Sample records for objective study questions

  1. Setting a research question, aim and objective.

    PubMed

    Doody, Owen; Bailey, Maria E

    2016-03-01

    To describe the development of a research question, aim and objective. The first steps of any study are developing the research question, aim and objective. Subsequent steps develop from these and they govern the researchers' choice of population, setting, data to be collected and time period for the study. Clear, succinctly posed research questions, aims and objectives are essential if studies are to be successful. Researchers developing their research questions, aims and objectives generally experience difficulties. They are often overwhelmed trying to convert what they see as a relevant issue from practice into research. This necessitates engaging with the relevant published literature and knowledgeable people. This paper identifies the issues to be considered when developing a research question, aim and objective. Understanding these considerations will enable researchers to effectively present their research question, aim and objective. To conduct successful studies, researchers should develop clear research questions, aims and objectives.

  2. Objective structured brainstorming questions (OSBQs) in PBL tutorial sessions: Evidence based pilot study

    PubMed Central

    AlHoqail, Ibrahim A.; Badr, Fouad M.

    2010-01-01

    The fact that faculty tutors do have different backgrounds and specialty has been a concern as a factor that contributes to disparity in the delivery of brainstorming session outcomes. This paper aims to introduce a road map in the form of a set of focused objective structured questions (OSBQs) for tutors to follow in brainstorming. Methods Objectively structured questions were generated by the block planning committees. A pilot study was conducted from February 2008 – March 2009 and included groups (44 students) of second and third year undergraduate students of the Faculty of Medicine, King Fahad Medical City. Four indicators were considered to check the validity of the proposed OSBQs; (i) feed back on the perception of medical students experiencing different types of tutorial sessions, (ii) learning objectives achieved under both systems, (iii) student’s performance under the OSBQs and the unguided tutorials and (iv) proper utilization of the time allocated to brainstorming sessions. Results The student’s perception of their satisfaction of implementation of OSBQs was unanimous. Student’s performances were much better in blocks implementing OSBQs. The time allocated for brainstorming sessions was efficiently utilized with the introduction of OSBQs. Conclusion Implementation of OSBQs leads to standardization of tutorial sessions and allows more interaction between students to achieve their learning objectives and score better in their exams. Concern over the role of tutors will diminish. PMID:21475549

  3. Objective structured brainstorming questions (OSBQs) in PBL tutorial sessions: Evidence based pilot study.

    PubMed

    Alhoqail, Ibrahim A; Badr, Fouad M

    2010-11-01

    The fact that faculty tutors do have different backgrounds and specialty has been a concern as a factor that contributes to disparity in the delivery of brainstorming session outcomes. This paper aims to introduce a road map in the form of a set of focused objective structured questions (OSBQs) for tutors to follow in brainstorming. Objectively structured questions were generated by the block planning committees. A pilot study was conducted from February 2008 - March 2009 and included groups (44 students) of second and third year undergraduate students of the Faculty of Medicine, King Fahad Medical City. Four indicators were considered to check the validity of the proposed OSBQs; (i) feed back on the perception of medical students experiencing different types of tutorial sessions, (ii) learning objectives achieved under both systems, (iii) student's performance under the OSBQs and the unguided tutorials and (iv) proper utilization of the time allocated to brainstorming sessions. The student's perception of their satisfaction of implementation of OSBQs was unanimous. Student's performances were much better in blocks implementing OSBQs. The time allocated for brainstorming sessions was efficiently utilized with the introduction of OSBQs. Implementation of OSBQs leads to standardization of tutorial sessions and allows more interaction between students to achieve their learning objectives and score better in their exams. Concern over the role of tutors will diminish.

  4. "Reading an Object": Developing Effective Scientific Inquiry Using Student Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hynes-Berry, Mary; Berry, Gordon

    2014-01-01

    We explore the power of allowing students to construct their own conceptual understanding as they "read an object" in a series of guided inquiry steps, developing their own questions about the object. Their ownership of questions increases the learner's engagement and results in more efficacious learning and meets the standards of…

  5. Handling Questions and Objections Affects Audience Judgments of Speakers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Daly, John A.; Redlick, Madeleine H.

    2016-01-01

    Listeners evaluate well-delivered presentations more positively than those that are poorly delivered. In today's world, presenters often face challenging questions and objections from listeners during or after their presentations. Surprisingly, while there are a number of theoretical reasons to anticipate that how presenters respond to objections…

  6. Textbook Publishers' Website Objective Question Banks: Does Their Use Improve Students' Examination Performance?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnston, Scott Paul; Huczynski, Andrzej

    2006-01-01

    This article presents the findings of a survey of students' usage of the objective question bank section of an academic publisher's textbook website. The findings are based on a survey of 239 business and management undergraduates conducted using a quantitative research methodology. The results suggest that increased use of the objective question…

  7. Children's Question Asking and Curiosity: A Training Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jirout, Jamie; Klahr, David

    2011-01-01

    A primary instructional objective of most early science programs is to foster children's scientific curiosity and question-asking skills (Jirout & Klahr, 2011). However, little is known about the relationship between curiosity, question-asking behavior, and general inquiry skills. While curiosity and question asking are invariably mentioned in…

  8. Effectiveness of Guided Multiple Choice Objective Questions Test on Students' Academic Achievement in Senior School Mathematics by School Location

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Igbojinwaekwu, Patrick Chukwuemeka

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated, using pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design, the effectiveness of guided multiple choice objective questions test on students' academic achievement in Senior School Mathematics, by school location, in Delta State Capital Territory, Nigeria. The sample comprised 640 Students from four coeducation secondary…

  9. Fostering Effective Studying and Study Planning with Study Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wilhelm, Pascal; Pieters, Jules M.

    2007-01-01

    In a course on biological psychology and neuropsychology, study questions were provided that also appeared as test questions in the course exam. This method was introduced to support students in active processing and reproduction of the study texts, and study planning. Data were gathered to test the hypothesis that study question use would be…

  10. Objective questions in orthopaedic nursing objective questions in orthopaedic nursing Cole P Churchill Lovingstone 212pp £8.50 0-443-02473-1.

    PubMed

    1988-01-09

    The presentation of Elizabeth Evans's book is good; typography and her style make it very readable; and it is well illustrated throughout. The first of two sections deals with multiple choice (MCQs) and the true/ false type questions. The second contains nursing care studies with relevant MCQs for the reader to answer.

  11. ERPs Reveal Atypical Processing of Subject versus Object "Wh"-Questions in Children with Specific Language Impairment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Epstein, Baila; Hestvik, Arild; Shafer, Valerie L.; Schwartz, Richard G.

    2013-01-01

    Background: Children with specific language impairment (SLI) show particular difficulty comprehending and producing object ("Who did the bear follow?") relative to subject ("Who followed the tiger?") "wh"-questions. Aims: To determine if school-age children with SLI, relative to children with typical development (TD),…

  12. Questions for Surveys

    PubMed Central

    Schaeffer, Nora Cate; Dykema, Jennifer

    2011-01-01

    We begin with a look back at the field to identify themes of recent research that we expect to continue to occupy researchers in the future. As part of this overview, we characterize the themes and topics examined in research about measurement and survey questions published in Public Opinion Quarterly in the past decade. We then characterize the field more broadly by highlighting topics that we expect to continue or to grow in importance, including the relationship between survey questions and the total survey error perspective, cognitive versus interactional approaches, interviewing practices, mode and technology, visual aspects of question design, and culture. Considering avenues for future research, we advocate for a decision-oriented framework for thinking about survey questions and their characteristics. The approach we propose distinguishes among various aspects of question characteristics, including question topic, question type and response dimension, conceptualization and operationalization of the target object, question structure, question form, response categories, question implementation, and question wording. Thinking about question characteristics more systematically would allow study designs to take into account relationships among these characteristics and identify gaps in current knowledge. PMID:24970951

  13. Assessment of item-writing flaws in multiple-choice questions.

    PubMed

    Nedeau-Cayo, Rosemarie; Laughlin, Deborah; Rus, Linda; Hall, John

    2013-01-01

    This study evaluated the quality of multiple-choice questions used in a hospital's e-learning system. Constructing well-written questions is fraught with difficulty, and item-writing flaws are common. Study results revealed that most items contained flaws and were written at the knowledge/comprehension level. Few items had linked objectives, and no association was found between the presence of objectives and flaws. Recommendations include education for writing test questions.

  14. Overprompting Science Students Using Adjunct Study Questions.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holliday, William G.

    1983-01-01

    The selective attention model was used to explain effects of overprompting students (N=170) provided with study questions adjunct to a complex flow diagram describing scientific cyclical schema. Strongly prompting students to answers of questions was less effective than an unprompted question treatment, suggesting that prompting techniques be used…

  15. Near East and North Africa: A Question Syllabus. Center for Area and Country Studies.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Howard, Harry N.

    This study syllabus on the Near East and North Africa is divided into twelve units. Designed to familiarize government personnel assigned to the area with the region and people, each unit consists of a statement of the main objectives to be studied, questions for consideration, and a list of suggested readings from books and periodicals. Units…

  16. From ideas to studies: how to get ideas and sharpen them into research questions.

    PubMed

    Vandenbroucke, Jan P; Pearce, Neil

    2018-01-01

    Where do new research questions come from? This is at best only partially taught in courses or textbooks about clinical or epidemiological research. Methods are taught under the assumption that a researcher already knows the research question and knows which methods will fit that question. Similarly, the real complexity of the thought processes that lead to a scientific undertaking is almost never described in published papers. In this paper, we first discuss how to get an idea that is worth researching. We describe sources of new ideas and how to foster a creative attitude by "cultivating your thoughts". Only a few of these ideas will make it into a study. Next, we describe how to sharpen and focus a research question so that a study becomes feasible and a valid test of the underlying idea. To do this, the idea needs to be "pruned". Pruning a research question means cutting away anything that is unnecessary, so that only the essence remains. This includes determining both the latent and the stated objectives, specific pruning questions, and the use of specific schemes to structure reasoning. After this, the following steps include preparation of a brief protocol, conduct of a pilot study, and writing a draft of the paper including draft tables. Then you are ready to carry out your research.

  17. From ideas to studies: how to get ideas and sharpen them into research questions

    PubMed Central

    Vandenbroucke, Jan P; Pearce, Neil

    2018-01-01

    Where do new research questions come from? This is at best only partially taught in courses or textbooks about clinical or epidemiological research. Methods are taught under the assumption that a researcher already knows the research question and knows which methods will fit that question. Similarly, the real complexity of the thought processes that lead to a scientific undertaking is almost never described in published papers. In this paper, we first discuss how to get an idea that is worth researching. We describe sources of new ideas and how to foster a creative attitude by “cultivating your thoughts”. Only a few of these ideas will make it into a study. Next, we describe how to sharpen and focus a research question so that a study becomes feasible and a valid test of the underlying idea. To do this, the idea needs to be “pruned”. Pruning a research question means cutting away anything that is unnecessary, so that only the essence remains. This includes determining both the latent and the stated objectives, specific pruning questions, and the use of specific schemes to structure reasoning. After this, the following steps include preparation of a brief protocol, conduct of a pilot study, and writing a draft of the paper including draft tables. Then you are ready to carry out your research. PMID:29563838

  18. The class inclusion question: a case study in applying pragmatics to the experimental study of cognition.

    PubMed

    Politzer, Guy

    2016-01-01

    For more than 70 years, Piaget's class-inclusion task (given, e.g., five asters and three tulips, the child is asked whether "there are more asters or more flowers") has been the object of experimental investigation. Inclusion is of considerable importance for cognitive science as it is a key concept for logical operations and knowledge representation. It is shown that the question can be characterised by a kind of privative ambiguity which is at the source of the younger children's answer, "more asters". A relevance-theoretic explanation of children's interpretation of the question and of the subsequent responses is expounded. This account can explain the effect of all the factors that are known to influence performance (e.g., role of collections, counting, typicality, qualification, syntax, etc.), a review of which is presented. It is further tested experimentally. The development of performance is explained on the basis of the way children disambiguate the question. This study exemplifies the two ways in which pragmatic analysis is pertinent to the study of children's (as well as adults') reasoning and judgement, namely in explaining and predicting participants' comprehension of the statements and questions, and in taking into account attribution processes that occur in the experimental setting.

  19. On the placement of practice questions during study.

    PubMed

    Weinstein, Yana; Nunes, Ludmila D; Karpicke, Jeffrey D

    2016-03-01

    Retrieval practice improves retention of information on later tests. A question remains: When should retrieval occur during learning-interspersed throughout study or at the end of each study period? In a lab experiment, an online experiment, and a classroom study, we aimed to determine the ideal placement (interspersed vs. at-the-end) of retrieval practice questions. In the lab experiment, 64 subjects viewed slides about APA style and answered short-answer practice questions about the content or restudied the slides (restudy condition). The practice questions either appeared 1 every 1-2 slides (interspersed condition), or all at the end of the presentation (at-the-end condition). One week later, subjects returned and answered the same questions on a final test. In the online experiment, 175 subjects completed the same procedure. In the classroom study, 62 undergraduate students took quizzes as part of class lectures. Short-answer practice questions appeared either throughout the lectures (interspersed condition) or at the end of the lectures (at-the-end condition). Nineteen days after the last quiz, students were given a surprise final test. Results from the 3 experiments converge in demonstrating an advantage for interspersing practice questions on the initial tests, but an absence of this advantage on the final test. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  20. The Use of Management and Marketing Textbook Multiple-Choice Questions: A Case Study.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hampton, David R.; And Others

    1993-01-01

    Four management and four marketing professors classified multiple-choice questions in four widely adopted introductory textbooks according to the two levels of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives: knowledge and intellectual ability and skill. Inaccuracies may cause instructors to select questions that require less thinking than they intend.…

  1. Questioning Techniques: A Study of Instructional Practice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hill, Joan Buchanan

    2012-01-01

    This study took place in an independent all girls' school which serves over six hundred students in grades pre-kindergarten through twelve. This study seeks to answer the question: To what extent do teachers use questions to encourage deeper thinking and fuller responses. Through a review of literature, observations, interviews and analysis,…

  2. The Question of Decalage Between Object Permanence and Person Permanence

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    And Others; Jackson, Elaine

    1978-01-01

    Presents a study of decalage between object permanence and person permanence. Decalage was influenced by environmental as well as stimulus factors with infants tested between 6- and 81/4-months/of-age. (BD)

  3. Any Questions? Want to Stimulate Student Curiosity? Let Them Ask Questions!

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Weiss, Tarin Harrar

    2013-01-01

    Of the eight scientific practices highlighted in "A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas," the first is for students to develop abilities to ask questions and define problems (NRC 2012). Constructing a range of questions about an object or phenomenon validates not only what students have…

  4. Thoughts on Improvable Objects, Contradiction and Object/Tool Reciprocity in a Study of Zoo Educator Professional Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ash, Doris B.; Kelly, Lisa-Anne DeGregoria

    2013-01-01

    In this forum we discuss three aspects designed to clarify and extend Kelly and Kassing's paper. These are the roles of improvable objects, contradiction and object/tool reciprocity. In each case we cite relevant literature and pose questions to the field. Our goal is to seed ideas for future discussions concerning the role of activity theory…

  5. The kinds of questions asked by novice teachers in learning mathematics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zahra, L.; Kusmayadi, T. A.; Usodo, B.

    2018-05-01

    This study describes the kinds of questions asked by novice teachers during mathematics learning process in senior high school. This study used descriptive analysis. The subjects of this study were two novice teachers who teach mathematics in 10th grade. The result showed that the frequently asked questions by novice teachers based on the objective were compliance questions, rethorical questions and sometimes prompting questions and probing questions. The frequently questions asked by novice teacher based on the cognitive process dimension of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy were questions of remembering, questions of understanding, questions of applying, questions of analyzing and questions of evaluating. The novice teachers asked the routine questions which had same thinking level. The question with the highest level of thinking did not asked by the novice teachers.

  6. Differential Effects of Science Study Questions.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holliday, William G.; And Others

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the differential effects on low and high verbal students of verbatim study questions adjunct to a text describing science concepts. The sample consisted of 217 eighth grade students enrolled in twelve Calgary (Alberta, Canada) schools. Materials developed for the study included an introduction to the…

  7. Children's questions: a mechanism for cognitive development.

    PubMed

    Chouinard, Michael M

    2007-01-01

    findings from Studies 1 and 2. In addition, while children still ask many nonbiological questions about the animals ("what is its name?"), biological information ("how do babies grow their bees?") is requested with much greater frequency in this study, although this need not necessarily be the case. Further, the nature of these questions suggests they may support the building of conceptual structures within the domain of biological knowledge, at a time just before the age when children make important conceptual changes in this area. Further, the type of stimulus materials used has an impact on the questions children ask; children are less likely to ask deep conceptual questions when looking at drawings or replicas of objects than when looking at the real thing. Finally, Study 4 examines the causal relation between children's questions and change in knowledge state by investigating whether or not children can ask questions in order to gain information that allows them to solve a problem. Sixty-seven 4-year-olds were asked to figure out which of two items were hidden in a box. Half of the children were allowed to ask questions to help them figure this out. Despite many ways in which they could fail to use questions correctly, children who were allowed to ask questions were significantly more likely to identify the object hidden in the box, an overt indication of their change in knowledge state. Further, children relied on their existing conceptual information about the objects to help generate disambiguating questions; even though they had a faster "dumb" method of disambiguating the objects via nonconceptual perceptual information ("is it purple?"), they were just as likely to generate questions that tapped into nonvisible conceptual information ("does it purr?"). These results suggest that children are capable of using their existing knowledge structures to generate questions that change their knowledge state in a way that allows them to productively solve a problem; they

  8. Investigating Consistency of Questions in Primary and Middle School Science Textbooks with Objectives in Science Curriculum

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yaman, Süleyman

    2017-01-01

    Due to problems related their content and use; textbooks do not achieve the expected effect in learning although they are one of the most important elements of the science curriculum. Questions in textbooks are also important criteria in determining the effect of textbooks. In this study, it was aimed to compare questions in four different science…

  9. The Artful Dodger: Answering the Wrong Question the Right Way

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rogers, Todd; Norton, Michael I.

    2011-01-01

    What happens when speakers try to "dodge" a question they would rather not answer by answering a different question? In 4 studies, we show that listeners can fail to detect dodges when speakers answer similar--but objectively incorrect--questions (the "artful dodge"), a detection failure that goes hand-in-hand with a failure to rate dodgers more…

  10. Questioning Questions: Elementary Teachers' Adaptations of Investigation Questions Across the Inquiry Continuum

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Biggers, Mandy

    2018-02-01

    Questioning is a central practice in science classrooms. However, not every question translates into a "good" science investigation. Questions that drive science investigations can be provided by many sources including the teacher, the curriculum, or the student. The variations in the source of investigation questions were explored in this study. A dataset of 120 elementary science classroom videos and associated lesson plans from 40 elementary teachers (K-5) across 21 elementary school campuses were scored on an instrument measuring the amount of teacher-direction or student-direction of the lessons' investigation questions. Results indicated that the investigation questions were overwhelmingly teacher directed in nature, with no opportunities for students to develop their own questions for investigation. This study has implications for researchers and practitioners alike, calling attention to the teacher-directed nature of investigation questions in existing science curriculum materials, and the need for teacher training in instructional strategies to adapt their existing curriculum materials across the continuum of teacher-directed and student-directed investigation questions. Teachers need strategies for adapting the teacher-directed questions provided in their existing curriculum materials in order to allow students the opportunity to engage in this essential scientific practice.

  11. Teacher Questioning in Undergraduate Mathematics: A Collective Case Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    White, Tracy Foote

    2016-01-01

    This study examines the mathematical questioning of undergraduate Calculus I instructors for the purpose of detailing the ways in which instructors are using their questions. The emphasis is on verbal questions because of their in-the-moment value and ability to get students engaged in discourse. Calculus I is of particular interest because of its…

  12. Test Pool Questions, Area III.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sloan, Jamee Reid

    This manual contains multiple choice questions to be used in testing students on nurse training objectives. Each test includes several questions covering each concept. The concepts in section A, medical surgical nursing, are diseases of the following systems: musculoskeletal; central nervous; cardiovascular; gastrointestinal; urinary and male…

  13. The use of self-report questions to examine the prevalence of musculoskeletal problems: a test-retest study.

    PubMed

    Gill, Tiffany K; Tucker, Graeme R; Avery, Jodie C; Shanahan, E Michael; Menz, Hylton B; Taylor, Anne W; Adams, Robert J; Hill, Catherine L

    2016-02-24

    Case definition has long been an issue for comparability of results obtained for musculoskeletal pain prevalence, however the test-retest reliability of questions used to determine joint pain prevalence has not been examined. The objective of this study was to determine question reliability and the impact of question wording, ordering and the time between questions on responses. A Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) survey was used to re-administer questions collected as part of a population-based longitudinal cohort study. On two different occasions questions were asked of the same sample of 203 community dwelling respondents (which were initially randomly selected) aged 18 years and over at two time points 14 to 27 days apart (average 15 days). Reliability of the questions was assessed using Cohen's kappa (κ) and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and whether question wording and period effects existed was assessed using a crossover design. The self-reported prevalence of doctor diagnosed arthritis demonstrated excellent reliability (κ = 0.84 and κ = 0.79 for questionnaires 1 and 2 respectively). The reliability of questions relating to musculoskeletal pain and/or stiffness ranged from moderate to excellent for both types of questions, that is, those related to ever having joint pain on most days for at least a month (κ = 0.52 to κ = 0.95) and having pain and/or stiffness on most days for the last month (κ = 0.52 to κ = 0.90). However there was an effect of question wording on the results obtained for hand, foot and back pain and/or stiffness indicating that the area of pain may influence prevalence estimates. Joint pain and stiffness questions are reliable and can be used to determine prevalence. However, question wording and pain area may impact on estimates with issues such as pain perception and effect on activities playing a possible role in the recall of musculoskeletal pain.

