargainnier, Sandra S.; Paul, Ian M.

2013-01-01

The Millennial Generation, also known as Generation Y, is the demographic cohort following Generation X, and is generally regarded to be composed of those individuals born between 1980 and 2000. They are the first to grow up in an environment where health-related information is widely available by internet, TV and other electronic media, yet we know very little about the scope of their health knowledge. This study was undertaken to quantify two domains of clinically relevant health knowledge: factual content and ability to solve health related questions (application) in nine clinically related medical areas. Study subjects correctly answered, on average, 75% of health application questions but only 54% of health content questions. Since students were better able to correctly answer questions dealing with applications compared to those on factual content contemporary US high school students may not use traditional hierarchical learning models in acquisition of their health knowledge. PMID:25170479

Health knowledge among the millennial generation.

PubMed

Lloyd, Tom; Shaffer, Michele L; Christy, Stetter; Widome, Mark D; Repke, John; Weitekamp, Michael R; Eslinger, Paul J; Bargainnier, Sandra S; Paul, Ian M

2013-04-28

The Millennial Generation, also known as Generation Y, is the demographic cohort following Generation X, and is generally regarded to be composed of those individuals born between 1980 and 2000. They are the first to grow up in an environment where health-related information is widely available by internet, TV and other electronic media, yet we know very little about the scope of their health knowledge. This study was undertaken to quantify two domains of clinically relevant health knowledge: factual content and ability to solve health related questions (application) in nine clinically related medical areas. Study subjects correctly answered, on average, 75% of health application questions but only 54% of health content questions. Since students were better able to correctly answer questions dealing with applications compared to those on factual content contemporary US high school students may not use traditional hierarchical learning models in acquisition of their health knowledge.

Investigation of Perception in Electric Field based on Scholastic Tests of National Institute for Educational Policy Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eguchi, Kei; Sugimura, Tatsuya; Watanabe, Toshiya; Kurebayashi, Shuji

To investigate the perception of science and technology of university students, the scholastic test concerning electric field was conducted in this paper. The scholastic test, which was conducted to university students, is based on the scholastic test provided by the National Institute for Educational Policy Research of Japan's Curriculum Research Center. The result of the scholastic test showed that 1. For the questions related to “A4(i): Maintenance check and prevention of accidents of equipment” in the junior high school government guidelines for teaching, the percentage of correct answer was the lowest and 2. Not only liberal arts course students but also science course students do not have sufficient perception concerning the capability of “Device and Creativity”, because the percentage of correct answer to the questions concerning “Device and Creativity” was about 70%. The results of this study will give us the directivity of electricity education.

[Application of the International Guide for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Asthma using first-contact physicians, before and after an educational strategy].

PubMed

Segura Méndez, Nora Hilda; Herrera, Sonia; Hernández Martínez, Eduardo; Torres Salazar, Augusto; Espinola Reyna, Gerardo; del Rivero Hernández, Leonel

2003-01-01

The objective of the International Guide on Diagnosis and Treatment of Asthma is to reduce prevalence, mortality and morbidity of asthma. To demonstrate that implementation of educational workshop increases the knowledge of first contact physicians on the International Guide for Diagnosis and Treatment of Asthma. Fifty-nine first contact physicians participated. A validated questionnaire was applied before and after the workshop on the International Guide on Diagnosis and Treatment of Asthma. The Student's t test of the program SPSS was used for a statistical analysis. The grades obtained were 36% of correct answers before the workshop and 59% of correct answers after the workshop with a significant p < 0.05 specially in the general area of knowledge. As an educational technique this workshop improves the level of knowledge on the International Guide on Diagnosis and Treatment of Asthma of first contact physicians.

Opinions and knowledge about climate change science in high school students.

PubMed

Harker-Schuch, Inez; Bugge-Henriksen, Christian

2013-10-01

This study investigates the influence of knowledge on opinions about climate change in the emerging adults' age group (16-17 years). Furthermore, the effects of a lecture in climate change science on knowledge and opinions were assessed. A survey was conducted in Austria and Denmark on 188 students in national and international schools before and after a lecture in climate change science. The results show that knowledge about climate change science significantly affects opinions about climate change. Students with a higher number of correct answers are more likely to have the opinion that humans are causing climate change and that both individuals and governments are responsible for addressing climate change. The lecture in climate change science significantly improved knowledge development but did not affect opinions. Knowledge was improved by 11 % after the lecture. However, the percentage of correct answers was still below 60 % indicating an urgent need for improving climate change science education.

Feedback in action within bedside teaching encounters: a video ethnographic study.

PubMed

Rizan, Chantelle; Elsey, Christopher; Lemon, Thomas; Grant, Andrew; Monrouxe, Lynn V

2014-09-01

Feedback associated with teaching activities is often synonymous with reflection on action, which comprises the evaluative assessment of performance out of its original context. Feedback in action (as correction during clinical encounters) is an underexplored, complementary resource facilitating students' understanding and learning. The purpose of this study was to explore the interactional patterns and correction modalities utilised in feedback sequences between doctors and students within general practice-based bedside teaching encounters (BTEs). A qualitative video ethnographic approach was used. Participants were recorded in their natural settings to allow interactional practices to be contextually explored. We examined 12 BTEs recorded across four general practices and involving 12 patients, four general practitioners and four medical students (209 minutes and 20 seconds of data) taken from a larger corpus. Data analysis was facilitated by Transana video analysis software and informed by previous conversation analysis research in ordinary conversation, classrooms and health care settings. A range of correction strategies across a spectrum of underlying explicitness were identified. Correction strategies classified at extreme poles of this scale (high or low explicitness) were believed to be less interactionally effective. For example, those using abrupt closing of topics (high explicitness) or interactional ambiguity (low explicitness) were thought to be less effective than embedded correction strategies that enabled the student to reach the correct answer with support. We believe that educators who are explicitly taught linguistic strategies for how to manage feedback in BTEs might manage learning more effectively. For example, clinicians might maximise learning moments during BTEs by avoiding abrupt or ambiguous feedback practices. Embedded correction strategies can enhance student participation by guiding students towards the correct answer. Clinician corrections can sensitively manage student face-saving by minimising the exposure of student error to patients. Furthermore, we believe that the effective practices highlighted by our analysis might facilitate successful transformation of feedback in action into feedback for action. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Dual processing theory and experts' reasoning: exploring thinking on national multiple-choice questions.

PubMed

Durning, Steven J; Dong, Ting; Artino, Anthony R; van der Vleuten, Cees; Holmboe, Eric; Schuwirth, Lambert

2015-08-01

An ongoing debate exists in the medical education literature regarding the potential benefits of pattern recognition (non-analytic reasoning), actively comparing and contrasting diagnostic options (analytic reasoning) or using a combination approach. Studies have not, however, explicitly explored faculty's thought processes while tackling clinical problems through the lens of dual process theory to inform this debate. Further, these thought processes have not been studied in relation to the difficulty of the task or other potential mediating influences such as personal factors and fatigue, which could also be influenced by personal factors such as sleep deprivation. We therefore sought to determine which reasoning process(es) were used with answering clinically oriented multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and if these processes differed based on the dual process theory characteristics: accuracy, reading time and answering time as well as psychometrically determined item difficulty and sleep deprivation. We performed a think-aloud procedure to explore faculty's thought processes while taking these MCQs, coding think-aloud data based on reasoning process (analytic, nonanalytic, guessing or combination of processes) as well as word count, number of stated concepts, reading time, answering time, and accuracy. We also included questions regarding amount of work in the recent past. We then conducted statistical analyses to examine the associations between these measures such as correlations between frequencies of reasoning processes and item accuracy and difficulty. We also observed the total frequencies of different reasoning processes in the situations of getting answers correctly and incorrectly. Regardless of whether the questions were classified as 'hard' or 'easy', non-analytical reasoning led to the correct answer more often than to an incorrect answer. Significant correlations were found between self-reported recent number of hours worked with think-aloud word count and number of concepts used in the reasoning but not item accuracy. When all MCQs were included, 19 % of the variance of correctness could be explained by the frequency of expression of these three think-aloud processes (analytic, nonanalytic, or combined). We found evidence to support the notion that the difficulty of an item in a test is not a systematic feature of the item itself but is always a result of the interaction between the item and the candidate. Use of analytic reasoning did not appear to improve accuracy. Our data suggest that individuals do not apply either System 1 or System 2 but instead fall along a continuum with some individuals falling at one end of the spectrum.

[Comprehension of hazard pictograms of chemical products among cleaning workers].

PubMed

Martí Fernández, Francesc; van der Haar, Rudolf; López López, Juan Carlos; Portell, Mariona; Torner Solé, Anna

2015-01-01

To assess the comprehension among cleaning workers of the hazard pictograms as defined by the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) of the United Nations, concerning the classification, labeling and packaging of substances and mixtures. A sample of 118 workers was surveyed on their perception of the GHS hazard pictograms. Comprehensibility was measured by the percentage of correct answers and the degree to which they reflected International Organization for Standardization and American National Standards Institute standards for minimum level of comprehension. The influence of different variables to predict comprehension capacity was assessed using a logistic regression model. Three groups of pictograms could be distinguished which were statistically differentiated by their comprehensibility. Pictograms reflecting "acute toxicity" and "flammable", were described correctly by 94% and 95% of the surveyed population, respectively. For pictograms reflecting "systemic toxicity", "corrosive", "warning", "environment" and "explosive" the frequency of correct answers ranged from 48% to 64%, whereas those for pictograms "oxidizing" and "compressed gas" were interpreted correctly by only 7% of respondents. Prognostic factors for poor comprehension included: not being familiar with the pictograms, not having received training on safe use of chemical products, being an immigrant and being 54 years of age or older. Only two pictograms exceeded minimum standards for comprehension. Training, a tool proven to be effective to improve the correct interpretation of danger symbols, should be encouraged, especially in those groups with greater comprehension difficulties. Copyright belongs to the Societat Catalana de Salut Laboral.

Integration of relational and textual biomedical sources. A pilot experiment using a semi-automated method for logical schema acquisition.

PubMed

García-Remesal, M; Maojo, V; Billhardt, H; Crespo, J

2010-01-01

Bringing together structured and text-based sources is an exciting challenge for biomedical informaticians, since most relevant biomedical sources belong to one of these categories. In this paper we evaluate the feasibility of integrating relational and text-based biomedical sources using: i) an original logical schema acquisition method for textual databases developed by the authors, and ii) OntoFusion, a system originally designed by the authors for the integration of relational sources. We conducted an integration experiment involving a test set of seven differently structured sources covering the domain of genetic diseases. We used our logical schema acquisition method to generate schemas for all textual sources. The sources were integrated using the methods and tools provided by OntoFusion. The integration was validated using a test set of 500 queries. A panel of experts answered a questionnaire to evaluate i) the quality of the extracted schemas, ii) the query processing performance of the integrated set of sources, and iii) the relevance of the retrieved results. The results of the survey show that our method extracts coherent and representative logical schemas. Experts' feedback on the performance of the integrated system and the relevance of the retrieved results was also positive. Regarding the validation of the integration, the system successfully provided correct results for all queries in the test set. The results of the experiment suggest that text-based sources including a logical schema can be regarded as equivalent to structured databases. Using our method, previous research and existing tools designed for the integration of structured databases can be reused - possibly subject to minor modifications - to integrate differently structured sources.

A COMPARISON OF INTRAVERBAL TRAINING PROCEDURES FOR CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

PubMed Central

Kodak, Tiffany; Fuchtman, Rashea; Paden, Amber

2012-01-01

We compared the effectiveness of three training procedures, echoic and tact prompting plus error correction and a cues-pause-point (CPP) procedure, for increasing intraverbals in 2 children with autism. We also measured echoic behavior that may have interfered with appropriate question answering. Results indicated that echoic prompting with error correction was most effective and the CPP procedure was least effective for increasing intraverbals and decreasing echoic behavior. PMID:22403459

Very long-term retention of basic science knowledge in doctors after graduation.

PubMed

Custers, Eugène J F M; Ten Cate, Olle T J

2011-04-01

Despite frequent complaints that biomedical knowledge is quickly forgotten after it has been learned, few investigations of actual long-term retention of basic science knowledge have been conducted in the medical domain. Our aim was to illuminate the long-term retention of basic science knowledge, particularly of unrehearsed knowledge. Using a cross-sectional study design, medical students and doctors in the Netherlands were tested for retention of basic science knowledge. Relationships between retention interval and proportion of correct answers on a knowledge test were investigated. The popular notion that most of basic science knowledge is forgotten shortly after graduation is not supported by our findings. With respect to the full test scores, which reflect a composite of unrehearsed and rehearsed knowledge, performance decreased from approximately 40% correct answers for students still in medical school, to 25-30% correct answers for doctors after many years of practice. When rehearsal during the retention interval is controlled for, it appears that little knowledge is lost for 1.5-2 years after it was last used; from then on, retention is best described by a negatively accelerated (logarithmic) forgetting curve. After ≥ 25 years, retention levels were in the range of 15-20%. Conclusions about the forgetting of unrehearsed knowledge in this study are in line with findings reported in other domains: it proceeds in accordance with the Ebbinghaus curve for meaningful material, except that in our findings the 'downward' part appears to start later than in most other studies. The limitations of the study are discussed and possible ramifications for medical education are proposed. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2011.

Knowledge of the General Community in Cordoba, Argentina, on Human Papilloma Virus Infection and its Prevention.

PubMed

Venezuela, Raul Fernando; Monetti, Marina Soledad; Kiguen, Ana Ximena; Frutos, Maria Celia; Mosmann, Jessica Paola; Cuffini, Cecilia Gabriela

2016-01-01

Most studies of human papilloma virus (HPV) are aimed at the natural history of the infection and its relation to cancer; however, there are few studies to assess knowledge of the general population. Our aim was analyze the degree of knowledge of Argentinians about HPV infection and its prevention. We conducted a voluntary, anonymous and non-binding survey with 27 multiple-choice items, in twelve private and public establishments, selected to include a broad population in terms of education, age and gender. The survey consisted of three sections: individual characteristics of the volunteer, HPV infection basic knowledge, its prevention and the virus relationship with other cancers. One thousand two hundred ninety seven volunteers aged 18 to 80 participated. The total number of correct answers was 45.1%. The correct answers for relationship HPV and cervical cancer was 62.1%. Almost 55% did not know about types of HPV that the vaccines for protection. Statistical analysis showed that women, single people, workers, the better educated, those who have had a STDs or HPV and receiving information through medical or educational establishments had greater knowledge of the topic. Only 0.2% of participants answered all questions correctly. Knowledge plays an important role in health care and the deficiency found in our population could influence the success of the measures taken in the fight against cervical cancer. In this regard, we believe it would be appropriate, not only to emphasize early diagnosis and vaccine implementation, but also incorporate new communication strategies, facilitating reception of accurate and precise information by all strata of society.

Home care nurses' knowledge of evidence-based education topics for management of heart failure.

PubMed

Delaney, Colleen; Apostolidis, Beka; Lachapelle, Leeanne; Fortinsky, Richard

2011-01-01

We primarily sought to evaluate home care nurses' knowledge of evidence-based education topics in managing heart failure (HF). Moreover, we wanted to determine if differences were evident in nurses' knowledge based on education and work experience, and to identify home care nurses' specific educational needs. A cross-sectional survey design was used. Home care nurses (n = 94) were recruited from 4 home care agencies. A previously published 20-item HF knowledge questionnaire was administered to participants, and an open-ended question determined participants' need for further HF-related education. Home care nurses' scores demonstrated a 78.9% knowledge level in overall HF education principles. The mean HF knowledge score was 15.78 (SD, ±1.69) out of a possible 20 points. Nurses scored lowest on knowledge related to asymptomatic hypotension (24.5% answered correctly), daily weight monitoring (26.6% answered correctly), and transient dizziness (30.9% answered correctly). Nurses requested further information on all HF topics addressed in the survey as well as on psychosocial issues, research evidence, and more information from other healthcare providers. Our findings suggest that home care nurses may not be sufficiently knowledgeable in evidence-based education topics for managing HF. The results help confirm the need to develop educational programs for home care nurses in managing HF, which may lead to improved quality of patient education. Further research is needed to address specific deficits in the knowledge of home care nurses, and to determine if HF educational programs for nurses would enhance and sustain nurses' knowledge of HF management education. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of easy-to-read information material on healthy life-styles written with the help of citizens' collaboration through networking.

PubMed

Daghio, M Monica; Fattori, Giuseppe; Ciardullo, Anna V

2006-01-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate if easy-to-read information material on the prevention of chronic-degenerative diseases through healthy lifestyle co-written by communicators, educators, physicians and citizens -using a networking strategy- could be judged comprehensible. Readability scores were computed. The survey involved 100 individuals attending our centralized booking centre for medical appointments during an "index week". They filled out an anonymous questionnaire, just before and after they had read the material. Readability and comprehensibility frequencies were calculated. The participants had a mean age of 59.1+/-15.1 (SD) years (range 19-81yrs), 62% were females. Twenty-six percent of them had received no education, 30% "primary", 28% "secondary", and 14% had a "degree". According to readability scores, the booklet was "readable" by all persons who had finished primary school. Of the 100 participants, 40 percent found the booklet's language to be "easy" or "very easy", 46% "sufficiently easy", and 14% "difficult" for laypersons to understand. Ninety-four percent of them found no unintelligible words in the text. Education levels showed no differences. Readers' answers were more correct after they had read the booklet. The pre-test showed that 61+/-26% of the readers answered the comprehensibility items correctly. After reading the booklet, 81+/-17% of them gave correct answers. The after-minus-before net increase in knowledge was +20% (95% CIs +8 to +32%). The booklet was designed and written using a networking strategy with the help of the local population. It was found to be easy to read and quite clear.

Impact of auditory training for perceptual assessment of voice executed by undergraduate students in Speech-Language Pathology.

PubMed

Silva, Regiane Serafim Abreu; Simões-Zenari, Marcia; Nemr, Nair Kátia

2012-01-01

To analyze the impact of auditory training for auditory-perceptual assessment carried out by Speech-Language Pathology undergraduate students. During two semesters, 17 undergraduate students enrolled in theoretical subjects regarding phonation (Phonation/Phonation Disorders) analyzed samples of altered and unaltered voices (selected for this purpose), using the GRBAS scale. All subjects received auditory training during nine 15-minute meetings. In each meeting, a different parameter was presented using the different voices sample, with predominance of the trained aspect in each session. Sample assessment using the scale was carried out before and after training, and in other four opportunities throughout the meetings. Students' assessments were compared to an assessment carried out by three voice-experts speech-language pathologists who were the judges. To verify training effectiveness, the Friedman's test and the Kappa index were used. The rate of correct answers in the pre-training was considered between regular and good. It was observed maintenance of the number of correct answers throughout assessments, for most of the scale parameters. In the post-training moment, the students showed improvements in the analysis of asthenia, a parameter that was emphasized during training after the students reported difficulties analyzing it. There was a decrease in the number of correct answers for the roughness parameter after it was approached segmented into hoarseness and harshness, and observed in association with different diagnoses and acoustic parameters. Auditory training enhances students' initial abilities to perform the evaluation, aside from guiding adjustments in the dynamics of the university subject.

Stroke education program of act FAST for junior high school students and their parents.

PubMed

Amano, Tatsuo; Yokota, Chiaki; Sakamoto, Yuki; Shigehatake, Yuya; Inoue, Yasuteru; Ishigami, Akiko; Hagihara, Takaaki; Tomii, Yasuhiro; Miyashita, Fumio; Toyoda, Kazunori; Minematsu, Kazuo

2014-01-01

We produced a stroke education program using the FAST (facial droop, arm weakness, speech disturbance, time to call an ambulance) mnemonic. The aim of this study is to examine efficacy of our education program for junior high school students and their parents. One hundred ninety students of 3 junior high schools (aged 12-13 years) and their parents were enrolled. Students received a 45-minute lesson of stroke enlightenment using the FAST mnemonic. Enlightenment items, such as a magnet poster, were distributed. Parents were educated indirectly from their child. Surveys of stroke knowledge were examined at baseline, immediately after the lesson, and at 3 months after the lesson. For the students, correct answers at 3 months were significantly higher than those at baseline in questions of facial palsy (98% versus 33%), speech disturbance (98% versus 54%), numbness on one side (64% versus 42%), weakness on one side (80% versus 51%), calling an ambulance (88% versus 60%), alcohol drinking (85% versus 65%), smoking (70% versus 43%), dyslipidemia (58% versus 46%), hyperglycemia (59% versus 48%), and obesity (47% versus 23%). At 3 months, the parents answered more correctly questions of facial palsy (93% versus 66%), calling an ambulance (95% versus 88%), and alcohol drinking (65% versus 51%) than at baseline. At 3 months, 96% of students and 78% of parents answered the FAST mnemonic correctly. Our stroke education program improved stroke knowledge, especially the FAST message, for junior high school students and their parents. Copyright © 2014 National Stroke Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Pediatric first aid knowledge and attitudes among staff in the preschools of Shanghai, China.

PubMed

Li, Feng; Jiang, Fan; Jin, Xingming; Qiu, Yulan; Shen, Xiaoming

2012-08-14

Unintentional injury remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children worldwide. The aims of this study were to assess a baseline level of first aid knowledge and overall attitudes regarding first aid among staff members in Shanghai preschools. A cross-sectional study was carried out among the staff members at selected preschools. A stratified random sampling method was first used to identify suitable subjects. Data were obtained using a multiple-choice questionnaire. A standardized collection of demographics was performed and participants were given the aforementioned questionnaire to indicate knowledge of and attitudes toward first aid. 1067 subjects completed the questionnaire. None of the surveyed employees answered all questions correctly; only 39 individuals (3.7%) achieved passing scores. The relative number of correct answers to specific questions ranged from 16.5% to 90.2%. In particular, subjects lacked knowledge regarding first aid for convulsive seizures (only 16.5% answered correctly), chemical injuries to the eye (23%), inhaled poison (27.6%), and choking and coughing (30.1%). A multiple linear regression analysis showed scores were significantly higher among staff members with more education, those who had received first aid training before or were already healthcare providers, younger employees, and staff members from rural districts. Most employees agreed that giving first aid was helpful; the vast majority felt that it was important and useful for them to learn pediatric first aid. The level of first-aid knowledge among preschool staffs in Shanghai was low. There is an urgent need to educate staff members regarding first aid practices and the various risk factors relating to specific injuries.

Quiz: Test Your Skin Cancer IQ

MedlinePlus

... three main types of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma. They can develop from the uncontrolled growth of three different types of skin cells: basal cells, squamous cells, and melanocytes, respectively. A is the correct answer. ...

On the Uncertainty of Conservation: Responses to Misleading Conservation Questions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winer, Gerald A.; McGlone, Chadd

1993-01-01

Three studies of preadolescents and college students found that many children and adults failed to give logically correct answers when presented with misleading weight conservation questions. The results show the importance of suggestibility and context. (MDM)

Perceived Risk.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ost, David H.

1995-01-01

Perceived risk is a function of information, knowledge, values, and perception. This exercise is designed to illustrate that in many situations there is no correct answer, only best-alternative choices. The exercise has five parts in which students work in groups of five. (LZ)

Proving autonomous vehicle and advanced driver assistance systems safety : final research report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-02-15

The main objective of this project was to provide technology for answering : crucial safety and correctness questions about verification of autonomous : vehicle and advanced driver assistance systems based on logic. : In synergistic activities, we ha...