  14. How should we question young children's understanding of aspectuality?

    PubMed

    Waters, Gillian M; Beck, Sarah R

    2012-09-01

    In two experiments, we investigated whether 4- to 5-year-old children's ability to demonstrate their understanding of aspectuality was influenced by how the test question was phrased. In Experiment 1, 60 children chose whether to look or feel to gain information about a hidden object (identifiable by sight or touch). Test questions referred either to the perceptual aspect of the hidden object (e.g., whether it was red or blue), the modality dimension (e.g., what colour it was), or the object's identity (e.g., which one it was). Children who heard the identity question performed worse than those who heard the aspect or dimension question. Further investigation in Experiment 2 (N= 23) established that children's difficulty with the identity question was not due to a problem recalling the objects. We discuss how the results of these methodological investigations impact on researchers' assessment of the development of aspectuality understanding. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

  15. Asking a Great Question: A Librarian Teaches Questioning Skills to First-Year Medical Students.

    PubMed

    Adams, Nancy E

    2015-01-01

    In a single one-hour session, first-year medical students were taught a framework for differentiating between lower-order questions that lead to knowledge of facts and higher-order questions that lead to integration of concepts and deeper learning, thereby preparing them for problem-based learning (PBL). Students generated lists of questions in response to an assertion prompt and categorized them according to Bloom's Taxonomy. These data were analyzed in addition to data from the course exam, which asked them to formulate a higher-level question in response to a prompt. Categorizing questions according to Bloom's Taxonomy was a more difficult task for students than was formulating higher-order questions. Students reported that the skills that they learned were used in subsequent PBL sessions to formulate higher-order learning objectives that integrated new and previously-learned concepts.

  16. Asking good clinical research questions and choosing the right study design.

    PubMed

    Bragge, P

    2010-07-01

    Clinicians and researchers seek answers to clinical research questions, primarily by accessing the results of clinical research studies. This paper moves the focus of research enquiry from getting answers to developing good clinical research questions. Using worked examples, the steps involved in refining questions drawn from various sources to create 'answerable' clinical research questions using the 'PICO' principle are described. Issues to consider in prioritising clinical research questions are also identified. Theoretical and practical considerations involved in choosing the right study design for a clinical research question are then discussed using the worked examples. These include: Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. A Semi-Supervised Learning Approach to Enhance Health Care Community–Based Question Answering: A Case Study in Alcoholism

    PubMed Central

    Klabjan, Diego; Jonnalagadda, Siddhartha Reddy

    2016-01-01

    Background Community-based question answering (CQA) sites play an important role in addressing health information needs. However, a significant number of posted questions remain unanswered. Automatically answering the posted questions can provide a useful source of information for Web-based health communities. Objective In this study, we developed an algorithm to automatically answer health-related questions based on past questions and answers (QA). We also aimed to understand information embedded within Web-based health content that are good features in identifying valid answers. Methods Our proposed algorithm uses information retrieval techniques to identify candidate answers from resolved QA. To rank these candidates, we implemented a semi-supervised leaning algorithm that extracts the best answer to a question. We assessed this approach on a curated corpus from Yahoo! Answers and compared against a rule-based string similarity baseline. Results On our dataset, the semi-supervised learning algorithm has an accuracy of 86.2%. Unified medical language system–based (health related) features used in the model enhance the algorithm’s performance by proximately 8%. A reasonably high rate of accuracy is obtained given that the data are considerably noisy. Important features distinguishing a valid answer from an invalid answer include text length, number of stop words contained in a test question, a distance between the test question and other questions in the corpus, and a number of overlapping health-related terms between questions. Conclusions Overall, our automated QA system based on historical QA pairs is shown to be effective according to the dataset in this case study. It is developed for general use in the health care domain, which can also be applied to other CQA sites. PMID:27485666

  18. 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

  19. "Wh"-Questions in the English Language

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mowarin, Macaulay

    2011-01-01

    This paper analyzes "wh"-questions in the English Language based mainly on Chomsky's Minimalist Programme of transformational grammar as the theoretical model. The four main objectives of this paper are as follows: first, it undertakes a cross linguistic typological analysis of "wh"-questions and it then discusses the derivation of…

  20. Strange Bedfellows? Common Ground on the Moral Status Question

    PubMed Central

    Wilkins, Shane Maxwell

    2016-01-01

    When does a developing human being acquire moral status? I outline three different positions based on substance ontology that attempt to solve the question by locating some morally salient event in the process of human development question. In the second section, I consider some specific empirical objections to one of these positions, refute them, and then show how similar objections and responses would generalize to the other substance-based positions on the question. The crucial finding is that all the attempts to answer the question that involve substance ontology need to appeal to dispositions. PMID:26887642

  1. When is a research question not a research question?

    PubMed

    Mayo, Nancy E; Asano, Miho; Barbic, Skye Pamela

    2013-06-01

    Research is undertaken to answer important questions yet often the question is poorly expressed and lacks information on the population, the exposure or intervention, the comparison, and the outcome. An optimal research question sets out what the investigator wants to know, not what the investigator might do, nor what the results of the study might ultimately contribute. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the extent to which rehabilitation scientists optimally define their research questions. A cross-sectional survey of the rehabilitation research articles published during 2008. Two raters independently rated each question according to pre-specified criteria; a third rater adjudicated all discrepant ratings. The proportion of the 258 articles with a question formulated as methods or expected contribution and not as what knowledge was being sought was 65%; 30% of questions required reworking. The designs which most often had poorly formulated research questions were randomized trials, cross-sectional and measurement studies. Formulating the research question is not purely a semantic concern. When the question is poorly formulated, the design, analysis, sample size calculations, and presentation of results may not be optimal. The gap between research and clinical practice could be bridged by a clear, complete, and informative research question.

  2. The Value Question in Metaphysics

    PubMed Central

    Kahane, Guy

    2012-01-01

    Much seems to be at stake in metaphysical questions about, for example, God, free will or morality. One thing that could be at stake is the value of the universe we inhabit—how good or bad it is. We can think of competing philosophical positions as describing possibilities, ways the world might turn out to be, and to which value can be assigned. When, for example, people hope that God exists, or fear that we do not possess free will, they express attitudes towards these possibilities, attitudes that presuppose answers to questions about their comparative value. My aim in this paper is to distinguish these evaluative questions from related questions with which they can be confused, to identify structural constraints on their proper pursuit, and to address objections to their very coherence. Answers to such evaluative questions offer one measure of the importance of philosophical disputes. PMID:23024399

  3. The Value Question in Metaphysics.

    PubMed

    Kahane, Guy

    2012-07-01

    Much seems to be at stake in metaphysical questions about, for example, God, free will or morality. One thing that could be at stake is the value of the universe we inhabit-how good or bad it is. We can think of competing philosophical positions as describing possibilities, ways the world might turn out to be, and to which value can be assigned. When, for example, people hope that God exists, or fear that we do not possess free will, they express attitudes towards these possibilities, attitudes that presuppose answers to questions about their comparative value. My aim in this paper is to distinguish these evaluative questions from related questions with which they can be confused, to identify structural constraints on their proper pursuit, and to address objections to their very coherence. Answers to such evaluative questions offer one measure of the importance of philosophical disputes.

  4. The comprehension and production of Wh-questions in deaf and hard-of-hearing children.

    PubMed

    Friedmann, Naama; Szterman, Ronit

    2011-01-01

    Hearing loss during the critical period for language acquisition restricts spoken language input. This input limitation, in turn, may hamper syntactic development. This study examined the comprehension, production, and repetition of Wh-questions in deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. The participants were 11 orally trained Hebrew-speaking children aged 9.1-12.4 with moderate-to-profound hearing loss from birth, who consistently used hearing aids or cochlear implants and who had difficulties understanding relative clauses. Experiment 1 tested the comprehension of Wh-questions using a picture selection task, comparing subject with object questions and who- with which-questions; Experiment 2 tested the production of subject and object who-questions using an elicitation task; and Experiment 3 tested the repetition of Wh-questions and other structures derived by Wh-movement. All the DHH participants showed difficulty in the comprehension, production, and repetition of object questions, and their performance was significantly below that of hearing children. In contrast, they repeated embedded sentences without movement well, indicating that their deficit is in syntactic movement rather than embedding or the CP node in the syntactic tree. The results provide additional evidence that DHH children have difficulties with Wh-movement and emphasize that Wh-questions, which are crucial for communication, can be severely impaired in these children.

  5. Two-Year-Old Children Differentiate Test Questions from Genuine Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grosse, Gerlind; Tomasello, Michael

    2012-01-01

    Children are frequently confronted with so-called "test questions". While genuine questions are requests for missing information, test questions ask for information obviously already known to the questioner. In this study we explored whether two-year-old children respond differentially to one and the same question used as either a genuine question…

  6. Evaluation of Modified Essay Questions (MEQ) and Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) as a tool for Assessing the Cognitive Skills of Undergraduate Medical Students

    PubMed Central

    Khan, Moeen-uz-Zafar; Aljarallah, Badr Muhammad

    2011-01-01

    Objectives: Developing and testing the cognitive skills and abstract thinking of undergraduate medical students are the main objectives of problem based learning. Modified Essay Questions (MEQ) and Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) may both be designed to test these skills. The objectives of this study were to assess the effectiveness of both forms of questions in testing the different levels of the cognitive skills of undergraduate medical students and to detect any item writing flaws in the questions. Methods: A total of 50 MEQs and 50 MCQs were evaluated. These questions were chosen randomly from various examinations given to different batches of undergraduate medical students taking course MED 411–412 at the Department of Medicine, Qassim University from the years 2005 to 2009. The effectiveness of the questions was determined by two assessors and was defined by the question’s ability to measure higher cognitive skills, as determined by modified Bloom’s taxonomy, and its quality as determined by the presence of item writing flaws. ‘SPSS15’ and ‘Medcalc’ programs were used to tabulate and analyze the data. Results: The percentage of questions testing the level III (problem solving) cognitive skills of the students was 40% for MEQs and 60% for the MCQs; the remaining questions merely assessed the recall and comprehension. No significant difference was found between MEQ and MCQ in relation to the type of questions (recall; comprehension or problem solving x2 = 5.3, p = 0.07).The agreement between the two assessors was quite high in case of MCQ (kappa=0.609; SE 0.093; 95%CI 0.426 – 0.792) but lower in case of MEQ (kappa=0.195; SE 0.073; 95%CI 0.052 – 0.338). 16% of the MEQs and 12% of the MCQs had item writing flaws. Conclusion: A well constructed MCQ is superior to MEQ in testing the higher cognitive skills of undergraduate medical students in a problem based learning setup. Constructing an MEQ for assessing the cognitive skills of a student is not

  7. A Study of Novice Instructors' Questioning Techniques and Classroom Discourse Surrounding Those Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roach, Kitty Lane

    2015-01-01

    The goals of this dissertation were to examine how novice calculus teachers used questions in their classrooms, how those questions and their use might change after video case-based course coordination, and what evidence of influence on student learning might be seen in undergraduate student achievement. This research focused on one way to elicit…

  8. A Comparison of Study Strategies for Passages: Rereading, Answering Questions, and Generating Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Weinstein, Yana; McDermott, Kathleen B.; Roediger, Henry L., III

    2010-01-01

    Students are often encouraged to generate and answer their own questions on to-be-remembered material, because this interactive process is thought to enhance memory. But does this strategy actually work? In three experiments, all participants read the same passage, answered questions, and took a test to get accustomed to the materials in a…

  9. Questioning the Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tienken, Christopher H.; Goldberg, Stephanie; DiRocco, Dominic

    2010-01-01

    Historical accounts of questioning used in the education process trace back to Socrates. One of the best examples of his use of questioning is found in Plato's "The Republic." Socrates used a series of strategic questions to help his student Glaucon come to understand the concept of justice. Socrates purposefully posed a series of…

  10. Overprompting Science Students Using Adjunct Study Questions.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holliday, William G.

    Described is an investigation of the hypothesis that students presented with strong hints or prompts to answers of comprehension questions adjunct to a flow diagram would understand less than students presented with no prompts. Also described is the study of the hypotheses that a diagram-only treatment group would outperform the prompted group and…

  11. Bottlenose dolphins perceive object features through echolocation.

    PubMed

    Harley, Heidi E; Putman, Erika A; Roitblat, Herbert L

    2003-08-07

    How organisms (including people) recognize distant objects is a fundamental question. The correspondence between object characteristics (distal stimuli), like visual shape, and sensory characteristics (proximal stimuli), like retinal projection, is ambiguous. The view that sensory systems are 'designed' to 'pick up' ecologically useful information is vague about how such mechanisms might work. In echolocating dolphins, which are studied as models for object recognition sonar systems, the correspondence between echo characteristics and object characteristics is less clear. Many cognitive scientists assume that object characteristics are extracted from proximal stimuli, but evidence for this remains ambiguous. For example, a dolphin may store 'sound templates' in its brain and identify whole objects by listening for a particular sound. Alternatively, a dolphin's brain may contain algorithms, derived through natural endowments or experience or both, which allow it to identify object characteristics based on sounds. The standard method used to address this question in many species is indirect and has led to equivocal results with dolphins. Here we outline an appropriate method and test it to show that dolphins extract object characteristics directly from echoes.

  12. The artful dodger: answering the wrong question the right way.

    PubMed

    Rogers, Todd; Norton, Michael I

    2011-06-01

    What happens when speakers try to "dodge" a question they would rather not answer by answering a different question? In 4 studies, we show that listeners can fail to detect dodges when speakers answer similar-but objectively incorrect-questions (the "artful dodge"), a detection failure that goes hand-in-hand with a failure to rate dodgers more negatively. We propose that dodges go undetected because listeners' attention is not usually directed toward a goal of dodge detection (i.e., Is this person answering the question?) but rather toward a goal of social evaluation (i.e., Do I like this person?). Listeners were not blind to all dodge attempts, however. Dodge detection increased when listeners' attention was diverted from social goals toward determining the relevance of the speaker's answers (Study 1), when speakers answered a question egregiously dissimilar to the one asked (Study 2), and when listeners' attention was directed to the question asked by keeping it visible during speakers' answers (Study 4). We also examined the interpersonal consequences of dodge attempts: When listeners were guided to detect dodges, they rated speakers more negatively (Study 2), and listeners rated speakers who answered a similar question in a fluent manner more positively than speakers who answered the actual question but disfluently (Study 3). These results add to the literatures on both Gricean conversational norms and goal-directed attention. We discuss the practical implications of our findings in the contexts of interpersonal communication and public debates.

  13. Young Children's Response Tendencies toward Yes-No Questions Concerning Actions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fritzley, V. Heather; Lindsay, Rod C. L.; Lee, Kang

    2013-01-01

    Two experiments investigated response tendencies of preschoolers toward yes-no questions about actions. Two hundred 2- to 5-year-old children were asked questions concerning actions commonly associated with particular objects (e.g., drinking from a cup) and actions not commonly associated with particular objects (e.g., kicking a toothbrush). The…

  14. Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

    PubMed Central

    Hauffen, Karin; Bart, Eugene; Brady, Mark; Kersten, Daniel; Hegdé, Jay

    2012-01-01

    In order to quantitatively study object perception, be it perception by biological systems or by machines, one needs to create objects and object categories with precisely definable, preferably naturalistic, properties1. Furthermore, for studies on perceptual learning, it is useful to create novel objects and object categories (or object classes) with such properties2. Many innovative and useful methods currently exist for creating novel objects and object categories3-6 (also see refs. 7,8). However, generally speaking, the existing methods have three broad types of shortcomings. First, shape variations are generally imposed by the experimenter5,9,10, and may therefore be different from the variability in natural categories, and optimized for a particular recognition algorithm. It would be desirable to have the variations arise independently of the externally imposed constraints. Second, the existing methods have difficulty capturing the shape complexity of natural objects11-13. If the goal is to study natural object perception, it is desirable for objects and object categories to be naturalistic, so as to avoid possible confounds and special cases. Third, it is generally hard to quantitatively measure the available information in the stimuli created by conventional methods. It would be desirable to create objects and object categories where the available information can be precisely measured and, where necessary, systematically manipulated (or 'tuned'). This allows one to formulate the underlying object recognition tasks in quantitative terms. Here we describe a set of algorithms, or methods, that meet all three of the above criteria. Virtual morphogenesis (VM) creates novel, naturalistic virtual 3-D objects called 'digital embryos' by simulating the biological process of embryogenesis14. Virtual phylogenesis (VP) creates novel, naturalistic object categories by simulating the evolutionary process of natural selection9,12,13. Objects and object categories created

  15. Creating objects and object categories for studying perception and perceptual learning.

    PubMed

    Hauffen, Karin; Bart, Eugene; Brady, Mark; Kersten, Daniel; Hegdé, Jay

    2012-11-02

    In order to quantitatively study object perception, be it perception by biological systems or by machines, one needs to create objects and object categories with precisely definable, preferably naturalistic, properties. Furthermore, for studies on perceptual learning, it is useful to create novel objects and object categories (or object classes) with such properties. Many innovative and useful methods currently exist for creating novel objects and object categories (also see refs. 7,8). However, generally speaking, the existing methods have three broad types of shortcomings. First, shape variations are generally imposed by the experimenter, and may therefore be different from the variability in natural categories, and optimized for a particular recognition algorithm. It would be desirable to have the variations arise independently of the externally imposed constraints. Second, the existing methods have difficulty capturing the shape complexity of natural objects. If the goal is to study natural object perception, it is desirable for objects and object categories to be naturalistic, so as to avoid possible confounds and special cases. Third, it is generally hard to quantitatively measure the available information in the stimuli created by conventional methods. It would be desirable to create objects and object categories where the available information can be precisely measured and, where necessary, systematically manipulated (or 'tuned'). This allows one to formulate the underlying object recognition tasks in quantitative terms. Here we describe a set of algorithms, or methods, that meet all three of the above criteria. Virtual morphogenesis (VM) creates novel, naturalistic virtual 3-D objects called 'digital embryos' by simulating the biological process of embryogenesis. Virtual phylogenesis (VP) creates novel, naturalistic object categories by simulating the evolutionary process of natural selection. Objects and object categories created by these simulations can

  16. Supporting Argumentation through Students' Questions: Case Studies in Science Classrooms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chin, Christine; Osborne, Jonathan

    2010-01-01

    This study explores how student-generated questions can support argumentation in science. Students were asked to discuss which of two graphs showing the change in temperature with time when ice is heated to steam was correct. Four classes of students, aged 12-14 years, from two countries, first wrote questions about the phenomenon. Then, working…

  17. Ninety-three pictures and 108 questions for the elicitation of homophones

    PubMed Central

    FERREIRA, VICTOR S.; CUTTING, J. COOPER

    2007-01-01

    Homographs and homophones have interesting linguistic properties that make them useful in many experiments involving language. To assist researchers in the elicitation of homophones, this paper presents a set of 93 line-drawn pictures of objects with homophonic names and a set of 108 questions with homophonic answers. Statistics are also included for each picture and question: Picture statistics include name-agreement percentages, dominance, and frequency statistics of depicted referents, and picture-naming latencies both with and without study of the picture names. For questions, statistics include answer-agreement percentages, difficulty ratings, dominance, frequency statistics, and naming latencies for 60 of the most consistently answered questions. PMID:18185842

  18. Determining Difficulty of Questions in Intelligent Tutoring Systems

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gunel, Korhan; Asliyan, Rifat

    2009-01-01

    The object of this study is to model the level of a question difficulty by a differential equation at a pre-specified domain knowledge, to be used in an educational support system. For this purpose, we have developed an intelligent tutoring system for mathematics education. Intelligent Tutoring Systems are computer systems designed for improvement…

  19. Secondary Students' Stable and Unstable Optics Conceptions Using Contextualized Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chu, Hye-Eun; Treagust, David F.

    2014-01-01

    This study focuses on elucidating and explaining reasons for the stability of and interrelationships between students' conceptions about "Light Propagation" and "Visibility of Objects" using contextualized questions across 3 years of secondary schooling from Years 7 to 9. In a large-scale quantitative study involving 1,233…

  20. Answering Student Questions During Examinations: A Descriptive Study of Faculty Beliefs.

    PubMed

    Stillwell, Susan B; Krautscheid, Lorretta C

    2016-01-01

    Examinations are used to evaluate individual student learning. Therefore, fair and consistent administration practices are essential. One issue associated with testing administration practices includes whether or not students should be allowed to ask questions during exams and how faculty should respond. Findings from this descriptive study indicate that faculty believe answering questions disrupts the testing environment, inhibits effective monitoring of the testing environment, and could provide unfair hints to students who ask questions. Yet, faculty permit students to ask questions to clarify unclear wording, to provide definitions, and to appear receptive to student needs. Recommendations for nursing education and research are provided.

  1. Occurrence of Children's Echoic Responses According to Interlocutory Question Types.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fay, Warren H.

    Dialogues with 22 echoic 3-year-old children were analyzed according to question type to determine whether some questions are more likely than others to trigger echoic responses. The children were asked to identify and manipulate toy objects such as a car, to identify a group of familiar objects such as a key or scissors, and to respond to…

  2. Question/statement judgments: an fMRI study of intonation processing.

    PubMed

    Doherty, Colin P; West, W Caroline; Dilley, Laura C; Shattuck-Hufnagel, Stefanie; Caplan, David

    2004-10-01

    We examined changes in fMRI BOLD signal associated with question/statement judgments in an event-related paradigm to investigate the neural basis of processing one aspect of intonation. Subjects made judgments about digitized recordings of three types of utterances: questions with rising intonation (RQ; e.g., "She was talking to her father?"), statements with a falling intonation (FS; e.g., "She was talking to her father."), and questions with a falling intonation and a word order change (FQ; e.g., "Was she talking to her father?"). Functional echo planar imaging (EPI) scans were collected from 11 normal subjects. There was increased BOLD activity in bilateral inferior frontal and temporal regions for RQ over either FQ or FS stimuli. The study provides data relevant to the location of regions responsive to intonationally marked illocutionary differences between questions and statements.