Evaluation of students' knowledge about paediatric dosage calculations.

PubMed

Özyazıcıoğlu, Nurcan; Aydın, Ayla İrem; Sürenler, Semra; Çinar, Hava Gökdere; Yılmaz, Dilek; Arkan, Burcu; Tunç, Gülseren Çıtak

2018-01-01

Medication errors are common and may jeopardize the patient safety. As paediatric dosages are calculated based on the child's age and weight, risk of error in dosage calculations is increasing. In paediatric patients, overdose drug prescribed regardless of the child's weight, age and clinical picture may lead to excessive toxicity and mortalities while low doses may delay the treatment. This study was carried out to evaluate the knowledge of nursing students about paediatric dosage calculations. This research, which is of retrospective type, covers a population consisting of all the 3rd grade students at the bachelor's degree in May, 2015 (148 students). Drug dose calculation questions in exam papers including 3 open ended questions on dosage calculation problems, addressing 5 variables were distributed to the students and their responses were evaluated by the researchers. In the evaluation of the data, figures and percentage distribution were calculated and Spearman correlation analysis was applied. Exam question on the dosage calculation based on child's age, which is the most common method in paediatrics, and which ensures right dosages and drug dilution was answered correctly by 87.1% of the students while 9.5% answered it wrong and 3.4% left it blank. 69.6% of the students was successful in finding the safe dose range, and 79.1% in finding the right ratio/proportion. 65.5% of the answers with regard to Ml/dzy calculation were correct. Moreover, student's four operation skills were assessed and 68.2% of the students were determined to have found the correct answer. When the relation among the questions on medication was examined, a significant relation (correlation) was determined between them. It is seen that in dosage calculations, the students failed mostly in calculating ml/dzy (decimal). This result means that as dosage calculations are based on decimal values, calculations may be ten times erroneous when the decimal point is placed wrongly. Moreover, it is also seen that students lack maths knowledge in respect of four operations and calculating safe dose range. Relations among the medications suggest that a student wrongly calculating a dosage may also make other errors. Additional courses, exercises or utilisation of different teaching techniques may be suggested to eliminate the deficiencies in terms of basic maths knowledge, problem solving skills and correct dosage calculation of the students. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Deep Question Answering for protein annotation

PubMed Central

Gobeill, Julien; Gaudinat, Arnaud; Pasche, Emilie; Vishnyakova, Dina; Gaudet, Pascale; Bairoch, Amos; Ruch, Patrick

2015-01-01

Biomedical professionals have access to a huge amount of literature, but when they use a search engine, they often have to deal with too many documents to efficiently find the appropriate information in a reasonable time. In this perspective, question-answering (QA) engines are designed to display answers, which were automatically extracted from the retrieved documents. Standard QA engines in literature process a user question, then retrieve relevant documents and finally extract some possible answers out of these documents using various named-entity recognition processes. In our study, we try to answer complex genomics questions, which can be adequately answered only using Gene Ontology (GO) concepts. Such complex answers cannot be found using state-of-the-art dictionary- and redundancy-based QA engines. We compare the effectiveness of two dictionary-based classifiers for extracting correct GO answers from a large set of 100 retrieved abstracts per question. In the same way, we also investigate the power of GOCat, a GO supervised classifier. GOCat exploits the GOA database to propose GO concepts that were annotated by curators for similar abstracts. This approach is called deep QA, as it adds an original classification step, and exploits curated biological data to infer answers, which are not explicitly mentioned in the retrieved documents. We show that for complex answers such as protein functional descriptions, the redundancy phenomenon has a limited effect. Similarly usual dictionary-based approaches are relatively ineffective. In contrast, we demonstrate how existing curated data, beyond information extraction, can be exploited by a supervised classifier, such as GOCat, to massively improve both the quantity and the quality of the answers with a +100% improvement for both recall and precision. Database URL: http://eagl.unige.ch/DeepQA4PA/ PMID:26384372

Deep Question Answering for protein annotation.

PubMed

Gobeill, Julien; Gaudinat, Arnaud; Pasche, Emilie; Vishnyakova, Dina; Gaudet, Pascale; Bairoch, Amos; Ruch, Patrick

2015-01-01

Biomedical professionals have access to a huge amount of literature, but when they use a search engine, they often have to deal with too many documents to efficiently find the appropriate information in a reasonable time. In this perspective, question-answering (QA) engines are designed to display answers, which were automatically extracted from the retrieved documents. Standard QA engines in literature process a user question, then retrieve relevant documents and finally extract some possible answers out of these documents using various named-entity recognition processes. In our study, we try to answer complex genomics questions, which can be adequately answered only using Gene Ontology (GO) concepts. Such complex answers cannot be found using state-of-the-art dictionary- and redundancy-based QA engines. We compare the effectiveness of two dictionary-based classifiers for extracting correct GO answers from a large set of 100 retrieved abstracts per question. In the same way, we also investigate the power of GOCat, a GO supervised classifier. GOCat exploits the GOA database to propose GO concepts that were annotated by curators for similar abstracts. This approach is called deep QA, as it adds an original classification step, and exploits curated biological data to infer answers, which are not explicitly mentioned in the retrieved documents. We show that for complex answers such as protein functional descriptions, the redundancy phenomenon has a limited effect. Similarly usual dictionary-based approaches are relatively ineffective. In contrast, we demonstrate how existing curated data, beyond information extraction, can be exploited by a supervised classifier, such as GOCat, to massively improve both the quantity and the quality of the answers with a +100% improvement for both recall and precision. Database URL: http://eagl.unige.ch/DeepQA4PA/. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press.

Calculator Use Need Not Undermine Direct-Access Ability: The Roles of Retrieval, Calculation, and Calculator Use in the Acquisition of Arithmetic Facts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pyke, Aryn A.; LeFevre, Jo-Anne

2011-01-01

Why is subsequent recall sometimes better for self-generated answers than for answers obtained from an external source (e.g., calculator)? In this study, we explore the relative contribution of 2 processes, recall attempts and self-computation, to this "generation effect" (i.e., enhanced answer recall relative to when problems are practiced with a…

Separating stages of arithmetic verification: An ERP study with a novel paradigm.

PubMed

Avancini, Chiara; Soltész, Fruzsina; Szűcs, Dénes

2015-08-01

In studies of arithmetic verification, participants typically encounter two operands and they carry out an operation on these (e.g. adding them). Operands are followed by a proposed answer and participants decide whether this answer is correct or incorrect. However, interpretation of results is difficult because multiple parallel, temporally overlapping numerical and non-numerical processes of the human brain may contribute to task execution. In order to overcome this problem here we used a novel paradigm specifically designed to tease apart the overlapping cognitive processes active during arithmetic verification. Specifically, we aimed to separate effects related to detection of arithmetic correctness, detection of the violation of strategic expectations, detection of physical stimulus properties mismatch and numerical magnitude comparison (numerical distance effects). Arithmetic correctness, physical stimulus properties and magnitude information were not task-relevant properties of the stimuli. We distinguished between a series of temporally highly overlapping cognitive processes which in turn elicited overlapping ERP effects with distinct scalp topographies. We suggest that arithmetic verification relies on two major temporal phases which include parallel running processes. Our paradigm offers a new method for investigating specific arithmetic verification processes in detail. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Construction of the mathematical concept of pseudo thinking students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anggraini, D.; Kusmayadi, T. A.; Pramudya, I.

2018-05-01

Thinking process is a process that begins with the acceptance of information, information processing and information calling in memory with structural changes that include concepts or knowledges. The concept or knowledge is individually constructed by each individual. While, students construct a mathematical concept, students may experience pseudo thinking. Pseudo thinking is a thinking process that results in an answer to a problem or construction to a concept “that is not true”. Pseudo thinking can be classified into two forms there are true pseudo and false pseudo. The construction of mathematical concepts in students of pseudo thinking should be immediately known because the error will have an impact on the next construction of mathematical concepts and to correct the errors it requires knowledge of the source of the error. Therefore, in this article will be discussed thinking process in constructing of mathematical concepts in students who experience pseudo thinking.

Insight into organic reactions from the direct random phase approximation and its corrections

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ruzsinszky, Adrienn; Zhang, Igor Ying; Scheffler, Matthias

2015-10-14

The performance of the random phase approximation (RPA) and beyond-RPA approximations for the treatment of electron correlation is benchmarked on three different molecular test sets. The test sets are chosen to represent three typical sources of error which can contribute to the failure of most density functional approximations in chemical reactions. The first test set (atomization and n-homodesmotic reactions) offers a gradually increasing balance of error from the chemical environment. The second test set (Diels-Alder reaction cycloaddition = DARC) reflects more the effect of weak dispersion interactions in chemical reactions. Finally, the third test set (self-interaction error 11 = SIE11)more » represents reactions which are exposed to noticeable self-interaction errors. This work seeks to answer whether any one of the many-body approximations considered here successfully addresses all these challenges.« less

The Spectral Game: leveraging Open Data and crowdsourcing for education

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

We report on the implementation of the Spectral Game, a web-based game where players try to match molecules to various forms of interactive spectra including 1D/2D NMR, Mass Spectrometry and Infrared spectra. Each correct selection earns the player one point and play continues until the player supplies an incorrect answer. The game is usually played using a web browser interface, although a version has been developed in the virtual 3D environment of Second Life. Spectra uploaded as Open Data to ChemSpider in JCAMP-DX format are used for the problem sets together with structures extracted from the website. The spectra are displayed using JSpecView, an Open Source spectrum viewing applet which affords zooming and integration. The application of the game to the teaching of proton NMR spectroscopy in an undergraduate organic chemistry class and a 2D Spectrum Viewer are also presented. PMID:20298527

Simulating a transmon implementation of the surface code, Part II

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Brien, Thomas; Tarasinski, Brian; Rol, Adriaan; Bultink, Niels; Fu, Xiang; Criger, Ben; Dicarlo, Leonardo

The majority of quantum error correcting circuit simulations use Pauli error channels, as they can be efficiently calculated. This raises two questions: what is the effect of more complicated physical errors on the logical qubit error rate, and how much more efficient can decoders become when accounting for realistic noise? To answer these questions, we design a minimal weight perfect matching decoder parametrized by a physically motivated noise model and test it on the full density matrix simulation of Surface-17, a distance-3 surface code. We compare performance against other decoders, for a range of physical parameters. Particular attention is paid to realistic sources of error for transmon qubits in a circuit QED architecture, and the requirements for real-time decoding via an FPGA Research funded by the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM), the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO/OCW), IARPA, an ERC Synergy Grant, the China Scholarship Council, and Intel Corporation.

AACSB Deans' Understanding of Multimedia Copyright Laws and Guidelines.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gatlin, Rebecca; Arn, Joseph V.; Kordsmeier, William

1999-01-01

Fewer than 60% of 114 business-education deans answered questions correctly about fair use and the use of copyrighted multimedia materials in instruction. Those with less multimedia experience assumed copyright regulations to be more restrictive than they actually are. (SK)

Mathematics, Questions, and "Schools Without Failure"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perl, Teri

1974-01-01

Most questions in the mathematics classroom deal with memorization and learning, and have one correct answer. Suggestions for using three other types of questions identified by Glasser (SCHOOLS WITHOUT FAILURE) are provided. Activities discussed include tangrams, attribute blocks, pattern recognition, and games. (SD)

Making a structured psychiatric diagnostic interview faithful to the nomenclature.

PubMed

Robins, Lee N; Cottler, Linda B

2004-10-15

Psychiatric diagnostic interviews to be used in epidemiologic studies by lay interviewers have, since the 1970s, attempted to operationalize existing psychiatric nomenclatures. How to maximize the chances that they do so successfully has not previously been spelled out. In this article, the authors discuss strategies for each of the seven steps involved in writing, updating, or modifying a diagnostic interview and its supporting materials: 1) writing questions that match the nomenclature's criteria, 2) checking that respondents will be willing and able to answer the questions, 3) choosing a format acceptable to interviewers that maximizes accurate answering and recording of answers, 4) constructing a data entry and cleaning program that highlights errors to be corrected, 5) creating a diagnostic scoring program that matches the nomenclature's algorithms, 6) developing an interviewer training program that maximizes reliability, and 7) computerizing the interview. For each step, the authors discuss how to identify errors, correct them, and validate the revisions. Although operationalization will never be perfect because of ambiguities in the nomenclature, specifying methods for minimizing divergence from the nomenclature is timely as users modify existing interviews and look forward to updating interviews based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, and the International Classification of Diseases, Eleventh Revision.

The diffuse source at the center of LMC SNR 0509–67.5 is a background galaxy at z = 0.031

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pagnotta, Ashley; Walker, Emma S.; Schaefer, Bradley E., E-mail: pagnotta@amnh.org

2014-06-20

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are well-known for their use in the measurement of cosmological distances, but our continuing lack of concrete knowledge about their progenitor stars is both a matter of debate and a source of systematic error. In our attempts to answer this question, we presented unambiguous evidence that LMC SNR 0509–67.5, the remnant of an SN Ia that exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud 400 ± 50 yr ago, did not have any point sources (stars) near the site of the original supernova explosion, from which we concluded that this particular supernova must have had a progenitormore » system consisting of two white dwarfs. There is, however, evidence of nebulosity near the center of the remnant, which could have been left over detritus from the less massive WD, or could have been a background galaxy unrelated to the supernova explosion. We obtained long-slit spectra of the central nebulous region using GMOS on Gemini South to determine which of these two possibilities is correct. The spectra show Hα emission at a redshift of z = 0.031, which implies that the nebulosity in the center of LMC SNR 0509–67.5 is a background galaxy, unrelated to the supernova.« less

When reality is out of focus: Can people tell whether their beliefs and judgments are correct or wrong?

PubMed

Koriat, Asher

2018-05-01

Can we tell whether our beliefs and judgments are correct or wrong? Results across many domains indicate that people are skilled at discriminating between correct and wrong answers, endorsing the former with greater confidence than the latter. However, it has not been realized that because of people's adaptation to reality, representative samples of items tend to favor the correct answer, yielding object-level accuracy (OLA) that is considerably better than chance. Across 16 experiments that used 2-alternative forced-choice items from several domains, the confidence/accuracy (C/A) relationship was positive for items with OLA >50%, but consistently negative across items with OLA <50%. A systematic sampling of items that covered the full range of OLA (0-100%) yielded a U-function relating confidence to OLA. The results imply that the positive C/A relationship that has been reported in many studies is an artifact of OLA being better than chance rather than representing a general ability to discriminate between correct and wrong responses. However, the results also support the ecological approach, suggesting that confidence is based on a frugal, "bounded" heuristic that has been specifically tailored to the ecological structure of the natural environment. This heuristic is used despite the fact that for items with OLA <50%, it yields confidence judgments that are counterdiagnostic of accuracy. Our ability to tell between correct and wrong judgments is confined to the probability structure of the world we live in. The results were discussed in terms of the contrast between systematic design and representative design. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Resident physicians as human information systems: sources yet seekers

PubMed Central

Bass, Ellen J; DeVoge, Justin Michael; Waggoner-Fountain, Linda A; Borowitz, Stephen M

2013-01-01

Objective To characterize question types that residents received on overnight shifts and what information sources were used to answer them. Materials and Methods Across 30 overnight shifts, questions asked of on-call senior residents, question askers’ roles, and residents’ responses were documented. External sources were noted. Results 158 of 397 questions (39.8%) related to the plan of care, 53 (13.4%) to medical knowledge, 48 (12.1%) to taskwork knowledge, and 44 (11.1%) to the current condition of patients. For 351 (88.4%) questions residents provided specific, direct answers or visited the patient. For 16 of these, residents modeled or completed the task. For 216 questions, residents used previous knowledge or their own clinical judgment. Residents solicited external information sources for 118 questions and only a single source for 77 (65.3%) of them. For the 118, most questions concerned either the plan of care or the patient's current condition and were asked by interns and nurses (those with direct patient care responsibilities). Discussion Resident physicians serve as an information system and they often specifically answer the question using previous knowledge or their own clinical judgment, suggesting that askers are contacting an appropriately knowledgeable person. However, they do need to access patient information such as the plan of care. They also serve an educator role and answer many knowledge-related questions. Conclusions As synchronous verbal communications continue to be important pathways for information flow, informaticians need to consider the relationship between such communications and workflow in the development of healthcare support tools. PMID:23268485

Central distractors in Force Concept Inventory data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scott, Terry F.; Schumayer, Dániel

2018-01-01

The Force Concept Inventory was designed to poll the Newtonian conception of force. While there are many in-depth studies analyzing response data that look at the structure of the correct answers, we believe that the incorrect answers also carry revealing information about the students' worldview. The inventory was originally designed so that the "distractors" in each question reflected commonly held misconceptions, and thus the rate at which students guess the correct answer is very low. Students select incorrect answers that correspond to the misconception that they hold and there are very few responses which appear obviously wrong to students. A side effect of this approach is that the incorrect responses reflect the non-Newtonian worldviews held by students. These non-Newtonian worldviews are coherent and robust, and this, at least in part, helps to explain why these misconceptions are so resistant to instruction. In this study we focus once more on the misconception data in Force Concept Inventory responses, particularly on the linkages between these misconceptions. We hypothesize that there are distinct groupings of distractor items formed by the strength of the association between these items. The two largest groupings are associated with the "impetus" world view in which the motion of an object is determined by the quantity of impetus which that object contains. We find that certain central items hold particularly important places in these groupings and also that individual groupings may be connected to each other by "connector" items. We finally suggest that, on the basis of this study, that these non-Newtonian worldviews might best be dismantled by addressing these key central and connector items.

Evaluation of employees in public day care centers knowledge about breastfeeding and complementary feeding

PubMed Central

Souza, Joelânia Pires de O.; Prudente, Amanda Moura; Silva, Dyene Aparecida; Pereira, Leandro Alves; Rinaldi, Ana Elisa M.

2013-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the knowledge of public day care centers employees about breastfeeding and complementary feeding. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 15 public day care centers randomly selected in the city of Uberlandia, Southeast Brazil. A questionnaire applied to school principals, teachers, educators and general services assistants (GSA) included demographic and socioeconomic variables and questions about knowledge on breastfeeding, complementary feeding besides employees' perceptions about these subjects. Kruskal-Wallis with multiple comparison and chi-square tests were used to compare variables by professional category. RESULTS: 304 employees participated in the study. The highest percentages of correct answers were noted for questions about exclusive breastfeeding: definition - 97% (n=296) and duration - 65% (n=199). Regarding complementary feeding, 61% (n=187) correctly answered about the appropriate age to introduce it, with a lower percentage for meat (56%; n=170) and sugar (16%; n=50). Concerning employees' perceptions, 9% (n=29) believed that there is weak breast milk, 79% (n=241) and 51% (n=157) reported the negative influence of bottle feeding and pacifier use on breastfeeding. Among the interviewed subjects, 77% (n=234) answered that they had a positive influence on the quality of the food given to the children. There were no differences in the answers according to professional category, except for the negative influence of pacifiers on breastfeeding. CONCLUSIONS: Employees of public day care centers knew more about breastfeeding than about complementary feeding. Educational activities about breastfeeding and complementary feeding are necessary for day care centers employees. PMID:24473953

Questions and Answers Regarding the 1997 State Plan Requirements for Hospital, Medical, and Infectious Waste Incinerators (HMIWI)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This November 1997 document contains questions and answers on the state plan requirements for HMIWI regulations. The questions cover topics such as re-opening existing sources, timelines for submission, consequences for failure to submit, and more.

Delayed, but not immediate, feedback after multiple-choice questions increases performance on a subsequent short-answer, but not multiple-choice, exam: evidence for the dual-process theory of memory.

PubMed

Sinha, Neha; Glass, Arnold Lewis

2015-01-01

Three experiments, two performed in the laboratory and one embedded in a college psychology lecture course, investigated the effects of immediate versus delayed feedback following a multiple-choice exam on subsequent short answer and multiple-choice exams. Performance on the subsequent multiple-choice exam was not affected by the timing of the feedback on the prior exam; however, performance on the subsequent short answer exam was better following delayed than following immediate feedback. This was true regardless of the order in which immediate versus delayed feedback was given. Furthermore, delayed feedback only had a greater effect than immediate feedback on subsequent short answer performance following correct, confident responses on the prior exam. These results indicate that delayed feedback cues a student's prior response and increases subsequent recollection of that response. The practical implication is that delayed feedback is better than immediate feedback during academic testing.

Developing a Geoscience Literacy Exam: Pushing Geoscience Literacy Assessment to New Levels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iverson, E. A.; Steer, D. N.; Manduca, C. A.

2012-12-01

InTeGrate is a community effort aimed at improving geoscience literacy and building a workforce that can use geoscience to solve societal issues. As part of this work we have developed a geoscience literacy assessment instrument to measure students' higher order thinking. This assessment is an important part of the development of curricula designed to increase geoscience literacy for all undergraduate students. To this end, we developed the Geoscience Literacy Exam (GLE) as one of the tools to quantify the effectiveness of these materials on students' understandings of geoscience literacy. The InTeGrate project is a 5-year, NSF-funded STEP Center grant in its first year of funding. Details concerning the project are found at http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/index.html. The GLE instrument addresses content and concepts in the Earth, Climate, and Ocean Science literacy documents. The testing schema is organized into three levels of increasing complexity. Level 1 questions are single answer, understanding- or application-level multiple choice questions. For example, selecting which type of energy transfer is most responsible for the movement of tectonic plates. They are designed such that most introductory level students should be able to correctly answer after taking an introductory geoscience course. Level 2 questions are more advanced multiple answer/matching questions, at the understanding- through analysis-level. Students might be asked to determine the types of earth-atmosphere interactions that could result in changes to global temperatures in the event of a major volcanic eruption. Because the answers are more complicated, some introductory students and most advanced students should be able to respond correctly. Level 3 questions are analyzing- to evaluating-level short essays, such as describe the ways in which the atmosphere sustains life on Earth. These questions are designed such that introductory students could probably formulate a rudimentary response. We anticipate the detail and sophistication of the response will increase as students progress through the InTeGrate curriculum. A team of 14 community members and assessment experts were assembled to develop the questions and complete validity and reliability testing. An initial set of questions was vetted, revised by the assessment team, and sent for external review. Students can score one point for correct Level 1 answers. For Level 2 questions, students can score from zero to two points, depending on the number of correct answers selected. Rubrics are under development for Level 3 essay questions using a 3 point scale that assigns points based both on the accuracy of the response and the quality of the written response. The final instrument will be used to measure geoscience literacy from introductory, non-science students to upper-level geoscience majors. In addition to covering geoscience content knowledge and understanding, GLE+ is also intended to probe InTeGrate students' ability and motivation to use their geoscience expertise to address problems of environmental sustainability. This final instrument will be made available to the geoscience education community as an assessment to be used in conjunction with InTeGrate teaching materials or as a stand-alone tool for departments to measure student learning gains across the major.

A Bayesian truth serum for subjective data.

PubMed

Prelec, Drazen

2004-10-15

Subjective judgments, an essential information source for science and policy, are problematic because there are no public criteria for assessing judgmental truthfulness. I present a scoring method for eliciting truthful subjective data in situations where objective truth is unknowable. The method assigns high scores not to the most common answers but to the answers that are more common than collectively predicted, with predictions drawn from the same population. This simple adjustment in the scoring criterion removes all bias in favor of consensus: Truthful answers maximize expected score even for respondents who believe that their answer represents a minority view.

International survey of knowledge of food-induced anaphylaxis

PubMed Central

Wang, Julie; Young, Michael C.; Nowak-Węgrzyn, Anna

2014-01-01

Background Studies show that anaphylaxis is under-recognized and epinephrine (adrenaline) is under-used by medical personnel as well as patients and their families. This study assesses the knowledge of food-induced anaphylaxis diagnosis and management across different populations of providers and caregivers and other interested respondents. Methods An online survey embedded in a case discussion food-induced anaphylaxis was distributed by Medscape to registered members. Results 7822 responders who started the activity chose to answer at least some of the questions presented (response rate 39.5%). Over 80% of responders in all groups correctly identified the case of anaphylaxis with prominent skin and respiratory symptoms, however, only 55% correctly recognized the case without skin symptoms as anaphylaxis. Only 23% of responders correctly selected risk factors for anaphylaxis, with physicians significantly more likely to choose the correct answers as compared to allied health, other health professionals and medical students (p<0.001). Ninety five perecnt selected epinephrine (adrenaline) as the most appropriate treatment for anaphylaxis, and 81% correctly indicated that there are no absolute contraindications for epinephrine (adrenaline) in the setting of anaphylaxis. When presented a case of a child with no documented history of allergies who has symptoms of anaphylaxis, more physicians than any other group chose to administer stock epinephrine (adrenaline) (73% vs 60%, p<0.001). Conclusion Specific knowledge deficits for food-induced anaphylaxis persist across all groups. Further educational efforts should be aimed not only at the medical community but also for the entire caregiver community and general public, to optimize care for food allergic individuals. PMID:25263184

What's Your Fire Safety IQ?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

PTA Today, 1992

1992-01-01

The National Fire Protection Association offers a quiz on fire safety designed to help people learn about the major fire dangers and change the way they respond to them. Recommends that families sit down and take the quiz together, focusing on the correct answers provided. (SM)

A Slice of Advice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glass, Gene V.

1992-01-01

Questions that beginning educational researchers and evaluators will have to answer are discussed concerning: (1) which intellectual tradition to select; (2) the roles of basic and theoretical inquiry; (3) qualitative and quantitative distinctions; (4) the theory-practice relationship; (5) political influences; and (6) the correct emphasis on…

Quiz: How much do you know about breast cancer? | NIH MedlinePlus the Magazine

MedlinePlus

... more common in younger women older women adolescents In situ breast cancer refers to cancer that has spread ... than younger women. C is the correct answer. In situ cancer remains at the site where it first ...

Quantum error correcting codes and 4-dimensional arithmetic hyperbolic manifolds

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Guth, Larry, E-mail: lguth@math.mit.edu; Lubotzky, Alexander, E-mail: alex.lubotzky@mail.huji.ac.il

2014-08-15

Using 4-dimensional arithmetic hyperbolic manifolds, we construct some new homological quantum error correcting codes. They are low density parity check codes with linear rate and distance n{sup ε}. Their rate is evaluated via Euler characteristic arguments and their distance using Z{sub 2}-systolic geometry. This construction answers a question of Zémor [“On Cayley graphs, surface codes, and the limits of homological coding for quantum error correction,” in Proceedings of Second International Workshop on Coding and Cryptology (IWCC), Lecture Notes in Computer Science Vol. 5557 (2009), pp. 259–273], who asked whether homological codes with such parameters could exist at all.

United States Air Force Health Care Provider Practices: Skin Testing for Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

DTIC Science & Technology

1997-04-03

first, with 16 possible correct answers, was calculated using the formula: Total score = a + b + c + d + e + f +g + h + i + j-i-k + l + m + n + o + p...In The Literature 32 F . Gaps In Knowledge 34 Xlll CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY A . Introduction 36 B. Research Design and Procedures 36 C . Research...The second, with 10 possible correct responses, was calculated using the formula: Total score = a + b + c + d + e + f +g + h + i+ j . The reasons for

A Survey of Australian Nurses' Knowledge of Pressure Injury/Pressure Ulcer Management.

PubMed

Lawrence, Petra; Fulbrook, Paul; Miles, Sandra

2015-01-01

Management of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (PUs) is an essential aspect of nursing practice that requires knowledge of risk assessment, prevention, identification, and treatment strategies. The aim of this study was to assess nurses' knowledge of PU management in order to identify knowledge gaps. The study setting was a large Australian health service district employing more than 10,000 nurses in full and part-time roles. A proportional (by facility) and stratified (by nursing grade) sample of 10% of the district population was targeted. Eight hundred twenty-seven participants completed the survey. Most participants had more than 5 years of experience as professional nurses. Cross-sectional survey. A modified version of the Pressure Ulcer Knowledge Test, comprising 49 true/false questions, was used. A cutoff score of 90% of participants answering an item correctly was used to gauge "adequate" knowledge level. An opportunity to participate in the research was advertised throughout the different facilities in the district by strategically placed posters, computer screen savers, and e-mails. Most data were collected online, with some collected manually using paper-based questionnaires. All data were collected between April and November 2012. Twenty-six questions (53%) were answered correctly by 90% or more of participants, and 6 questions were answered correctly by 50% or less, identifying important knowledge deficits. The mean Pressure Ulcer Knowledge Test score was 79%; 15 nurses (1.8%) achieved a score of 90% or more, and more than 90% achieved scores more than 70%. There were small but significant positive effects of years of nursing experience and level of nursing grade on the knowledge scores. Our results identified deficits in PU knowledge and areas where nurses would benefit from focused education strategies.

Hearing outcomes of the active bone conduction system Bonebridge® in conductive or mixed hearing loss.

PubMed

Carnevale, Claudio; Til-Pérez, Guillermo; Arancibia-Tagle, Diego J; Tomás-Barberán, Manuel D; Sarría-Echegaray, Pedro L

2018-05-18

The active transcutaneous bone conduction implant Bonebridge ® , is indicated for patients affected by bilateral conductive/mixed hearing loss or unilateral sensorineural hearing loss, showing hearing outcomes similar to other percutaneous bone conduction implants, but with a lower rate of complications. The aim of this study was to analyze the hearing outcomes in a series of 26 patients affected by conductive or mixed hearing loss and treated with Bonebridge ® . 26 of 30 patients implanted with Bonebridge ® between October 2012 and May 2017, were included in the study. We compared the air conduction thresholds at the frequencies 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000Hz, the SRT50% and the percentage of correct answers at an intensity of 50dB with and without the implant. "Pure tone average" with the implant was 34.91dB showing an average gain of 33.46dB. Average SRT 50% with the implant was 34.33dB, whereas before the surgery no patient achieved 50% of correct answers at a sound intensity of 50dB. The percentage of correct answers at 50dB changed from 11% without the implant to 85% with it. We only observed one complication consisting of an extrusion of the implant in a patient with a history of 2 previous rhytidectomies. The hearing outcomes obtained in our study are similar to those published in the literature. Bonebridge ® represents an excellent alternative in the treatment of conductive or mixed hearing loss, and with a lower rate of complications. Copyright © 2018 Sociedad Española de Otorrinolaringología y Cirugía de Cabeza y Cuello. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Surgery program directors' knowledge of opioid prescribing regulations: a survey study.

PubMed

Yorkgitis, Brian K; Raygor, Desiree; Bryant, Elizabeth; Brat, Gabriel; Smink, Douglas S; Crandall, Marie

2018-07-01

Opioid misuse is a public health crisis that stems in part from overprescribing by health-care providers. Surgical residents are commonly responsible for prescribing opioids at patient discharge, and residency program directors (PDs) are charged with their residents' education. Because each hospital and state has different opioid prescribing policies, we sought to assess PDs' knowledge about local controlled substance prescribing polices. A survey was emailed to surgery PDs that included questions regarding residency characteristics and knowledge of state regulations. A total of 247 PDs were emailed with 110 (44.5%) completed responses. One hundred and four (94.5%) allow residents to prescribe outpatient opioids; one was unsure. Sixty-three (57.3%) respondents correctly answered if their state required opioid prescribing education for full licensure. Twenty-two (20.0%) were unsure if their state required opioid prescribing education for licensure. Sixty-four (58.2%) respondents answered correctly if a prescription monitor programs use is required in their state. Twenty-nine (26.4%) were unsure if a state prescription monitor programs existed. Seventy-six (69.1%) PDs answered correctly about their state's requirement for an additional registration to prescribe controlled substances; 10 (9.1%) did not know if this was required. Twenty-nine (27.9%) programs require residents to obtain individual drug enforcement agency registration; 5 (4.8%) were unsure if this was required. Most programs allow residents to prescribe outpatient opioids. However, this survey demonstrated a considerable gap in PDs' knowledge about controlled substance regulations. Because they oversee surgical residents' education, PDs should be versed about their local policies in this matter. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A survey on patients' knowledge and expectations during informed consent for spinal surgery: can we improve the shared decision-making process?

PubMed

Weckbach, Sebastian; Kocak, Tugrul; Reichel, Heiko; Lattig, Friederike

2016-01-01

The informed medical consent in surgery requires to some point basic medical knowledge. The treating physicians while explaining the details and risks of the recommended procedure often imply this. We hypothesized, that patients do not have adequate medical understanding to decide about the ongoing therapy and its potential complications based on knowledge jeopardizing the patients' safety. We conducted a retrospective analysis of a prospective database using a multiple choice questionnaire with 10 basic questions about anatomy, clinical symptoms and therapies of spinal diseases in our spine clinic at a German university hospital. Included were all patients at the spine clinic who agreed to the study and to fill in the questionnaire. Furthermore the patients age, mother tongue, the past spinal surgical history, the length of duration of symptoms and the patients education were inquired. The data were analyzed descriptive. Included were 248 patients with an average age of 59 years (16-88 a). 70 % of all patients used German as their mother tongue. 30 % of the included patients already had spinal surgery and suffered on average for 13.4 years because of their spinal disorder. Overall 32.6 % of all questions were answered correctly (range 0.8-68 %). A correlation of correctly answered questions and the patients' age, duration of symptoms, mother tongue, education and past surgical history could not be described. The percentage of correctly answered questions is almost as low as the likelihood of nearness in guessing. Having this in mind the patients do not choose any treatment option based on knowledge. The physicians need to provide more basic knowledge to the patients. This would increase the amount of successful therapies, content patients and the patients safety.

[Assessment of patients' knowledge of first-trimester combined Down syndrome screening at the time of their first trimester ultrasonographic evaluation: Results of a prospective study about 201 women].

PubMed

de Villardi de Montlaur, D; Desseauve, D; Marechaud, M; Pierre, F

2016-01-01

Assess pregnant women's knowledge on first-trimester combined Down syndrome screening, at the time of their first trimester ultrasound scan. A questionnaire was submitted to the patients coming for their 12-week pregnancy ultrasonographic evaluation in a University Hospital prenatal clinic between May 2012 and May 2013. Correct and incorrect statements on Down syndrome screening were proposed to the mothers who were asked to rate them. Each patient was questioned on her prior exposition to Down syndrome screening, the category of medical of professional she previously consulted, and the information she received. Patients' knowledge was evaluated according to these criteria. Two hundred and one patients were included in this study. The average correct answer rating was 4.6 (out of 8 questions). The average incorrect answer rating was 2.4 (out of 6 questions). No difference was found between the different social and demographic groups, nor according to the category of professional consulted before the first ultrasound scan. Higher correct answer ratings were observed when the patient had already been submitted to a Down syndrome screening (P=0.039), when they had previously received explanations about the screening (P=0.003); and when they stated that they had been sufficiently informed (P=0.042). These results show that patients' knowledge on Down syndrome screening is inadequate and depends on their experience of previous screening and information. It is deemed necessary to improve information especially to young women who are pregnant for the first time. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

Radiation risks knowledge in resident and fellow in paediatrics: a questionnaire survey.

PubMed

Salerno, Sergio; Marchese, Paola; Magistrelli, Andrea; Tomà, Paolo; Matranga, Domenica; Midiri, Massimo; Ugazio, Alberto G; Corsello, Giovanni

2015-03-22

Analyse through a multi-choice anonymous questionnaire the knowledge's level in paediatric residents and fellows in two different main Italian hospital, looking mainly to the information to patients and relatives related to risks of ionizing radiation used in common radiological investigations in children. 65 multi choice questionnaires were distributed to paediatric residents and fellows of two different hospitals, an University Hospital (A.O.U.P. "P. Giaccone"- University of Palermo) and a national reference centre for paediatrics (Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù - Rome). The questionnaire included twelve multiple-choice questions with the aim of analyzing the knowledge about ionizing radiation related risks in infants and children who undergo common diagnostic radiology investigations. The data obtained were processed using software Stata/MP version 11.2. In order to measure the level of expertise of each interviewee a binary indicator was built. The value 1 was assigned if the percentage of correct answers exceeds the median of the distribution and 0 for values not exceeding the median. The association between the level of competence and demographic characteristics (gender, age) and training experience was measured by means of α(2) test. 51/65 questionnaires were completed, returned and analysed (87.7%). Only 18 surveyed (35%), (95% IC = [22%-48%]) can be defined as competent in radiation risk knowledge for common radiological investigations, considering the percentage of correct answers at least of 50% (sufficient knowledge was given with a minimum score of 8 correct answers out of 12). The study demonstrates an urgent need to implement the radiation protection knowledge in the training programme of paediatricians, that improve if just a short targeted training is performed.

Stroke education using an animated cartoon and a manga for junior high school students.

PubMed

Shigehatake, Yuya; Yokota, Chiaki; Amano, Tatsuo; Tomii, Yasuhiro; Inoue, Yasuteru; Hagihara, Takaaki; Toyoda, Kazunori; Minematsu, Kazuo

2014-07-01

We investigated whether junior high school students could be educated regarding stroke with an animated cartoon and a Manga that we produced for the purpose of dissemination of this knowledge. We produced a 10-minute animated cartoon and a Manga that provided information regarding stroke risk factors, stroke signs and symptoms, and awareness to immediately contact emergent medical service (EMS) on identification of stroke signs and symptoms. From December 2011 to March 2012, 493 students in 15 classes of the first grade (age 12-13 years) of 3 junior high schools were enrolled in the study. Each subject watched the animated cartoon and read the Manga; this was referred to as "training." Lessons about stroke were not given. Questionnaires on stroke knowledge were evaluated at baseline, immediately after the training, and 3 months after the training. The proportion of correct answers given immediately after the training was higher for all questions, except those related to arrhythmia, compared with baseline. Percentage of correct answers given at 3 months was higher than that at baseline in questions related to facial palsy (75% versus 33%), speech disturbance (91% versus 60%), hemiplegia (79% versus 52%), numbness of 1 side (58% versus 51%), calling for EMS (90% versus 85%), alcohol intake (96% versus 72%), and smoking (69% versus 54%). At 3 months after the training, 56% of students answered the FAST (facial droop, arm weakness, speech disturbance, time to call for EMS) mnemonic correctly. Stroke education using these teaching aids of the animated cartoon and the Manga improved stroke knowledge in junior high school students. Copyright © 2014 National Stroke Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effectiveness of a stroke educational activity performed by a schoolteacher for junior high school students.

PubMed

Miyashita, Fumio; Yokota, Chiaki; Nishimura, Kunihiro; Amano, Tatsuo; Inoue, Yasuteru; Shigehatake, Yuya; Sakamoto, Yuki; Tani, Shoko; Narazaki, Hiroshi; Toyoda, Kazunori; Nakazawa, Kazuo; Minematsu, Kazuo

2014-07-01

The purpose of this study was to determine whether our stroke education system can help junior high school students acquire stroke knowledge when performed by a schoolteacher. A stroke neurologist gave a stroke lesson to 25 students (S group) and a schoolteacher through our stroke education system. After instruction, the schoolteacher performed the same lesson using the same education system to another 75 students (T group). Questionnaires on stroke knowledge were examined at baseline, immediately after the lesson (IL), and at 3 months after the lesson (3M). We analyzed the results of stroke knowledge assessment by linear mixed effects models adjusted for gender and class difference using the student number. We assessed 24 students in the S group and 72 students in the T group. There were no significant differences in the changes of predicted scores of symptoms and risk factors adjusted for gender, class difference, and each student knowledge level until 3M between the 2 groups. Correct answer rates for the meaning of the FAST (facial droop, arm weakness, speech disturbance, time to call 119) at IL were 92% in the S group and 72% in the T group, respectively. At 3M, they were 83% in the S group and 84% in the T group. The correct answer rates of FAST at 3M were not significantly different adjusted for group, gender, class difference, and correct answer rate at IL. A schoolteacher can conduct the FAST message lesson to junior high school students with a similar outcome as a stroke neurologist using our stroke education system. Copyright © 2014 National Stroke Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Assessing mental health literacy: What medical sciences students' know about depression.

PubMed

Sayarifard, Azadeh; Ghadirian, Laleh; Mohit, Ahmad; Eftekhar, Mehrdad; Badpa, Mahnaz; Rajabi, Fatemeh

2015-01-01

Mental health literacy is an individual's knowledge and belief about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management and prevention. The aim of this study was to investigate mental health literacy among students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. In this cross-sectional study, data were collected by the anonymous self-administered questionnaires and finally 324 students participated in the study. Random cluster sampling was used. Questions were in different areas of the mental health literacy for depression include recognition of disorder, intended actions to seek help and perceived barriers, beliefs about interventions, prevention, stigmatization and impact of media. T-test was used for statistical analysis. The mean (±SD) age was 23.5±2.8. The participants were 188 (58.1%) females and 136 (41.9%) males. In response to the recognition of the disorder 115 (35.6%) students mentioned the correct answer. In help-seeking area, 208 (64.3%) gave positive answer. The majority of affected students sought for help from their friends and parents. Stigma was the greatest barrier for seeking help. Television and Internet were the most common sources of information related to mental health. Generally students' mental health literacy on depression was low in some areas. Appropriate educational programs specifically for reducing mental disorders stigma seems necessary. Organizing networks of co-helper students for mental health could be considered.

Assessing mental health literacy: What medical sciences students’ know about depression

PubMed Central

Sayarifard, Azadeh; Ghadirian, Laleh; Mohit, Ahmad; Eftekhar, Mehrdad; Badpa, Mahnaz; Rajabi, Fatemeh

2015-01-01

Background: Mental health literacy is an individual’s knowledge and belief about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management and prevention. The aim of this study was to investigate mental health literacy among students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data were collected by the anonymous self-administered questionnaires and finally 324 students participated in the study. Random cluster sampling was used. Questions were in different areas of the mental health literacy for depression include recognition of disorder, intended actions to seek help and perceived barriers, beliefs about interventions, prevention, stigmatization and impact of media. T-test was used for statistical analysis. Results: The mean (±SD) age was 23.5±2.8. The participants were 188 (58.1%) females and 136 (41.9%) males. In response to the recognition of the disorder 115 (35.6%) students mentioned the correct answer. In help-seeking area, 208 (64.3%) gave positive answer. The majority of affected students sought for help from their friends and parents. Stigma was the greatest barrier for seeking help. Television and Internet were the most common sources of information related to mental health. Conclusion: Generally students’ mental health literacy on depression was low in some areas. Appropriate educational programs specifically for reducing mental disorders stigma seems necessary. Organizing networks of co-helper students for mental health could be considered. PMID:26000256

Health Literacy and Preferences for Sources of Child Health Information of Mothers With Infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

PubMed

Skeens, Kristen; Logsdon, M Cynthia; Stikes, Reetta; Ryan, Lesa; Sparks, Kathryn; Hayes, Pauline; Myers, John; Davis, Deborah Winders

2016-08-01

Parents of infants hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) frequently need guidance to prepare them for the care and health promotion of their child after hospital discharge. The health literacy of the parents should be considered so that education can be tailored to meet their needs. It is also important to understand the parents' preferences for how, and from whom, they receive education. The purpose of this study was to identify health literacy levels of parents of infants in an NICU and preferences for who they want to provide them with education. An exploratory, descriptive design was used to assess participant health literacy and preferences for obtaining child health information. Only mothers (no fathers) with babies in the NICU were available to complete the survey. Mean participant age was 26.4 years (SD = 6.7). Participants had a mean Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine, Revised, score of 5.64 (SD = 2.4), indicating a low level of health literacy. Questions regarding when to administer medication were correctly answered by 69% of participants. Proper medication dosage was understood by 92% of participants; however, only 30% were able to correctly convert measurements. One-on-one discussions with a physician were the preferred source of health information for 80% of participants. The current exploratory study provides new information that will help inform the development of future studies and increase awareness of nurses regarding health literacy and the specific types of skills for which parents need the most help.

Community Knowledge about Water: Who Has Better Knowledge and Is This Associated with Water-Related Behaviors and Support for Water-Related Policies?

PubMed Central

Fielding, Kelly S.; Newton, Fiona J.

2016-01-01

Sustainable approaches to water management require broad community acceptance of changes in policy, practice and technology, which in turn, requires an engaged community. A critical first step in building an engaged community is to identify community knowledge about water management, an issue rarely examined in research. To address this, we surveyed a representative sample of Australian adults (n = 5172). Knowledge was assessed using 15 questions about impact of household activities on waterways, the urban water cycle, and water management. This survey also examined demographics, psychosocial characteristics, exposure to water-related information, and water-related behaviors and policy support. Participants correctly answered a mean of 8.0 questions (Range 0–15). Most respondents knew that household actions can reduce water use and influence waterway health, whereas less than one third correctly identified that domestic wastewater is treated prior to entering waterways, urban stormwater is not treated, and that these are carried via different pipes. Higher water knowledge was associated with older age, higher education and living in non-urban areas. Poorer water knowledge was associated with speaking a language other than English in the home. Garden size, experience of water restrictions, satisfaction, waterway use for swimming, and certain information sources were also associated with knowledge. Greater water knowledge was associated with adoption of water-saving and pollution-reduction behaviors, and support for both alternative water sources and raingardens. These findings confirm the importance of community knowledge, and identify potential subgroups who may require additional targeting to build knowledge and support for water management initiatives. PMID:27428372

Community Knowledge about Water: Who Has Better Knowledge and Is This Associated with Water-Related Behaviors and Support for Water-Related Policies?

PubMed

Dean, Angela J; Fielding, Kelly S; Newton, Fiona J

2016-01-01

Sustainable approaches to water management require broad community acceptance of changes in policy, practice and technology, which in turn, requires an engaged community. A critical first step in building an engaged community is to identify community knowledge about water management, an issue rarely examined in research. To address this, we surveyed a representative sample of Australian adults (n = 5172). Knowledge was assessed using 15 questions about impact of household activities on waterways, the urban water cycle, and water management. This survey also examined demographics, psychosocial characteristics, exposure to water-related information, and water-related behaviors and policy support. Participants correctly answered a mean of 8.0 questions (Range 0-15). Most respondents knew that household actions can reduce water use and influence waterway health, whereas less than one third correctly identified that domestic wastewater is treated prior to entering waterways, urban stormwater is not treated, and that these are carried via different pipes. Higher water knowledge was associated with older age, higher education and living in non-urban areas. Poorer water knowledge was associated with speaking a language other than English in the home. Garden size, experience of water restrictions, satisfaction, waterway use for swimming, and certain information sources were also associated with knowledge. Greater water knowledge was associated with adoption of water-saving and pollution-reduction behaviors, and support for both alternative water sources and raingardens. These findings confirm the importance of community knowledge, and identify potential subgroups who may require additional targeting to build knowledge and support for water management initiatives.