  3. The power of the patient question: A secret shopper study.

    PubMed

    Peters, Joanne; Desai, Karishma; Ricci, Daniel; Chen, Dan; Singh, Monny; Chewning, Betty

    2016-09-01

    To examine the effect of one standardized patient question on the length, number and type of new topics pharmacists addressed. To explore how community pharmacists counsel secret shoppers on two types of over-the-counter (OTC) medications-ibuprofen (IB) and emergency contraceptives (EC). 25 pharmacists from 7 independent, midwestern community pharmacies consented to have secret shoppers purchase an OTC medication and to have their consultations audio-recorded. Following standardized scenarios, 5 secret shoppers audio-recorded 73 encounters. At the end of 36 encounters secret shoppers asked one standard question, "What else should I know before taking this product?" Role Theory informed the study design with apriori hypotheses that topics assessed, topics discussed, and consultation length would vary by the OTC medication (IB or EC) and whether secret shoppers asked a question. Audio-recording coding had high inter-rater reliability (kappa=0.94). Length of encounter was significantly associated with patients asking the question (p<0.05), but not type of OTC medication. On average 1.22 new topics were discussed with a patient question. New topics included information about safe and efficacious use of the OTC's. Results highlight the importance of encouraging patients to ask pharmacists their questions about OTC products for safe use and thorough consultations. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

  4. Objects of Desire.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zielinski, Dave

    2000-01-01

    Describes learning objects, also known as granules, chunks, or information nuggets, and likens them to help screens. Discusses concerns about how they can go wrong: (1) faulty pretest questions; (2) missing links in the learning object chain; (3) poor frames of reference; and (4) lack of customization. (JOW)

  5. Dimensions of Questioning: A Qualitative Study of Current Classroom Practice in Malaysia

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hussin, Habsah

    2006-01-01

    This study investigated questioning as practiced in Malaysian secondary school classrooms, to determine teachers' rationale for adopting certain techniques of questioning, and to use the findings to inform teacher education. Questioning is a central aspect of any classroom interaction as it serves so many functions but it is still an…

  6. Formative student-authored question bank: perceptions, question quality and association with summative performance

    PubMed Central

    Walsh, Jason L; Harris, Benjamin H L; Denny, Paul; Smith, Phil

    2018-01-01

    Purpose of the study There are few studies on the value of authoring questions as a study method, the quality of the questions produced by students and student perceptions of student-authored question banks. Here we evaluate PeerWise, a widely used and free online resource that allows students to author, answer and discuss multiple-choice questions. Study design We introduced two undergraduate medical student cohorts to PeerWise (n=603). We looked at their patterns of PeerWise usage; identified associations between student engagement and summative exam performance; and used focus groups to assess student perceptions of the value of PeerWise for learning. We undertook item analysis to assess question difficulty and quality. Results Over two academic years, the two cohorts wrote 4671 questions, answered questions 606 658 times and posted 7735 comments. Question writing frequency correlated most strongly with summative performance (Spearman’s rank: 0.24, p=<0.001). Student focus groups found that: (1) students valued curriculum specificity; and (2) students were concerned about student-authored question quality. Only two questions of the 300 ’most-answered' questions analysed had an unacceptable discriminatory value (point-biserial correlation <0.2). Conclusions Item analysis suggested acceptable question quality despite student concerns. Quantitative and qualitative methods indicated that PeerWise is a valuable study tool. PMID:28866607

  7. Students' Conscious Unknowns about Artefacts and Natural Objects

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vaz-Rebelo, Piedade; Fernandes, Paula; Morgado, Julia; Monteiro, António; Otero, José

    2016-01-01

    This study attempts to characterise what 7th- and 12th-grade students believe they do not know about artefacts and natural objects, as well as the dependence of what is unknown on a knowledge of these objects. The students were asked to make explicit through questioning what they did not know about a sample of objects. The unknowns generated were…

  8. Behavioral Objectives for English

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zoellner, Robert

    1972-01-01

    A review-critique of On Writing Behavioral Objectives for English, by John Maxwell and Anthony Lovat, in which behavioral objectives theory is dominated by a stimulus-response rather than a stimulus-response-reinforcement psychology. The reviewer questions whether behavioral objectives can be applied accurately and without distortion of meanings,…

  9. 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.

  10. Facilitating Learning from Animated Instruction: Effectiveness of Questions and Feedback as Attention-Directing Strategies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lin, Huifen

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the relative effectiveness of different types of visuals (static and animated) and instructional strategies (no strategy, questions, and questions plus feedback) used to complement visualized materials on students' learning of different educational objectives in a computer-based instructional (CBI)…

  11. Worksite health promotion: some important questions.

    PubMed

    Matteson, M T; Ivancevich, J M

    1988-01-01

    Recent years have seen a rapid growth in the number of worksite health promotion programs being offered. While the potential benefits to employers of such programs are many, a variety of issues influence to what extent these benefits are obtained. This article identifies several such issues in the form of questions which need to be addressed by organizations engaged in health promotion activities. Questions relating to program needs and objectives identification, program introduction strategies, costs, legal issues, and ethical considerations are discussed. It is suggested that continued growth and success in worksite health promotion activities is in part dependent upon thoughtful consideration of such questions.

  12. Effect of Directed Study of Mathematics Vocabulary on Standardized Mathematics Assessment Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Waite, Adel Marlane

    2017-01-01

    The problems under investigation included (a) Did a directed study of mathematics vocabulary significantly affect student performance levels on standardized mathematical questions? and (b) Did the strategies used in this study significantly affect student performance levels on standardized mathematical questions? The population consisted of…

  13. Validation of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Sleep Questions

    PubMed Central

    Jungquist, Carla R.; Mund, Jaime; Aquilina, Alan T.; Klingman, Karen; Pender, John; Ochs-Balcom, Heather; van Wijngaarden, Edwin; Dickerson, Suzanne S.

    2016-01-01

    Study Objective: Sleep problems may constitute a risk for health problems, including cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes, poor work performance, and motor vehicle accidents. The primary purpose of this study was to assess the validity of the current Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) sleep questions by establishing the sensitivity and specificity for detection of sleep/ wake disturbance. Methods: Repeated cross-sectional assessment of 300 community dwelling adults over the age of 18 who did not wear CPAP or oxygen during sleep. Reliability and validity testing of the BRFSS sleep questions was performed comparing to BFRSS responses to data from home sleep study, actigraphy for 14 days, Insomnia Severity Index, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and PROMIS-57. Results: Only two of the five BRFSS sleep questions were found valid and reliable in determining total sleep time and excessive daytime sleepiness. Conclusions: Refinement of the BRFSS questions is recommended. Citation: Jungquist CR, Mund J, Aquilina AT, Klingman K, Pender J, Ochs-Balcom H, van Wijngaarden E, Dickerson SS. Validation of the behavioral risk factor surveillance system sleep questions. J Clin Sleep Med 2016;12(3):301–310. PMID:26446246

  14. Review or True? Using Higher-Level Thinking Questions in Social Studies Instruction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kracl, Carrie L.

    2012-01-01

    Asking surface-level questions is a common practice among educators. Delva Daines's (1986) pilot study indicated that 93 percent of the questions asked during lessons were at the literal level of comprehension and that it was very common for the teachers to restate, rephrase, or answer their own questions before the student had an opportunity to…

  15. Exploring the relationship between object realism and object-based attention effects.

    PubMed

    Roque, Nelson; Boot, Walter R

    2015-09-01

    Visual attention prioritizes processing of locations in space, and evidence also suggests that the benefits of attention can be shaped by the presence of objects (object-based attention). However, the prevalence of object-based attention effects has been called into question recently by evidence from a large-sampled study employing classic attention paradigms (Pilz et al., 2012). We conducted two experiments to explore factors that might determine when and if object-based attention effects are observed, focusing on the degree to which the concreteness and realism of objects might contribute to these effects. We adapted the classic attention paradigm first reported by Egly, Driver, and Rafal (1994) by replacing abstract bar stimuli in some conditions with objects that were more concrete and familiar to participants: items of silverware. Furthermore, we varied the realism of these items of silverware, presenting either cartoon versions or photo-realistic versions. Contrary to predictions, increased realism did not increase the size of object-based effects. In fact, no clear object-based effects were observed in either experiment, consistent with previous failures to replicate these effects in similar paradigms. While object-based attention may exist, and may have important influences on how we parse the visual world, these and other findings suggest that the two-object paradigm typically relied upon to study object-based effects may not be the best paradigm to investigate these issues. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Text-Dependent Questions: Reflecting and Transcending the Text

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Boelé, Amy L.

    2016-01-01

    Posing text-dependent questions is crucial for facilitating students' comprehension of the text. However, text-dependent questions should not merely ask students to reflect the author's literal or even inferential meaning. The author's message is the starting place for comprehension, rather than the end goal or object of comprehension. The text…

  17. Where Learners' Questions Meet Modes of Teaching: A Study of Cases

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    de Jesus, Helena Pedrosa; Almeida, Patricia; Teixeira-Dias, Jose J.; Watts, Mike

    2007-01-01

    This paper is concerned with "match-mismatch" problems. In particular it seeks to match students' questioning to different modes of teaching in undergraduate chemistry. Kolb's theory of experiential learning is used to bridge between learners' questioning and teaching formats. Three case studies illuminate both sets of characteristics, the…

  18. 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

  19. When Is a Question a Question for Children and Adults?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Saindon, Mathieu R.; Trehub, Sandra E.; Schellenberg, E. Glenn; van Lieshout, Pascal H. H. M.

    2017-01-01

    Terminal changes in fundamental frequency provide the most salient acoustic cues to declarative questions, but adults sometimes identify such questions from pre-terminal cues. In the present study, adults and 7- to 10-year-old children judged a single speaker's adult- and child-directed utterances as questions or statements in a gating task with…

  20. Selective Attentional Effects of Textbook Study Questions on Student Learning in Science.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holliday, William G.

    1981-01-01

    Reports results of a study testing a selective attentional model which predicted that textbook study questions adjunct to a flow diagram will focus students' attention more upon questioned information and less upon nonquestioned information. A picture-word diagram describing biogeochemical cycles to high school biology students (N=176) was used.…

  1. Questions without Movement: A Study of Cantonese-Speaking Children with and without Specific Language Impairment.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wong, Anita M.-Y.; Leonard, Laurence B.; Fletcher, Paul; Stokes, Stephanie F.

    2004-01-01

    English-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) appear to have special difficulty in the use of who-object questions (e.g., Who is the girl chasing?). It has been argued that problems related to grammatical movement may be responsible for this difficulty. However, it is also possible that the lower frequency of who-object…

  2. Studying the Cognitive Emphases of Teachers' Classroom Questions.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Davis, O. L., Jr.; And Others

    1969-01-01

    Recent interest in the direct, descriptive study of teaching has led to renewed attention to the types of questions asked by teachers. An important contributing factor has also been the progress made in the analysis of cognitive operations and the identification of a complex hierarchy of operations. Several observation systems developed from…

  3. A Questioning Environment for Scaffolding Learners' Questioning Engagement with Academic Text: A University Case Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hardman, J.; Ng'ambi, D.

    2003-01-01

    Access to the textual world of academia requires that learners are familiar with the critical open-ended questioning stance demanded by textuality. Anecdotal evidence suggests that learners registered for the Bachelor of Education Honours degree are unable to generate appropriate questions to interrogate academic text, impacting on their ability…

  4. Object width modulates object-based attentional selection.

    PubMed

    Nah, Joseph C; Neppi-Modona, Marco; Strother, Lars; Behrmann, Marlene; Shomstein, Sarah

    2018-04-24

    Visual input typically includes a myriad of objects, some of which are selected for further processing. While these objects vary in shape and size, most evidence supporting object-based guidance of attention is drawn from paradigms employing two identical objects. Importantly, object size is a readily perceived stimulus dimension, and whether it modulates the distribution of attention remains an open question. Across four experiments, the size of the objects in the display was manipulated in a modified version of the two-rectangle paradigm. In Experiment 1, two identical parallel rectangles of two sizes (thin or thick) were presented. Experiments 2-4 employed identical trapezoids (each having a thin and thick end), inverted in orientation. In the experiments, one end of an object was cued and participants performed either a T/L discrimination or a simple target-detection task. Combined results show that, in addition to the standard object-based attentional advantage, there was a further attentional benefit for processing information contained in the thick versus thin end of objects. Additionally, eye-tracking measures demonstrated increased saccade precision towards thick object ends, suggesting that Fitts's Law may play a role in object-based attentional shifts. Taken together, these results suggest that object-based attentional selection is modulated by object width.

  5. A study of the differential effects of Tomm's questioning styles on therapeutic alliance.

    PubMed

    Ryan, D; Carr, A

    2001-01-01

    To replicate and extend Dozier's (1992) test of Tomm's hypothesis about the differential effects of questioning styles on therapeutic alliance, an analogue study was conducted. Twenty-eight family triads, each including a son and his parents, viewed four videotaped, simulated family therapy scenarios in which Tomm's four questioning styles were separately portrayed. Participants were asked to identify with the client whose role corresponded to theirs (that is, father, mother, or son) and, on the basis of this, to rate the client's alliance with the therapist. They were also asked to rate the overall alliance between the family and the therapist. Finally, having viewed all four scenarios, they were invited to rate comparatively the quality of the therapeutic alliance across the four questioning styles. Compared with strategic and lineal questioning styles, circular and reflexive questions led to higher ratings of therapeutic alliance on all three measures. The results of this study support Tomm's hypothesis that questioning styles based on circular assumptions lead to a better therapeutic alliance at an individual and systemic level than do questions based on lineal assumptions.

  6. Computer-Aided Assessment in Mechanics: Question Design and Test Evaluation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gill, M.; Greenhow, M.

    2007-01-01

    This article describes pedagogic issues in setting objective tests in mechanics using Question Mark Perception, coupled with MathML mathematics mark-up and the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) syntax for producing diagrams. The content of the questions (for a range of question types such as multi-choice, numerical input and variants such as…

  7. Evaluative Conditioning: The “How” Question

    PubMed Central

    Jones, Christopher R.; Olson, Michael A.; Fazio, Russell H.

    2011-01-01

    Evaluative conditioning (EC) refers to attitude formation or change toward an object due to that object's mere co-occurrence with another valenced object or objects. This chapter focuses on the “how” question, that is, the question of what cognitive processes intervene between mere co-occurrence and attitude formation or change. Though EC has typically been thought of as occurring through a single, albeit contentious, mechanism, we begin by pointing out that both the heterogeneity of EC methodologies and the abundance of inconsistent results suggest that multiple processes with different characteristics can produce EC. We describe how the earliest posited process of EC, Pavlovian conditioning or signal learning, is a valid mechanism of EC that appears to have operated in some experiments but is unlikely to have operated in others and also cannot account for various EC findings. We describe other mechanisms of EC, when they can be expected to occur, and what characteristics they have. We particularly focus our attention on a process model of EC we have recently introduced, the implicit misattribution model. Finally, we describe the implications of a multi-process view of EC, which we argue can help resolve theoretical controversies and further the application of EC as a practical intervention for influencing attitudes in various domains. PMID:22241936

  8. The Effect of Question Format and Task Difficulty on Reasoning Strategies and Diagnostic Performance in Internal Medicine Residents

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Heemskerk, Laura; Norman, Geoff; Chou, Sophia; Mintz, Marcy; Mandin, Henry; McLaughlin, Kevin

    2008-01-01

    Background: Previous studies have suggested an association between reasoning strategies and diagnostic success, but the influence on this relationship of variables such as question format and task difficulty, has not been studied. Our objective was to study the association between question format, task difficulty, reasoning strategies and…

  9. Toward automated consumer question answering: automatically separating consumer questions from professional questions in the healthcare domain.

    PubMed

    Liu, Feifan; Antieau, Lamont D; Yu, Hong

    2011-12-01

    questions posted at Yahoo online communities can be reliably classified from professional questions posted by point-of-care clinicians and online physicians. The supervised machine-learning models are robust for this task. Our study will significantly benefit further development in automated consumer question answering. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Beginning EFL Teachers' Beliefs about Quality Questions and Their Questioning Practices

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pham, Ly Ngoc Khanh; Hamid, M. Obaidul

    2013-01-01

    Motivated by the scarcity of research that examines the impact of teacher beliefs on their actual practices in Vietnam, this study investigated the relationship between teachers' beliefs about quality questions and their questioning behaviours in terms of questioning purposes, content focus, students' cognitive level, wording and syntax. Thirteen…

  11. Formative student-authored question bank: perceptions, question quality and association with summative performance.

    PubMed

    Walsh, Jason L; Harris, Benjamin H L; Denny, Paul; Smith, Phil

    2018-02-01

    There are few studies on the value of authoring questions as a study method, the quality of the questions produced by students and student perceptions of student-authored question banks. Here we evaluate PeerWise, a widely used and free online resource that allows students to author, answer and discuss multiple-choice questions. We introduced two undergraduate medical student cohorts to PeerWise (n=603). We looked at their patterns of PeerWise usage; identified associations between student engagement and summative exam performance; and used focus groups to assess student perceptions of the value of PeerWise for learning. We undertook item analysis to assess question difficulty and quality. Over two academic years, the two cohorts wrote 4671 questions, answered questions 606 658 times and posted 7735 comments. Question writing frequency correlated most strongly with summative performance (Spearman's rank: 0.24, p=<0.001). Student focus groups found that: (1) students valued curriculum specificity; and (2) students were concerned about student-authored question quality. Only two questions of the 300 'most-answered' questions analysed had an unacceptable discriminatory value (point-biserial correlation <0.2). Item analysis suggested acceptable question quality despite student concerns. Quantitative and qualitative methods indicated that PeerWise is a valuable study tool. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  12. A Comparison of Methods for Transforming Sentences into Test Questions for Instructional Materials. Technical Report #1.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roid, Gale; And Others

    Several measurement theorists have convincingly argued that methods of writing test questions, particularly for criterion-referenced tests, should be based on operationally defined rules. This study was designed to examine and further refine a method for objectively generating multiple-choice questions for prose instructional materials. Important…

  13. Perfusion MRI: The Five Most Frequently Asked Clinical Questions

    PubMed Central

    Essig, Marco; Nguyen, Thanh Binh; Shiroishi, Mark S.; Saake, Marc; Provenzale, James M.; Enterline, David S.; Anzalone, Nicoletta; Dörfler, Arnd; Rovira, Àlex; Wintermark, Max; Law, Meng

    2013-01-01

    OBJECTIVE This article addresses questions that radiologists frequently ask when planning, performing, processing, and interpreting MRI perfusion studies in CNS imaging. CONCLUSION Perfusion MRI is a promising tool in assessing stroke, brain tumors, and neurodegenerative diseases. Most of the impediments that have limited the use of perfusion MRI can be overcome to allow integration of these methods into modern neuroimaging protocols. PMID:23971482

  14. Questioning ORACLE: An Assessment of ORACLE's Analysis of Teachers' Questions and [A Comment on "Questioning ORACLE"].

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Scarth, John; And Others

    1986-01-01

    Analysis of teachers' questions, part of the ORACLE (Observation Research and Classroom Learning Evaluation) project research, is examined in detail. Scarth and Hammersley argue that the rules ORACLE uses for identifying different types of questions involve levels of ambiguity and inference that threaten reliability and validity of the study's…

  15. Delving Deeper: One Cut, Two Halves, Three Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ren, Guanshen

    2009-01-01

    A square can be divided into two equal parts with any cut through the center. The first question that arises is, Would any cut through the center of a regular polygon divide it into two equal parts? If not, the second question is, What kind of lines through the center of the polygon would cut it into two halves? However, many objects are not…

  16. Object similarity affects the perceptual strategy underlying invariant visual object recognition in rats

    PubMed Central

    Rosselli, Federica B.; Alemi, Alireza; Ansuini, Alessio; Zoccolan, Davide

    2015-01-01

    In recent years, a number of studies have explored the possible use of rats as models of high-level visual functions. One central question at the root of such an investigation is to understand whether rat object vision relies on the processing of visual shape features or, rather, on lower-order image properties (e.g., overall brightness). In a recent study, we have shown that rats are capable of extracting multiple features of an object that are diagnostic of its identity, at least when those features are, structure-wise, distinct enough to be parsed by the rat visual system. In the present study, we have assessed the impact of object structure on rat perceptual strategy. We trained rats to discriminate between two structurally similar objects, and compared their recognition strategies with those reported in our previous study. We found that, under conditions of lower stimulus discriminability, rat visual discrimination strategy becomes more view-dependent and subject-dependent. Rats were still able to recognize the target objects, in a way that was largely tolerant (i.e., invariant) to object transformation; however, the larger structural and pixel-wise similarity affected the way objects were processed. Compared to the findings of our previous study, the patterns of diagnostic features were: (i) smaller and more scattered; (ii) only partially preserved across object views; and (iii) only partially reproducible across rats. On the other hand, rats were still found to adopt a multi-featural processing strategy and to make use of part of the optimal discriminatory information afforded by the two objects. Our findings suggest that, as in humans, rat invariant recognition can flexibly rely on either view-invariant representations of distinctive object features or view-specific object representations, acquired through learning. PMID:25814936

  17. Teacher Training for Effective Questioning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Godbold, John V.

    This paper reviews research studies concerning the effectiveness of varying strategies for teaching questioning skills and groups them into the following organizational scheme: (a) study of question classification systems as a strategy for teaching questioning skills, (b) use of laboratory experiences as a strategy for teaching questioning skills,…

  18. Reflective questions in health counseling.

    PubMed

    Poskiparta, M; Kettunen, T; Liimatainen, L

    1998-09-01

    This study explores questions that nurses ask patients in order to awaken reflection on their health behavior in health counseling. Thirty-eight counseling situations were videotaped in a hospital. The data were analyzed using conversation analysis which was adapted for the purpose of this study. Nonverbal communication supported speech and was interpreted alongside it. This study found that nurses used only a few reflective questions, most of which were future-oriented or introduced hypotheses. In a nonreflective discussion, nurses used only check-up and alternative questions to get information about patients' illnesses and health care measures. Findings indicated that reflective conversation began with check-up questions about patients' immediate situation, followed by questions about patients' feelings in the past, present, or future. On the third level of questioning, the structure might vary between embedded questions, check-up, alternative, or feeling questions. Nonverbal communication supported the discussion. Reflective questions tended to ensure patient-centered conversation and might improve the effectiveness of health counselling.

  19. Correlation between Question Intonation and Focus of Interrogation--Evidence from French Dislocated Questions.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shen, Xiao-nan

    This study explores the relationship between question intonation patterns in French using dislocated questions and question-focus (Q- focus). A dislocated question is defined as an interrogative sentence whose sequence is interrupted by the topicalization of a constituent at the left ("Toi, tu viens?"), at the right (Tu viens,…

  20. Using Mind Maps to Make Student Questioning Effective: Learning Outcomes of a Principle-Based Scenario for Teacher Guidance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stokhof, Harry; de Vries, Bregje; Bastiaens, Theo; Martens, Rob

    2018-01-01

    Student questioning is an important learning strategy, but rare in many classrooms, because teachers have concerns if these questions contribute to attaining curricular objectives. Teachers face the challenge of making student questioning effective for learning the curriculum. To address this challenge, a principle-based scenario for guiding effective student questioning was developed and tested for its relevance and practicality in two previous studies. In the scenario, which consists of a sequence of pedagogical activities, mind maps support teachers and students to explore and elaborate upon a core curriculum, by raising, investigating, and exchanging student questions. In this paper, a follow-up study is presented that tested the effectiveness of the scenario on student outcomes in terms of attainment of curricular objectives. Ten teachers and their 231 students participated in the study. Pre- and posttest mind maps were used to measure individual and collective learning outcomes of student questioning. Findings show that a majority of students progressed in learning the core curriculum and elaborated upon it. The findings suggest that visualizing knowledge construction in a shared mind map supports students to learn a core curriculum and to refine their knowledge structures.

  1. How Should We Question Young Children's Understanding of Aspectuality?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Waters, Gillian M.; Beck, Sarah R.

    2012-01-01

    In two experiments, we investigated whether 4- to 5-year-old children's ability to demonstrate their understanding of aspectuality was influenced by how the test question was phrased. In Experiment 1, 60 children chose whether to look or feel to gain information about a hidden object (identifiable by sight or touch). Test questions referred either…

  2. Design, objectives, execution and reporting of published open-label extension studies.

    PubMed

    Megan, Bowers; Pickering, Ruth M; Weatherall, Mark

    2012-04-01

    Open-label extension (OLE) studies following blinded randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of pharmaceuticals are increasingly being carried out but do not conform to regulatory standards and questions surround the validity of their evidence. OLE studies are usually discussed as a homogenous group, yet substantial differences in study design still meet the definition of an OLE. We describe published papers reporting OLE studies focussing on stated objectives, design, conduct and reporting. A search of Embase and Medline databases for 1996 to July 2008 revealed 268 papers reporting OLE studies that met our eligibility criteria. A random sample of 50 was selected for detailed review. Over 80% of the studies had efficacy stated as an objective. The most common methods of allocation at the start of the OLE were for all RCT participants to switch to one active treatment or for only participants on the new drug to continue, but in three studies all participants were re-randomized at the start of the OLE. Eligibility criteria and other selection factors resulted in on average of 74% of participants in the preceding RCT(s) enrolling in the OLE and only 57% completed it. Published OLE studies do not form a homogenous group with respect to design or retention of participants, and thus the validity of evidence from an OLE should be judged on an individual basis. The term 'open label' suggests bias through lack of blinding, but slippage in relation to the sample randomized in the preceding RCT may be the more important threat to validity. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  3. Question analysis for Indonesian comparative question

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saelan, A.; Purwarianti, A.; Widyantoro, D. H.

    2017-01-01

    Information seeking is one of human needs today. Comparing things using search engine surely take more times than search only one thing. In this paper, we analyzed comparative questions for comparative question answering system. Comparative question is a question that comparing two or more entities. We grouped comparative questions into 5 types: selection between mentioned entities, selection between unmentioned entities, selection between any entity, comparison, and yes or no question. Then we extracted 4 types of information from comparative questions: entity, aspect, comparison, and constraint. We built classifiers for classification task and information extraction task. Features used for classification task are bag of words, whether for information extraction, we used lexical, 2 previous and following words lexical, and previous label as features. We tried 2 scenarios: classification first and extraction first. For classification first, we used classification result as a feature for extraction. Otherwise, for extraction first, we used extraction result as features for classification. We found that the result would be better if we do extraction first before classification. For the extraction task, classification using SMO gave the best result (88.78%), while for classification, it is better to use naïve bayes (82.35%).

  4. Violations of Information Structure: An Electrophysiological Study of Answers to Wh-Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cowles, H. W.; Kluender, Robert; Kutas, Marta; Polinsky, Maria

    2007-01-01

    This study investigates brain responses to violations of information structure in wh-question-answer pairs, with particular emphasis on violations of focus assignment in it-clefts (It was the queen that silenced the banker). Two types of ERP responses in answers to wh-questions were found. First, all words in the focus-marking (cleft) position…

  5. An Examination of the Association between Interviewer Question Type and Story-Grammar Detail in Child Witness Interviews about Abuse

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Feltis, Brooke B.; Powell, Martine B.; Snow, Pamela C.; Hughes-Scholes, Carolyn H.

    2010-01-01

    Objective: This study compared the effects of open-ended versus specific questions, and various types of open-ended questions, in eliciting story-grammar detail in child abuse interviews. Methods: The sample included 34 police interviews with child witnesses aged 5-15 years ("M" age = 9 years, 9 months). The interviewers' questions and their…

  6. Questioning Questions: Elementary Teachers' Adaptations of Investigation Questions across the Inquiry Continuum

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Biggers, Mandy

    2018-01-01

    Questioning is a central practice in science classrooms. However, not every question translates into a "good" science investigation. Questions that drive science investigations can be provided by many sources including the teacher, the curriculum, or the student. The variations in the source of investigation questions were explored in…

  7. Global Perspectives: Some Questions and Answers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Center for Global Perspectives, New York, NY.

    To enlighten the reader on the status, objectives, and needs of global education, this paper poses and answers questions related to global perspectives. A global perspective is interpreted to include heightened awareness and understanding of the global system as well as increased consciousness of the intimate relationship of self, humankind, and…

  8. The Effects of Question Generation, Question Answering and Reading on Prose Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Owens, Anthony Mathew

    Eighty-seven students took part in a study (using three experimental conditions) of the effect of question generation, question answering, and rereading on an immediate posttest and on a delayed test of knowledge of a text passage. In condition G, subjects generated multiple-choice questions that would test knowledge of each of the six content…

  9. Frequent Questions About EPA's Mercury Lamp Drum-Top Crusher Study

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Frequent Questions such as Why did we do the Mercury Lamp Drum-Top Crusher Study?, Should drum-top crushers (DTCs) be used in the management of fluorescent lamps?, Are drum-top crushers (DTCs) safe to use?

  10. Questions, Questioning Techniques, and Effective Teaching.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wilen, William W., Ed.

    This book focuses on questioning techniques and strategies teachers may employ to make the difference between active and passive learning in the classroom. There are nine chapters: (1) Why Questions? (Ambrose A. Clegg, Jr.); (2) Review of Research on Questioning Techniques (Meredith D. Gall and Tom Rhody); (3) The Multidisciplinary World of…

  11. A Two-Tier Multiple Choice Questions to Diagnose Thermodynamic Misconception of Thai and Laos Students

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kamcharean, Chanwit; Wattanakasiwich, Pornrat

    The objective of this study was to diagnose misconceptions of Thai and Lao students in thermodynamics by using a two-tier multiple-choice test. Two-tier multiple choice questions consist of the first tier, a content-based question and the second tier, a reasoning-based question. Data of student understanding was collected by using 10 two-tier multiple-choice questions. Thai participants were the first-year students (N = 57) taking a fundamental physics course at Chiang Mai University in 2012. Lao participants were high school students in Grade 11 (N = 57) and Grade 12 (N = 83) at Muengnern high school in Xayaboury province, Lao PDR. As results, most students answered content-tier questions correctly but chose incorrect answers for reason-tier questions. When further investigating their incorrect reasons, we found similar misconceptions as reported in previous studies such as incorrectly relating pressure with temperature when presenting with multiple variables.

  12. Student Moderators in Asynchronous Online Discussion: A Question of Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zingaro, Daniel

    2012-01-01

    Much current research exalts the benefits of having students facilitate weekly discussions in asynchronous online courses. This study seeks to add to what is known about student moderation through an analysis of the types of questions students use to spur each discussion. Prior experimental work has demonstrated that the types of questions posed…

  13. Asking the Right Questions.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    O'Malley, Jeffrey J.

    1990-01-01

    Contends that knowing the right questions to ask is crucial to making an analytical and informative examination of a topic. Presents a question framework for country studies in geography. Includes questions on physical, political, cultural, economic and population geography, transportation, communications, natural resources, and technology. (RW)

  14. The Deflection Question

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Greenberg, A. H.; Nesvold, E.; van Heerden, E.; Erasmus, N.; Marchis, F.

    2016-12-01

    On 15 February, 2013, a 15 m diameter asteroid entered the Earth's atmosphere over Russia. The resulting shockwave injured nearly 1500 people, and incurred 33 million (USD) in infrastructure damages. The Chelyabinsk meteor served as a forceful demonstration of the threat posed to Earth by the hundreds of potentially hazardous objects (PHOs) that pass near the Earth every year. Although no objects have yet been discovered on an impact course for Earth, an impact is virtually statistically guaranteed at some point in the future. While many impactor deflection technologies have been proposed, humanity has yet to demonstrate the ability to divert an impactor when one is found. Developing and testing any single proposed technology will require significant research time and funding. This leaves open an obvious question - towards which technologies should funding and research be directed, in order to maximize our preparedness for when an impactor is eventually found? To help answer this question, we have created a detailed framework for analyzing various deflection technologies and their effectiveness. Using an n-body integrator (REBOUND), we have simulated the attempted deflections of a population of Earth-impacting objects with a variety of velocity perturbations (∂Vs), and measured the effects that these perturbations had on impact probability. We then mapped the ∂Vs applied in the orbital simulations to the technologies capable of achieving those perturbations, and analyzed which set of technologies would be most effective at preventing a PHO from impacting the earth. As a final step, we used the results of these simulations to train a machine learning algorithm. This algorithm, combined with a simulated PHO population, can predict which technologies are most likely to be needed. The algorithm can also reveal which impactor observables (mass, spin, orbit, etc.) have the greatest effect on the choice of deflection technology. These results can be used as a tool to

  15. The Auditory Comprehension of Wh-Questions in Aphasia: Support for the Intervener Hypothesis.

    PubMed

    Sheppard, Shannon M; Walenski, Matthew; Love, Tracy; Shapiro, Lewis P

    2015-06-01

    This study examines 3 hypotheses about the processing of wh-questions in both neurologically healthy adults and adults with Broca's aphasia. We used an eye tracking while listening method with 32 unimpaired participants (Experiment 1) and 8 participants with Broca's aphasia (Experiment 2). Accuracy, response time, and online gaze data were collected. In Experiment 1, we established a baseline for how unimpaired processing and comprehension of 4 types of wh-question (subject- and object-extracted who- and which-questions) manifest. There was no unambiguous support found for any of the 3 hypotheses in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2 with the Broca's participants, however, we found significantly lower accuracy, slower response times, and increased interference in our gaze data in the object-extracted which-questions relative to the other conditions. Our results provide support for the intervener hypothesis, which states that sentence constructions that contain an intervener (a lexical noun phrase) between a displaced noun phrase and its gap site result in a significant processing disadvantage relative to other constructions. We argue that this hypothesis offers a compelling explanation for the comprehension deficits seen in some participants with Broca's aphasia.

  16. Do Clinical Clerks Provide Candidates with Adequate Formative Assessment during Objective Structured Clinical Examinations?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reiter, Harold I.; Rosenfeld, Jack; Nandagopal, Kiruthiga; Eva, Kevin W.

    2004-01-01

    Context: Various research studies have examined the question of whether expert or non-expert raters, faculty or students, evaluators or standardized patients, give more reliable and valid summative assessments of performance on Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs). Less studied has been the question of whether or not non-faculty…

  17. "Question Moments": A Rolling Programme of Question Opportunities in Classroom Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pedrosa-de-Jesus, Helena; Leite, Sara; Watts, Mike

    2016-01-01

    This naturalistic study integrates specific "question moments" into lesson plans to increase pupils' classroom interactions. A range of tools explored students' ideas by providing students with opportunities to ask and write questions. Their oral and written outcomes provide data on individual and group misunderstandings. Changes to the…

  18. Perfusion MRI: The Five Most Frequently Asked Technical Questions

    PubMed Central

    Essig, Marco; Shiroishi, Mark S.; Nguyen, Thanh Binh; Saake, Marc; Provenzale, James M.; Enterline, David; Anzalone, Nicoletta; Dörfler, Arnd; Rovira, Àlex; Wintermark, Max; Law, Meng

    2013-01-01

    OBJECTIVE This and its companion article address the 10 most frequently asked questions that radiologists face when planning, performing, processing, and interpreting different MR perfusion studies in CNS imaging. CONCLUSION Perfusion MRI is a promising tool in assessing stroke, brain tumors, and patients with neurodegenerative diseases. Most of the impediments that have limited the use of perfusion MRI can be overcome to allow integration of these methods into modern neuroimaging protocols. PMID:23255738

  19. Pharmacy Student Performance on Constructed-Response Versus Selected-Response Calculations Questions

    PubMed Central

    Addo, Richard T.

    2013-01-01

    Objective. To introduce PharmD students to changes in calculations question types (constructed-response versus selected-response questions); measure and compare student performance on constructed-response and selected-response questions in a pharmaceutics course; and collect student feedback on the use of differing question types. Methods A pharmaceutics/pharmaceutical calculations examination was administered that included 15 pairs of questions; each pair consisted of a constructed-response question and a similar selected-response question. An online questionnaire was conducted to collect student feedback. Results. Of the 15 topics, the class scored higher on the constructed-response question for 4 topics and higher on the selected-response question for 10 topics. Eighty percent of the class preferred selected-response questions, although 47.8% felt constructed-response questions better prepared them for a career in healthcare. Conclusions. Students correctly answered more selected-response questions than constructed-response questions and felt more confident in doing so. Additional constructed-response teaching and testing methods should be incorporated into pharmacy education. PMID:23459503

  20. Questioning our Questions: Do frequently asked questions adequately cover the aspects of women's lives most affected by abnormal uterine bleeding? Opinions of women with abnormal uterine bleeding participating in focus group discussions

    PubMed Central

    Matteson, Kristen A.; Clark, Melissa A.

    2010-01-01

    Objectives: (1) To explore the effects on women's lives by heavy or irregular menstrual bleeding; (2) To examine whether aspects of women's lives most affected by heavy or irregular menstrual bleeding were adequately addressed by questions that are frequently used in clinical encounters and available questionnaires. Methods: We conducted four focus group sessions with a total of 25 English-speaking women who had reported abnormal uterine bleeding. Discussions included open-ended questions that pertained to bleeding, aspects of life affected by bleeding, and questions frequently used in clinical settings about bleeding and quality of life. Results: We identified five themes that reflected how women's lives were affected by heavy or irregular menstrual bleeding: irritation/inconvenience, bleeding-associated pain, self-consciousness about odor, social embarrassment, and ritual like behavior. Although women responded that the frequently used questions about bleeding and quality of life were important, they felt that the questions failed to go into enough depth to adequately characterize their experiences. Conclusions: Based on the themes identified in our focus group sessions, clinicians and researchers may need to change the questions used to capture “patient experience” with abnormal uterine bleeding more accurately. PMID:20437305

  1. `Question Moments': A Rolling Programme of Question Opportunities in Classroom Science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pedrosa-de-Jesus, Helena; Leite, Sara; Watts, Mike

    2016-06-01

    This naturalistic study integrates specific `question moments' into lesson plans to increase pupils' classroom interactions. A range of tools explored students' ideas by providing students with opportunities to ask and write questions. Their oral and written outcomes provide data on individual and group misunderstandings. Changes to the schedule of lessons were introduced to explore these questions and address disparities. Flexible lesson planning over 14 lessons across a 4-week period of high school chemistry accommodated students' contributions and increased student participation, promoted inquiring and individualised teaching, with each teaching strategy feeding forward into the next.

  2. Proposal and validation of a quick question to rate the influence of sun exposure in geriatric epidemiological studies on vitamin D.

    PubMed

    Annweiler, Cédric; Schott, Anne-Marie; Beauchet, Olivier

    2012-12-01

    Vitamin D is synthesized in the skin under the action of solar ultraviolet-B radiation. The objective of this study was to determine whether a simple question exploring sun exposure ("When weather is nice, do you stay more than 15 minutes exposed to the sun (face and hands uncovered) between 11am and 3pm?") could be associated with serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D status among 751 older community-dwelling women (mean age, 80.2 ± 3.5 years). Two groups were distinguished based on the binary "Yes" versus "No" answer. Hypovitaminosis D was defined as serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D < 30 ng/mL. Fewer women with hypovitaminosis D answered "Yes" to the question on sun exposure (p = 0.042). Answering "Yes" was inversely associated with hypovitaminosis D (OR = 0.56, p = 0.049) after adjustment for demographic characteristics and exogenous sources of vitamin D, with a positive predictive value of 88 %. This simple question may reflect the sun's influence on vitamin D status and identify older community-dwellers with hypovitaminosis D.

  3. Can we share questions? Performance of questions from different question banks in a single medical school.

    PubMed

    Freeman, Adrian; Nicholls, Anthony; Ricketts, Chris; Coombes, Lee

    2010-01-01

    To use progress testing, a large bank of questions is required, particularly when planning to deliver tests over a long period of time. The questions need not only to be of good quality but also balanced in subject coverage across the curriculum to allow appropriate sampling. Hence as well as creating its own questions, an institution could share questions. Both methods allow ownership and structuring of the test appropriate to the educational requirements of the institution. Peninsula Medical School (PMS) has developed a mechanism to validate questions written in house. That mechanism can be adapted to utilise questions from an International question bank International Digital Electronic Access Library (IDEAL) and another UK-based question bank Universities Medical Assessment Partnership (UMAP). These questions have been used in our progress tests and analysed for relative performance. Data are presented to show that questions from differing sources can have comparable performance in a progress testing format. There are difficulties in transferring questions from one institution to another. These include problems of curricula and cultural differences. Whilst many of these difficulties exist, our experience suggests that it only requires a relatively small amount of work to adapt questions from external question banks for effective use. The longitudinal aspect of progress testing (albeit summatively) may allow more flexibility in question usage than single high stakes exams.

  4. Perceptual organization of shape, color, shade, and lighting in visual and pictorial objects

    PubMed Central

    Pinna, Baingio

    2012-01-01

    The main questions we asked in this work are the following: Where are representations of shape, color, depth, and lighting mostly located? Does their formation take time to develop? How do they contribute to determining and defining a visual object, and how do they differ? How do visual artists use them to create objects and scenes? Is the way artists use them related to the way we perceive them? To answer these questions, we studied the microgenetic development of the object perception and formation. Our hypothesis is that the main object properties are extracted in sequential order and in the same order that these roles are also used by artists and children of different age to paint objects. The results supported the microgenesis of object formation according to the following sequence: contours, color, shading, and lighting. PMID:23145283

  5. "Big Questions" in the Introductory Religion Classroom: Expanding the Integrative Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Deffenbaugh, Daniel G.

    2011-01-01

    Recent research by Barbara Walvoord suggests a perceived disparity between faculty learning objectives and students' desire to engage "big questions" in the introductory religion classroom. Faculty opinions of such questions are varied, ranging from a refusal to employ any approach that diverts attention away from critical thinking, to a…

  6. Asking Questions as a Key Strategy in Guiding a Novice Teacher: A Self-Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Olsher, Gila; Kantor, Itay-Danny

    2012-01-01

    This self-study explores the instruction of a novice teacher by an expert mentor teacher, while applying the strategy of asking questions instead of the more common pattern of giving advice and guidance in the form of telling. The study examines the educational potential embedded in the question-asking strategy as a key mentoring resource when…

  7. Development of a cultural heritage object BIM model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Braila, Natalya; Vakhrusheva, Svetlana; Martynenko, Elena; Kisel, Tatyana

    2017-10-01

    The BIM technology during her creation has been aimed, first of all, at design and construction branch, but its application in the field of studying and operation of architectural heritage can essentially change and transfer this kind of activity to new qualitative level. The question of effective introduction of BIM technologies at the solution of administrative questions of operation and development of monuments of architecture is considered in article. Creation of the information model of the building object of cultural heritage including a full complex of information on an object is offered: historical and archival, legal, technical, administrative, etc. The 3D model of an object of cultural heritage with color marking of elements on degree of wear and a first priority of carrying out repair will become one of components of model. This model will allow to estimate visually technical condition of the building in general and to gain general idea about scales of necessary repair and construction actions that promotes improvement of quality of operation of an object, and also simplifies and accelerates processing of information and in need of a memorial building assessment as subject to investment.

  8. Predictive Effects of the Quality of Online Peer-Feedback Provided and Received on Primary School Students' Quality of Question-Generation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yu, Fu-Yun; Wu, Chun-Ping

    2016-01-01

    The research objectives of this study were to examine the individual and combined predictive effects of the quality of online peer-feedback provided and received on primary school students' quality of question-generation. A correlational study was adopted, and performance data from 213 fifth-grade students engaged in online question-generation and…

  9. Investigating the Grammatical and Pragmatic Origins of Wh-Questions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

    PubMed Central

    Jyotishi, Manya; Fein, Deborah; Naigles, Letitia

    2017-01-01

    Compared to typically developing children, children with autism (ASD) show delayed production of wh-questions. It is currently controversial the degree to which such deficits derive from social-pragmatic requirements and/or because these are complex grammatical structures. The current study employed the intermodal preferential looking (IPL) paradigm, which reduces social-pragmatic demands. The IPL paradigm can help distinguish these proposals, as successful comprehension promotes the “pragmatics-origins” argument whereas comprehension difficulties would implicate a “grammatical-origins” argument. Additionally, we tested both the linguistic and social explanations by assessing the contributions of children's early grammatical knowledge (i.e., SVO word order) and their social-pragmatic scores on the Vineland to their later wh-question comprehension. Fourteen children with ASD and 17 TD children, matched on language level, were visited in their homes at 4-month intervals. Comprehension of wh-questions and SVO word order were tested via IPL: the wh-question video showed a costumed horse and bird serving as agents or patients of familiar transitive actions. During the test trials, they were displayed side by side with directing audios (e.g., “What did the horse tickle?”, “What hugged the bird?”, “Where is the horse/bird?”). Children's eye movements were coded offline; the DV was their percent looking to the named item during test. To show comprehension, children should look longer at the named item during a where-question than during a subject-wh or object-wh question. Results indicated that TD children comprehended both subject and object wh-questions at 32 months of age. Comprehension of object-wh questions emerged chronologically later in children with ASD compared to their TD peers, but at similar levels of language. Moreover, performance on word order and social-pragmatic scores independently predicted both groups' later performance on wh-question

  10. Stellar Populations in BL Lac type Objects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Serote Roos, Margarida

    The relationship between an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) and its host galaxy is a crucial question in the study of galaxy evolution. We present an estimate of the stellar contribution in a sample of low luminosity BL Lac type objects. We have performed stellar population synthesis for a sample of 19 objects selected from Marchã et al. (1996, MNRAS 281, 425). The stellar content is quantified using the equivalent widths of all absorption features available throughout the spectrum. The synthesis is done by a variant of the GPG method (Pelat: 1997, MNRAS 284, 365).