Chemistry 300. Administration Manual for Supervising Teachers, Provincial Examination, Answer Key--Multiple-Choice and Written-Answer Questions, and Provincial Summary Report = Chimie 300. Guide d'administration a l'intention des surveillants d'examen, Examen provincial, Cle de correction--Questions choix multiple et Questions responses ouvertes, et Rapport sommaire provincial.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manitoba Dept. of Education and Training, Winnipeg.

This collection of manuals contains the Manitoba Provincial Chemistry Examination for students seeking credit in Senior 4 Chemistry (Chemistry 300) and instructions for its use and grading. The examination is based on the Core Topics of the Senior 4 Chemistry course and accounts for 30% of the student's final grade in the course. The examination…

Reinforcement Learning in Information Searching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cen, Yonghua; Gan, Liren; Bai, Chen

2013-01-01

Introduction: The study seeks to answer two questions: How do university students learn to use correct strategies to conduct scholarly information searches without instructions? and, What are the differences in learning mechanisms between users at different cognitive levels? Method: Two groups of users, thirteen first year undergraduate students…

Traco Final Exam and Course Evaluation | Center for Cancer Research

Cancer.gov

Numerous students have requested a certificate upon completion of TRACO.  To obtain a certificate you MUST answer 17 of the 26 final examination questions correctly. In the final examination, 1 question is derived from each of the 1-hour lectures.

Using Computers in Undergraduate Economics Courses.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barr, Saul Z.; Harmon, Oscar

Seven computer assignments for undergraduate economics students that concentrate on building a foundation for programming higher level mathematical calculations are described. The purpose of each assignment, the computer program for it, and the correct answers are provided. "Introduction to Text Editing" acquaints the student with some…

Educational Gymnastics--Stages of Content Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nilges, Lynda M.

1997-01-01

Educational gymnastics uses a problem-solving approach to accommodate multiple correct solutions to open-ended movement problems in gymnastics. A four-stage framework is outlined to help teachers systematically increase and decrease task difficulty in educational gymnastics. Answers to common questions about educational gymnastics are provided.…

Development and evaluation of the Kids Count Farm Safety Lesson.

PubMed

Liller, K D; Noland, V; Rijal, P; Pesce, K; Gonzalez, R

2002-11-01

The Kids Count Farm Safety Lesson was delivered to nearly 2,000 fifth-grade students in 15 rural schools in Hillsborough County, Florida. The lesson covered animal, machinery, water, and general safety topics applicable to farming in Florida. A staggered pretest-posttest study design was followed whereby five schools received a multiple-choice pretest and posttest and the remainder of the schools (N = 10) received the posttest only. Results of the study showed a significant increase in the mean number of correct answers on the posttests compared to the pretests. There was no significant difference in the mean number of correct answers of those students who received the pretest and those students who had not, eliminating a "pretest" effect. This study fills an important gap in the literature by evaluating a farm safety curriculum offered in the elementary school setting. It also included migrant schoolchildren in the study population. It is strongly recommended that agricultural safety information be included into the health education curriculum of these elementary schools.

Healthcare Professionals' Knowledge of Influenza and Influenza Vaccination: Results of a National Survey in Poland.

PubMed

Kuchar, Ernest; Ludwikowska, Kamila; Antczak, Adam; Nitsch-Osuch, Aneta

2018-01-01

In Poland, the seasonal influenza vaccination rate is just barely 3% which may be related to the unsatisfactory knowledge of influenza among healthcare professionals, poor recognition of the benefits of influenza immunization and the fear of side effects. To address these issues, we surveyed healthcare professionals through an online questionnaire consisting of 18 closed-ended items. The questionnaire was completed by 495 healthcare professionals, mostly physicians (83%). The results revealed gaps in the knowledge concerning influenza diagnosis, complications, risk groups, and prognostic factors. On average, respondents only answered 4.8 of the 18 questions correctly (27%). Only 10% of respondents passed the threshold of 50% correct answers. The knowledge of contraindications to vaccination far outweighed the knowledge of indications for vaccination. Poor knowledge with a focus on the adverse effects of immunization may be a significant factor responsible for the low vaccination rate in Poland. To increase vaccination rate, healthcare professionals need to be educated about influenza-related risks and benefits of vaccination.

Performance and process in collective and individual memory: the role of social decision schemes and memory bias in collective memory.

PubMed

Van Swol, Lyn M

2008-04-01

To assess performance and processes in collective and individual memory, participants watched two job candidates on video. Beforehand, half the participants were told they would be tested on their memory of the interviews, and the other half were asked to make a decision to hire one of the candidates. Afterwards, participants completed a recognition memory task in either a group or individual condition. Groups had better recognition memory than individuals. Individuals made more false positives than false negatives and groups exaggerated this. Post-hoc analysis found that groups only exaggerated the tendency towards false positives on items that reflected negatively on the job candidate. There was no significant difference between instruction conditions. When reaching consensus on the recognition task, groups tended to choose the correct answer if at least two members had the correct answer. This method of consensus is discussed as a factor in groups' superior memory performance.

Cardiac auscultation training of medical students: a comparison of electronic sensor-based and acoustic stethoscopes

PubMed Central

Høyte, Henning; Jensen, Torstein; Gjesdal, Knut

2005-01-01

Background To determine whether the use of an electronic, sensor based stethoscope affects the cardiac auscultation skills of undergraduate medical students. Methods Forty eight third year medical students were randomized to use either an electronic stethoscope, or a conventional acoustic stethoscope during clinical auscultation training. After a training period of four months, cardiac auscultation skills were evaluated using four patients with different cardiac murmurs. Two experienced cardiologists determined correct answers. The students completed a questionnaire for each patient. The thirteen questions were weighted according to their relative importance, and a correct answer was credited from one to six points. Results No difference in mean score was found between the two groups (p = 0.65). Grading and characterisation of murmurs and, if present, report of non existing murmurs were also rated. None of these yielded any significant differences between the groups. Conclusion Whether an electronic or a conventional stethoscope was used during training and testing did not affect the students' performance on a cardiac auscultation test. PMID:15882458

[Level of knowledge on food and nutrition among groups of pupils of the last class of secondary schools].

PubMed

Wojtaś, Malwina; Kołłajtis-Dołowy, Anna

2012-01-01

Common nutritional faults affect health of many Poles. Health state of Poles is worse than most of Europeans and is not improving. Nutritional behaviors of young people are caused by limited nutritional knowledge learned during consecutive stages of school education. Nutritional education is considered less important, theoretical knowledge and practice is not correlated and teacher's knowledge is limited. The aim of this study was to study different school programs and to assess the level of nutritional knowledge among selected pupils of last classes of secondary school in Warsaw. The study was conducted in November 2008 on 210 students with the specific author's questionnaire. There is wide nutritional educational program in schools starting from kindergarten through schools of different levels. The nutritional education program is not consistent likely due to dispersion of material among different subjects. In nutritional knowledge tests none of the pupil reached 75% of maximum points and half of them did not reach 50%. Pupils did not know what is their energetic requirement (answers differ from 100 kcal/day to 10000 kcal/day). They were unable to determine the caloric of oil (only 1/3 knows that it is the most caloric product). More than half of pupils answered that sugar is the most caloric product. The knowledge of vitamin and minerals content is completely not known to pupils. Most of pupils were unable to correctly indicate two products which are the sources of vitamin C (approximately 60%), vitamin A (almost 75%) and iron (over 60%). Pupils have more information on protein sources. Surprisingly it was easier for them to indicate products which are not a good source of valuable proteins than the good source of proteins. Pupils did not know what is recommended frequency of milk, fish, vegetables and plant oil consumption. Results indicate that the core curriculum of education is proper but students had little knowledge of nutrition. The majority of respondents (95%) did not received half of the available points, and nobody scored very good result. It has been found that there is insufficient knowledge of products energy values and energy daily requirements for teenagers, sources of nutrients, as well as basic nutritional guidelines.

Questions and Answers Regarding the 2009 New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) Emissions Guidelines, and State Plan Process for Hospital, Medical, and Infectious Waste Incinerators (HMIWI)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This July 2011 document contains questions and answers on the Hospital/Medical/Infectious Waste Incinerators (HMIWI) regulations. The questions cover topics such as state plan requirements, compliance, applicability, operator training, and more.

A Flexible, Extensible Online Testing System for Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Passmore, Tim; Brookshaw, Leigh; Butler, Harry

2011-01-01

An online testing system developed for entry-skills testing of first-year university students in algebra and calculus is described. The system combines the open-source computer algebra system "Maxima" with computer scripts to parse student answers, which are entered using standard mathematical notation and conventions. The answers can…

Answer Mining from On-Line Documents

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-01-01

successions occurred at IBM in 1999? In addition, questions may also ask about de- velopments of events or trends that are usually answered by a text ... summary . Since data produc- ing these summaries can be sourced in different documents, summary fusion techniques as pro- posed in (Radev and McKeown

Feedback-related brain activity predicts learning from feedback in multiple-choice testing.

PubMed

Ernst, Benjamin; Steinhauser, Marco

2012-06-01

Different event-related potentials (ERPs) have been shown to correlate with learning from feedback in decision-making tasks and with learning in explicit memory tasks. In the present study, we investigated which ERPs predict learning from corrective feedback in a multiple-choice test, which combines elements from both paradigms. Participants worked through sets of multiple-choice items of a Swahili-German vocabulary task. Whereas the initial presentation of an item required the participants to guess the answer, corrective feedback could be used to learn the correct response. Initial analyses revealed that corrective feedback elicited components related to reinforcement learning (FRN), as well as to explicit memory processing (P300) and attention (early frontal positivity). However, only the P300 and early frontal positivity were positively correlated with successful learning from corrective feedback, whereas the FRN was even larger when learning failed. These results suggest that learning from corrective feedback crucially relies on explicit memory processing and attentional orienting to corrective feedback, rather than on reinforcement learning.

Recollection is a continuous process: Evidence from plurality memory receiver operating characteristics.

PubMed

Slotnick, Scott D; Jeye, Brittany M; Dodson, Chad S

2016-01-01

Is recollection a continuous/graded process or a threshold/all-or-none process? Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis can answer this question as the continuous model and the threshold model predict curved and linear recollection ROCs, respectively. As memory for plurality, an item's previous singular or plural form, is assumed to rely on recollection, the nature of recollection can be investigated by evaluating plurality memory ROCs. The present study consisted of four experiments. During encoding, words (singular or plural) or objects (single/singular or duplicate/plural) were presented. During retrieval, old items with the same plurality or different plurality were presented. For each item, participants made a confidence rating ranging from "very sure old", which was correct for same plurality items, to "very sure new", which was correct for different plurality items. Each plurality memory ROC was the proportion of same versus different plurality items classified as "old" (i.e., hits versus false alarms). Chi-squared analysis revealed that all of the plurality memory ROCs were adequately fit by the continuous unequal variance model, whereas none of the ROCs were adequately fit by the two-high threshold model. These plurality memory ROC results indicate recollection is a continuous process, which complements previous source memory and associative memory ROC findings.

Soliciting and Responding to Patients' Questions about Diabetes Through Online Sources.

PubMed

Crangle, Colleen E; Bradley, Colin; Carlin, Paul F; Esterhay, Robert J; Harper, Roy; Kearney, Patricia M; Lorig, Kate; McCarthy, Vera J C; McTear, Michael F; Tuttle, Mark S; Wallace, Jonathan G; Savage, Eileen

2017-03-01

When patients cannot get answers from health professionals or retain the information given, increasingly they search online for answers, with limited success. Researchers from the United States, Ireland, and the United Kingdom explored this problem for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). In 2014, patients attending an outpatient clinic (UK) were asked to submit questions about diabetes. Ten questions judged representative of different types of patient concerns were selected by the researchers and submitted to search engines within trusted and vetted websites in the United States, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Two researchers independently assessed if answers could be found in the three top-ranked documents returned at each website. The 2014 search was repeated in June, 2016, examining the two top-ranked documents returned. One hundred and sixty-four questions were collected from 120 patients during 12 outpatient clinics. Most patients had T2DM (95%). Most questions were about diabetes (N = 155) with the remainder related to clinic operation (N = 9). Of the questions on diabetes, 152 were about T2DM. The 2014 assessment found no adequate answers to the questions in 90 documents (10 questions, 3 websites, 3 top documents). In the 2016 assessment, 1 document out of 60 (10 questions, 3 websites, 2 top documents) provided an adequate answer relating to 1 of the 10 questions. Available online sources of information do not provide answers to questions from patients with diabetes. Our results highlight the urgent need to develop novel ways of providing answers to patient questions about T2DM.

Theory of Mind Development is Impaired in 4-year-old Children with Prenatal Exposure to Maternal Tobacco Smoking

PubMed Central

Reidy, Rosemary E; Ross, Randal G; Hunter, Sharon K

2014-01-01

Aims Theory of Mind (ToM) is an important component of social cognition. Deficits in ToM are found in various neurodevelopmental disorders and social and environmental factors have been found to influence ToM development. Little previous research has focused on effects of exposure to toxins; this report examines the impact of tobacco. Place of Study Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine, between April 2006 – August 2012. Methodology 101 children, 18 with prenatal exposure to tobacco, underwent ToM testing at 40 (n=89) and 48 (n=77) months of age. Test questions received dichotomous pass/fail scores and percentage of correct responses was utilized as the primary dependent variable. Results At 40 months of age children were rarely able to correctly answer false belief questions and there were no significant differences according to prenatal tobacco exposure. At 48 months of age, there was a significant effect of prenatal tobacco exposure with non-exposed 48-month-olds correctly answering 45±40.6% of content false belief questions correctly, compared to 13.9±25.3% for 48-month-olds with prenatal tobacco exposure (F=4.79, df= 1,73, p=.032) Conclusion ToM abilities are rapidly developing between 40 and 48 months of age. Prenatal exposure to tobacco is associated with impairment at 48 but not 40 months of age. This finding supports consideration of nicotinic mechanisms as contributors to early development of social cognition. PMID:25558458

Abbreviations in Maritime English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Zhirong

2011-01-01

Aiming at the phenomena that more and more abbreviations occur in maritime English correspondences, the composing laws of the abbreviations in maritime English correspondence are analyzed, and the correct methods to answer the abbreviations are pointed out, and the translation method of abbreviations are summarized in this article, and the…

The Neglect of Virtue

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sockett, Hugh

2013-01-01

This chapter argues that schooling neglects virtue through the dominant quest for right answers. This is not only intellectually disreputable in presuming the correctness of what is taught, but it undermines the development of necessary intellectual virtues, such as open-mindedness, impartiality, and accuracy in the school curriculum, and it fails…

Student Understanding of the Boltzmann Factor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Trevor I.; Mountcastle, Donald B.; Thompson, John R.

2015-01-01

We present results of our investigation into student understanding of the physical significance and utility of the Boltzmann factor in several simple models. We identify various justifications, both correct and incorrect, that students use when answering written questions that require application of the Boltzmann factor. Results from written data…

Winter Cornucopia | Poster

Cancer.gov

By Andrea Frydl, Guest Writer Display Cases, Movies, and Raffles—Oh My! In December, Alicia Gussio (SAIC-Frederick) and Robert Koogle (NCI) were the lucky winners of free movie tickets to Regal theaters. They each correctly answered questions about Employee Diversity Team’s (EDT’s) November display case featuring the fall harvest.

Measuring Student Improvement in Lower- and Upper-Level University Climate Science Courses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harris, S. E.; Taylor, S. V.; Schoonmaker, J. E.; Lane, E.; Francois, R. H.; Austin, P.

2011-12-01

What do university students know about climate? What do they learn in a climate course? On the second-to-last day of a course about global climate change, only 48% of our upper-level science students correctly answered a multiple-choice question about the greenhouse effect. The good news: improvement. Only 16% had answered correctly on the first day of class. The bad news: the learning opportunities we've provided appear to have missed more than half the class on a fundamental climate concept. To evaluate the effectiveness of instruction on student learning about climate, we have developed a prototype assessment tool, designed to be deployed as a low-stakes pre-post test. The items included were validated through student interviews to ensure that students interpret the wording and answer choices in the way we intend. This type of validated assessment, administered both at the beginning and end of term, with matched individuals, provides insight regarding the baseline knowledge with which our students enter a course, and the impact of that course on their learning. We administered test items to students in (1) an upper-level climate course for science majors and (2) a lower-level climate course open to all students. Some items were given to both groups, others to only one of the groups. Both courses use evidence-based pedagogy with active student engagement (clickers, small group activities, regular pre-class preparation). Our results with upper-level students show strong gains in student thinking (>70% of students who missed a question on the pre-test answered correctly on the post-test) about stock-and-flow (box model) problems, annual cycles in the Keeling curve, ice-albedo feedbacks, and isotopic fractionation. On different questions, lower-level students showed strong gains regarding albedo and blackbody emission spectra. Both groups show similar baseline knowledge and lower-than-expected gains on greenhouse effect fundamentals, and zero gain regarding the relative importance of different greenhouse gases. A larger percentage of upper-level students (compared to lower-level students) arrive with correct knowledge comparing different greenhouse gases, and explanations of annual cycles in the Keeling curve, but both groups show similar gains with instruction. Instructors can use feedback from these pre-post assessment results to iteratively modify and test the learning opportunities they provide. We aim to continue development and further validation of this tool such that it can be used in many university-level climate courses.

Physician knowledge of and attitudes toward the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

PubMed

Rocke, Daniel J; Thomas, Steven; Puscas, Liana; Lee, Walter T

2014-02-01

To assess otolaryngology physician knowledge of and attitudes toward the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and compare the association of bias toward the PPACA with knowledge of the provisions of the PPACA. Cross-sectional survey. Nationwide assessment. Members of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. Otolaryngology physicians answered 10 true/false questions about major provisions of the PPACA. They also indicated their level of agreement with 9 statements about health care and the PPACA. Basic demographic information was collected. Email solicitation was sent to 9972 otolaryngologists and 647 responses were obtained (6.5% response rate). Overall correct response rate was 74%. Fewer than 60% of physicians correctly answered questions on whether small businesses receive tax credits for providing health insurance, the effect of the PPACA on Medicare benefits, and whether a government-run health insurance plan was created. Academic center practice setting, bias toward the PPACA, and Democratic Party affiliation were associated with significantly more correct responses. Overall physician knowledge of the PPACA is assessed as fair, although better than the general public in 2010. There are several areas where knowledge of physicians regarding the PPACA is poor, and this knowledge deficit is more pronounced within certain subgroups. These knowledge issues should be addressed by individual physicians and medical societies.

Patient understanding and impression of hematology/oncology fellows.

PubMed

Curley, Brendan; Thomas, Roby; Curley, Anjaly; Truong, Quoc; Culp, Mark; Hu, Yanqing; Almubarak, Mohammed

2014-09-01

Hematologists/Oncologists spend years of training in a fellowship program. At academic centers, patients receiving treatment are often seen by fellows. It has not been established what patients understand about fellowship training, therefore the purpose of this study was to explore their understanding and whether they are content with fellows taking part in their care. At West Virginia University/Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, the authors drafted a survey. This anonymous and voluntary survey abstracted basic patient demographic data and experience being cared for by fellows and basic knowledge of a Hematology/Oncology fellowship. Multiple-choice questions were drafted with 4 to 6 answer choices with no option for unknown. Surveys were collected over a 3-week period in July 2012. Patients were surveyed at outpatient appointments, infusion center visits, and laboratory draws. Two hundred twenty-six surveys were collected. Statistical analysis was performed and a binomial regression was fit to the data. There is evidence that higher levels of education are more likely to give correct answers (P = 0.035). Patients who stated that they had not seen a fellow or were unsure whether they had seen a fellow were more likely to select incorrect answers (P = 0.001). There is no statistical significance differentiating between cancer types in likelihood of getting answers correct. Of those surveyed, 1.77% felt that they completely understand the role of a fellow in their care, whereas 80.45% desired further information about fellows. Only 2.2% disliked having a fellow involved in their care. Patients at academic centers being seen by Hematology/Oncology fellows appear to have a lack of knowledge of a fellow's role and background but have a desire to be educated. Educational initiatives can be introduced to teaching institutions to help patients better understand the role of a fellow.

Toxoplasmosis – Awareness and knowledge among medical doctors in Nigeria

PubMed Central

Efunshile, Akinwale Michael; Elikwu, Charles John

2017-01-01

Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic parasite causing high disease burden worldwide. A One Health approach is needed to understand, prevent, and control toxoplasmosis, while knowledge gaps in the One Health aspects have been identified among medical professionals in earlier studies. As a One Health collaboration between veterinary and medical fields, we surveyed the knowledge on toxoplasmosis among medical doctors in Nigeria. The knowledge questions, which the participants answered without consulting literature and colleagues, covered epidemiological One Health aspects as well as clinical interspecialty aspects of T. gondii infections. Altogether 522 medical doctors from four tertiary hospitals completed the questionnaire. The mean number of correct answers in the knowledge questions was 7.5, and 8.4% of the participants selected at least 12 of the 17 correct answers. The proportion of medical doctors scoring such a high score was significantly higher among those who reported having seen a case of clinical toxoplasmosis than in those who did not. While 62% of the medical doctors participating in our study knew that cats can shed T. gondii in their feces, 36% incorrectly suggested that humans could do that too. That T. gondii infection can be meatborne was known by 69%, but that it can be also waterborne only by 28% of the medical doctors participating in our study. Most of the medical doctors, 78%, knew that clinical toxoplasmosis may involve the central nervous system, while only 37% answered that it can involve the eyes. Our results suggested knowledge gaps, which need to be addressed in Continuous Medical Education. The identified gaps included both intersectoral One Health aspects and interspecialty aspects: For prevention and management of toxoplasmosis, knowing the main transmission routes and that the parasite can affect several organs is relevant. PMID:29261738

Testicular Cancer Awareness and Knowledge: Is It the Same? Exploratory Study in a Mixed-Gender Population.

PubMed

Braga, Isaac Campos; Cabral, João; Louro, Nuno; de Carvalho, José LaFuente

2017-03-01

Testicular cancer (TC) is among the most common malignancies in the young male. Awareness plays an important role, because delay in diagnosis affects outcome. Testicular self-examination (TSE) is controversial, but recent evidence shows some cost benefits in performing this exam versus a late-stage diagnosis. The aims of this study are to determine and compare awareness for TC and TSE in males and females with the actual knowledge to this disease in an academic population. An exploratory study using an online questionnaire about TC and TSE was performed in a public university. Answers were collected and submitted to statistical analysis. A total of 815 participants-507 males (62.2 %) and 308 females (37.7 %)-answered the survey. The participants that responded that they were aware of TC were 399/507 (78.7 %) males and 275/308 (89.3 %) females. About half (48.9 %) of male and 42.2 % of female respondents did not answered correctly to most common symptom, and only 15 % of males and 25 % of females answered to the question on age at diagnosis. Both gender subjects rated TSE as very important, and the majority of females were motivated to advise male partners or friends to perform TSE. This study reported a good awareness on TC and TSE, but comparing to the correct knowledge about this disease, results are disappointing. The actual knowledge about TC is low and comparable in men and women. Women revealed a better understanding of this disease and importance of TSE, suggesting that they can assume an important role in promoting health behaviors in men.

Toxoplasmosis - Awareness and knowledge among medical doctors in Nigeria.