  11. Questioning Our Questions: Assessing Question Asking Practices to Evaluate a yPAR Program

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grace, Sarah; Langhout, Regina Day

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this research was to examine question asking practices in a youth participatory action research (yPAR) after school program housed at an elementary school. The research question was: In which ways did the adult question asking practices in a yPAR setting challenge and/or reproduce conventional models of power in educational…

  12. Infants' Individuation of Rigid and Plastic Objects Based on Shape

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schaub, Simone; Bertin, Evelyn; Cacchione, Trix

    2013-01-01

    Recent research suggests that 12-month-old infants use shape to individuate the number of objects present in a scene. This study addressed the question of whether infants would also rely on shape when shape is only a temporary attribute of an object. Specifically, we investigated whether infants realize that shape changes reliably indicate…

  13. Connection-based and object-based grouping in multiple-object tracking: A developmental study.

    PubMed

    Van der Hallen, Ruth; Reusens, Julie; Evers, Kris; de-Wit, Lee; Wagemans, Johan

    2018-03-30

    Developmental research on Gestalt laws has previously revealed that, even as young as infancy, we are bound to group visual elements into unitary structures in accordance with a variety of organizational principles. Here, we focus on the developmental trajectory of both connection-based and object-based grouping, and investigate their impact on object formation in participants, aged 9-21 years old (N = 113), using a multiple-object tracking paradigm. Results reveal a main effect of both age and grouping type, indicating that 9- to 21-year-olds are sensitive to both connection-based and object-based grouping interference, and tracking ability increases with age. In addition to its importance for typical development, these results provide an informative baseline to understand clinical aberrations in this regard. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? The origin of the Gestalt principles is still an ongoing debate: Are they innate, learned over time, or both? Developmental research has revealed how each Gestalt principle has its own trajectory and unique relationship to visual experience. Both connectedness and object-based grouping play an important role in object formation during childhood. What does this study add? The study identifies how sensitivity to connectedness and object-based grouping evolves in individuals, aged 9-21 years old. Using multiple-object tracking, results reveal that the ability to track multiple objects increases with age. These results provide an informative baseline to understand clinical aberrations in different types of grouping. © 2018 The Authors. British Journal of Developmental Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.

  14. Recommending Education Materials for Diabetic Questions Using Information Retrieval Approaches

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Yanshan; Shen, Feichen; Liu, Sijia; Rastegar-Mojarad, Majid; Wang, Liwei

    2017-01-01

    Background Self-management is crucial to diabetes care and providing expert-vetted content for answering patients’ questions is crucial in facilitating patient self-management. Objective The aim is to investigate the use of information retrieval techniques in recommending patient education materials for diabetic questions of patients. Methods We compared two retrieval algorithms, one based on Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling (topic modeling-based model) and one based on semantic group (semantic group-based model), with the baseline retrieval models, vector space model (VSM), in recommending diabetic patient education materials to diabetic questions posted on the TuDiabetes forum. The evaluation was based on a gold standard dataset consisting of 50 randomly selected diabetic questions where the relevancy of diabetic education materials to the questions was manually assigned by two experts. The performance was assessed using precision of top-ranked documents. Results We retrieved 7510 diabetic questions on the forum and 144 diabetic patient educational materials from the patient education database at Mayo Clinic. The mapping rate of words in each corpus mapped to the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) was significantly different (P<.001). The topic modeling-based model outperformed the other retrieval algorithms. For example, for the top-retrieved document, the precision of the topic modeling-based, semantic group-based, and VSM models was 67.0%, 62.8%, and 54.3%, respectively. Conclusions This study demonstrated that topic modeling can mitigate the vocabulary difference and it achieved the best performance in recommending education materials for answering patients’ questions. One direction for future work is to assess the generalizability of our findings and to extend our study to other disease areas, other patient education material resources, and online forums. PMID:29038097

  15. An ERP Study on Self-Relevant Object Recognition

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miyakoshi, Makoto; Nomura, Michio; Ohira, Hideki

    2007-01-01

    We performed an event-related potential study to investigate the self-relevance effect in object recognition. Three stimulus categories were prepared: SELF (participant's own objects), FAMILIAR (disposable and public objects, defined as objects with less-self-relevant familiarity), and UNFAMILIAR (others' objects). The participants' task was to…

  16. A few questions related to information and symmetries in physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Darvas, G.

    2017-01-01

    Information exchange between inanimate objects (like individual physical particles, or systems) involves special approaches, due to the peculiarity that conscious information emitters/recipients are excluded from the process. This paper aims at answering a part of some questions arising by such approaches. One can ask the question, whether is it possible to speak about physical information when there is no live recipient to accept, evaluate, and use it? Can one speak about "physical information" (e.g., signal exchange) between inanimate physical objects at all? (cf., Feynman diagrams.) If yes, what is the nature of that information? Is (physical) information a passive phenomenon, or its existence presumes activity? What does a signal represent if it is not observed and used at the other end, and where is that other end when one can say that the signal in question was lost without observation or use? I try to illustrate my personal answers with a few examples quoted from the history of 20th c. physics. My answers to the questions are not intended to be revelations and to provide final solutions, rather they serve as arguments and indicate that nothing is closed, the discussion is open.

  17. Children's Strategies for Interpreting Complex Comparative Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Townsend, David J.; Erb, Melinda

    1975-01-01

    In an experiment in which preschool children were asked questions such as "Which box is taller than it is fat?" the results were interpreted to mean that the linguistic strategy of attending to the first clause is more resistant to change than the preference for simply choosing the largest object. (Author/RM)

  18. New objects do not capture attention without a sensory transient.

    PubMed

    Hollingworth, Andrew; Simons, Daniel J; Franconeri, Steven L

    2010-07-01

    Attention capture occurs when a stimulus event involuntarily recruits attention. The abrupt appearance of a new object is perhaps the most well-studied attention-capturing event, yet there is debate over the root cause of this capture. Does a new object capture attention because it involves the creation of a new object representation or because its appearance creates a characteristic luminance transient? The present study sought to resolve this question by introducing a new object into a search display, either with or without a unique luminance transient. Contrary to the results of a recent study (Davoli, Suszko, & Abrams, 2007), when the new object's transient was masked by a brief interstimulus interval introduced between the placeholder and search arrays, a new object did not capture attention. Moreover, when a new object's transient was masked, participants could not locate a new object efficiently even when that was their explicit goal. Together, these data suggest that luminance transient signals are necessary for attention capture by new objects.

  19. Conducting seedling stock type trials: A new approach to an old question

    Treesearch

    Jeremiah R. Pinto; R. Kasten Dumroese; Anthony S. Davis; Thomas D. Landis

    2011-01-01

    Seedlings for reforestation and restoration come in many shapes and sizes, i.e., a variety of stocktypes. With so many choices available, land managers commonly ask which stocktype will best meet their management objectives. For years, stocktype studies have been initiated in search of an answer to this question, but few have been done without some degree of...

  20. The role of questions in the science classroom - how girls and boys respond to teachers' questions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Eliasson, Nina; Karlsson, Karl Göran; Sørensen, Helene

    2017-03-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore (a) to what extent male and female science teachers pose different types of questions and (b) if the type of science question posed influences the extent to which boys or girls respond to them. Transcripts of the teacher-student interaction in a whole-class situation were analysed, with attention paid to interactions that involved science questions. Closed and open questions were used. Results revealed that the percentage of closed questions posed corresponded to 87%. Results show that teachers mainly use closed questions, and responses from boys to closed questions are in the majority regardless of if the question is posed by a female teacher (56%) or a male teacher (64%). Both categories of closed questions are mainly considered lower order questions that do not facilitate higher cognitive levels in students. Thus, a direct consequence of an excessive use of this type of questions may be that both boys and girls will be given less opportunities to practise their ability to talk about science. Less access to general classroom interaction may also affect girls' attitudes to science in a negative way which could ultimately hamper the recruitment of girls to higher scientific studies.

  1. Computer-assisted handwriting style identification system for questioned document examination

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cha, Sung-Hyuk; Yoon, Sungsoo; Tappert, Charles C.; Lee, Yillbyung

    2005-03-01

    Handwriting originates from a particular copybook style such as Palmer or Zaner-Bloser that one learns in childhood. Since questioned document examination plays an important investigative and forensic role in many types of crime, it is important to develop a system that helps objectively identify a questioned document"s handwriting style. Here, we propose a computer vision system that can assist a document examiner in the identification of a writer"s handwriting style and therefore the origin or nationality of an unknown writer of a questioned document. We collected 33 Roman alphabet copybook styles from 18 countries. Each character in a questioned document is segmented and matched against all of the 33 handwriting copybook styles. The more characters present in the questioned document, the higher the accuracy observed.

  2. Questioning and Reading Goals: Information-Seeking Questions Asked on Scientific Texts Read under Different Task Conditions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ishiwa, Koto; Sanjose, Vicente; Otero, Jose

    2013-01-01

    Background: A number of studies report that few questions are asked in classrooms and that many of them are shallow questions. Aims: This study investigates the way in which reading goals determine questioning on scientific texts. Reading goals were manipulated through two different tasks: reading for understanding versus reading to solve a…

  3. 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.

  4. Ask Questions to Encourage Questions Asked

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    belcastro, sarah-marie

    2017-01-01

    We delineate some types of structured practice (modeling, requests, feedback, and space-making) that help students learn to pose appropriate questions and to initiate exploration of those questions. Developing skills requires practice, so we suggest ways to embed structured practice into existing class sessions. Including structured practice is…

  5. Objects in Motion

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ashbrook, Peggy

    2008-01-01

    Objects in motion attract children. The following activity helps children explore the motion of bodies riding in a vehicle and safely demonstrates the answer to their questions, "Why do I need a seatbelt?" Children will enjoy moving the cup around, even if all they "see" is a cup rather than understanding it represents a car. They will understand…

  6. Questioning and reading goals: information-seeking questions asked on scientific texts read under different task conditions.

    PubMed

    Ishiwa, Koto; Sanjosé, Vicente; Otero, José

    2013-09-01

    A number of studies report that few questions are asked in classrooms and that many of them are shallow questions. This study investigates the way in which reading goals determine questioning on scientific texts. Reading goals were manipulated through two different tasks: reading for understanding versus reading to solve a problem. A total of 183 university students. In the first and third questioning experiments, the participants read two short texts. Students in one condition were instructed to understand the texts, whereas in the alternative condition they had to read texts to solve a problem. Students were instructed to write down any questions they might have about the texts. The questions were categorized according to the type of underlying obstacle: associative, explanatory, or predictive. The second experiment used a think-aloud methodology to identify the mental representations generated by the students. The two questioning experiments show that the questions asked depend on the reading goals. Significantly more explanation questions were asked in the understanding condition than in the problem-solving condition. Also, the two conditions were found to have a different influence on the generation of association and explanation questions. Very few prediction questions were asked in either condition. The think-aloud experiment revealed that the mental representations attempted by readers under the two conditions were indeed different. In conclusion, the experiments showed that, given a certain textual input, readers' questions depend on the reading goals associated with tasks. © 2012 The British Psychological Society.

  7. Simple Texts, Complex Questions: Helping Young Children Generate Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ness, Molly

    2017-01-01

    As they are naturally curious about the world around them, young children ask lots and lots of questions. In classrooms today, however, there seems to be little space for these student-generated questions as teachers are more likely to pose the questions. Research indicates that question generation is an effective strategy to motivate young…

  8. The recent evolution of the question "What is life"?

    PubMed

    Morange, Michel

    2012-01-01

    The question "What is life?" is absent from the writings of present-day biologists and scientists. However, an answer to this question, even if only partial, is needed for successful completion of projects in astrobiology and synthetic biology. The reasons for this absence are metaphysical, epistemological, and historical. No one has a full answer to this question, but there are many good reasons to keep posing it. Answers are no longer sought in the existence of strengths or mechanisms specific to life. The secret of life has been unveiled and it is nothing other than physical chemistry. What remains to be understood is the way the characteristics of organisms have emerged and been combined within one unique "object." The answer to the question "What is life?" is now looked for in the scenario that generated life.

  9. Priority Questions and Horizon Scanning for Conservation: A Comparative Study

    PubMed Central

    Kark, Salit; Sutherland, William J.; Shanas, Uri; Klass, Keren; Achisar, Hila; Dayan, Tamar; Gavrieli, Yael; Justo-Hanani, Ronit; Mandelik, Yael; Orion, Nir; Pargament, David; Portman, Michelle; Reisman-Berman, Orna; Safriel, Uriel N.; Schaffer, Gad; Steiner, Noa; Tauber, Israel; Levin, Noam

    2016-01-01

    Several projects aimed at identifying priority issues for conservation with high relevance to policy have recently been completed in several countries. Two major types of projects have been undertaken, aimed at identifying (i) policy-relevant questions most imperative to conservation and (ii) horizon scanning topics, defined as emerging issues that are expected to have substantial implications for biodiversity conservation and policy in the future. Here, we provide the first overview of the outcomes of biodiversity and conservation-oriented projects recently completed around the world using this framework. We also include the results of the first questions and horizon scanning project completed for a Mediterranean country. Overall, the outcomes of the different projects undertaken (at the global scale, in the UK, US, Canada, Switzerland and in Israel) were strongly correlated in terms of the proportion of questions and/or horizon scanning topics selected when comparing different topic areas. However, some major differences were found across regions. There was large variation among regions in the percentage of proactive (i.e. action and response oriented) versus descriptive (non-response oriented) priority questions and in the emphasis given to socio-political issues. Substantial differences were also found when comparing outcomes of priority questions versus horizon scanning projects undertaken for the same region. For example, issues related to climate change, human demography and marine ecosystems received higher priority as horizon scanning topics, while ecosystem services were more emphasized as current priority questions. We suggest that future initiatives aimed at identifying priority conservation questions and horizon scanning topics should allow simultaneous identification of both current and future priority issues, as presented here for the first time. We propose that further emphasis on social-political issues should be explicitly integrated into future

  10. Do Questions Get Infants Talking? Infant Vocal Responses to Questions and Declaratives in Maternal Speech

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reimchen, Melissa; Soderstrom, Melanie

    2017-01-01

    Maternal questions play a crucial role in early language acquisition by virtue of their special grammatical, prosodic and lexical forms, and their abundance in the input. Infants are able to discriminate questions from other sentence types and produce rising intonations in their own requests. This study examined whether caregiver questions were…

  11. An Examination of Second Graders' Construction and Interpretation of Questions Used during Social Studies Interviews

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kelley, Lynn Allyson

    2009-01-01

    An investigation was conducted to determine whether the level of social studies interview questions second graders formulate and use can be increased with questioning instruction in terms of quality, which is defined as depth of response, and in terms of quantity. This was a quantitative study using both qualitative and quantitative data in which…

  12. Question Popularity Analysis and Prediction in Community Question Answering Services

    PubMed Central

    Liu, Ting; Zhang, Wei-Nan; Cao, Liujuan; Zhang, Yu

    2014-01-01

    With the blooming of online social media applications, Community Question Answering (CQA) services have become one of the most important online resources for information and knowledge seekers. A large number of high quality question and answer pairs have been accumulated, which allow users to not only share their knowledge with others, but also interact with each other. Accordingly, volumes of efforts have been taken to explore the questions and answers retrieval in CQA services so as to help users to finding the similar questions or the right answers. However, to our knowledge, less attention has been paid so far to question popularity in CQA. Question popularity can reflect the attention and interest of users. Hence, predicting question popularity can better capture the users’ interest so as to improve the users’ experience. Meanwhile, it can also promote the development of the community. In this paper, we investigate the problem of predicting question popularity in CQA. We first explore the factors that have impact on question popularity by employing statistical analysis. We then propose a supervised machine learning approach to model these factors for question popularity prediction. The experimental results show that our proposed approach can effectively distinguish the popular questions from unpopular ones in the Yahoo! Answers question and answer repository. PMID:24837851

  13. Question popularity analysis and prediction in community question answering services.

    PubMed

    Liu, Ting; Zhang, Wei-Nan; Cao, Liujuan; Zhang, Yu

    2014-01-01

    With the blooming of online social media applications, Community Question Answering (CQA) services have become one of the most important online resources for information and knowledge seekers. A large number of high quality question and answer pairs have been accumulated, which allow users to not only share their knowledge with others, but also interact with each other. Accordingly, volumes of efforts have been taken to explore the questions and answers retrieval in CQA services so as to help users to finding the similar questions or the right answers. However, to our knowledge, less attention has been paid so far to question popularity in CQA. Question popularity can reflect the attention and interest of users. Hence, predicting question popularity can better capture the users' interest so as to improve the users' experience. Meanwhile, it can also promote the development of the community. In this paper, we investigate the problem of predicting question popularity in CQA. We first explore the factors that have impact on question popularity by employing statistical analysis. We then propose a supervised machine learning approach to model these factors for question popularity prediction. The experimental results show that our proposed approach can effectively distinguish the popular questions from unpopular ones in the Yahoo! Answers question and answer repository.

  14. On the Processing of Japanese Wh-Questions: An ERP Study

    PubMed Central

    Ueno, Mieko; Kluender, Robert

    2009-01-01

    The processing of Japanese wh-questions was investigated using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Unlike in English or German, a wh-element in Japanese need not be displaced from its canonical position, but instead needs a corresponding Q(uestion)-particle to indicate its interrogative scope. We tested to see if there were any processing correlates specific to these features of Japanese wh-questions. Both mono-clausal and bi-clausal Japanese wh-questions elicited right-lateralized anterior negativity (RAN) between wh-words and corresponding Q-particles, relative to structurally-equivalent yes/no-question control conditions. These results suggest a reliable neural processing correlate of the dependency between wh-elements and Q-particles in Japanese, which is similar to effects of (left) anterior negativity seen between wh-fillers and gaps in English and German, but with a right- rather than left-lateralized distribution. It is suggested that wh-in-situ questions in Japanese are processed by the incremental formation of a long-distance dependency between wh-elements and their Q-particles, resulting in a working memory load for keeping track of the scopeless wh-elements. PMID:19501576

  15. Instructional Objectives, Learner Personality and Prediction of Academic Achievement.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kelley, Russell Victor, Jr.

    This study investigated three questions: the relationship between the use of stated instructional objectives and achievement in audio-tutorial (A-T) instruction, the relationship of learner personality and achievement under conditions of A-T, as well as determining the power of selected batteries of intellective and personality variables to…

  16. Identifying the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: implications of results from recall and recognition questions

    PubMed Central

    2009-01-01

    Background This analysis assessed whether Blacks, Whites and Puerto-Rican (PR) Hispanics differed in their ability to identify the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (TSS) via open-ended questions following lead-in recognition and recall questions. Methods The Tuskegee Legacy Project (TLP) Questionnaire was administered via a Random-Digit Dial (RDD) telephone survey to a stratified random sample of Black, White and PR Hispanic adults in three U.S. cities. Results The TLP Questionnaire was administered to 1,162 adults (356 African-Americans, 313 PR Hispanics, and 493 non-Hispanic Whites) in San Juan, PR, Baltimore, MD and New York City, NY. Recall question data revealed: 1) that 89% or more of Blacks, Whites, and PR Hispanics were not able to name or definitely identify the Tuskegee Syphilis Study by giving study attributes; and, 2) that Blacks were the most likely to provide an open-ended answer that identified the Tuskegee Syphilis Study as compared to Whites and PR Hispanics (11.5% vs 6.3% vs 2.9%, respectively) (p ≤ 0.002). Even when probed by a recognition question, only a minority of each racial/ethnic group (37.1%, 26.9%, and 8.6%, for Blacks, Whites and PR Hispanics, respectively) was able to clearly identify the TSS (p < 0.001). Conclusions The two major implications of these findings for health disparity researchers are 1) that it is unlikely that detailed knowledge of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study has any current widespread influence on the willingness of minorities to participate in biomedical research, and 2) that caution should be applied before assuming that what community leaders 'know and are aware of' is equally 'well known' within their community constituencies. PMID:20015361

  17. Identifying the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: implications of results from recall and recognition questions.

    PubMed

    Katz, Ralph V; Jean-Charles, Germain; Green, B Lee; Kressin, Nancy R; Claudio, Cristina; Wang, Minqi; Russell, Stefanie L; Outlaw, Jason

    2009-12-16

    This analysis assessed whether Blacks, Whites and Puerto-Rican (PR) Hispanics differed in their ability to identify the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (TSS) via open-ended questions following lead-in recognition and recall questions. The Tuskegee Legacy Project (TLP) Questionnaire was administered via a Random-Digit Dial (RDD) telephone survey to a stratified random sample of Black, White and PR Hispanic adults in three U.S. cities. The TLP Questionnaire was administered to 1,162 adults (356 African-Americans, 313 PR Hispanics, and 493 non-Hispanic Whites) in San Juan, PR, Baltimore, MD and New York City, NY. Recall question data revealed: 1) that 89% or more of Blacks, Whites, and PR Hispanics were not able to name or definitely identify the Tuskegee Syphilis Study by giving study attributes; and, 2) that Blacks were the most likely to provide an open-ended answer that identified the Tuskegee Syphilis Study as compared to Whites and PR Hispanics (11.5% vs 6.3% vs 2.9%, respectively) (p question, only a minority of each racial/ethnic group (37.1%, 26.9%, and 8.6%, for Blacks, Whites and PR Hispanics, respectively) was able to clearly identify the TSS (p < 0.001). The two major implications of these findings for health disparity researchers are 1) that it is unlikely that detailed knowledge of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study has any current widespread influence on the willingness of minorities to participate in biomedical research, and 2) that caution should be applied before assuming that what community leaders 'know and are aware of' is equally 'well known' within their community constituencies.

  18. Backward Dependencies and in-Situ wh-Questions as Test Cases on How to Approach Experimental Linguistics Research That Pursues Theoretical Linguistics Questions

    PubMed Central

    Pablos, Leticia; Doetjes, Jenny; Cheng, Lisa L.-S.

    2018-01-01

    The empirical study of language is a young field in contemporary linguistics. This being the case, and following a natural development process, the field is currently at a stage where different research methods and experimental approaches are being put into question in terms of their validity. Without pretending to provide an answer with respect to the best way to conduct linguistics related experimental research, in this article we aim at examining the process that researchers follow in the design and implementation of experimental linguistics research with a goal to validate specific theoretical linguistic analyses. First, we discuss the general challenges that experimental work faces in finding a compromise between addressing theoretically relevant questions and being able to implement these questions in a specific controlled experimental paradigm. We discuss the Granularity Mismatch Problem (Poeppel and Embick, 2005) which addresses the challenges that research that is trying to bridge the representations and computations of language and their psycholinguistic/neurolinguistic evidence faces, and the basic assumptions that interdisciplinary research needs to consider due to the different conceptual granularity of the objects under study. To illustrate the practical implications of the points addressed, we compare two approaches to perform linguistic experimental research by reviewing a number of our own studies strongly grounded on theoretically informed questions. First, we show how linguistic phenomena similar at a conceptual level can be tested within the same language using measurement of event-related potentials (ERP) by discussing results from two ERP experiments on the processing of long-distance backward dependencies that involve coreference and negative polarity items respectively in Dutch. Second, we examine how the same linguistic phenomenon can be tested in different languages using reading time measures by discussing the outcome of four self

  19. Backward Dependencies and in-Situ wh-Questions as Test Cases on How to Approach Experimental Linguistics Research That Pursues Theoretical Linguistics Questions.

    PubMed

    Pablos, Leticia; Doetjes, Jenny; Cheng, Lisa L-S

    2017-01-01

    The empirical study of language is a young field in contemporary linguistics. This being the case, and following a natural development process, the field is currently at a stage where different research methods and experimental approaches are being put into question in terms of their validity. Without pretending to provide an answer with respect to the best way to conduct linguistics related experimental research, in this article we aim at examining the process that researchers follow in the design and implementation of experimental linguistics research with a goal to validate specific theoretical linguistic analyses. First, we discuss the general challenges that experimental work faces in finding a compromise between addressing theoretically relevant questions and being able to implement these questions in a specific controlled experimental paradigm. We discuss the Granularity Mismatch Problem (Poeppel and Embick, 2005) which addresses the challenges that research that is trying to bridge the representations and computations of language and their psycholinguistic/neurolinguistic evidence faces, and the basic assumptions that interdisciplinary research needs to consider due to the different conceptual granularity of the objects under study. To illustrate the practical implications of the points addressed, we compare two approaches to perform linguistic experimental research by reviewing a number of our own studies strongly grounded on theoretically informed questions. First, we show how linguistic phenomena similar at a conceptual level can be tested within the same language using measurement of event-related potentials (ERP) by discussing results from two ERP experiments on the processing of long-distance backward dependencies that involve coreference and negative polarity items respectively in Dutch. Second, we examine how the same linguistic phenomenon can be tested in different languages using reading time measures by discussing the outcome of four self

  20. A Machine Learning-based Method for Question Type Classification in Biomedical Question Answering.

    PubMed

    Sarrouti, Mourad; Ouatik El Alaoui, Said

    2017-05-18

    Biomedical question type classification is one of the important components of an automatic biomedical question answering system. The performance of the latter depends directly on the performance of its biomedical question type classification system, which consists of assigning a category to each question in order to determine the appropriate answer extraction algorithm. This study aims to automatically classify biomedical questions into one of the four categories: (1) yes/no, (2) factoid, (3) list, and (4) summary. In this paper, we propose a biomedical question type classification method based on machine learning approaches to automatically assign a category to a biomedical question. First, we extract features from biomedical questions using the proposed handcrafted lexico-syntactic patterns. Then, we feed these features for machine-learning algorithms. Finally, the class label is predicted using the trained classifiers. Experimental evaluations performed on large standard annotated datasets of biomedical questions, provided by the BioASQ challenge, demonstrated that our method exhibits significant improved performance when compared to four baseline systems. The proposed method achieves a roughly 10-point increase over the best baseline in terms of accuracy. Moreover, the obtained results show that using handcrafted lexico-syntactic patterns as features' provider of support vector machine (SVM) lead to the highest accuracy of 89.40 %. The proposed method can automatically classify BioASQ questions into one of the four categories: yes/no, factoid, list, and summary. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that our method produced the best classification performance compared to four baseline systems.

  1. 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

  2. Posing Einstein's Question: Questioning Einstein's Pose.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Topper, David; Vincent, Dwight E.

    2000-01-01

    Discusses the events surrounding a famous picture of Albert Einstein in which he poses near a blackboard containing a tensor form of his 10 field equations for pure gravity with a question mark after it. Speculates as to the content of Einstein's lecture and the questions he might have had about the equation. (Contains over 30 references.) (WRM)

  3. "Don't Know" Responding to Answerable and Unanswerable Questions during Misleading and Hypnotic Interviews

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Scoboria, Alan; Mazzoni, Giuliana; Kirsch, Irving

    2008-01-01

    "Don't know" (DK) responses to interview questions are conceptually heterogeneous, and may represent uncertainty or clear statements about the contents of memory. A study examined the subjective intent of DK responses in relation to the objective status of information queried, in the context of memory distorting procedures. Participants…

  4. Arenani: pointing and information query system for object beyond your reach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adachi, Mariko; Sakamoto, Kunio

    2008-03-01

    The authors developed a prototype information query system. It is easy to get the information about an object with in your reach. But it is troublesome to do the same in case that the object is far away. If someone is around you, you can ask an easy question with a finger pointing; "What is that?" Our developed system also realizes this approach using information technologies. The system consists of a laser pointer, transmitter and receiver units for an optical communication. The laser pointer is used for pointing an object. Moreover this laser light is modulated for sending information about user's identification (ID) codes to identify who asks a question. Each object has a receiver for laser light communication and sends user's identification to a main computer. After pointing an object, a questioner receives an answer through a wireless information network like an email on the cellular phone.

  5. Toward Question-Asking Machines: The Logic of Questions and the Inquiry Calculus

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Knuth,Kevin H.

    2005-01-01

    For over a century, the study of logic has focused on the algebra of logical statements. This work, first performed by George Boole, has led to the development of modern computers, and was shown by Richard T. Cox to be the foundation of Bayesian inference. Meanwhile the logic of questions has been much neglected. For our computing machines to be truly intelligent, they need to be able to ask relevant questions. In this paper I will show how the Boolean lattice of logical statements gives rise to the free distributive lattice of questions thus defining their algebra. Furthermore, there exists a quantity analogous to probability, called relevance, which quantifies the degree to which one question answers another. I will show that relevance is not only a natural generalization of information theory, but also forms its foundation.

  6. No Evidence for a Fixed Object Limit in Working Memory: Spatial Ensemble Representations Inflate Estimates of Working Memory Capacity for Complex Objects

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brady, Timothy F.; Alvarez, George A.

    2015-01-01

    A central question for models of visual working memory is whether the number of objects people can remember depends on object complexity. Some influential "slot" models of working memory capacity suggest that people always represent 3-4 objects and that only the fidelity with which these objects are represented is affected by object…

  7. The effect of question format and task difficulty on reasoning strategies and diagnostic performance in Internal Medicine residents.

    PubMed

    Heemskerk, Laura; Norman, Geoff; Chou, Sophia; Mintz, Marcy; Mandin, Henry; McLaughlin, Kevin

    2008-11-01

    Previous studies have suggested an association between reasoning strategies and diagnostic success, but the influence on this relationship of variables such as question format and task difficulty, has not been studied. Our objective was to study the association between question format, task difficulty, reasoning strategies and diagnostic success. Study participants were 13 Internal Medicine residents at the University of Calgary. Each was given eight problem-solving questions in four clinical presentations and were randomized to groups that differed only in the question format, such that a question presented as short answer (SA) to the first group was presented as extended matching (EM) to the second group. There were equal numbers of SA/EM questions and straightforward/difficult tasks. Participants performed think-aloud during diagnostic reasoning. Data were analyzed using multiple logistic regression. Question format was associated with reasoning strategies; hypothetico-deductive reasoning being used more frequently on EM questions and scheme-inductive reasoning on SA questions. For SA question, non-analytic reasoning alone was used more frequently to answer straightforward cases than difficult cases, whereas for EM questions no such association was observed. EM format and straightforward task increased the odds of diagnostic success, whereas hypothetico-deductive reasoning was associated with reduced odds of success. Question format and task difficulty both influence diagnostic reasoning strategies and studies that examine the effect of reasoning strategies on diagnostic success should control for these effects. Further studies are needed to investigate the effect of reasoning strategies on performance of different groups of learners.

  8. Multi-objective vs. single-objective calibration of a hydrologic model using single- and multi-objective screening

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mai, Juliane; Cuntz, Matthias; Shafii, Mahyar; Zink, Matthias; Schäfer, David; Thober, Stephan; Samaniego, Luis; Tolson, Bryan

    2016-04-01

    Hydrologic models are traditionally calibrated against observed streamflow. Recent studies have shown however, that only a few global model parameters are constrained using this kind of integral signal. They can be identified using prior screening techniques. Since different objectives might constrain different parameters, it is advisable to use multiple information to calibrate those models. One common approach is to combine these multiple objectives (MO) into one single objective (SO) function and allow the use of a SO optimization algorithm. Another strategy is to consider the different objectives separately and apply a MO Pareto optimization algorithm. In this study, two major research questions will be addressed: 1) How do multi-objective calibrations compare with corresponding single-objective calibrations? 2) How much do calibration results deteriorate when the number of calibrated parameters is reduced by a prior screening technique? The hydrologic model employed in this study is a distributed hydrologic model (mHM) with 52 model parameters, i.e. transfer coefficients. The model uses grid cells as a primary hydrologic unit, and accounts for processes like snow accumulation and melting, soil moisture dynamics, infiltration, surface runoff, evapotranspiration, subsurface storage and discharge generation. The model is applied in three distinct catchments over Europe. The SO calibrations are performed using the Dynamically Dimensioned Search (DDS) algorithm with a fixed budget while the MO calibrations are achieved using the Pareto Dynamically Dimensioned Search (PA-DDS) algorithm allowing for the same budget. The two objectives used here are the Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) of the simulated streamflow and the NSE of the logarithmic transformation. It is shown that the SO DDS results are located close to the edges of the Pareto fronts of the PA-DDS. The MO calibrations are hence preferable due to their supply of multiple equivalent solutions from which the

  9. A Medical Consultation Service on Facebook: Descriptive Analysis of Questions Answered

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background Social media is used increasingly by the general public to access health information. However, a lack of models for health information distribution limits the presence of publicly funded services on social media sites. Objective The goal of the study was to present a model for delivering child health information to parents through a social media site. Methods A Facebook site was launched for 11 months based on a question-and-answer service produced by a pediatrician and open to Facebook users over 18 years old. If the answer did not include a further referral to a health care service provider, the question was considered comprehensively answered. The site was funded by a pharmaceutical company, and it included an advertisement of a pharmaceutical product for children’s fever and pain. Results During the study, 768 questions were submitted: an average of 69.8 (SD 31.7) per month. There were 245,533 independent Facebook users on the site, with an average of 727.0 (SD 2280.6) per day. Infections were the most common theme in questions (355/768, 46.2%). Questions were more likely to be comprehensively answered if they were related to infections (279/355, 78.6%) than questions related to non-infectious symptoms (265/423, 64.2%, P=.003). Conclusions On this site aimed at parents of small children, personalized answers were an effective way of delivering information. The service is likely to have reduced the need for further contacts with a health care service provider in more than half of the cases. The site could serve as a model for publicly funded health information distribution. PMID:25189182

  10. [Docimologic analysis of 4th-year preclinical exam questions].

    PubMed

    Gnagne-Agnero, Koffi N; Zinsou, E M; Assoumou, N M; Adiko, E F

    2003-12-01

    Operative Dentistry and Endodontics' Department of the School of Dentistry of Abidjan experienced pre-clinical exam in fourth year of dentistry with MCQ following guided courses which aim was to lead student to be correctly in charge of the patients when they start their first clinical performance. The objective off his this work is to show how one's can analyse exams questions efficiently. In this work the authors present et discuss the results of the evaluation of this preclinical exam performed through calculation of index of success (Ir) which gives us information on the difficulty of a question for all the students who answered, the discriminative index (Id) which allow to determine when a question is selective enough to distinguish weak to strong students in a group. The mean to evaluate is well chosen because the questions asked has a Ir between 46% et 80% (satisfying Ir) and the average Id is between 0.30 and 0.53 (Id discriminates well among 0.30 et 1). This methodology allows an evaluation of a high number of students by stocked questions.

  11. Constructing a question bank based on script concordance approach as a novel assessment methodology in surgical education.

    PubMed

    Aldekhayel, Salah A; Alselaim, Nahar A; Magzoub, Mohi Eldin; Al-Qattan, Mohammad M; Al-Namlah, Abdullah M; Tamim, Hani; Al-Khayal, Abdullah; Al-Habdan, Sultan I; Zamakhshary, Mohammed F

    2012-10-24

    Script Concordance Test (SCT) is a new assessment tool that reliably assesses clinical reasoning skills. Previous descriptions of developing SCT-question banks were merely subjective. This study addresses two gaps in the literature: 1) conducting the first phase of a multistep validation process of SCT in Plastic Surgery, and 2) providing an objective methodology to construct a question bank based on SCT. After developing a test blueprint, 52 test items were written. Five validation questions were developed and a validation survey was established online. Seven reviewers were asked to answer this survey. They were recruited from two countries, Saudi Arabia and Canada, to improve the test's external validity. Their ratings were transformed into percentages. Analysis was performed to compare reviewers' ratings by looking at correlations, ranges, means, medians, and overall scores. Scores of reviewers' ratings were between 76% and 95% (mean 86% ± 5). We found poor correlations between reviewers (Pearson's: +0.38 to -0.22). Ratings of individual validation questions ranged between 0 and 4 (on a scale 1-5). Means and medians of these ranges were computed for each test item (mean: 0.8 to 2.4; median: 1 to 3). A subset of test items comprising 27 items was generated based on a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria. This study proposes an objective methodology for validation of SCT-question bank. Analysis of validation survey is done from all angles, i.e., reviewers, validation questions, and test items. Finally, a subset of test items is generated based on a set of criteria.

  12. Positive vs. Negative: The Impact of Question Polarity in Voting Advice Applications

    PubMed Central

    Krouwel, André; van de Pol, Jasper; de Vreese, Claes

    2016-01-01

    Online Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) are survey-like instruments that help citizens to shape their political preferences and compare them with those of political parties. Especially in multi-party democracies, their increasing popularity indicates that VAAs play an important role in opinion formation for citizens, as well as in the public debate prior to elections. Hence, the objectivity and transparency of VAAs are crucial. In the design of VAAs, many choices have to be made. Extant research in survey methodology shows that the seemingly arbitrary choice to word questions positively (e.g., ‘The city council should allow cars into the city centre’) or negatively (‘The city council should ban cars from the city centre’) systematically affects the answers. This asymmetry in answers is in line with work on negativity bias in other areas of linguistics and psychology. Building on these findings, this study investigated whether question polarity also affects the answers to VAA statements. In a field experiment (N = 31,112) during the Dutch municipal elections we analysed the effects of polarity for 16 out of 30 VAA statements with a large variety of linguistic contrasts. Analyses show a significant effect of question wording for questions containing a wide range of implicit negations (such as ‘forbid’ vs. ‘allow’), as well as for questions with explicit negations (e.g., ‘not’). These effects of question polarity are found especially for VAA users with lower levels of political sophistication. As these citizens are an important target group for Voting Advice Applications, this stresses the need for VAA builders to be sensitive to wording choices when designing VAAs. This study is the first to show such consistent wording effects not only for political attitude questions with implicit negations in VAAs, but also for political questions containing explicit negations. PMID:27723776

  13. Feasibility planning study for a behavior database. Volume III Appendix B, Compendium of survey questions on drinking and driving and occupant restraints

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1987-04-01

    The general objective of the project was to determine the feasibility of and the general requirements for a centralized database on driver behavior and attitudes related to drunk driving and occupant restraints. Volume III is a compendium of question...

  14. Reflective Questions, Self-Questioning and Managing Professionally Situated Practice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Malthouse, Richard; Watts, Mike; Roffey-Barentsen, Jodi

    2015-01-01

    Reflective self-questioning arises within the workplace when people are confronted with professional problems and situations. This paper focuses on reflective and "situated reflective" questions in terms of self-questioning and professional workplace problem solving. In our view, the situational context, entailed by the setting, social…

  15. Biology Question Generation from a Semantic Network

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Lishan

    Science instructors need questions for use in exams, homework assignments, class discussions, reviews, and other instructional activities. Textbooks never have enough questions, so instructors must find them from other sources or generate their own questions. In order to supply instructors with biology questions, a semantic network approach was developed for generating open response biology questions. The generated questions were compared to professional authorized questions. To boost students' learning experience, adaptive selection was built on the generated questions. Bayesian Knowledge Tracing was used as embedded assessment of the student's current competence so that a suitable question could be selected based on the student's previous performance. A between-subjects experiment with 42 participants was performed, where half of the participants studied with adaptive selected questions and the rest studied with mal-adaptive order of questions. Both groups significantly improved their test scores, and the participants in adaptive group registered larger learning gains than participants in the control group. To explore the possibility of generating rich instructional feedback for machine-generated questions, a question-paragraph mapping task was identified. Given a set of questions and a list of paragraphs for a textbook, the goal of the task was to map the related paragraphs to each question. An algorithm was developed whose performance was comparable to human annotators. A multiple-choice question with high quality distractors (incorrect answers) can be pedagogically valuable as well as being much easier to grade than open-response questions. Thus, an algorithm was developed to generate good distractors for multiple-choice questions. The machine-generated multiple-choice questions were compared to human-generated questions in terms of three measures: question difficulty, question discrimination and distractor usefulness. By recruiting 200 participants from

  16. Visual Memory for Objects Following Foveal Vision Loss

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Geringswald, Franziska; Herbik, Anne; Hofmüller, Wolfram; Hoffmann, Michael B.; Pollmann, Stefan

    2015-01-01

    Allocation of visual attention is crucial for encoding items into visual long-term memory. In free vision, attention is closely linked to the center of gaze, raising the question whether foveal vision loss entails suboptimal deployment of attention and subsequent impairment of object encoding. To investigate this question, we examined visual…

  17. Four Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hark-Weber, Amara G., Ed.

    2013-01-01

    The author is pleased to introduce a new section in "TAJ," Four Questions. The structure is simple: four questions are asked to teaching artists working in various media and locations. The questions are always the same, but because each teaching artist's approach is unique, their answers will provide an insight into particular methodologies that…

  18. Analysis of public concerns about influenza vaccinations by mining a massive online question dataset in Japan.

    PubMed

    Nawa, Nobutoshi; Kogaki, Shigetoyo; Takahashi, Kunihiko; Ishida, Hidekazu; Baden, Hiroki; Katsuragi, Shinichi; Narita, Jun; Tanaka-Taya, Keiko; Ozono, Keiichi

    2016-06-08

    Elucidating public concerns regarding vaccinations is important for successful immunization programs. The objective of the present study was to categorize public concerns regarding influenza vaccinations in Japan by analyzing a massive web-based question dataset. The Yahoo! Chiebukuro (Japanese Yahoo! Answers) Dataset, which includes more than 16 million questions collected between April 2004 and April 2009, was used in this study. We sequentially filtered data to obtain questions on influenza vaccinations. Any questions that met our exclusion criteria concerning veterinary vaccines or computer virus vaccines were removed from the analysis. Filtered questions and their answers were manually analyzed for their content by a team of board-certified pediatricians. After filtering data, we obtained 1950 questions regarding influenza vaccinations. The three most frequently asked questions were regarding the vaccination schedule, safety, and effectiveness. When we analyzed monthly trends in question contents, we noted the emergence of similar questions in the same period every year. Therefore, we classified the time periods of each year into three parts: (1) from April to the commencement of seasonal influenza vaccinations (September), (2) from October until the epidemic period, and (3) the epidemic period. Two interesting results were obtained: concerns regarding effectiveness abruptly increased during the epidemic period, and pregnant or breastfeeding women increasingly asked questions regarding feasibility between October and the epidemic period. The questions and concerns collected and analyzed in this study illustrate that the public have questions about the influenza vaccine and also that questions changed with periodical consistency. These results highlight the possible usefulness of providing the public with the latest and correct information to their questions in a timely manner, for example via an official health website. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All

  19. Protein Electrochemistry: Questions and Answers.

    PubMed

    Fourmond, V; Léger, C

    This chapter presents the fundamentals of electrochemistry in the context of protein electrochemistry. We discuss redox proteins and enzymes that are not photoactive. Of course, the principles described herein also apply to photobioelectrochemistry, as discussed in later chapters of this book. Depending on which experiment is considered, electron transfer between proteins and electrodes can be either direct or mediated, and achieved in a variety of configurations: with the protein and/or the mediator free to diffuse in solution, immobilized in a thick, hydrated film, or adsorbed as a sub-monolayer on the electrode. The experiments can be performed with the goal to study the protein or to use it. Here emphasis is on mechanistic studies, which are easier in the configuration where the protein is adsorbed and electron transfer is direct, but we also explain the interpretation of signals obtained when diffusion processes affect the response.This chapter is organized as a series of responses to questions. Questions 1-5 are related to the basics of electrochemistry: what does "potential" or "current" mean, what does an electrochemical set-up look like? Questions 6-9 are related to the distinction between adsorbed and diffusive redox species. The answers to questions 10-13 explain the interpretation of slow and fast scan voltammetry with redox proteins. Questions 14-19 deal with catalytic electrochemistry, when the protein studied is actually an enzyme. Questions 20, 21 and 22 are general.

  20. Doing Science and Asking Questions II: An Exercise That Generates Questions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hurt Middlecamp, Catherine; Nickel, Anne-Marie L.

    2005-08-01

    Given the importance of questions in science, it is critical that students learn to ask questions as well as learning to answer them. This paper describes a classroom exercise to help students better ask their own questions. It has been classroom-tested in multiple formats and has also been used for curriculum development workshops for faculty. This exercise in creating questions can be easily customized to suit different instructional contexts; some variations are outlined. More broadly, this paper also discusses the pedagogical significance of questioning, raising four salient points: (1) learners are more likely to have a personal interest in the questions they raise; (2) questions can serve as entry points for issues relating to ethnicity and gender; (3) questions give control to the person who asks them; and (4) questions can challenge existing structures, categories, and norms.

  1. Pulsars at the Highest Energies: Questions for AGILE, Fermi (GLAST) and Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, D.J.

    2008-01-01

    Observational studies of gamma-ray pulsars languished in recent years, while theoretical studies made significant strides. Now, with new and improved gamma-ray telescopes coming online, opportunities present themselves for dramatic improvements in our understanding of these objects. The new facilities and better modeling of processes at work in high-energy pulsars should address a number of important open questions, some of which are summarized.