PubMed

Efunshile, Akinwale Michael; Elikwu, Charles John; Jokelainen, Pikka

2017-01-01

Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic parasite causing high disease burden worldwide. A One Health approach is needed to understand, prevent, and control toxoplasmosis, while knowledge gaps in the One Health aspects have been identified among medical professionals in earlier studies. As a One Health collaboration between veterinary and medical fields, we surveyed the knowledge on toxoplasmosis among medical doctors in Nigeria. The knowledge questions, which the participants answered without consulting literature and colleagues, covered epidemiological One Health aspects as well as clinical interspecialty aspects of T. gondii infections. Altogether 522 medical doctors from four tertiary hospitals completed the questionnaire. The mean number of correct answers in the knowledge questions was 7.5, and 8.4% of the participants selected at least 12 of the 17 correct answers. The proportion of medical doctors scoring such a high score was significantly higher among those who reported having seen a case of clinical toxoplasmosis than in those who did not. While 62% of the medical doctors participating in our study knew that cats can shed T. gondii in their feces, 36% incorrectly suggested that humans could do that too. That T. gondii infection can be meatborne was known by 69%, but that it can be also waterborne only by 28% of the medical doctors participating in our study. Most of the medical doctors, 78%, knew that clinical toxoplasmosis may involve the central nervous system, while only 37% answered that it can involve the eyes. Our results suggested knowledge gaps, which need to be addressed in Continuous Medical Education. The identified gaps included both intersectoral One Health aspects and interspecialty aspects: For prevention and management of toxoplasmosis, knowing the main transmission routes and that the parasite can affect several organs is relevant.

[Evaluation of the level of knowledge of medical secretaries about clinical specimens].

PubMed

Ciftçi, Ihsan Hakki; Safak, Birol; Cetinkaya, Zafer; Aktepe, Orhan Cem; Unalan, Demet

2006-10-01

The rapid development of medical industry in the last 5 years in Turkey led to an increased demand for medical technicians and secretaries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of knowledge of students in Occupational School of Medical Documentation and Secretary about the clinical specimens, and to estimate the need for an additional education on clinical specimens. Four hundred and forty eight students from eight universities were participated to this questionnaire survey. Mean age of the participants were 20.4+/-1.66 years and 342 (76.3%) of them were female students. The mean answer rate of students to the questions about clinical specimens was found 3.4+/-1.9% (min-max: 0-10). Correct answer rates were similar for both first and second year students. There was a negative relationship between the educational year and the rate of correct answer, however the correlation was not significant. Additionally, internship period did not have any effect on the level of knowledge. The results of this survey have indicated that the level of knowledge of medical secretaries about clinical specimens was very low. As the roles and responsibilities of medical secretaries in medical industry increases, in order to increase the cost-effectivity, quality and patient satisfaction, the contents of their education programs must be reorganized, and a lecture about clinical specimens should be integrated.

Mind the gap! A comparison of oral health knowledge between dental, healthcare professionals and the public.

PubMed

Richards, W; Filipponi, T; Roberts-Burt, V

2014-02-01

The importance of consistent, accurate and unambiguous messages are well documented in oral health promotion literature. Whether the reality of delivering messages in the field fulfils these principle is questionable. This paper explores the perceptions of dental professionals, healthcare professionals and lay community members with regard to key oral health messages in order to highlight any inconsistencies and knowledge gaps between and within groups for disease risk factors. A questionnaire was administered to individuals who belonged to three groups: dental professionals, healthcare professionals and lay community members. The questionnaire established knowledge regarding risk factors for caries, periodontal disease and erosion. Thirty-five (57.4%) of the dental group answered the whole questionnaire correctly, with 22 (27.8%) and 9 (5.1%) of the healthcare and lay community group answering the whole questionnaire correctly, respectively. The question of fluoride levels in children's toothpaste was the main reason for incorrect answers in the dental group. The results of this survey demonstrate a knowledge gradient from dental professionals through to healthcare professionals and then to lay members of the community. The knowledge base observed in the dental group is reflected in the other two groups as would be expected albeit with a significant gap between each group. As expected the dental professionals are generally well informed, but not as well informed as could be expected.

Summary of: Mind the gap! A comparison of oral health knowledge between dental, healthcare professionals and the public.

PubMed

Levine, R S

2014-02-01

The importance of consistent, accurate and unambiguous messages are well documented in oral health promotion literature. Whether the reality of delivering messages in the field fulfils these principle is questionable. This paper explores the perceptions of dental professionals, healthcare professionals and lay community members with regard to key oral health messages in order to highlight any inconsistencies and knowledge gaps between and within groups for disease risk factors. A questionnaire was administered to individuals who belonged to three groups: dental professionals, healthcare professionals and lay community members. The questionnaire established knowledge regarding risk factors for caries, periodontal disease and erosion. Thirty-five (57.4%) of the dental group answered the whole questionnaire correctly, with 22 (27.8%) and 9 (5.1%) of the healthcare and lay community group answering the whole questionnaire correctly, respectively. The question of fluoride levels in children's toothpaste was the main reason for incorrect answers in the dental group. The results of this survey demonstrate a knowledge gradient from dental professionals through to healthcare professionals and then to lay members of the community. The knowledge base observed in the dental group is reflected in the other two groups as would be expected albeit with a significant gap between each group. As expected the dental professionals are generally well informed, but not as well informed as could be expected.

Applying translabial ultrasound to detect synthetic slings-You can do it too! A comparison of urology trainees to an attending radiologist.

PubMed

Shen, Jim K; Faaborg, Daniel; Rouse, Glenn; Kelly, Isaac; Li, Roger; Alsyouf, Muhannad; Myklak, Kristene; Distelberg, Brian; Staack, Andrea

2017-09-01

Translabial ultrasound (TUS) is a useful tool for identifying and assessing synthetic slings. This study evaluates the ability of urology trainees to learn basic pelvic anatomy and sling assessment on TUS. Eight urology trainees (six residents and two medical students) received a lecture reviewing basic anatomy and sling assessment on TUS followed by review of two training cases. Next, they underwent a 126-question examination assessing their ability to identify anatomic planes and structures in those planes, identify the presence of slings, and assess the location and intactness of a sling. The correct response rate was compared to that of an attending radiologist experienced in reading TUS. Non-parametric tests (Fisher's exact, chi-squared tests, and Yates correction) were used for statistical analysis, with P < 0.05 considered significant. 847/1008 (84.0%) of questions were answered correctly by eight trainees compared to 119/126 (94.4%) by the radiologist (P = 0.001). The trainees' correct response rates and Fisher's exact test P values associated with the difference in correct answers between radiologist and trainee were as follows: identification of anatomic plane (94.4%; P = 0.599), identification of structure in sagittal view (80.6%; P = 0.201), identification of structure in transverse view (88.2%; P = 0.696), presence of synthetic sling (95.8%; P = 1.000), location of sling along the urethra in (71.5%; P = 0.403), intactness of sling (82.6%; P = 0.311), and laterality of sling disruption (75.0%; P = 0.076). Urology trainees can quickly learn to identify anatomic landmarks and assess slings on TUS with reasonable proficiency compared to an experienced attending radiologist. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Communicating projected survival with treatments for chronic kidney disease: patient comprehension and perspectives on visual aids.

PubMed

Dowen, Frances; Sidhu, Karishma; Broadbent, Elizabeth; Pilmore, Helen

2017-09-21

Mortality in end stage renal disease (ESRD) is higher than many malignancies. There is no data about the optimal way to present information about projected survival to patients with ESRD. In other areas, graphs have been shown to be more easily understood than narrative. We examined patient comprehension and perspectives on graphs in communicating projected survival in chronic kidney disease (CKD). One hundred seventy-seven patients with CKD were shown 4 different graphs presenting post transplantation survival data. Patients were asked to interpret a Kaplan Meier curve, pie chart, histogram and pictograph and answer a multi-choice question to determine understanding. We measured interpretation, usefulness and preference for the graphs. Most patients correctly interpreted the graphs. There was asignificant difference in the percentage of correct answers when comparing different graph types (p = 0.0439). The pictograph was correctly interpreted by 81% of participants, the histogram by 79%, pie chart by 77% and Kaplan Meier by 69%. Correct interpretation of the histogram was associated with educational level (p = 0.008) and inversely associated with age > 65 (p = 0.008). Of those who interpreted all four graphs correctly, there was an association with employment (p = 0.001) and New Zealand European ethnicity (p = 0.002). 87% of patients found the graphs useful. The pie chart was the most preferred graph (p 0.002). The readability of the graphs may have been improved with an alternative colour choice, especially in the setting of visual impairment. Visual aids, can be beneficial adjuncts to discussing survival in CKD.

Frequently Asked Questions about ADHD and the Answers from the Internet.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loechler, Kathy

1999-01-01

Identifies useful Internet sites about attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the results of searching these sites to answer common questions concerning incidence of ADHD, basic information about Ritalin drug therapy, educational placement of students with ADHD, sources of information about special needs, and what parents can do at…

What fire frequency is appropriate for shortleaf pine regeneration and survival?

Treesearch

Michael C. Stambaugh; Richard P. Guyette; Daniel C. Dey

2007-01-01

Shortleaf pine community restoration requires an answer to the question, "What fire frequency is appropriate for shortleaf pine regeneration and survival?" The answer to this question is one of the most critical to successful restoration through fire management. We used three sources of information from Missouri to determine appropriate burning frequencies: a...

Nuclear Power and the Environment--Questions and Answers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campana, Robert J.; Langer, Sidney

This booklet has been developed to help the layman understand and evaluate the various efforts being undertaken to utilize nuclear power for the benefit of mankind. The question and answer format is utilized. Among the topics discussed are: Our Needs for Electricity; Sources of Radiation; Radiation from Nuclear Power Plants; Biological Effects of…

Getting Help: Finding an Answer to a Specific Problem is Almost Impossible These Days.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levy, Steven

1984-01-01

Discusses the very limited information sources currently available to microcomputer users, including computer salespersons, user support groups, and computer books, and suggests that the newly emerging hotline-style computer advisory services may be able to provide the accurate answers and expert advice not easily available elsewhere. (MBR)

Why Americans Love to Reform the Public Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reese, William J.

2007-01-01

In this article, the author answers the question: "Why do Americans love to reform the public schools?" His answer has three parts. First, there is an old and persistent cultural strain in American history, derived from many sources, that seeks human perfection and sees education and schooling as essential to that perfectibility. That…

Correcting the extended-source calibration for the Herschel-SPIRE Fourier-transform spectrometer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valtchanov, I.; Hopwood, R.; Bendo, G.; Benson, C.; Conversi, L.; Fulton, T.; Griffin, M. J.; Joubaud, T.; Lim, T.; Lu, N.; Marchili, N.; Makiwa, G.; Meyer, R. A.; Naylor, D. A.; North, C.; Papageorgiou, A.; Pearson, C.; Polehampton, E. T.; Scott, J.; Schulz, B.; Spencer, L. D.; van der Wiel, M. H. D.; Wu, R.

2018-03-01

We describe an update to the Herschel-Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) Fourier-transform spectrometer (FTS) calibration for extended sources, which incorporates a correction for the frequency-dependent far-field feedhorn efficiency, ηff. This significant correction affects all FTS extended-source calibrated spectra in sparse or mapping mode, regardless of the spectral resolution. Line fluxes and continuum levels are underestimated by factors of 1.3-2 in thespectrometer long wavelength band (447-1018 GHz; 671-294 μm) and 1.4-1.5 in the spectrometer short wavelength band (944-1568 GHz; 318-191 μm). The correction was implemented in the FTS pipeline version 14.1 and has also been described in the SPIRE Handbook since 2017 February. Studies based on extended-source calibrated spectra produced prior to this pipeline version should be critically reconsidered using the current products available in the Herschel Science Archive. Once the extended-source calibrated spectra are corrected for ηff, the synthetic photometry and the broad-band intensities from SPIRE photometer maps agree within 2-4 per cent - similar levels to the comparison of point-source calibrated spectra and photometry from point-source calibrated maps. The two calibration schemes for the FTS are now self-consistent: the conversion between the corrected extended-source and point-source calibrated spectra can be achieved with the beam solid angle and a gain correction that accounts for the diffraction loss.

Design and Implementation of a Novel Web-Based E-Learning Tool for Education of Health Professionals on the Antibiotic Vancomycin.

PubMed

Bond, Stuart Evan; Crowther, Shelley P; Adhikari, Suman; Chubaty, Adriana J; Yu, Ping; Borchard, Jay P; Boutlis, Craig Steven; Yeo, Wilfred Winston; Miyakis, Spiros

2017-03-30

Traditional approaches to health professional education are being challenged by increased clinical demands and decreased available time. Web-based e-learning tools offer a convenient and effective method of delivering education, particularly across multiple health care facilities. The effectiveness of this model for health professional education needs to be explored in context. The study aimed to (1) determine health professionals' experience and knowledge of clinical use of vancomycin, an antibiotic used for treatment of serious infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and (2) describe the design and implementation of a Web-based e-learning tool created to improve knowledge in this area. We conducted a study on the design and implementation of a video-enhanced, Web-based e-learning tool between April 2014 and January 2016. A Web-based survey was developed to determine prior experience and knowledge of vancomycin use among nurses, doctors, and pharmacists. The Vancomycin Interactive (VI) involved a series of video clips interspersed with question and answer scenarios, where a correct response allowed for progression. Dramatic tension and humor were used as tools to engage users. Health professionals' knowledge of clinical vancomycin use was obtained from website data; qualitative participant feedback was also collected. From the 577 knowledge survey responses, pharmacists (n=70) answered the greatest number of questions correctly (median score 4/5), followed by doctors (n=271; 3/5) and nurses (n=236; 2/5; P<.001). Survey questions on target trough concentration (75.0%, 433/577) and rate of administration (64.9%, 375/577) were answered most correctly, followed by timing of first level (49%, 283/577), maintenance dose (41.9%, 242/577), and loading dose (38.0%, 219/577). Self-reported "very" and "reasonably" experienced health professionals were also more likely to achieve correct responses. The VI was completed by 163 participants during the study period. The rate of correctly answered VI questions on first attempt was 65% for nurses (n=63), 68% for doctors (n=86), and 82% for pharmacists (n=14; P<.001), reflecting a similar pattern to the knowledge survey. Knowledge gaps were identified for loading dose (39.2% correct on first attempt; 64/163), timing of first trough level (50.3%, 82/163), and subsequent trough levels (47.9%, 78/163). Of the 163 participants, we received qualitative user feedback from 51 participants following completion of the VI. Feedback was predominantly positive with themes of "entertaining," "engaging," and "fun" identified; however, there were some technical issues identified relating to accessibility from different operating systems and browsers. A novel Web-based e-learning tool was successfully developed combining game design principles and humor to improve user engagement. Knowledge gaps were identified that allowed for targeting of future education strategies. The VI provides an innovative model for delivering Web-based education to busy health professionals in different locations. ©Stuart Evan Bond, Shelley P Crowther, Suman Adhikari, Adriana J Chubaty, Ping Yu, Jay P Borchard, Craig Steven Boutlis, Wilfred Winston Yeo, Spiros Miyakis. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 30.03.2017.

A Grab Bag of Nature Activities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Lenore

1993-01-01

Suggested nature activities include (1) sensory experiences to distinguish all characteristics of various objects; (2) adopt-a-tree activities where children learn about "their own" tree; (3) finding evidence of animals in nature; (4) nature questions of the week with prizes for correct answers; and (5) activities related to the…

Darwin and the Quest for Reality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freeland, Peter

2010-01-01

As a large number of issues in contemporary biology are controversial, science teachers in so-called "faith" schools need to know what their employers regard as "doctrinal correctness". Any effective response to the rise of fundamentalism and atheism needs to answer challenges, take scientific knowledge into consideration and re-think traditional…

Optimal and Adaptive Online Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luo, Haipeng

2016-01-01

Online learning is one of the most important and well-established machine learning models. Generally speaking, the goal of online learning is to make a sequence of accurate predictions "on the fly," given some information of the correct answers to previous prediction tasks. Online learning has been extensively studied in recent years,…

What Teachers and Parents Should Know about Ritalin.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prater, Mary Anne; Pancheri, Christina

1999-01-01

Presents basic information on Ritalin, a frequently prescribed stimulant medication for students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. A quiz evaluates the reader's knowledge level and is followed by an explanation of the correct answers. Also considered are pros and cons of Ritalin use, teachers' and parents' responses to the quiz, and…

An Activity to Encourage Writing in Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Dyke, Frances; Malloy, Elizabeth J.; Stallings, Virginia

2014-01-01

This article discusses an activity designed to encourage writing to learn in mathematics. There were three stages of data collection. An assessment, requiring basic algebra only, was completed by 118 undergraduates from statistics and calculus courses. Students were given summaries of all participant responses, along with the correct answers.…

Passage Independence within Standardized Reading Comprehension Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roy-Charland, Annie; Colangelo, Gabrielle; Foglia, Victoria; Reguigui, Leïla

2017-01-01

In tests used to measure reading comprehension, validity is important in obtaining accurate results. Unfortunately, studies have shown that people can correctly answer some questions of these tests without reading the related passage. These findings bring forth the need to address whether this phenomenon is observed in multiple-choice only tests…

Mathematics Competency Test: User's Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vernon, P. E.; And Others

The Mathematics Competency Test is a 46-question written test assessing mathematics achievement for groups or individuals aged 11 to adult. It is suitable for use with groups or individuals in school, college and workplace contexts. The questions are open-ended and require constructed responses rather than recognition of a correct answer in a…

Psychology Feud: When the Correct Answer Isn't the Most Valued

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wozniak, William; Mandernach, B. Jean; Wadkins, Theresa A.

2012-01-01

Psychology Feud, a classroom-based adaptation of the popular American television game show, provides an innovative, engaging opportunity for students to examine popular beliefs and misconceptions concerning general psychological information in a nonthreatening atmosphere. The game can be integrated into introductory psychology courses to (a)…

Studies of the Seriousness of Three Threats to Passage Dependence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanna, Gerald S.; Oaster, Thomas R.

1980-01-01

Certain kinds of multiple-choice reading comprehension questions may be answered correctly at the higher-than-chance level when they are administered without the accompanying passage. These high risk questions do not necessarily lead to passage dependence invalidity. They threaten but do not prove invalidity. (Author/CP)

Survival and Prevention in the Aftermath of Teen Suicide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldberg, Karen S.

1999-01-01

Describes one school's attempts to answer the question of why a young person commits suicide, and provides sound advice in dealing with the survivors of such an ordeal, be it students, teachers, or parents. Explores commonly asked questions to promote understanding, correct misinformation, identify risk factors, and provide guidelines for…

Decreasing Self-Stimulatory Behavior with Physical Exercise in a Group of Autistic Boys.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watters, Robert G.; Watters, Wilhelmina E.

1980-01-01

It was found that the lowest levels of self-stimulation followed physical exercise, there were no differences in the levels of self-stimulation following TV watching and following academics, and the levels of correct question answering were not affected by the three different previous periods. (Author)

Teaching Human-Centered Security Using Nontraditional Techniques

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Renaud, Karen; Cutts, Quintin

2013-01-01

Computing science students amass years of programming experience and a wealth of factual knowledge in their undergraduate courses. Based on our combined years of experience, however, one of our students' abiding shortcomings is that they think there is only "one correct answer" to issues in most courses: an "idealistic"…

Self-Explanation and Explanatory Feedback in Games: Individual Differences, Gameplay, and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Killingsworth, Stephen S.; Clark, Douglas B.; Adams, Deanne M.

2015-01-01

Previous research has demonstrated the efficacy of two explanation-based approaches for increasing learning in educational games. The first involves asking students to explain their answers (self-explanation) and the second involves providing correct explanations (explanatory feedback). This study (1) compared self-explanation and explanatory…

Cognitive Diagnostic Attribute-Level Discrimination Indices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henson, Robert; Roussos, Louis; Douglas, Jeff; He, Xuming

2008-01-01

Cognitive diagnostic models (CDMs) model the probability of correctly answering an item as a function of an examinee's attribute mastery pattern. Because estimation of the mastery pattern involves more than a continuous measure of ability, reliability concepts introduced by classical test theory and item response theory do not apply. The cognitive…

Computerized History Games: Narrative Options

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kee, Kevin

2011-01-01

How may historians best express history through computer games? This article suggests that the answer lies in correctly correlating historians' goals for teaching with the capabilities of different kinds of computer games. During the development of a game prototype for high school students, the author followed best practices as expressed in the…

Perspectives on a Torts Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bernstein, Anita

1993-01-01

One law professor has added interest to a torts course by asking students to select one of five perspectives (economics, corrective justice, feminism, libertarianism, and practicality) on the course content and study it throughout the course. On the final examination, each student must answer one essay question from that viewpoint. (MSE)

Estimation and Q-Matrix Validation for Diagnostic Classification Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feng, Yuling

2013-01-01

Diagnostic classification models (DCMs) are structured latent class models widely discussed in the field of psychometrics. They model subjects' underlying attribute patterns and classify subjects into unobservable groups based on their mastery of attributes required to answer the items correctly. The effective implementation of DCMs depends…

Computer Simulation of Classic Studies in Psychology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bradley, Drake R.

This paper describes DATASIM, a comprehensive software package which generates simulated data for actual or hypothetical research designs. DATASIM is primarily intended for use in statistics and research methods courses, where it is used to generate "individualized" datasets for students to analyze, and later to correct their answers.…

Middle School Students' Reasoning in Nonlinear Proportional Problems in Geometry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ayan, Rukiye; Isiksal Bostan, Mine

2018-01-01

In this study, we investigate sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students' achievement in nonlinear (quadratic or cubic) proportional problems regarding length, area, and volume of enlarged figures. In addition, we examine students' solution strategies for the problems and obstacles that prevent students from answering the problems correctly by…

Student Modeling Based on Problem Solving Times

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pelánek, Radek; Jarušek, Petr

2015-01-01

Student modeling in intelligent tutoring systems is mostly concerned with modeling correctness of students' answers. As interactive problem solving activities become increasingly common in educational systems, it is useful to focus also on timing information associated with problem solving. We argue that the focus on timing is natural for certain…

Analyzing Learning during Peer Instruction Dialogues: A Resource Activation Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wood, Anna K.; Galloway, Ross K.; Hardy, Judy; Sinclair, Christine M.

2014-01-01

Peer Instruction (PI) is an evidence based pedagogy commonly used in undergraduate physics instruction. When asked questions designed to test conceptual understanding, it has been observed that the proportion of students choosing the correct answer increases following peer discussion; however, relatively little is known about what takes place…

Inequalities, Assessment and Computer Algebra

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sangwin, Christopher J.

2015-01-01

The goal of this paper is to examine single variable real inequalities that arise as tutorial problems and to examine the extent to which current computer algebra systems (CAS) can (1) automatically solve such problems and (2) determine whether students' own answers to such problems are correct. We review how inequalities arise in contemporary…

Handling Japanese without a Japanese Operating System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hatasa, Kazumi; And Others

1992-01-01

The Macintosh HyperCard environment has become a popular platform for Japanese language courseware because of its flexibility and ease of programing. This project created Japanese bitmap font files for the JIS Levels 1 and 2, and writing XFCNs for font manipulation, Japanese kana input, and answer correction. (12 references) (Author/LB)

Assessing Nursing Assistants' Knowledge of Behavioral Approaches to Mental Health Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spore, Diana L.; And Others

1991-01-01

Developed and administered 17-item instrument to assess knowledge of specific mental health problems (depression, agitation, disorientation) and behavioral approaches to them to 191 nurse's aides and 21 clinicians with training in behavioral management and experience with older nursing home residents. Aides averaged 11 correct answers; clinicians…

Phenotypic and Genotypic Eligible Methods for Salmonella Typhimurium Source Tracking

PubMed Central

Ferrari, Rafaela G.; Panzenhagen, Pedro H. N.; Conte-Junior, Carlos A.

2017-01-01

Salmonellosis is one of the most common causes of foodborne infection and a leading cause of human gastroenteritis. Throughout the last decade, Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium (ST) has shown an increase report with the simultaneous emergence of multidrug-resistant isolates, as phage type DT104. Therefore, to successfully control this microorganism, it is important to attribute salmonellosis to the exact source. Studies of Salmonella source attribution have been performed to determine the main food/food-production animals involved, toward which, control efforts should be correctly directed. Hence, the election of a ST subtyping method depends on the particular problem that efforts must be directed, the resources and the data available. Generally, before choosing a molecular subtyping, phenotyping approaches such as serotyping, phage typing, and antimicrobial resistance profiling are implemented as a screening of an investigation, and the results are computed using frequency-matching models (i.e., Dutch, Hald and Asymmetric Island models). Actually, due to the advancement of molecular tools as PFGE, MLVA, MLST, CRISPR, and WGS more precise results have been obtained, but even with these technologies, there are still gaps to be elucidated. To address this issue, an important question needs to be answered: what are the currently suitable subtyping methods to source attribute ST. This review presents the most frequently applied subtyping methods used to characterize ST, analyses the major available microbial subtyping attribution models and ponders the use of conventional phenotyping methods, as well as, the most applied genotypic tools in the context of their potential applicability to investigates ST source tracking. PMID:29312260

Phenotypic and Genotypic Eligible Methods for Salmonella Typhimurium Source Tracking.

PubMed

Ferrari, Rafaela G; Panzenhagen, Pedro H N; Conte-Junior, Carlos A

2017-01-01

Salmonellosis is one of the most common causes of foodborne infection and a leading cause of human gastroenteritis. Throughout the last decade, Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium (ST) has shown an increase report with the simultaneous emergence of multidrug-resistant isolates, as phage type DT104. Therefore, to successfully control this microorganism, it is important to attribute salmonellosis to the exact source. Studies of Salmonella source attribution have been performed to determine the main food/food-production animals involved, toward which, control efforts should be correctly directed. Hence, the election of a ST subtyping method depends on the particular problem that efforts must be directed, the resources and the data available. Generally, before choosing a molecular subtyping, phenotyping approaches such as serotyping, phage typing, and antimicrobial resistance profiling are implemented as a screening of an investigation, and the results are computed using frequency-matching models (i.e., Dutch, Hald and Asymmetric Island models). Actually, due to the advancement of molecular tools as PFGE, MLVA, MLST, CRISPR, and WGS more precise results have been obtained, but even with these technologies, there are still gaps to be elucidated. To address this issue, an important question needs to be answered: what are the currently suitable subtyping methods to source attribute ST. This review presents the most frequently applied subtyping methods used to characterize ST, analyses the major available microbial subtyping attribution models and ponders the use of conventional phenotyping methods, as well as, the most applied genotypic tools in the context of their potential applicability to investigates ST source tracking.

After the flood: an evaluation of in-home drinking water treatment with combined flocculent-disinfectant following Tropical Storm Jeanne -- Gonaives, Haiti, 2004.

PubMed

Colindres, Romulo E; Jain, Seema; Bowen, Anna; Mintz, Eric; Domond, Polyana

2007-09-01

Tropical Storm Jeanne struck Haiti in September 2004, causing widespread flooding which contaminated water sources, displaced thousands of families and killed approximately 2,800 people. Local leaders distributed PūR, a flocculent-disinfectant product for household water treatment, to affected populations. We evaluated knowledge, attitudes, practices, and drinking water quality among a sample of PūR recipients. We interviewed representatives of 100 households in three rural communities who received PūR and PūR-related education. Water sources were tested for fecal contamination and turbidity; stored household water was tested for residual chlorine. All households relied on untreated water sources (springs [66%], wells [15%], community taps [13%], and rivers [6%]). After distribution, PūR was the most common in-home treatment method (58%) followed by chlorination (30%), plant-based flocculation (6%), boiling (5%), and filtration (1%). Seventy-eight percent of respondents correctly answered five questions about how to use PūR; 81% reported PūR easy to use; and 97% reported that PūR-treated water appears, tastes, and smells better than untreated water. Although water sources tested appeared clear, fecal coliform bacteria were detected in all sources (range 1 - >200 cfu/100 ml). Chlorine was present in 10 (45%) of 22 stored drinking water samples in households using PūR. PūR was well-accepted and properly used in remote communities where local leaders helped with distribution and education. This highly effective water purification method can help protect disaster-affected communities from waterborne disease.

Beyond hypercorrection: remembering corrective feedback for low-confidence errors.

PubMed

Griffiths, Lauren; Higham, Philip A

2018-02-01

Correcting errors based on corrective feedback is essential to successful learning. Previous studies have found that corrections to high-confidence errors are better remembered than low-confidence errors (the hypercorrection effect). The aim of this study was to investigate whether corrections to low-confidence errors can also be successfully retained in some cases. Participants completed an initial multiple-choice test consisting of control, trick and easy general-knowledge questions, rated their confidence after answering each question, and then received immediate corrective feedback. After a short delay, they were given a cued-recall test consisting of the same questions. In two experiments, we found high-confidence errors to control questions were better corrected on the second test compared to low-confidence errors - the typical hypercorrection effect. However, low-confidence errors to trick questions were just as likely to be corrected as high-confidence errors. Most surprisingly, we found that memory for the feedback and original responses, not confidence or surprise, were significant predictors of error correction. We conclude that for some types of material, there is an effortful process of elaboration and problem solving prior to making low-confidence errors that facilitates memory of corrective feedback.

New Poster Puzzler | Poster

Cancer.gov

Your challenge is to correctly identify the item and its location from the picture. Clue: It’s somewhere at the NCI campus at Frederick or Fort Detrick. Win a framed photograph of the Poster Puzzler and have your photo featured on the Poster website by e-mailing your guess, along with your name, e-mail address, and daytime phone number, to poster@mail.nih.gov. All entries must be received by Friday, February 12, 2016, and the winner will be drawn from all correct answers received by that date. Good luck and good hunting!

Physics is …; The Physicist explores attributes of physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baker, F. Todd

2016-12-01

He's back! 'The physicist'returns with an entirely new compilation of questions and answers from his long-lived website where laypeople can ask questions about anything physics related. This book focuses on adjectives (practical, beautiful, surprising, cool, frivolous) instead of nouns like the first two books (atoms, photons, quanta, mechanics, relativity). The answers within 'Physics Is' are responses to people looking for answers to fascinating (and often uninformed) questions. It covers topics such as sports, electromagnetism, gravitational theory, special relativity, superheroes, videogames, and science fiction. These books are designed for laypeople and rely heavily on concepts rather than formalism. That said, they keep the physics correct and don't water down, so expert physicists will find this book and its two companion titles fun reads. They may actually recognize similar questions posed to them by friends and family. As with the first two books, 'Physics Is' ends with a chapter with questions from people who think that 'The physicist' is a psychic and from people who think they have the answers to life, the universe and everything.

Quantifying the effects of social influence

PubMed Central

Mavrodiev, Pavlin; Tessone, Claudio J.; Schweitzer, Frank

2013-01-01

How do humans respond to indirect social influence when making decisions? We analysed an experiment where subjects had to guess the answer to factual questions, having only aggregated information about the answers of others. While the response of humans to aggregated information is a widely observed phenomenon, it has not been investigated quantitatively, in a controlled setting. We found that the adjustment of individual guesses depends linearly on the distance to the mean of all guesses. This is a remarkable, and yet surprisingly simple regularity. It holds across all questions analysed, even though the correct answers differ by several orders of magnitude. Our finding supports the assumption that individual diversity does not affect the response to indirect social influence. We argue that the nature of the response crucially changes with the level of information aggregation. This insight contributes to the empirical foundation of models for collective decisions under social influence. PMID:23449043

On the Effective Evaluation of TCP

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allman, Mark; Falk, Aaron

2000-01-01

Understanding the performance of the Internet's Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is important because it is the dominant protocol used in the Internet today. Various testing methods exist to evaluate TCP performance, however all have pitfalls an that need to be understood prior to obtaining useful results. Simulating TCP is difficult because of the wide range of variables, environments, and implementations available. Testing TCP modifications in the global Internet may not be the answer either: testing new protocols on real networks endangers other people's traffic and, if not done correctly, may also yield inaccurate or misleading results. In order for TCP research to be independently evaluated in the Internet research community there is a set of questions that researchers should try to answer. This paper attempts to list some of those questions and make recommendations as to how TCP testing can be structured to be provide useful answers.

Deductive Coordination of Multiple Geospatial Knowledge Sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Waldinger, R.; Reddy, M.; Culy, C.; Hobbs, J.; Jarvis, P.; Dungan, J. L.

2002-12-01

Deductive inference is applied to choreograph the cooperation of multiple knowledge sources to respond to geospatial queries. When no one source can provide an answer, the response may be deduced from pieces of the answer provided by many sources. Examples of sources include (1) The Alexandria Digital Library Gazetteer, a repository that gives the locations for almost six million place names, (2) The Cia World Factbook, an online almanac with basic information about more than 200 countries. (3) The SRI TerraVision 3D Terrain Visualization System, which displays a flight-simulator-like interactive display of geographic data held in a database, (4) The NASA GDACC WebGIS client for searching satellite and other geographic data available through OpenGIS Consortium (OGC) Web Map Servers, and (5) The Northern Arizona University Latitude/Longitude Distance Calculator. Queries are phrased in English and are translated into logical theorems by the Gemini Natural Language Parser. The theorems are proved by SNARK, a first-order-logic theorem prover, in the context of an axiomatic geospatial theory. The theory embodies a representational scheme that takes into account the fact that the same place may have many names, and the same name may refer to many places. SNARK has built-in procedures (RCC8 and the Allen calculus, respectively) for reasoning about spatial and temporal concepts. External knowledge sources may be consulted by SNARK as the proof is in progress, so that most knowledge need not be stored axiomatically. The Open Agent Architecture (OAA) facilitates communication between sources that may be implemented on different machines in different computer languages. An answer to the query, in the form of text or an image, is extracted from the proof. Currently, three-dimensional images are displayed by TerraVision but other displays are possible. The combined system is called Geo-Logica. Some example queries that can be handled by Geo-Logica include: (1) show the petrified forests in Oregon north of Portland, (2) show the lake in Argentina with the highest elevation, and (3) Show the IGPB land cover classification, derived using MODIS, of Montana for July, 2000. Use of a theorem prover allows sources to cooperate even if they adapt different notational conventions and representation schemes and have never been designed to work together. New sources can be added without reprogramming the system, by providing axioms that advertise their capabilities. Future directions include entering into a dialogue with the user to clarify ambiguities, elaborate on previous questions, or provide new information necessary to answer the question. In addition, of particular interest is to deal with temporally varying data, with answers displayed as animated images.

Response switching and self-efficacy in Peer Instruction classrooms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, Kelly; Schell, Julie; Ho, Andrew; Lukoff, Brian; Mazur, Eric

2015-06-01

Peer Instruction, a well-known student-centered teaching method, engages students during class through structured, frequent questioning and is often facilitated by classroom response systems. The central feature of any Peer Instruction class is a conceptual question designed to help resolve student misconceptions about subject matter. We provide students two opportunities to answer each question—once after a round of individual reflection and then again after a discussion round with a peer. The second round provides students the choice to "switch" their original response to a different answer. The percentage of right answers typically increases after peer discussion: most students who answer incorrectly in the individual round switch to the correct answer after the peer discussion. However, for any given question there are also students who switch their initially right answer to a wrong answer and students who switch their initially wrong answer to a different wrong answer. In this study, we analyze response switching over one semester of an introductory electricity and magnetism course taught using Peer Instruction at Harvard University. Two key features emerge from our analysis: First, response switching correlates with academic self-efficacy. Students with low self-efficacy switch their responses more than students with high self-efficacy. Second, switching also correlates with the difficulty of the question; students switch to incorrect responses more often when the question is difficult. These findings indicate that instructors may need to provide greater support for difficult questions, such as supplying cues during lectures, increasing times for discussions, or ensuring effective pairing (such as having a student with one right answer in the pair). Additionally, the connection between response switching and self-efficacy motivates interventions to increase student self-efficacy at the beginning of the semester by helping students develop early mastery or to reduce stressful experiences (i.e., high-stakes testing) early in the semester, in the hope that this will improve student learning in Peer Instruction classrooms.

The photon fluence non-uniformity correction for air kerma near Cs-137 brachytherapy sources.

PubMed

Rodríguez, M L; deAlmeida, C E

2004-05-07

The use of brachytherapy sources in radiation oncology requires their proper calibration to guarantee the correctness of the dose delivered to the treatment volume of a patient. One of the elements to take into account in the dose calculation formalism is the non-uniformity of the photon fluence due to the beam divergence that causes a steep dose gradient near the source. The correction factors for this phenomenon have been usually evaluated by the two theories available, both of which were conceived only for point sources. This work presents the Monte Carlo assessment of the non-uniformity correction factors for a Cs-137 linear source and a Farmer-type ionization chamber. The results have clearly demonstrated that for linear sources there are some important differences among the values obtained from different calculation models, especially at short distances from the source. The use of experimental values for each specific source geometry is recommended in order to assess the non-uniformity factors for linear sources in clinical situations that require special dose calculations or when the correctness of treatment planning software is verified during the acceptance tests.

Examining public knowledge and preferences for adult preventive services coverage.

PubMed

Williams, Jessica A R; Ortiz, Selena E

2017-01-01

To examine (1) what individuals know about the existing adult preventive service coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and (2) which preventive services individuals think should be covered without cost sharing. An online panel from Survey Monkey was used to obtain a sample of 2,990 adults age 18 and older in March 2015, analyzed 2015-2017. A 17-item survey instrument was designed and used to evaluate respondents' knowledge of the adult preventive services provision of the ACA. Additionally, we asked whether various preventive services should be covered. The data include age, sex, race/ethnicity, and educational attainment as well as measures of political ideology, previous insurance status, the number of chronic conditions, and usual source of care. Respondents correctly answered 38.6% of the questions about existing coverage under the ACA, while on average respondents thought 12.1 of 15 preventive services should be covered (SD 3.5). Respondents were more knowledgeable about coverage for routine screenings, such as blood pressure (63.4% correct) than potentially stigmatizing screenings, such as for alcohol misuse (28.8% correct). Blood pressure screening received the highest support of coverage (89.8%) while coverage of gym memberships received the lowest support (59.4%). Individuals with conservative ideologies thought fewer services on average should be covered, but the difference was small-around one service less than those with liberal ideologies. Overwhelmingly, individuals think that most preventive services should be covered without cost sharing. Despite several years of coverage for preventive services, there is still confusion and lack of knowledge about which services are covered.

Examining public knowledge and preferences for adult preventive services coverage

PubMed Central

Ortiz, Selena E.

2017-01-01

Introduction To examine (1) what individuals know about the existing adult preventive service coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and (2) which preventive services individuals think should be covered without cost sharing. Methods An online panel from Survey Monkey was used to obtain a sample of 2,990 adults age 18 and older in March 2015, analyzed 2015–2017. A 17-item survey instrument was designed and used to evaluate respondents’ knowledge of the adult preventive services provision of the ACA. Additionally, we asked whether various preventive services should be covered. The data include age, sex, race/ethnicity, and educational attainment as well as measures of political ideology, previous insurance status, the number of chronic conditions, and usual source of care. Results Respondents correctly answered 38.6% of the questions about existing coverage under the ACA, while on average respondents thought 12.1 of 15 preventive services should be covered (SD 3.5). Respondents were more knowledgeable about coverage for routine screenings, such as blood pressure (63.4% correct) than potentially stigmatizing screenings, such as for alcohol misuse (28.8% correct). Blood pressure screening received the highest support of coverage (89.8%) while coverage of gym memberships received the lowest support (59.4%). Individuals with conservative ideologies thought fewer services on average should be covered, but the difference was small—around one service less than those with liberal ideologies. Conclusions Overwhelmingly, individuals think that most preventive services should be covered without cost sharing. Despite several years of coverage for preventive services, there is still confusion and lack of knowledge about which services are covered. PMID:29261757

Impact of health education program about reproductive health on knowledge and attitude of female Alexandria University students.

PubMed

Mounir, Gehan M; Mahdy, Nehad H; Fatohy, Ibtsam M

2003-01-01

In Egypt, adolescents don't have enough and/or correct knowledge regarding reproductive health. Health education interventions are widely seen as the most appropriate strategy for promoting young people's sexual health. The aim of the present work was to assess the impact of a short-term health education program about reproductive health on knowledge and attitude of female Alexandria university students. Quasi-experimental study (pre-post testing control group) was carried out among 682 female university students living in the university hostels, 354 students represented the intervention group (Ezbet-Saad hostel) who received the program and 328 students constituted the control group (El-Shatby hostel). The study revealed that no one had satisfactory knowledge level while 61.7 % and 38.3% respectively had fair and poor levels. The low knowledge level was more evident regarding the questions about: the meaning of the term 'reproductive health' (only 5.1% gave correct complete answer), the benefits of premarital examination (only 37.9% reported complete answer), the investigations done for the pregnant woman (only 28.3% gave complete answer) the benefits of breast feeding (only 8.2% reported complete answer), methods of family planning (only 36.4% gave complete answer), side effects of female genital mutilation (only 4% reported complete answer), sexually transmitted diseases and methods of protection (only 11.9% and 3.9% reported complete answer). It was evident that 32.6% had an overall positive attitude level, 46.3% were in the neutral level and 21.1% had a negative level. It was also found that students of highly or moderately educated mothers and of high social class reported significantly higher knowledge score about premarital examination, age of marriage and breast-feeding than those of non-educated mothers and of low social class. After the intervention program there was a significant improvement in the majority of knowledge questions from pre to post test in the intervention group and no absolute changes were detected in the control group. The highest percentage of gain scores (33.3%) was detected for knowledge about the term 'reproductive health' and female genital mutilation. A significant gain score of 25% was observed for the knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases. Also there was a gain of 20% in the median score concerning the knowledge about breast feeding and family planning. A significant shift towards a positive attitude was found among the intervention group.

The Efficiency and Success Rates of Print Ready Reference vs Online Ready Reference Searches in Canadian University Libraries.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horner, Jan; Michaud-Oystryk, Nicole

1995-01-01

An experiment investigated whether the format in which information is stored affects the outcomes of ready reference transactions in terms of efficiency and accuracy. Results indicate that bibliographic questions are more efficiently answered online, while factual questions are more efficiently answered with print sources. Results of the study are…

Decision making under internal uncertainty: the case of multiple-choice tests with different scoring rules.

PubMed

Bereby-Meyer, Yoella; Meyer, Joachim; Budescu, David V

2003-02-01

This paper assesses framing effects on decision making with internal uncertainty, i.e., partial knowledge, by focusing on examinees' behavior in multiple-choice (MC) tests with different scoring rules. In two experiments participants answered a general-knowledge MC test that consisted of 34 solvable and 6 unsolvable items. Experiment 1 studied two scoring rules involving Positive (only gains) and Negative (only losses) scores. Although answering all items was the dominating strategy for both rules, the results revealed a greater tendency to answer under the Negative scoring rule. These results are in line with the predictions derived from Prospect Theory (PT) [Econometrica 47 (1979) 263]. The second experiment studied two scoring rules, which allowed respondents to exhibit partial knowledge. Under the Inclusion-scoring rule the respondents mark all answers that could be correct, and under the Exclusion-scoring rule they exclude all answers that might be incorrect. As predicted by PT, respondents took more risks under the Inclusion rule than under the Exclusion rule. The results illustrate that the basic process that underlies choice behavior under internal uncertainty and especially the effect of framing is similar to the process of choice under external uncertainty and can be described quite accurately by PT. Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science B.V.

Coping with Misinformation: Corrections, Backfire Effects, and Choice Architectures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lewandowsky, S.; Cook, J.; Ecker, U. K.

2012-12-01

The widespread prevalence and persistence of misinformation about many important scientific issues, from climate change to vaccinations or the link between HIV and AIDS, must give rise to concern. We first review the mechanisms by which such misinformation is disseminated in society, both inadvertently and purposely. We then survey and explain the cognitive factors that often render misinformation resistant to correction. We answer the question why retractions of misinformation can be so ineffective and why they can even backfire and ironically increase misbelief. We discuss the overriding role of ideology and personal worldviews in the resistance of misinformation to correction and show how their role can be attenuated. We discuss the risks associated with repeating misinformation while seeking to correct it and we point to the design of "choice architectures" as an alternative to the attempt to retract misinformation.

Accuracy of Press Reports in Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schaefer, B. E.; Hurley, K.; Nemiroff, R. J.; Branch, D.; Perlmutter, S.; Schaefer, M. W.; Consolmagno, G. J.; McSween, H.; Strom, R.

1999-12-01

Most Americans learn about modern science from press reports, while such articles have a bad reputation among scientists. We have performed a study of 403 news articles on three topics (gamma-ray astronomy, supernovae, and Mars) to quantitatively answer the questions 'How accurate are press reports of astronomy?' and 'What fraction of the basic science claims in the press are correct?' We have taken all articles on the topics from five news sources (UPI, NYT, S&T, SN, and 5 newspapers) for one decade (1987-1996). All articles were evaluated for a variety of errors, ranging from the fundamental to the trivial. For 'trivial' errors, S&T and SN were virtually perfect while the various newspapers averaged roughly one trivial error every two articles. For meaningful errors, we found that none of our 403 articles significantly mislead the reader or misrepresented the science. So a major result of our study is that reporters should be rehabilitated into the good graces of astronomers, since they are actually doing a good job. For our second question, we rated each story with the probability that its basic new science claim is correct. We found that the average probability over all stories is 70%, regardless of source, topic, importance, or quoted pundit. How do we reconcile our findings that the press does not make significant errors yet the basic science presented is 30% wrong? The reason is that the nature of news reporting is to present front-line science and the nature of front-line science is that reliable conclusions have not yet been reached. So a second major result of our study is to make the distinction between textbook science (with reliability near 100%) and front-line science which you read in the press (with reliability near 70%).

Relevancy of an In-Service Examination for Core Knowledge Training in a Surgical Subspecialty.

PubMed

Silvestre, Jason; Chang, Benjamin; Serletti, Joseph M

2016-01-01

To facilitate knowledge acquisition during plastic surgery residency, we analyzed the breast curriculum on the Plastic Surgery In-Service Training Exam (PSITE). Breast-related questions on 6 consecutive PSITEs were analyzed (2008-2013). Topics were categorized by the content outline for the American Board of Plastic Surgery written board examination. Question vignettes were classified by taxonomy and clinical setting. References for correct answer choices were categorized by source and publication lag. A total of 136 breast-related questions were analyzed (136/1174, 12%). Questions tended to appear more in the Breast and Cosmetic (75%) section than the Comprehensive (25%) section (p < 0.001). Most question vignettes were written in a clinical setting (64%, p < 0.001). Question taxonomy was evenly distributed among recall (34%), interpretation (28%), and decision-making (37%, p > 0.05). Only 6% of questions required photographic evaluation. Breast-related topics focused on esthetic problems (35%), traumatic deformities (22%), and tumors (21%). Answer references comprised 293 citations to 63 unique journals published a median of 6 years before PSITE administration. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (57%) was the most cited journal (p < 0.001) and Surgery of the Breast: Principles and Art by Spear was the most referenced textbook (22%). The PSITE affords a curriculum that reflects breast-related topics on the American Board of Plastic Surgery written board examination. These data may optimize knowledge acquisition in esthetic and reconstructive breast surgery. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc.