  2. Searching CINAHL did not add value to clinical questions posed in NICE guidelines.

    PubMed

    Beckles, Zosia; Glover, Sarah; Ashe, Joanna; Stockton, Sarah; Boynton, Janette; Lai, Rosalind; Alderson, Philip

    2013-09-01

    This study aims to quantify the unique useful yield from the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) database to National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) clinical guidelines. A secondary objective is to investigate the relationship between this yield and different clinical question types. It is hypothesized that the unique useful yield from CINAHL is low, and this database can therefore be relegated to selective rather than routine searching. A retrospective sample of 15 NICE guidelines published between 2005 and 2009 was taken. Information on clinical review question type, number of references, and reference source was extracted. Only 0.33% (95% confidence interval: 0.01-0.64%) of references per guideline were unique to CINAHL. Nursing- or allied health (AH)-related questions were nearly three times as likely to have references unique to CINAHL as non-nursing- or AH-related questions (14.89% vs. 5.11%), and this relationship was found to be significant (P<0.05). No significant relationship was found between question type and unique CINAHL yield for drug-related questions. The very low proportion of references unique to CINAHL strongly suggests that this database can be safely relegated to selective rather than routine searching. Nursing- and AH-related questions would benefit from selective searching of CINAHL. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Click-On-Diagram Questions: a New Tool to Study Conceptions Using Classroom Response Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    LaDue, Nicole D.; Shipley, Thomas F.

    2018-06-01

    Geoscience instructors depend upon photos, diagrams, and other visualizations to depict geologic structures and processes that occur over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. This proof-of-concept study tests click-on-diagram (COD) questions, administered using a classroom response system (CRS), as a research tool for identifying spatial misconceptions. First, we propose a categorization of spatial conceptions associated with geoscience concepts. Second, we implemented the COD questions in an undergraduate introductory geology course. Each question was implemented three times: pre-instruction, post-instruction, and at the end of the course to evaluate the stability of students' conceptual understanding. We classified each instance as (1) a false belief that was easily remediated, (2) a flawed mental model that was not fully transformed, or (3) a robust misconception that persisted despite targeted instruction. Geographic Information System (GIS) software facilitated spatial analysis of students' answers. The COD data confirmed known misconceptions about Earth's structure, geologic time, and base level and revealed a novel robust misconception about hot spot formation. Questions with complex spatial attributes were less likely to change following instruction and more likely to be classified as a robust misconception. COD questions provided efficient access to students' conceptual understanding. CRS-administered COD questions present an opportunity to gather spatial conceptions with large groups of students, immediately, building the knowledge base about students' misconceptions and providing feedback to guide instruction.

  4. Evaluating the impact of clinical librarians on clinical questions during inpatient rounds

    PubMed Central

    Brian, Riley; Orlov, Nicola; Werner, Debra; Martin, Shannon K.; Arora, Vineet M.; Alkureishi, Maria

    2018-01-01

    Objective The investigation sought to determine the effects of a clinical librarian (CL) on inpatient team clinical questioning quality and quantity, learner self-reported literature searching skills, and use of evidence-based medicine (EBM). Methods Clinical questioning was observed over 50 days of inpatient pediatric and internal medicine attending rounds. A CL was present for 25 days and absent for 25 days. Questioning was compared between groups. Question quality was assessed by a blinded evaluator, who used a rubric adapted from the Fresno Test of Competence in Evidence-Based Medicine. Team members were surveyed to assess perceived impacts of the CL on rounds. Results Rounds with a CL (CLR) were associated with significantly increased median number of questions asked (5 questions CLR vs. 3 NCLR; p<0.01) and answered (3 CLR vs. 2 NCLR; p<0.01) compared to rounds without a CL (NCLR). CLR were also associated with increased mean time spent asking (1.39 minutes CLR vs. 0.52 NCLR; p<0.01) and answering (2.15 minutes CLR vs. 1.05 NCLR; p=0.02) questions. Rounding time per patient was not significantly different between CLR and NCLR. Questions during CLR were 2 times higher in adapted Fresno Test quality than during NCLR (p<0.01). Select participants described how the CL’s presence improved their EBM skills and care decisions. Conclusions Inpatient CLR were associated with more and improved clinical questioning and subjectively perceived to improve clinicians’ EBM skills. CLs may directly affect patient care; further study is required to assess this. CLs on inpatient rounds may be an effective means for clinicians to learn and use EBM skills. PMID:29632440

  5. Good Student Questions in Inquiry Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lombard, François E.; Schneider, Daniel K.

    2013-01-01

    Acquisition of scientific reasoning is one of the big challenges in education. A popular educational strategy advocated for acquiring deep knowledge is inquiry-based learning, which is driven by emerging "good questions". This study will address the question: "Which design features allow learners to refine questions while preserving…

  6. Re-Presenting Slavery: Underserved Questions in Museum Collections

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Levenson, Cyra

    2014-01-01

    This article looks at the notion of what, not who, is underserved in museum education. The importance of looking through, in, and from objects in order to uncover underserved questions and themes is vital. A willingness to consider new ways to approach collections and display is necessary to have a dialogue with our audiences about how museums can…

  7. Questioning in Tongan Science Classrooms: A Pilot Study to Identify Current Practice, Barriers and Facilitators

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bay, Jacquie L.; Fohoko, Fehi; La'Akulu, Mumui; Leota, Ofa; Pulotu, Lesieli; Tu'Ipuloto, Sina; Tutoe, Salesi; Tovo, Oliveti; Vekoso, Ana; Pouvalu, Emeli H.

    2016-01-01

    Questioning is central to the development of scientific and health literacies. In exploring this concept, Tongan science teachers hypothesized that their ability to use and encourage questioning presented challenges in the context of Tongan social and cultural norms. This study set out to develop a peer-to-peer protocol to enable teachers to…

  8. Object knowledge modulates colour appearance.

    PubMed

    Witzel, Christoph; Valkova, Hanna; Hansen, Thorsten; Gegenfurtner, Karl R

    2011-01-01

    We investigated the memory colour effect for colour diagnostic artificial objects. Since knowledge about these objects and their colours has been learned in everyday life, these stimuli allow the investigation of the influence of acquired object knowledge on colour appearance. These investigations are relevant for questions about how object and colour information in high-level vision interact as well as for research about the influence of learning and experience on perception in general. In order to identify suitable artificial objects, we developed a reaction time paradigm that measures (subjective) colour diagnosticity. In the main experiment, participants adjusted sixteen such objects to their typical colour as well as to grey. If the achromatic object appears in its typical colour, then participants should adjust it to the opponent colour in order to subjectively perceive it as grey. We found that knowledge about the typical colour influences the colour appearance of artificial objects. This effect was particularly strong along the daylight axis.

  9. Object knowledge modulates colour appearance

    PubMed Central

    Witzel, Christoph; Valkova, Hanna; Hansen, Thorsten; Gegenfurtner, Karl R

    2011-01-01

    We investigated the memory colour effect for colour diagnostic artificial objects. Since knowledge about these objects and their colours has been learned in everyday life, these stimuli allow the investigation of the influence of acquired object knowledge on colour appearance. These investigations are relevant for questions about how object and colour information in high-level vision interact as well as for research about the influence of learning and experience on perception in general. In order to identify suitable artificial objects, we developed a reaction time paradigm that measures (subjective) colour diagnosticity. In the main experiment, participants adjusted sixteen such objects to their typical colour as well as to grey. If the achromatic object appears in its typical colour, then participants should adjust it to the opponent colour in order to subjectively perceive it as grey. We found that knowledge about the typical colour influences the colour appearance of artificial objects. This effect was particularly strong along the daylight axis. PMID:23145224

  10. Another Look at the Self-Questioning Study Technique. Reading Education Report No. 6.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Anderson, Thomas H.

    A review of the research on study techniques indicates that reading and generating questions from the material is an effective technique for ensuring better comprehension. Familiarity with a model of studying that divides studying into prereading, reading, and postreading provides one explanation for this effectiveness. In prereading, students…

  11. Enhancing learning using questions, adjunct to science charts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Holliday, William G.; Benson, Garth

    This study supported two hypotheses. First, adjunct questions interacted with a science chart so powerfully that content established as difficult to learn in the pilot and in this study's control groups became easier to learn when charted. Second, students familiar with the chart test before instruction (test exposure) were better prepared to take this test after instruction. This adjunct-question study examined the generalizability of selective-attention and academic-studying hypotheses to a modified science chart medium. About 300 high school students were randomly assigned to four conditions each including a vitamin chart (chart only, test exposure, importance of questions emphasized to students by teachers, and combinational conditions - test exposure and question importance) across 16 biology classrooms. Then these same students were again randomly assigned within each classroom to a control and to four question treatments no questions, questions focusing on easy-to-learn charted content, questions focusing on difficult-to-learn charted content, and a combinational treatment.

  12. Enhancing learning using questions adjunct to science charts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Holliday, William G.; Benson, Garth

    This study supported two hypotheses. First, adjunct questions interacted with a science chart so powerfully that content established as difficult to learn in the pilot and in this study's control groups became easier to learn when charted. Second, students familiar with the chart test before instruction (test exposure) were better prepared to take this test after instruction. This adjunct-question study examined the generalizability of selective-attention and academic-studying hypotheses to a modified science chart medium. About 300 high school students were randomly assigned to four conditions each including a vitamin chart (chart only, test exposure, importance of questions emphasized to students by teachers, and combinational conditions--test exposure and question importance) across 16 biology classrooms. Then these same students were again randomly assigned within each classroom to a control and to four question treatments (no questions, questions focusing on easy-to-learn charted content, questions focusing on difficult-to-learn charted content, and a combinational treatment).

  13. Assessment of the core learning objectives curriculum for the urology clerkship.

    PubMed

    Rapp, David E; Gong, Edward M; Reynolds, W Stuart; Lucioni, Alvaro; Zagaja, Gregory P

    2007-11-01

    The traditional approach to the surgical clerkship has limitations, including variability of clinical exposure. To optimize student education we developed and introduced the core learning objectives curriculum, which is designed to allow students freedom to direct their learning and focus on core concepts. We performed a prospective, randomized, controlled study to compare the efficacy of core learning objectives vs traditional curricula through objective and subjective measures. Medical students were randomly assigned to the core learning objectives or traditional curricula during the 2-week urology clerkship. Faculty was blinded to student assignment. Upon rotation completion all students were given a 20-question multiple choice examination covering basic urology concepts. In addition, students completed a questionnaire addressing subjective clerkship satisfaction, comprising 15 questions. Between June 2005 and January 2007, 10 core learning objectives students and 10 traditional students completed the urology clerkship. The average +/- SEM multiple choice examination score was 12.1 +/- 0.87 and 9.8 +/- 0.59 for students assigned to the core learning objectives and traditional curricula, respectively (p <0.05). Subjective scores were higher in the core learning objectives cohort, although this result did not attain statistical significance (124.9 +/- 3.72 vs 114.3 +/- 4.96, p = 0.1). Core learning objectives students reported higher satisfaction in all 15 assessed subjective end points. Our experience suggests that the core learning objectives model may be an effective educational tool to help students achieve a broad and directed exposure to the core urological concepts.

  14. Proposal and validation of a quick question to rate the influence of diet in geriatric epidemiological studies on vitamin d.

    PubMed

    Chevallereau, Gaëlle; Gleyses, Xavier; Roussel, Laurène; Hamdan, Sarah; Beauchet, Olivier; Annweiler, Cédric

    2013-01-01

    Diet is a major exogenous source of vitamin D. The objective of this analysis was to determine whether the yes/no answer to a simple question exploring diet ("Do you eat fatty fish at least once a week and/or eggs several times per week?") could be associated with serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D status among 261 older in- and outpatients (mean ± standard deviation, 83.5 ± 8.1 years). Two groups were distinguished based on the binary yes/no answer. Hypovitaminosis D was defined as serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D ≤ 75 nmol/L. More participants with hypovitaminosis D answered "No" to the question on diet compared to their counterparts (p = 0.002). Answering "No" was associated with hypovitaminosis D (OR = 3.22, p = 0.001) after adjustment for potential confounders, with a positive predictive value = 79 %. A simple dietary question may identify older patients with hypovitaminosis D who should receive vitamin D supplements.

  15. Can Reading Questions Foster Active Learning? A Study of Six College Courses

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Koontz, T. M.; Plank, K. M.

    2011-01-01

    Many instructors strive to encourage student reading outside of class and active learning in class. One pedagogical tool, structured reading questions, can help do both. Using examples from question sets across six courses, the authors illustrate how reading questions can help students achieve the six active-learning principles described by…

  16. An artificially intelligent chat agent that answers adolescents' questions related to sex, drugs, and alcohol: an exploratory study.

    PubMed

    Crutzen, Rik; Peters, Gjalt-Jorn Y; Portugal, Sarah Dias; Fisser, Erwin M; Grolleman, Jorne J

    2011-05-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate if and how an artificially intelligent chat agent (chatbot) that answers questions about sex, drugs, and alcohol is used and evaluated by adolescents, especially in comparison with information lines and search engines. A sample of 929 adolescents (64% girls, mean age = 15), varying in urbanization level and educational level, participated in this study. Use of the chatbot was objectively tracked through server registrations (e.g., frequency and duration of conversations with the chatbot, the number and topics of queries), and a web-based questionnaire was used to evaluate the chatbot (e.g., the perception of anonymity, conciseness, ease of use, fun, quality and quantity of information, and speed) and to compare it with information lines and search engines. The chatbot reached high school attendees in general and not only adolescents with previous experience related to sex, drugs, or alcohol; this is promising from an informed decision-making point of view. Frequency (M = 11) and duration of conversations (3:57 minutes) was high and the chatbot was evaluated positively, especially in comparison with information lines and search engines. The use of chatbots within the field of health promotion has a large potential to reach a varied group of adolescents and to provide them with answers to their questions related to sex, drugs, and alcohol. Copyright © 2011 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Comprehension of wh-questions precedes their production in typical development and autism spectrum disorders

    PubMed Central

    Goodwin, Anthony; Fein, Deborah; Naigles, Letitia R.

    2011-01-01

    longitudinal study, 15 children with ASD and 18 initially-language-matched typically developing toddlers were visited in their homes at four-month intervals across a three-year period. The wh-question task was presented via intermodal preferential looking. Silent ‘hitting’ events (e.g., an apple hitting a flower) were followed by test trials in which the apple and flower were juxtaposed on the screen. During test trials, subject-wh and object-wh-question audios were sequentially presented (e.g., “What hit the flower?”/”What did the apple hit?”). Control audios were also presented (e.g., “Where’s the apple/flower?”). Children’s eye movements were coded off-line, frame-by-frame. To show reliable comprehension, children should look longer to the named item (i.e., apple or flower) during the “where” questions, but less at the named item during the subject-wh and object-wh-questions. To compare comprehension to production, we coded 30-minute spontaneous speech samples drawn from mother-child interactions at each visit. Results indicated that comprehension of subject and object-wh-questions was delayed in children with ASD compared to age-matched TD children, but not when matched on overall language levels. Additionally, both groups comprehended wh-questions before producing similar forms, indicating that development occurred in a similar manner. This paper discusses the implications of our findings for language acquisition in ASD. PMID:22359403

  18. Constructing objective tests

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Aubrecht, Gordon J.; Aubrecht, Judith D.

    1983-07-01

    True-false or multiple-choice tests can be useful instruments for evaluating student progress. We examine strategies for planning objective tests which serve to test the material covered in science (physics) courses. We also examine strategies for writing questions for tests within a test blueprint. The statistical basis for judging the quality of test items are discussed. Reliability, difficulty, and discrimination indices are defined and examples presented. Our recommendation are rather easily put into practice.

  19. Standardization of Questions in Rare Disease Registries: The PRISM Library Project

    PubMed Central

    Shereff, Denise; Andrews, James Everett

    2012-01-01

    Background Patient registries are often a helpful first step in estimating the impact and understanding the etiology of rare diseases - both requisites for the development of new diagnostics and therapeutics. The value and utility of patient registries rely on the use of both well-constructed structured research questions and relevant answer sets accompanying them. There are currently no clear standards or specifications for developing registry questions, and there are no banks of existing questions to support registry developers. Objective This paper introduces the [Rare Disease] PRISM (Patient Registry Item Specifications and Metadata for Rare Disease) project, a library of standardized questions covering a broad spectrum of rare diseases that can be used to support the development of new registries, including Internet-based registries. Methods A convenience sample of questions was identified from well-established (>5 years) natural history studies in various diseases and from several existing registries. Face validity of the questions was determined by review by many experts (both terminology experts at the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and research and informatics experts at the University of South Florida (USF)) for commonality, clarity, and organization. Questions were re-worded slightly, as needed, to make the full semantics of the question clear and to make the questions generalizable to multiple diseases where possible. Questions were indexed with metadata (structured and descriptive information) using a standard metadata framework to record such information as context, format, question asker and responder, and data standards information. Results At present, PRISM contains over 2,200 questions, with content of PRISM relevant to virtually all rare diseases. While the inclusion of disease-specific questions for thousands of rare disease organizations seeking to develop registries would present a challenge for traditional standards development

  20. The Power of a Question: A Case Study of Two Organizational Knowledge Capture Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cooper, Lynn P.

    2003-01-01

    This document represents a presentation regarding organizational knowledge capture systems which was delivered at the HICSS-36 conference held from January 6-9, 2003. An exploratory case study of two knowledge resources is offered. Then, two organizational knowledge capture systems are briefly described: knowledge transfer from practitioner and the use of questions to represent knowledge. Finally, the creation of a database of peer review questions is suggested as a method of promoting organizational discussions and knowledge representation and exchange.

  1. Interactive object recognition assistance: an approach to recognition starting from target objects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Geisler, Juergen; Littfass, Michael

    1999-07-01

    Recognition of target objects in remotely sensed imagery required detailed knowledge about the target object domain as well as about mapping properties of the sensing system. The art of object recognition is to combine both worlds appropriately and to provide models of target appearance with respect to sensor characteristics. Common approaches to support interactive object recognition are either driven from the sensor point of view and address the problem of displaying images in a manner adequate to the sensing system. Or they focus on target objects and provide exhaustive encyclopedic information about this domain. Our paper discusses an approach to assist interactive object recognition based on knowledge about target objects and taking into account the significance of object features with respect to characteristics of the sensed imagery, e.g. spatial and spectral resolution. An `interactive recognition assistant' takes the image analyst through the interpretation process by indicating step-by-step the respectively most significant features of objects in an actual set of candidates. The significance of object features is expressed by pregenerated trees of significance, and by the dynamic computation of decision relevance for every feature at each step of the recognition process. In the context of this approach we discuss the question of modeling and storing the multisensorial/multispectral appearances of target objects and object classes as well as the problem of an adequate dynamic human-machine-interface that takes into account various mental models of human image interpretation.

  2. Research and Teaching: Correcting Missed Exam Questions as a Learning Tool in a Physiology Course

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rozell, Timothy G.; Johnson, Jessica; Sexten, Andrea; Rhodes, Ashley E.

    2017-01-01

    Students in a junior- and senior-level Anatomy and Physiology course have the opportunity to correct missed exam questions ("regrade") and earn up to half of the original points missed. The three objectives of this study were to determine if: (a) performance on the regrade assignment was correlated with scores on subsequent exams, (b)…

  3. Studying Teacher Preparation: The Questions That Drive Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cochran-Smith, Marilyn; Maria Villegas, Ana

    2015-01-01

    This article argues that research on teacher preparation over the last 100 years can be understood in terms of the major questions that researchers examined. The analysis is guided by the framework of "research as historically situated social practice," which emphasizes that researchers' interests, commitments, and social experiences…

  4. 29 CFR 1903.4 - Objection to inspection.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ..., or to question any employer, owner, operator, agent, or employee, in accordance with § 1903.3 or to..., apparatus, devices, equipment, materials, records, or interviews concerning which no objection is raised...

  5. 29 CFR 1903.4 - Objection to inspection.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ..., or to question any employer, owner, operator, agent, or employee, in accordance with § 1903.3 or to..., apparatus, devices, equipment, materials, records, or interviews concerning which no objection is raised...

  6. Nursing students collaborating to develop multiple-choice exam revision questions: A student engagement study.

    PubMed

    Craft, Judy A; Christensen, Martin; Shaw, Natasha; Bakon, Shannon

    2017-12-01

    Nursing students find bioscience subjects challenging. Bioscience exams pose particular concerns for these students, which may lead to students adopting a surface-approach to learning. To promote student collective understanding of bioscience, improve their confidence for the final exam, and improve deeper understanding of bioscience. In order to address exam anxiety, and improve student understanding of content, this student engagement project involved nursing students collaborating in small groups to develop multiple-choice questions and answers, which became available to the entire student cohort. This study was conducted at two campuses of an Australian university, within a first year bioscience subject as part of the undergraduate nursing programme. All students enrolled in the subject were encouraged to attend face-to-face workshops, and collaborate in revision question writing. Online anonymous questionnaires were used to invite student feedback on this initiative; 79 respondents completed this feedback. Students collaborated in groups to write revision questions as part of in-class activities. These questions were made available on the student online learning site for revision. An online feedback survey was deployed at the conclusion of all workshops for this subject, with questions rated using a Likert scale. Participants indicated that they enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate in this activity, and almost all of these respondents used these questions in their exam preparation. There was strong agreement that this activity improved their confidence for the final exam. Importantly, almost two-thirds of respondents agreed that writing questions improved their understanding of content, and assisted in their active reflection of content. Overall, this initiative revealed various potential benefits for the students, including promoting bioscience understanding and confidence. This may improve their long-term understanding of bioscience for nursing practice

  7. Frequently Asked Questions

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Local Government Solar Project Portal's Frequently Asked Questions page provides a forum for cities and towns to ask specific questions of experts and for EPA to share answers to commonly asked questions.

  8. Effect of questions used by psychiatrists on therapeutic alliance and adherence.

    PubMed

    Thompson, Laura; Howes, Christine; McCabe, Rose

    2016-07-01

    Psychiatrists' questions are the mechanism for achieving clinical objectives and managing the formation of a therapeutic alliance - consistently associated with patient adherence. No research has examined the nature of this relationship and the different practices used in psychiatry. Questions are typically defined in binary terms (e.g. 'open' v 'closed') that may have limited application in practice. To undertake a detailed examination of the types of questions psychiatrists ask patients and explore their association with the therapeutic alliance and patient adherence. A coding protocol was developed to classify questions from 134 out-patient consultations, predominantly by syntactic form. Bivariate correlations with measures of patient adherence and the therapeutic alliance (psychiatrist-rated) were examined and assessed using generalised estimating equations, adjusting for patient symptoms, psychiatrist identity and amount of speech. Psychiatrists used only four of ten question types regularly: yes/no auxiliary questions, 'wh-' questions, declarative questions and tag questions. Only declarative questions predicted better adherence and perceptions of the therapeutic relationship. Conversely, 'wh-' questions - associated with positive symptoms - predicted poorer perceptions of the therapeutic relationship. Declarative questions were frequently used to propose an understanding of patients' experiences, in particular their emotional salience for the patient. A refined defining of questioning practices is necessary to improve communication in psychiatry. The use of declarative questions may enhance alliance and adherence, or index their manifestation in talk, e.g. better mutual understanding. The function of 'so'-prefaced declaratives, also used in psychotherapy, is more nuanced than negatively connotated 'leading' questions. Hearable as displays of empathy, they attend closely to patient experience, while balancing the tasks of assessment and treatment. © The

  9. Correlating Subjective and Objective Sleepiness: Revisiting the Association Using Survival Analysis

    PubMed Central

    Aurora, R. Nisha; Caffo, Brian; Crainiceanu, Ciprian; Punjabi, Naresh M.