A Suggested Automated Branch Program for Foreign Languages.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barrutia, Richard

1964-01-01

Completely automated and operated by student feedback, this program teaches and tests foreign language recognition and retention, gives repeated audiolingual practice on model structures, and allows the student to tailor the program to his individual needs. The program is recorded on four tape tracks (track 1 for the most correct answer, etc.).…

Secondary School Students' Reasoning about Conditional Probability, Samples, and Sampling Procedures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prodromou, Theodosia

2016-01-01

In the Australian mathematics curriculum, Year 12 students (aged 16-17) are asked to solve conditional probability problems that involve the representation of the problem situation with two-way tables or three-dimensional diagrams and consider sampling procedures that result in different correct answers. In a small exploratory study, we…

Who's Afraid of the Big "Bad Answer"?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aukerman, Maren

2006-01-01

How should a teacher respond when a student makes off-base guesses about meaning in a literary text because that learner is trying to genuinely understand the story rather than find the "right" meaning? Aukerman argues that when teachers jump in to correct students' interpretations, they short-circuit students' processes of reading and thinking.…

More Than the Rules of Precedence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liang, Yawei

2005-01-01

In a fundamental computer-programming course, such as CSE101, questions about how to evaluate an arithmetic expression are frequently used to check if our students know the rules of precedence. The author uses two of our final examination questions to show that more knowledge of computer science is needed to answer them correctly. Furthermore,…

A Bayesian Semiparametric Item Response Model with Dirichlet Process Priors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miyazaki, Kei; Hoshino, Takahiro

2009-01-01

In Item Response Theory (IRT), item characteristic curves (ICCs) are illustrated through logistic models or normal ogive models, and the probability that examinees give the correct answer is usually a monotonically increasing function of their ability parameters. However, since only limited patterns of shapes can be obtained from logistic models…

VOCATIONAL TALENT EXERCISES, PART B.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

George Washington Univ., Washington, DC. School of Education.

THIS WORKBOOK WAS DEVELOPED IN A CURRICULUM PROJECT DESCRIBED IN VT 004 454, TO HELP YOUNG PEOPLE LEARN BASIC PRINCIPLES AND CONCEPTS OF MECHANICS AND TECHNOLOGY BY PROVIDING EXERCISES SIMILAR TO THOSE IN APTITUDE TESTS, EXPLANATIONS OF THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES, AND THE CORRECT ANSWERS. IT IS THE SECOND OF FOUR BOOKS WHICH PRESENT 30 EXERCISES…

Axis: Generating Explanations at Scale with Learnersourcing and Machine Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Joseph Jay; Kim, Juho; Rafferty, Anna; Heffernan, Neil; Maldonado, Samuel; Gajos, Krzysztof Z.; Lasecki, Walter S.; Heffernan, Neil

2016-01-01

While explanations may help people learn by providing information about why an answer is correct, many problems on online platforms lack high-quality explanations. This paper presents AXIS (Adaptive eXplanation Improvement System), a system for obtaining explanations. AXIS asks learners to generate, revise, and evaluate explanations as they solve…

Knowledge and Awareness Concerning Chemical and Biological Terrorism: Continuing Education Implications.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, Molly A.; Larrimore, Karen L.

2002-01-01

Nurses, physicians, and nursing and medical students (n=291) were surveyed about their awareness of chemical and biological terrorism. Infection control personnel and nurse educators (n=24) were surveyed about terrorism preparation. Fewer than one-quarter of questions were answered correctly, and only about 23% reported confidence in the ability…

How Incorrect Is the Classical Partition Function for the Ideal Gas?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kroemer, Herbert

1980-01-01

Discussed is the classical partition function for the ideal gas and how it differs from the exact value for bosons or fermions in the classical regime. The differences in the two values are negligible hence the classical treatment leads in the end to correct answers for all observables. (Author/DS)

Promoting Creativity through Assessment: A Formative Computer-Assisted Assessment Tool for Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cropley, David; Cropley, Arthur

2016-01-01

Computer-assisted assessment (CAA) is problematic when it comes to fostering creativity, because in educational thinking the essence of creativity is not finding the correct answer but generating novelty. The idea of "functional" creativity provides rubrics that can serve as the basis for forms of CAA leading to either formative or…

The Voice of Holland: Allograph Production in Written Dutch Past Tense Inflection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Bree, Elise; van der Ven, Sanne; van der Maas, Han

2017-01-01

According to the Integration of Multiple Patterns hypothesis (IMP; Treiman & Kessler, 2014), the spelling difficulty of a word is affected by the number of cues converging on the correct answer. We tested this hypothesis in children's regular past tense formation in Dutch. Past tenses are formed by adding either-"de"…

Evaluating the Quality of a Chat Service

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arnold, Julie; Kaske, Neal K.

2005-01-01

A quantitative study of a university chat reference service (online synchronous) addresses the following research questions: (1) What types of questions are being asked? (2) Who is asking the questions of the service? and (3) Did the customers get correct answers to their questions? All the transcripts (351) from January through August 2002 were…

Executive Control and the Experience of Regret

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burns, Patrick; Riggs, Kevin J.; Beck, Sarah R.

2012-01-01

The experience of regret rests on a counterfactual analysis of events. Previous research indicates that regret emerges at around 6 years of age, marginally later than the age at which children begin to answer counterfactual questions correctly. We hypothesized that the late emergence of regret relative to early counterfactual thinking is a result…

Children's Thinking about Counterfactuals and Future Hypotheticals as Possibilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beck, Sarah R.; Robinson, Elizabeth J.; Carroll, Daniel J.; Apperly, Ian A.

2006-01-01

Two experiments explored whether children's correct answers to counter factual and future hypothetical questions were based on an understanding of possibilities. Children played a game in which a toy mouse could run down either 1 of 2 slides. Children found it difficult to mark physically both possible outcomes, compared to reporting a single…

Counterfactual Reasoning: Developing a Sense of "Nearest Possible World"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rafetseder, Eva; Cristi-Vargas, Renate; Perner, Josef

2010-01-01

This study investigated at what point in development 3- to 6-year-old children begin to demonstrate counterfactual reasoning by controlling for fortuitously correct answers that result from basic conditional reasoning. "Basic conditional reasoning" occurs when one applies typical regularities (such as "If 'whenever' it doesn't rain the street is…

The Benefits of Testing for Learning on Later Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McConnell, Meghan M.; St-Onge, Christina; Young, Meredith E.

2015-01-01

Testing has been shown to enhance retention of learned information beyond simple studying, a phenomena known as test-enhanced learning (TEL). Research has shown that TEL effects are greater for tests that require the production of responses [e.g., short-answer questions (SAQs)] relative to tests that require the recognition of correct answers…

Designing EEG Neurofeedback Procedures to Enhance Open-Ended versus Closed-Ended Creative Potentials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Wei-Lun; Shih, Yi-Ling

2016-01-01

Recent empirical evidence demonstrated that open-ended creativity (which refers to creativity measures that require various and numerous responses, such as divergent thinking) correlated with alpha brain wave activation, whereas closed-ended creativity (which refers to creativity measures that ask for one final correct answer, such as insight…

Are Learning Disabled Students "Test-Wise?": An Inquiry into Reading Comprehension Test Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scruggs, Thomas E.; Lifson, Steve

The ability to correctly answer reading comprehension test items, without having read the accompanying reading passage, was compared for third grade learning disabled students and their peers from a regular classroom. In the first experiment, fourteen multiple choice items were selected from the Stanford Achievement Test. No reading passages were…

La Mujer Chicana. (The Chicana Woman).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herrera, Gloria; Lizcano, Jeanette

As objectives for this secondary level unit, students are to: (1) read the unit with comprehension; (2) demonstrate their comprehension of the Chicana's history by participating in an oral discussion utilizing four discussion questions; and (3) correctly answer 15 of the 20 questions on a multiple choice test. The unit consists of a brief history…

Strategic Flexibility in Computational Estimation for Chinese- and Canadian-Educated Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Chang; Wells, Emma; LeFevre, Jo-Anne; Imbo, Ineke

2014-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to examine factors that influence strategic flexibility in computational estimation for Chinese- and Canadian-educated adults. Strategic flexibility was operationalized as the percentage of trials on which participants chose the problem-based procedure that best balanced proximity to the correct answer with…

The Effects of Item by Item Feedback Given during an Ability Test.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whetton, C.; Childs, R.

1981-01-01

Answer-until-correct (AUC) is a procedure for providing feedback during a multiple-choice test, giving an increased range of scores. The performance of secondary students on a verbal ability test using AUC procedures was compared with a group using conventional instructions. AUC scores considerably enhanced reliability but not validity.…

Learning From Tests: Facilitation of Delayed Recall by Initial Recognition Alternatives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitten, William B., II; Leonard, Janet Mauriello

1980-01-01

Two experiments were designed to determine the effects of multiple-choice recognition test alternatives on subsequent memory for the correct answers. Results of both experiments are interpreted as demonstrations of the principle that long-term retention is facilitated such that memory evaluation occurs during initial recognition tests. (Author/RD)

Product Bundling and Shared Information Goods: A Pricing Exercise

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morrison, William G.

2016-01-01

In this article, the author describes an exercise in which two pricing problems (product bundling and the sharing of digital information goods) can be understood using the same analytical approach. The exercise allows students to calculate the correct numerical answers with relative ease, while the teaching plan demonstrates the importance of the…

The Weight of Iron and Feathers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zendri, G.; Gratton, L. M.; Oss, S.

2014-01-01

We discuss the popular question concerning the difference in weight between 1 kg of iron and 1 kg of feathers, by taking into account the non-trivial aspect of the semantic interpretation of "weight" and the weighting procedure. The inclusion of air buoyancy makes the correct answer an interesting one. We describe and comment on the…

The Best Friend Mathematics Ever Had

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mulcahy, Colm; Goetz, Albert

2014-01-01

This article begins with three brain teasers, and the answers, provided at the end of the article, may prove surprising. Figuring out why they are correct leads the reader to delightful "aha" moments. The kinds of "aha!" moments that result from solving these challenges for yourself were held in high estimation by the person…

A Comparison of Intraverbal Training Procedures for Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kodak, Tiffany; Fuchtman, Rashea; Paden, Amber

2012-01-01

We compared the effectiveness of three training procedures, echoic and tact prompting plus error correction and a cues-pause-point (CPP) procedure, for increasing intraverbals in 2 children with autism. We also measured echoic behavior that may have interfered with appropriate question answering. Results indicated that echoic prompting with error…

When Simple Things Are Meaningful: Working Memory Strength Predicts Children's Cognitive Flexibility

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blackwell, Katharine A.; Cepeda, Nicholas J.; Munakata, Yuko

2009-01-01

People often perseverate, repeating outdated behaviors despite correctly answering questions about rules they should be following. Children who perseverate are slower to respond to such questions than children who successfully switch to new rules, even after controlling for age and processing speed. Thus, switchers may have stronger working memory…

Do University Students Know How They Perform?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Battistelli, Piergiorgio; Cadamuro, Alessia; Farneti, Alessandra; Versari, Annalisa

2009-01-01

The aim of the research is to study the capacity for self-evaluation of University students undergoing tests involving mathematics, linguistic and formal reasoning. Subjects were asked to estimate the number of correct answers and subsequently to compare their performance with that of their peers. We divided the subjects into three groups on the…

Eye Closure Reduces the Cross-Modal Memory Impairment Caused by Auditory Distraction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perfect, Timothy J.; Andrade, Jackie; Eagan, Irene

2011-01-01

Eyewitnesses instructed to close their eyes during retrieval recall more correct and fewer incorrect visual and auditory details. This study tested whether eye closure causes these effects through a reduction in environmental distraction. Sixty participants watched a staged event before verbally answering questions about it in the presence of…

Warning Signs!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobs, Victoria R.; Martin, Heather A.; Ambrose, Rebecca C.; Philipp, Randolph A.

2014-01-01

In this article the authors explain that when engaging in a problem-solving conversation with a child, their goal goes beyond helping the child reach a correct answer. They want to learn about the child's mathematical thinking, support that thinking, and extend it as far as possible. This exploration of children's thinking is central to…

Problem Solving with the Elementary Youngster.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swartz, Vicki

This paper explores research on problem solving and suggests a problem-solving approach to elementary school social studies, using a culture study of the ancient Egyptians and King Tut as a sample unit. The premise is that problem solving is particularly effective in dealing with problems which do not have one simple and correct answer but rather…

Multiple Choice Items: How to Gain the Most out of Them.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Talmir, Pinchas

1991-01-01

Describes how multiple-choice items can be designed and used as an effective diagnostic tool by avoiding their pitfalls and by taking advantage of their potential benefits. The following issues are discussed: correct' versus best answers; construction of diagnostic multiple-choice items; the problem of guessing; the use of justifications of…

Groucho: An Energy Conservation Computer Game.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canipe, Stephen L.

Groucho is a computer game designed to teach energy conservation concepts to upper elementary and junior high school students. The game is written in Applesoft Basic for the Apple II microcomputer. A complete listing of the program is provided. The game utilizes low resolution graphics to reward students for correct answers to 10 questions…

Learning from One's Own Errors and Those of Others

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Metcalfe, Janet; Xu, Judy

2017-01-01

Three experiments investigated the effects of making errors oneself, as compared to just hearing the correct answer without error generation, hearing another person make an error, or being "on-the-hook," that is, possibly but not necessarily being the person who would be "called-on" to give a response. In all three experiments,…

Services for All: Are Outcome-Based Education and Flexible School Structures the Answer?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Sarah J.

1995-01-01

This paper discusses the recent controversy over outcome-based education (OBE), arguing that while OBE may be correct in establishing high standards for student learning, its implementation has tended to establish rigid "assembly line" approaches to teaching. A call is made for more flexible and individualized systems that respond to…

Factors Influencing Successful Use of Information Retrieval Systems by Nurse Practitioner Students

PubMed Central

Rose, Linda; Crabtree, Katherine; Hersh, William

1998-01-01

This study examined whether a relationship exists between selected Nurse Practitioner students' attributes and successful information retrieval as demonstrated by correctly answering clinical questions using an information retrieval system (Medline). One predictor variable, attitude toward current computer technology, was significantly correlated (r =0.43, p ≤ .05) with successful literature searching.

Teacher and Students: Setting up the Transference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Carvalho, Ana; Cabral, Tania

2003-01-01

Ana De Carvalho and Tania Cabral write here that they think the learning process rests heavily on the ability of speech, so they recommend placing students more and more in the position of speaking. Not happy with prompt, correct answers, they confront their students with further related questions trying to establish if they have fairly consistent…

Mathematics Practice without Feedback: A Desirable Difficulty in a Classroom Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fyfe, Emily R.; Rittle-Johnson, Bethany

2017-01-01

Recent research highlights the potential benefits of practice without feedback on learner's strategy knowledge. However, most prior work has been conducted in one-on-one settings with short retention intervals. We compared the effects of mathematics practice with and without correct-answer feedback on immediate and 1-week delayed performance in a…

Measuring the Impact of Varied Instructional Approaches in an Introductory Animal Science Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bolt, Brian Grady

2009-01-01

The objectives of this project were to: evaluate the impact of demographic descriptors (gender, class rank and final grade) on student's self perceived level of engagement in classroom activities; measure the impact of varying teaching styles on a student's likelihood of correctly answering a knowledge based question and: assessing the…

Computer-assisted instruction versus traditional lecture for medical student teaching of dermatology morphology: a randomized control trial.

PubMed

Jenkins, Sasha; Goel, Ruchika; Morrell, Dean S

2008-08-01

The effectiveness of computer-assisted instruction is unproven. To evaluate the effectiveness of an online computerized dermatology module compared to traditional lecture-based teaching to medical students. Medical students were randomized to two groups. Group 1 of 37 students had access to a computer-based dermatology tutorial. Group 2 of 36 students attended a lecture on skin morphology, identical to the tutorial, given by a dermatology faculty member. The main outcome was the total number of correct answers on a multiple-choice morphologic terminology final examination. The mean number of questions answered correctly was 16.14 and 14.89 for group 1 and group 2, respectively. Unpaired statistical t tests showed the difference in mean scores between the two groups to be 1.25 (95% confidence interval: -0.70 to 3.20, p value = .20). The study was small, with a small amount of material, and was brief in duration. Within the limits of our study, computer-assisted instruction is at least as effective as traditional lecture teaching of dermatology morphology to medical students.

Do older adults change their eyewitness reports when re-questioned?

PubMed

Henkel, Linda A

2014-05-01

This study examined how older adults responded to different types of pressure to change their responses when questioned a second time about their memory for a crime. After watching a video of a crime and answering questions about remembered details, younger (18-22 years) and older adults (64-91 years) were either given negative feedback about their memory performance, were told that most people their age did poorly on the memory test (stereotype threat), or were simply asked to answer the questions again. This was done regardless of their actual accuracy, and the questions were then repeated. Results showed that both younger and older adults changed significantly more responses following negative feedback and changed more responses on misleading than on nonleading questions. Among older adults, as age increased, accuracy decreased and rate of response change increased. People were moderately confident overall about both their correct and incorrect responses. These results highlight the dangers of repeatedly questioning older witnesses with misleading questions and suggest that the responses that are changed may come to be remembered confidently-regardless of whether they are correct or incorrect.

The shaping of information by visual metaphors.

PubMed

Ziemkiewicz, Caroline; Kosara, Robert

2008-01-01

The nature of an information visualization can be considered to lie in the visual metaphors it uses to structure information. The process of understanding a visualization therefore involves an interaction between these external visual metaphors and the user's internal knowledge representations. To investigate this claim, we conducted an experiment to test the effects of visual metaphor and verbal metaphor on the understanding of tree visualizations. Participants answered simple data comprehension questions while viewing either a treemap or a node-link diagram. Questions were worded to reflect a verbal metaphor that was either compatible or incompatible with the visualization a participant was using. The results (based on correctness and response time) suggest that the visual metaphor indeed affects how a user derives information from a visualization. Additionally, we found that the degree to which a user is affected by the metaphor is strongly correlated with the user's ability to answer task questions correctly. These findings are a first step towards illuminating how visual metaphors shape user understanding, and have significant implications for the evaluation, application, and theory of visualization.

Enhanced Understanding of the Levels of Palliative Care in Pharmacy Students Through Participating in Clinical Training in Hospitals.

PubMed

Myotoku, Michiaki; Omotani, Sachiko; Hatsuda, Yasutoshi; Konishi, Hiroki; Hirotani, Yoshihiko

2017-06-01

A palliative care knowledge survey was conducted involving pharmacy students to examine their perceived usefulness and the educational effect of clinical training in hospitals. A questionnaire sheet was distributed to fifth-year pharmacy students before and after clinical training. The questionnaire consisted of questions to clarify the details of palliative care-related training in hospitals and students' knowledge of such care. The respondents were divided into 2 groups: those who participated in palliative care team (PCT) rounds (group A: 57) and those who did not (group B: 57). The mean total correct answer rate markedly increased after training in group A, from 37.9 to 47.1% (P < .01). Such an increase was also observed in the domains of philosophy and pain in this group ( P < .01). In contrast, group B did not show differences in the mean correct answer rate between before and after training; there was no significant increase in the rate in any domain. Pharmacy students' knowledge was enhanced by participating in the PCT, confirming the usefulness of such participation during training as part of palliative care education.

The relevance of error analysis in graphical symbols evaluation.

PubMed

Piamonte, D P

1999-01-01

In an increasing number of modern tools and devices, small graphical symbols appear simultaneously in sets as parts of the human-machine interfaces. The presence of each symbol can influence the other's recognizability and correct association to its intended referents. Thus, aside from correct associations, it is equally important to perform certain error analysis of the wrong answers, misses, confusions, and even lack of answers. This research aimed to show how such error analyses could be valuable in evaluating graphical symbols especially across potentially different user groups. The study tested 3 sets of icons representing 7 videophone functions. The methods involved parameters such as hits, confusions, missing values, and misses. The association tests showed similar hit rates of most symbols across the majority of the participant groups. However, exploring the error patterns helped detect differences in the graphical symbols' performances between participant groups, which otherwise seemed to have similar levels of recognition. These are very valuable not only in determining the symbols to be retained, replaced or re-designed, but also in formulating instructions and other aids in learning to use new products faster and more satisfactorily.

Students' inductive reasoning skills and the relevance of prior knowledge: an exploratory study with a computer-based training course on the topic of acne vulgaris.

PubMed

Horn-Ritzinger, Sabine; Bernhardt, Johannes; Horn, Michael; Smolle, Josef

2011-04-01

The importance of inductive instruction in medical education is increasingly growing. Little is known about the relevance of prior knowledge regarding students' inductive reasoning abilities. The purpose is to evaluate this inductive teaching method as a means of fostering higher levels of learning and to explore how individual differences in prior knowledge (high [HPK] vs. low [LPK]) contribute to students' inductive reasoning skills. Twenty-six LPK and 18 HPK students could train twice with an interactive computer-based training object to discover the underlying concept before doing the final comprehension check. Students had a median of 76.9% of correct answers in the first, 90.9% in the second training, and answered 92% of the final assessment questions correctly. More important, 86% of all students succeeded with inductive learning, among them 83% of the HPK students and 89% of the LPK students. Prior knowledge did not predict performance on overall comprehension. This inductive instructional strategy fostered students' deep approaches to learning in a time-effective way.

Recognition of facial expressions of mixed emotions in school-age children exposed to terrorism.

PubMed

Scrimin, Sara; Moscardino, Ughetta; Capello, Fabia; Altoè, Gianmarco; Axia, Giovanna

2009-09-01

This exploratory study aims at investigating the effects of terrorism on children's ability to recognize emotions. A sample of 101 exposed and 102 nonexposed children (mean age = 11 years), balanced for age and gender, were assessed 20 months after a terrorist attack in Beslan, Russia. Two trials controlled for children's ability to match a facial emotional stimulus with an emotional label and their ability to match an emotional label with an emotional context. The experimental trial evaluated the relation between exposure to terrorism and children's free labeling of mixed emotion facial stimuli created by morphing between 2 prototypical emotions. Repeated measures analyses of covariance revealed that exposed children correctly recognized pure emotions. Four log-linear models were performed to explore the association between exposure group and category of answer given in response to different mixed emotion facial stimuli. Model parameters indicated that, compared with nonexposed children, exposed children (a) labeled facial expressions containing anger and sadness significantly more often than expected as anger, and (b) produced fewer correct answers in response to stimuli containing sadness as a target emotion.

Interpreting the results of the Semmes-Weinstein monofilament test: accounting for false-positive answers in the international consensus on the diabetic foot protocol by a new model.

PubMed

Slater, Robert A; Koren, Shlomit; Ramot, Yoram; Buchs, Andreas; Rapoport, Micha J

2014-01-01

The Semmes-Weinstein monofilament is the most widely used test to diagnose the loss of protective sensation. The commonly used protocol of the International Consensus on the Diabetic Foot includes a 'sham' application that allows for false-positive answers. We sought to study the heretofore unexamined significance of false-positive answers. Forty-five patients with diabetes and a history of pedal ulceration (Group I) and 81 patients with diabetes but no history of ulceration (Group II) were studied. The three original sites of the International Consensus on the Diabetic Foot at the hallux, 1st metatarsal and 5th metatarsal areas were used. At each location, the test was performed three times: 2 actual and 1 "sham" applications. Scores were graded from 0 to 3 based upon correct responses. Determination of loss of protective sensation was performed with and without calculating a false-positive answer as a minus 1 score. False-positive responses were found in a significant percentage of patients with and without history of ulceration. Introducing false-positive results as minus 1 into the test outcome significantly increased the number of patients diagnosed with loss of protective sensation in both groups. False-positive answers can significantly affect Semmes-Weinstein monofilament test results and the diagnosis of LOPS. A model that accounts for false-positive answers is offered. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[Understanding of medical information provided during orthognathic surgery consultations].

PubMed

Poynard, S; Pare, A; Bonin Goga, B; Laure, B; Goga, D

2014-06-01

A prospective study was conducted from November 2012 to May 2013 to assess what patients had understood after their preoperative consultations for orthognathic surgery. We studied the impact of a written document created in the department, containing the information given during the consultation. Fifty patients were asked to complete 2 questionnaires given to the patient the day before surgery. The first was used to assess what the patients had understood; it included 20 multiple-choice questions on information given during consultation and in the written document. For each item, the patient had to check what he thought to be the right answer. Each correct answer was graded at 1 and each incorrect answer or no answer was graded at 0. The maximum score was 20/20. The second was to assess the written document. Each item was graded from 1 to 10 (Likert-type scale). Thirty-two patients answered both questionnaires. The average score for the first was 15.03/20 (P<0.05), significantly higher than the theoretical average set at 10 (P<0.05). The written document was found understandable (score 8.47/10) and information easy to find (score 7.28/10). The document provided answers to the patients' questions (score 7.50/10), using information given during consultation (score 7.56/10). The 2 consultations and the written document helped patients better understand orthognatic care and surgery. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

Effects of Peer Instruction on State College Student Achievement in an Introductory Biology Unit in Genetics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McKnight, Holly Nicole

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Peer Instruction (PI) in a state college biology classroom. Students discussed biological concepts in the area of genetics among their peers during class time. Conceptual questions were delivered to the student in the form of ConcepTests, conceptual questions designed to uncover students' misconceptions in the material. Students first answered a question projected from the computer to an overhead screen on their own. Depending on the percentage of students that answered correctly, students then discussed their answers with their peers (PI). These discussions allowed students to uncover their misunderstandings in the material by asking them to think about what they know and what they don't know. Students' initial and secondary responses to the related questions gave the instructor a real time instant view of the collective class' conceptual understanding of concepts being covered. This study was a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest, control group design. The sample consisted of 134 students enrolled in General Biology (BSCC 1010) a Eastern Florida State College (EFSC) in Palm Bay, Florida. Both control N = 62 and experimental groups N = 72 were comprised of whole intact classes during the Fall 2014 semester. The control groups received traditional lecture content during the course of the study. They had access to conceptual questions but they were not used in a Peer Instruction format during class time. A statistical analysis was conducted after the completion of pre-tests and posttests during the Fall 2014 semester. Although there was an increase in test scores in the experimental group compared to the control, the results were not significant with p = 0.0687 at an alpha level of .05. No significant difference was found in retention p= 0.5954, gender p = 0.4487 or past science coursework p = 0.6695 between classes that engaged in PI and classes that were taught in traditional lecture-based classes. There were, however, significant differences in correct answers on the individual ConcepTests between the first and second time they answered questions after participating in Peer Instruction, p = .0008.

Differences in medication knowledge and risk of errors between graduating nursing students and working registered nurses: comparative study.

PubMed

Simonsen, Bjoerg O; Daehlin, Gro K; Johansson, Inger; Farup, Per G

2014-11-21

Nurses experience insufficient medication knowledge; particularly in drug dose calculations, but also in drug management and pharmacology. The weak knowledge could be a result of deficiencies in the basic nursing education, or lack of continuing maintenance training during working years. The aim of this study was to compare the medication knowledge, certainty and risk of error between graduating bachelor students in nursing and experienced registered nurses. Bachelor students in closing term and registered nurses with at least one year job experience underwent a multiple choice test in pharmacology, drug management and drug dose calculations: 3x14 questions with 3-4 alternative answers (score 0-42). Certainty of each answer was recorded with score 0-3, 0-1 indicating need for assistance. Risk of error was scored 1-3, where 3 expressed high risk: being certain that a wrong answer was correct. The results are presented as mean and (SD). Participants were 243 graduating students (including 29 men), aged 28.2 (7.6) years, and 203 registered nurses (including 16 men), aged 42.0 (9.3) years and with a working experience of 12.4 years (9.2). The knowledge among the nurses was found to be superior to that of the students: 68.9%(8.0) and 61.5%(7.8) correct answers, respectively, (p < 0.001). The difference was largest in drug management and dose calculations. The improvement occurred during the first working year. The nurses expressed higher degree of certainty and the risk of error was lower, both overall and for each topic (p < 0.01). Low risk of error was associated with high knowledge and high sense of coping (p < 0.001). The medication knowledge among experienced nurses was superior to bachelor students in nursing, but nevertheless insufficient. As much as 25% of the answers to the drug management questions would lead to high risk of error. More emphasis should be put into the basic nursing education and in the introduction to medication procedures in clinical practice to improve the nurses' medication knowledge and reduce the risk of error.

Brain–Computer Interface–Based Communication in the Completely Locked-In State

PubMed Central

Chaudhary, Ujwal; Xia, Bin; Silvoni, Stefano; Cohen, Leonardo G.; Birbaumer, Niels

2017-01-01

Despite partial success, communication has remained impossible for persons suffering from complete motor paralysis but intact cognitive and emotional processing, a state called complete locked-in state (CLIS). Based on a motor learning theoretical context and on the failure of neuroelectric brain–computer interface (BCI) communication attempts in CLIS, we here report BCI communication using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and an implicit attentional processing procedure. Four patients suffering from advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—two of them in permanent CLIS and two entering the CLIS without reliable means of communication—learned to answer personal questions with known answers and open questions all requiring a “yes” or “no” thought using frontocentral oxygenation changes measured with fNIRS. Three patients completed more than 46 sessions spread over several weeks, and one patient (patient W) completed 20 sessions. Online fNIRS classification of personal questions with known answers and open questions using linear support vector machine (SVM) resulted in an above-chance-level correct response rate over 70%. Electroencephalographic oscillations and electrooculographic signals did not exceed the chance-level threshold for correct communication despite occasional differences between the physiological signals representing a “yes” or “no” response. However, electroencephalogram (EEG) changes in the theta-frequency band correlated with inferior communication performance, probably because of decreased vigilance and attention. If replicated with ALS patients in CLIS, these positive results could indicate the first step towards abolition of complete locked-in states, at least for ALS. PMID:28141803

Brain-Computer Interface-Based Communication in the Completely Locked-In State.

PubMed

Chaudhary, Ujwal; Xia, Bin; Silvoni, Stefano; Cohen, Leonardo G; Birbaumer, Niels

2017-01-01

Despite partial success, communication has remained impossible for persons suffering from complete motor paralysis but intact cognitive and emotional processing, a state called complete locked-in state (CLIS). Based on a motor learning theoretical context and on the failure of neuroelectric brain-computer interface (BCI) communication attempts in CLIS, we here report BCI communication using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and an implicit attentional processing procedure. Four patients suffering from advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-two of them in permanent CLIS and two entering the CLIS without reliable means of communication-learned to answer personal questions with known answers and open questions all requiring a "yes" or "no" thought using frontocentral oxygenation changes measured with fNIRS. Three patients completed more than 46 sessions spread over several weeks, and one patient (patient W) completed 20 sessions. Online fNIRS classification of personal questions with known answers and open questions using linear support vector machine (SVM) resulted in an above-chance-level correct response rate over 70%. Electroencephalographic oscillations and electrooculographic signals did not exceed the chance-level threshold for correct communication despite occasional differences between the physiological signals representing a "yes" or "no" response. However, electroencephalogram (EEG) changes in the theta-frequency band correlated with inferior communication performance, probably because of decreased vigilance and attention. If replicated with ALS patients in CLIS, these positive results could indicate the first step towards abolition of complete locked-in states, at least for ALS.

Optimizing multiple-choice tests as tools for learning.

PubMed

Little, Jeri L; Bjork, Elizabeth Ligon

2015-01-01

Answering multiple-choice questions with competitive alternatives can enhance performance on a later test, not only on questions about the information previously tested, but also on questions about related information not previously tested-in particular, on questions about information pertaining to the previously incorrect alternatives. In the present research, we assessed a possible explanation for this pattern: When multiple-choice questions contain competitive incorrect alternatives, test-takers are led to retrieve previously studied information pertaining to all of the alternatives in order to discriminate among them and select an answer, with such processing strengthening later access to information associated with both the correct and incorrect alternatives. Supporting this hypothesis, we found enhanced performance on a later cued-recall test for previously nontested questions when their answers had previously appeared as competitive incorrect alternatives in the initial multiple-choice test, but not when they had previously appeared as noncompetitive alternatives. Importantly, however, competitive alternatives were not more likely than noncompetitive alternatives to be intruded as incorrect responses, indicating that a general increased accessibility for previously presented incorrect alternatives could not be the explanation for these results. The present findings, replicated across two experiments (one in which corrective feedback was provided during the initial multiple-choice testing, and one in which it was not), thus strongly suggest that competitive multiple-choice questions can trigger beneficial retrieval processes for both tested and related information, and the results have implications for the effective use of multiple-choice tests as tools for learning.

Evaluation of efficacy in a pancreas and pancreas-kidney pretransplantation orientation group.

PubMed

Guimaro, M Simon; Yonezawa, E Aparecida Yamada; Lacerda, S Silva; Karam, C Hegedus; de Sá, J Roberto; Miranda, M Perosa de; Andreoli, P Bruno de Araújo

2007-10-01

There is evidence of benefits from psycho-educational groups in the compliance of patients undergoing complex procedures. Psycho-educational groups provide information, elucidate doubts and realities, fade out fantasies, and help lessen patients' anxieties, thus minimizing the chances of complications or irregular behavior. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of an interdisciplinary orientation group for pretransplantation preparation for pancreas/pancreas-kidney grafting. All patients and their accompanying persons who attended information groups from February to August 2005 completed a questionnaire with 15 relevant items about the transplantation process. The efficiency of the orientation group was evaluated according to the percentage of correct answers before and after attending the group. Twenty-seven subjects were evaluated demonstrating an increased number of right answers in 78% of the evaluated items after group attendance. An important improvement was observed in the following items: function of serum sent to the Central Laboratory; serum replacement period; kind of renal donor; blood transfusion; using medicaments; and how often should the patient return for an appointment with the surgeon within the first month. Further items such as surgery risks, using immunosuppressive drugs, and forgetting the medication showed 100% correct answers before and after attending the group. Results suggest that the pretransplantation orientation group is an efficient way to provide information. Applying a knowledge verification questionnaire before and after the group helps to understand the difficulties of participants, thereby guiding the team and elucidating questions that need more consideration.

Competency-based residency training and the web log: modeling practice-based learning and enhancing medical knowledge.

PubMed

Hollon, Matthew F

2015-01-01

By using web-based tools in medical education, there are opportunities to innovatively teach important principles from the general competencies of graduate medical education. Postulating that faculty transparency in learning from uncertainties in clinical work could help residents to incorporate the principles of practice-based learning and improvement (PBLI) in their professional development, faculty in this community-based residency program modeled the steps of PBLI on a weekly basis through the use of a web log. The program confidentially surveyed residents before and after this project about actions consistent with PBLI and knowledge acquired through reading the web log. The frequency that residents encountered clinical situations where they felt uncertain declined over the course of the 24 weeks of the project from a mean frequency of uncertainty of 36% to 28% (Wilcoxon signed rank test, p=0.008); however, the frequency with which residents sought answers when faced with uncertainty did not change (Wilcoxon signed rank test, p=0.39), remaining high at approximately 80%. Residents answered a mean of 52% of knowledge questions correct when tested prior to faculty posts to the blog, rising to a mean of 65% of questions correct when tested at the end of the project (paired t-test, p=0.001). Faculty role modeling of PBLI behaviors and posting clinical questions and answers to a web log led to modest improvements in medical knowledge but did not alter behavior that was already taking place frequently among residents.

A virtual speaker in noisy classroom conditions: supporting or disrupting children's listening comprehension?

PubMed

Nirme, Jens; Haake, Magnus; Lyberg Åhlander, Viveka; Brännström, Jonas; Sahlén, Birgitta

2018-04-05

Seeing a speaker's face facilitates speech recognition, particularly under noisy conditions. Evidence for how it might affect comprehension of the content of the speech is more sparse. We investigated how children's listening comprehension is affected by multi-talker babble noise, with or without presentation of a digitally animated virtual speaker, and whether successful comprehension is related to performance on a test of executive functioning. We performed a mixed-design experiment with 55 (34 female) participants (8- to 9-year-olds), recruited from Swedish elementary schools. The children were presented with four different narratives, each in one of four conditions: audio-only presentation in a quiet setting, audio-only presentation in noisy setting, audio-visual presentation in a quiet setting, and audio-visual presentation in a noisy setting. After each narrative, the children answered questions on the content and rated their perceived listening effort. Finally, they performed a test of executive functioning. We found significantly fewer correct answers to explicit content questions after listening in noise. This negative effect was only mitigated to a marginally significant degree by audio-visual presentation. Strong executive function only predicted more correct answers in quiet settings. Altogether, our results are inconclusive regarding how seeing a virtual speaker affects listening comprehension. We discuss how methodological adjustments, including modifications to our virtual speaker, can be used to discriminate between possible explanations to our results and contribute to understanding the listening conditions children face in a typical classroom.

On the applied implications of the "verbal overshadowing effect".

PubMed

Mickes, Laura; Wixted, John T

2015-05-01

Schooler and Engstler-Schooler (1990) found that participants who wrote out a description of the perpetrator's face after watching a simulated crime video were subsequently less likely to identify that perpetrator from a photo lineup compared to participants in a control condition (i.e., the correct ID rate was reduced). The first registered replication report in Perspectives on Psychological Science confirmed this verbal overshadowing effect (Alogna et al., 2014). Does this result indicate a reduced ability to recognize the person who was verbally described, or does it instead reflect more conservative responding? The answer depends on the still unknown likelihood of identifying an innocent suspect from a lineup (the false ID rate). Assuming the reduced correct ID rate does reflect memory impairment, should the legal system be advised to give less weight to a suspect identification if the witness previously provided a verbal description of the perpetrator? Intuitively, the answer is "yes," but without knowing the false ID rate, it is unclear if a suspect identification following a verbal description should be given less weight or more weight. This is true even if the correct and false ID rates show that verbal descriptions impair memory. In our view, psychologists should withhold giving advice to the legal system about the effect of verbal descriptions on suspect identifications until the issue is investigated by including lineups that contain an innocent suspect. © The Author(s) 2015.

The study of KBP of road construction workers of highway AIDS prevention project before and after intervention.

PubMed

Liu, Dan; Dong, Si-Ping; Gao, Guang-Ming; Fan, Ming-Yu; Zhang, Zong-Jiu; Fang, Peng-Qian

2013-10-01

To get scientific basis for further health education through the research of the road construction workers' KBP before and after the interventions of highway AIDS prevention project. Multi-stage random sampling method was employeed to select workers of 8 sites from 14 sites along highway to investigate their AIDS knowledge, belief and performance (KBP) before and after highway AIDS prevention project. Over 90% of the investigated workers had ever heard about AIDS, and the non-skilled workers of lower educational level improved more after intervention. The correct answer rate of the three transmitting ways of AIDS of drivers which is the focused group of highway before and after intervention had the obvious statistical significance (P<0.05), and the other group's correct answer rates also had improved after intervention. Most people's understanding of preventing AIDS through correct use of condoms when having sex had a statistically significant difference(P<0.05) after prevention. The rates of using condoms of foremen and skilled workers when having sex with commercial sex worker/casual partner increased after intervention. The health education of HIV among the road construction workers is effective and further health education of HIV prevention should be carried out among the road construction workers to improve their knowledge and awareness of avoiding the high-risk behaviors. Copyright © 2013 Hainan Medical College. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Formatting modifications in GRADE evidence profiles improved guideline panelists comprehension and accessibility to information. A randomized trial.

PubMed

Vandvik, Per Olav; Santesso, Nancy; Akl, Elie A; You, John; Mulla, Sohail; Spencer, Frederick A; Johnston, Bradley C; Brozek, Jan; Kreis, Julia; Brandt, Linn; Zhou, Qi; Schünemann, Holger J; Guyatt, Gordon

2012-07-01

To determine the effects of formatting alternatives in Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) evidence profiles on guideline panelists' preferences, comprehension, and accessibility. We randomized 116 antithrombotic therapy guideline panelists to review one of two table formats with four formatting alternatives. After answering relevant questions, panelists reviewed the other format and reported their preferences for specific formatting alternatives. Panelists (88 of 116 invited [76%]) preferred presentation of study event rates over no study event rates (median 1 [interquartile range (IQR) 1] on 1-7 scale), absolute risk differences over absolute risks (median 2 [IQR 3]), and additional information in table cells over footnotes (median 1 [IQR 2]). Panelists presented with time frame information in the tables, and not only in footnotes, were more likely to correctly answer questions regarding time frame (58% vs. 11%, P<0.0001), and those presented with risk differences and not absolute risks were more likely to correctly interpret confidence intervals for absolute effects (95% vs. 54%, P<0.0001). Information was considered easy to find, easy to comprehend, and helpful in making recommendations regardless of table format (median 6, IQR 0-1). Panelists found information in GRADE evidence profiles accessible. Correct comprehension of some key information was improved by providing additional information in table and presenting risk differences. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Improving college students' evaluation of text learning using idea-unit standards.

PubMed

Dunlosky, John; Hartwig, Marissa K; Rawson, Katherine A; Lipko, Amanda R

2011-03-01

When recalling key definitions from class materials, college students are often overconfident in the quality of their responses. Even with commission errors, they often judge that their response is entirely or partially correct. To further understand this overconfidence, we investigated whether idea-unit judgements would reduce overconfidence (Experiments 1 and 2) and whether students inflated their scores because they believed that they knew answers but just responded incorrectly (Experiment 2). College students studied key-term definitions and later attempted to recall each definition when given the key term (e.g., What is the availability heuristic?). All students judged the quality of their recall, but some were given a full-definition standard to use, whereas other students first judged whether their response included each of the individual ideas within the corresponding correct answer. In Experiment 1, making these idea-unit judgements reduced overconfidence for commission errors. In Experiment 2, some students were given the correct definitions and graded other students' responses, and some students generated idea units themselves before judging their responses. Students were overconfident even when they graded other students' responses, and, as important, self-generated idea units for each definition also reduced overconfidence in commission errors. Thus, overconfidence appears to result from difficulties in evaluating the quality of recall responses, and such overconfidence can be reduced by using idea-unit judgements.

What Can Repeated Cross-Sectional Studies Tell Us about Student Growth? Research Report. ETS RR-12-17

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Almond, Russell G.; Sinharay, Sandip

2012-01-01

To answer questions about how students' proficiencies are changing over time, educational researchers are looking for data sources that span many years. Clearly, for answering questions about student growth, a longitudinal study--in which a single sample is followed over many years--is preferable to repeated cross-sectional samples--in which a…

A Qualitative Phenomenological Analysis Exploring Digital Immigrants' Use of Church-Based Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brinkman-Kealey, Renee

2012-01-01

Individuals and societies have traditionally sought answers to important questions in life through religion. In the 21st century, physical churches with clergy are no longer the sole source of spiritual answers or knowledge. Since the late 1960s, church attendance has been declining. Church leaders have begun to implement new methods such as using…

We Don't Have to Learn Anything; We Just Have to Find the Answer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoover, Clara

2005-01-01

In today's society, how many people just want to know the answer? How many students are satisfied with accepting their first Internet hit without comparing information and validating sources? How many adults do the same? With today's technology, instant gratification and completing a task as quickly as possible seem to be the norm. This article…

1927 reference in the new millennium: where is the Automat?

PubMed Central

Worel, Sunny Lynn; Rethlefsen, Melissa Lyle

2003-01-01

James Ballard, director at the Boston Medical Library, tracked questions he received at the reference desk in 1927 to recognize the trend of queries and to record the information for future use. He presented a paper on reference services that listed sixty of his reference questions at the Thirtieth Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association (MLA) in 1927. During a two-month period in 2001, the authors examined Ballard's questions by attempting to answer them with print sources from the 1920s and with the Internet. The searchers answered 85% of the questions with the Internet and 80% with 1920s reference sources. The authors compared Internet and 1920s print resources for practical use. When answering the questions with 1920s resources, the searchers rediscovered a time in health sciences libraries when there was no Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, no standardized subject headings, and no comprehensive listings of available books. Yet, the authors found many of the 1920s reference materials to be quite useful and often multifunctional. The authors recorded observations regarding the impact of automation on answering reference questions. Even though the Internet has changed the outward appearance of reference services, many things remain the same. PMID:12883575

Impact of a Developmental Care Training Course on the Knowledge and Satisfaction of Health Care Professionals in Neonatal Units: A Multicenter Study.

PubMed

Mosqueda-Peña, Rocío; Lora-Pablos, David; Pavón-Muñoz, Abraham; Ureta-Velasco, Noelia; Moral-Pumarega, María Teresa; Pallás-Alonso, Carmen Rosa

2016-04-01

The impact of health-related continuing education courses on knowledge acquisition and clinical practice is infrequently evaluated, despite higher numbers of people enrolling in them. The majority of health care professionals working in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) have received no training in developmental care (DC). The purpose of this study was to determine whether participation in a theoretical-practical course on DC had an effect on the degree of knowledge possessed by professionals in general terms and with respect to neonatal intensive care. The relationship between course satisfaction and knowledge acquisition was also studied. This was an observational multicenter study conducted in 20 neonatal units in Madrid. A pre- and post-course questionnaire evaluated both knowledge and satisfaction levels regarding the course on DC and the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP). We carried out a multivariate linear regression analysis to determine whether there was a correlation between knowledge gained and satisfaction level. A total of 566 professionals participated, with a 99% pre-course and a 90% post-course response rate. The mean rate of correct pre-course answers was 65%, while the mean rate of post-course correct answers was 81% (p < 0.001). Results were similar at all levels of neonatal care (Level I: 64% vs 80%; Level II: 64% vs. 83%; and 65% vs. 81%). Scores on a scale of satisfaction from 1 to 5 were high (averages of above 4 for all lectures and workshops). Pre-course knowledge scores, but not satisfaction, significantly influenced post-course knowledge (β 0.499; p < 0.01). Previous DC knowledge among Madrid health care professionals was similar, regardless of the level of neonatal care. Course attendance significantly improved the rate of correct answers. Although course satisfaction was high, there did not seem to be a correlation between knowledge gained and satisfaction. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.