    2011-01-01

    Study Objectives: The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) are the most commonly used measures of subjective and objective sleepiness, respectively. The strength of the association between these measures as well as the optimal ESS threshold that indicates objective sleepiness remains a topic of significant interest in the clinical and research arenas. The current investigation sought to: (a) examine the association between the ESS and the average sleep latency from the MSLT using the techniques of survival analysis; (b) determine whether specific patient factors influence the association; (c) examine the utility of each ESS question; and (d) identify the optimal ESS threshold that indicates objective sleepiness. Design: Cross-sectional study. Patients and Settings: Patients (N = 675) referred for polysomnography and MSLT. Measurements and Results: Using techniques of survival analysis, a significant association was noted between the ESS score and the average sleep latency. The adjusted hazard ratios for sleep onset during the MSLT for the ESS quartiles were 1.00 (ESS < 9), 1.32 (ESS: 10–13), 1.85 (ESS: 14-17), and 2.53 (ESS ≥ 18), respectively. The association was independent of several patient factors and was distinct for the 4 naps. Furthermore, most of the ESS questions were individually predictive of the average sleep latency except the tendency to doze off when lying down to rest in the afternoon, which was only predictive in patients with less than a college education. Finally, an ESS score ≥ 13 optimally predicted an average sleep latency < 8 minutes. Conclusions: In contrast to previous reports, the association between the ESS and the average sleep latency is clearly apparent when the data are analyzed by survival analysis, and most of the ESS questions are predictive of objective sleepiness. An ESS score ≥ 13 most effectively predicts objective sleepiness, which is higher than what has typically been used in

  10. Astrobiology Objectives for Mars Sample Return

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Meyer, M. A.

    2002-05-01

    Astrobiology is the study of life in the Universe, and a major objective is to understand the past, present, and future biologic potential of Mars. The current Mars Exploration Program encompasses a series of missions for reconnaissance and in-situ analyses to define in time and space the degree of habitability on Mars. Determining whether life ever existed on Mars is a more demanding question as evidenced by controversies concerning the biogenicity of features in the Mars meteorite ALH84001 and in the earliest rocks on Earth. In-situ studies may find samples of extreme interest but resolution of the life question most probably would require a sample returned to Earth. A selected sample from Mars has the many advantages: State-of-the-art instruments, precision sample handling and processing, scrutiny by different investigators employing different techniques, and adaptation of approach to any surprises It is with a returned sample from Mars that Astrobiology has the most to gain in determining whether life did, does, or could exist on Mars.

  11. Student-Generated Questioning Activity in Second Language Courses Using a Customized Personal Response System: A Case Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Song, Donggil; Oh, Eun Young; Glazewski, Krista

    2017-01-01

    This case study reports on the implementation of student-generated questioning using a customized personal response system (PRS) by two groups of students in second language (L2) courses at a university in the United States. This study aimed to understand more about instructor and student experience with student-generated questioning for promoting…

  12. Screening Questions to Predict Limited Health Literacy: A Cross-Sectional Study of Patients With Diabetes Mellitus

    PubMed Central

    Jeppesen, Kelly Marvin; Coyle, James D.; Miser, William F.

    2009-01-01

    PURPOSE Limited health literacy is increasingly recognized as a barrier to receiving adequate health care. Identifying patients at risk of poor health outcomes secondary to limited health literacy is currently the responsibility of clinicians. Our objective was to identify which screening questions and demographics independently predict limited health literacy and could thus help clinicians individualize their patient education. METHODS Between August 2006 and July 2007, we asked 225 patients being treated for diabetes at an academic primary care office several questions regarding their reading ability as part of a larger study (57% response rate). We built a logistic regression model predicting limited health literacy to determine the independent predictive properties of these questions and demographic variables. Patients were classified as having limited health literacy if they had a Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (S-TOFHLA) score of less than 23. The potential predictors evaluated were self-rated reading ability, highest education level attained, Single-Item Literacy Screener (SILS) result, patients’ reading enjoyment, age, sex, and race. RESULTS Overall, 15.1% of the patients had limited health literacy. In the final model, 5 of the potential predictors were independently associated with increased odds of having limited health literacy. Specifically, patients were more likely to have limited health literacy if they had a poorer self-rated reading ability (odds ratio [OR] per point increase in the model = 3.37; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.71–6.63), more frequently needed help reading written health materials (assessed by the SILS) (OR = 2.03; 95% CI, 1.26–3.26), had a lower education level (OR = 1.89; 95% CI, 1.12–3.18), were male (OR = 4.46; 95% CI, 1.53–12.99), and were of nonwhite race (OR = 3.73; 95% CI, 1.04–13.40). These associations were not confounded by age. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve

  13. A Question of Questions.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fenwick, John; McMillan, Rod

    In a conventional teaching situation, a lecturer may use a wide range of questioning techniques aimed at helping students to become active learners. In distance learning, students are often isolated and have limited opportunities for interaction in a social learning environment. Hence, learning strategies in distance learning need to be structured…

  14. Exam Question Exchange.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alexander, John J., Ed.

    1983-01-01

    Acceptable answers are provided for two chemistry questions. The first question is related to the prediction of the appearance of non-first-order proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra. The second question is related to extraterrestrial kinetic theory of gases. (JN)

  15. The Effect of Online Gaming, Cognition and Feedback Type in Facilitating Delayed Achievement of Different Learning Objectives

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cameron, Brian; Dwyer, Francis

    2005-01-01

    Online and computer-based instructional gaming is becoming a viable instructional strategy at all levels of education. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of (a) gaming, (b) gaming plus embedded questions, and (c) gaming plus questions plus feedback on delayed retention of different types of educational objectives for students…

  16. Explaining errors in children's questions.

    PubMed

    Rowland, Caroline F

    2007-07-01

    The ability to explain the occurrence of errors in children's speech is an essential component of successful theories of language acquisition. The present study tested some generativist and constructivist predictions about error on the questions produced by ten English-learning children between 2 and 5 years of age. The analyses demonstrated that, as predicted by some generativist theories [e.g. Santelmann, L., Berk, S., Austin, J., Somashekar, S. & Lust. B. (2002). Continuity and development in the acquisition of inversion in yes/no questions: dissociating movement and inflection, Journal of Child Language, 29, 813-842], questions with auxiliary DO attracted higher error rates than those with modal auxiliaries. However, in wh-questions, questions with modals and DO attracted equally high error rates, and these findings could not be explained in terms of problems forming questions with why or negated auxiliaries. It was concluded that the data might be better explained in terms of a constructivist account that suggests that entrenched item-based constructions may be protected from error in children's speech, and that errors occur when children resort to other operations to produce questions [e.g. Dabrowska, E. (2000). From formula to schema: the acquisition of English questions. Cognitive Liguistics, 11, 83-102; Rowland, C. F. & Pine, J. M. (2000). Subject-auxiliary inversion errors and wh-question acquisition: What children do know? Journal of Child Language, 27, 157-181; Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press]. However, further work on constructivist theory development is required to allow researchers to make predictions about the nature of these operations.

  17. Structuring research methods and data with the research object model: genomics workflows as a case study.

    PubMed

    Hettne, Kristina M; Dharuri, Harish; Zhao, Jun; Wolstencroft, Katherine; Belhajjame, Khalid; Soiland-Reyes, Stian; Mina, Eleni; Thompson, Mark; Cruickshank, Don; Verdes-Montenegro, Lourdes; Garrido, Julian; de Roure, David; Corcho, Oscar; Klyne, Graham; van Schouwen, Reinout; 't Hoen, Peter A C; Bechhofer, Sean; Goble, Carole; Roos, Marco

    2014-01-01

    One of the main challenges for biomedical research lies in the computer-assisted integrative study of large and increasingly complex combinations of data in order to understand molecular mechanisms. The preservation of the materials and methods of such computational experiments with clear annotations is essential for understanding an experiment, and this is increasingly recognized in the bioinformatics community. Our assumption is that offering means of digital, structured aggregation and annotation of the objects of an experiment will provide necessary meta-data for a scientist to understand and recreate the results of an experiment. To support this we explored a model for the semantic description of a workflow-centric Research Object (RO), where an RO is defined as a resource that aggregates other resources, e.g., datasets, software, spreadsheets, text, etc. We applied this model to a case study where we analysed human metabolite variation by workflows. We present the application of the workflow-centric RO model for our bioinformatics case study. Three workflows were produced following recently defined Best Practices for workflow design. By modelling the experiment as an RO, we were able to automatically query the experiment and answer questions such as "which particular data was input to a particular workflow to test a particular hypothesis?", and "which particular conclusions were drawn from a particular workflow?". Applying a workflow-centric RO model to aggregate and annotate the resources used in a bioinformatics experiment, allowed us to retrieve the conclusions of the experiment in the context of the driving hypothesis, the executed workflows and their input data. The RO model is an extendable reference model that can be used by other systems as well. The Research Object is available at http://www.myexperiment.org/packs/428 The Wf4Ever Research Object Model is available at http://wf4ever.github.io/ro.

  18. Strategies of readers with autism when responding to inferential questions: An eye-movement study.

    PubMed

    Micai, Martina; Joseph, Holly; Vulchanova, Mila; Saldaña, David

    2017-05-01

    Previous research suggests that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties with inference generation in reading tasks. However, most previous studies have examined how well children understand a text after reading or have measured on-line reading behavior without response to questions. The aim of this study was to investigate the online strategies of children and adolescents with autism during reading and at the same time responding to a question by monitoring their eye movements. The reading behavior of participants with ASD was compared with that of age-, language-, nonverbal intelligence-, reading-, and receptive language skills-matched participants without ASD (control group). The results showed that the ASD group were as accurate as the control group in generating inferences when answering questions about the short texts, and no differences were found between the two groups in the global paragraph reading and responding times. However, the ASD group displayed longer gaze latencies on a target word necessary to produce an inference. They also showed more regressions into the word that supported the inference compared to the control group after reading the question, irrespective of whether an inference was required or not. In conclusion, the ASD group achieved an equivalent level of inferential comprehension, but showed subtle differences in reading comprehension strategies compared to the control group. Autism Res 2017, 10: 888-900. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  19. Children's Developing Knowledge of "Wh"-/Quantifier Question-Answer Relations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Achimova, Asya; Syrett, Kristen; Musolino, Julien; Déprez, Viviane

    2017-01-01

    In response to questions in which a "wh"-term interacts with a universal quantifier in object position, such as "Who picked every toy?," children as old as 5 years of age often provide a list, pairing toys with the people who picked each of them. This response pattern is unexpected, it has been claimed, because children appear…

  20. Adopted Children: A Question of Identity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mahmood, Samina; Visser, John

    2015-01-01

    This article draws upon a study completed in a specific school in Bangalore where most children enter at the pre-school level and continue till high school. While the particular children in the study constitute a small number--four--it was observed that questions of identity mainly arose when they started questioning the circumstances behind their…

  1. Objectives of public participation: Which actors should be involved in the decision making for river restorations?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Junker, Berit; Buchecker, Mattias; Müller-BöKer, Ulrike

    2007-10-01

    River restoration as a measure to improve both flood protection and ecological quality has become a common practice in river management. This new practice, however, has also become a source of conflicts arising from a neglect of the social aspects in river restoration projects. Therefore appropriate public involvement strategies have been recommended in recent years as a way of coping with these conflicts. However, an open question remains: Which stakeholders should be involved in the decision-making process? This, in turn, raises the question of the appropriate objectives of public participation. This study aims to answer these questions drawing on two case studies of Swiss river restoration projects and a related representative nationwide survey. Our findings suggest that public involvement should not be restricted to a small circle of influential stakeholder groups. As restoration projects have been found to have a substantial impact on the quality of life of the local population, avoiding conflicts is only one of several objectives of the involvement process. Including the wider public provides a special opportunity to promote social objectives, such as trust building and identification of people with their local environment.

  2. Social categories guide young children's preferences for novel objects

    PubMed Central

    Shutts, Kristin; Banaji, Mahzarin R.; Spelke, Elizabeth S.

    2009-01-01

    To whom do children look when deciding on their own preferences? To address this question, three-year-old children were asked to choose between objects or activities that were endorsed by unfamiliar people who differed in gender, race (White, Black), or age (child, adult). In Experiment 1, children demonstrated robust preferences for objects and activities endorsed by children of their own gender, but less consistent preferences for objects and activities endorsed by children of their own race. In Experiment 2, children selected objects and activities favored by people of their own gender and age. In neither study did most children acknowledge the influence of these social categories. These findings suggest that gender and age categories are encoded spontaneously and influence children's preferences and choices. For young children, gender and age may be more powerful guides to preferences than race. PMID:20590724

  3. How Do Question Writers Compose External Examination Questions? Question Writing as a Socio-Cognitive Process

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, Martin; Constantinou, Filio; Crisp, Victoria

    2017-01-01

    The focus of this research is on the practice of education examination question writing. Educational examinations are tests that are taken by candidates in schools or colleges but that are externally developed, administered and marked by an assessment organisation. Whilst the practice of writing external examination questions is ubiquitous,…

  4. Basic Questions About the Solar System: The Need for Probes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ingersoll, Andrew P.

    2005-01-01

    Probes are an essential element in the scientific study of planets with atmospheres. In-situ measurements provide the most accurate determination of composition, winds, temperatures, clouds, and radiative fluxes. They address fundamental NASA objectives concerning volatile compounds, climate, and the origin of life. Probes also deliver landers and aerobots that help in the study of planetary surfaces. This talk focuses on Venus, Titan, and the giant planets. I review the basic science questions and discuss the recommended missions. I stress the need for a balanced program that includes an array of missions that increase in size by factors of two. Gaps in this array lead to failures and cancellations that are harmful to the program and to scientific exploration.

  5. Astrophysics of Reference Frame Tie Objects

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Johnston, Kenneth J.; Boboltz, David; Fey, Alan Lee; Gaume, Ralph A.; Zacharias, Norbert

    2004-01-01

    The Astrophysics of Reference Frame Tie Objects Key Science program will investigate the underlying physics of SIM grid objects. Extragalactic objects in the SIM grid will be used to tie the SIM reference frame to the quasi-inertial reference frame defined by extragalactic objects and to remove any residual frame rotation with respect to the extragalactic frame. The current realization of the extragalactic frame is the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF). The ICRF is defined by the radio positions of 212 extragalactic objects and is the IAU sanctioned fundamental astronomical reference frame. This key project will advance our knowledge of the physics of the objects which will make up the SIM grid, such as quasars and chromospherically active stars, and relates directly to the stability of the SIM reference frame. The following questions concerning the physics of reference frame tie objects will be investigated.

  6. A question-answer pair (QAP) database integrated with websites to answer complex questions submitted to the Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Centres in Norway (RELIS): a descriptive study.

    PubMed

    Schjøtt, Jan; Reppe, Linda A; Roland, Pål-Didrik H; Westergren, Tone

    2012-01-01

    To assess a question-answer pair (QAP) database integrated with websites developed for drug information centres to answer complex questions effectively. Descriptive study with comparison of two subsequent 6-year periods (1995-2000 and 2001-2006). The Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Centres in Norway (RELIS). A randomised sample of QAPs from the RELIS database. Answer time in days compared with Mann-Whitney U test. Number of drugs involved (one, two, three or more), complexity (judgemental and/or patient-related or not) and literature search (none, simple or advanced) compared with χ(2) tests. 842 QAPs (312 from 1995 to 2000 and 530 from 2001 to 2006) were compared. The fraction of judgemental and patient-related questions increased (66%-75% and 54%-72%, respectively, p<0.01). Number of drugs and literature search (>50% advanced) was similar in the two periods, but the fraction of answers referring to the RELIS database increased (13%-31%, p<0.01). Median answer time was reduced from 2 days to 1 (p<0.01), although the fraction of complex questions increased from the first to the second period. Furthermore, the mean number of questions per employee per year increased from 66 to 89 from the first to the second period. The authors conclude that RELIS has a potential to efficiently answer complex questions. The model is of relevance for organisation of drug information centres.

  7. Linking actions and objects: Context-specific learning of novel weight priors.

    PubMed

    Trewartha, Kevin M; Flanagan, J Randall

    2017-06-01

    Distinct explicit and implicit memory processes support weight predictions used when lifting objects and making perceptual judgments about weight, respectively. The first time that an object is encountered weight is predicted on the basis of learned associations, or priors, linking size and material to weight. A fundamental question is whether the brain maintains a single, global representation of priors, or multiple representations that can be updated in a context specific way. A second key question is whether the updating of priors, or the ability to scale lifting forces when repeatedly lifting unusually weighted objects requires focused attention. To investigate these questions we compared the adaptability of weight predictions used when lifting objects and judging their weights in different groups of participants who experienced size-weight inverted objects passively (with the objects placed on the hands) or actively (where participants lift the objects) under full or divided attention. To assess weight judgments we measured the size-weight illusion after every 20 trials of experience with the inverted objects both passively and actively. The attenuation of the illusion that arises when lifting inverted object was found to be context-specific such that the attenuation was larger when the mode of interaction with the inverted objects matched the method of assessment of the illusion. Dividing attention during interaction with the inverted objects had no effect on attenuation of the illusion, but did slow the rate at which lifting forces were scaled to the weight inverted objects. These findings suggest that the brain stores multiple representations of priors that are context specific, and that focused attention is important for scaling lifting forces, but not for updating weight predictions used when judging object weight. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Exam Question Exchange.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alexander, John J., Ed.

    1987-01-01

    Contains two articles relating to chemistry examination questions. One provides examples of how to sequence multiple choice questions so that partial credit may be given for some responses. The second includes a question and solution dealing with stereoisomerism as a result of free radical chlorination of a nonstereoisometic substance. (TW)

  9. Questioning care at the end of life.

    PubMed

    Ruopp, Patricia; Good, Mary-Jo Delvecchio; Lakoma, Matthew; Gadmer, Nina M; Arnold, Robert M; Block, Susan D

    2005-06-01

    The goal of the larger study was to explore physicians' emotional responses to the death of their patients; this study analyzed a subset of physician transcripts to elucidate the construct of questioning care, which emerged from the larger study. To analyzes how physicians question care-expressing concern, unease, or uncertainty about treatment decisions and practices, errors, or adverse events-as they attend dying patients. Retrospective interview study of physicians caring for randomly selected deaths on the medical service of a major academic teaching hospital, using qualitative and quantitative measures. SETTING, SUBJECTS: 188 attendings, residents, and interns on the internal medical services of two academic medical centers were part of the larger study. A subsample of 75 physician narratives was selected for qualitative data analysis for this study. Qualitative measures included open-ended questions eliciting physicians' stories of the most recent and a most emotionally powerful patient death they have experienced. Grounded theory was used to analyze physician narratives. Quantitative instruments measured physician attitudes toward end-of-life care and responses to the most recent and most emotional patient death. Physicians question care more frequently in most emotional deaths (42%) than in most recent deaths (34%). Physicians question communication with patients and families and within medical teams, medical judgment and technique, standards of practice, and high-risk treatments, often assigning responsibility for medical management they perceive as inappropriate, futile, overly aggressive, or mistakes in judgment and technique. Responsibility ranges from the distal (the culture of medicine) to the proximal (personal). Frustration, guilt, and anger are more frequently expressed in these narratives when care is questioned. A typology of questioning care emerged from these physicians' narratives that parallels and reflects recent and classic research on

  10. Posing the research question: not so simple.

    PubMed

    Thabane, Lehana; Thomas, Tara; Ye, Chenglin; Paul, James

    2009-01-01

    The success of any research process relies, in part, on how well investigators are able to translate a clinical problem into a research question-a task that is not so simple for novice investigators. The PICOT approach requires that the framing of the research question specify the target Population, the Intervention of interest, the Comparator intervention, key Outcomes, and the Time frame over which the outcomes are assessed. This paper describes the use of the PICOT structure in framing research questions and examines PICOT criteria as applied to the anesthesia literature. We also provide a roadmap for applying the PICOT format in identifying and framing clear research questions. In addition to searching MEDLINE for the literature on framing research questions, we performed a systematic review of articles published in four key anesthesia journals in 2006, including Anesthesiology, Anesthesia & Analgesia, the British Journal of Anaesthesia, and the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia. Three hundred thirteen articles (n = 313) were included in this review, with the following distribution by study design: 139 (44%) randomized controlled trials, 129 (41%) cohort studies, and 45 (15%) case-controlled, cross-sectional studies or systematic reviews. Overall, 96% (95% confidence interval: 91,100) of articles did not apply the PICOT approach in reporting the research question. The PICOT approach may be helpful in defining and clearly stating the research question. It remains to be determined whether or not compliance with the PICOT style, or any other format for framing research questions, is associated with a higher quality of research reporting.

  11. Answering Wh- Questions About Sentences and Text.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Singer, Murray

    1986-01-01

    Describes a study designed to identify the mental operations that contribute to people's ability to answer wh- questions, that is, questions which request information that plays a particular role in relation to some action or event. Wh- questions are signaled by interrogative pronouns and adverbs like who, what, when, and where. (SED)

  12. Debating Digital Childhoods: Questions Concerning Technologies, Economies and Determinisms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gibbons, Andrew

    2015-01-01

    The learning child, the child that is the object of interest through modernity and into mutated modernity, in the knowledge economy, is a digital age identity of great interest. Talk about childhood and the digital age invokes a range of questions about what is happening at this time and with these technologies and that creates more or less of a…

  13. 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

  14. Measuring the Benefits of Examinee-Selected Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Allen, Nancy L.; Holland, Paul W.; Thayer, Dorothy T.

    2005-01-01

    Allowing students to choose the question(s) that they will answer from among several possible alternatives is often viewed as a mechanism for increasing fairness in certain types of assessments. The fairness of optional topic choice is not a universally accepted fact, however, and various studies have been done to assess this question. We examine…

  15. Social Studies: 1970; Instructional Objectives for Grades 1-8.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Catholic School Board, Chicago, IL.

    The objectives of this curriculum guide for teachers are: 1) to provide a unified list of yearly instructional objectives for each social studies classroom; 2) to provide basic standards for measuring pupil progress; and 3) to provide a guide for the continuous development in the social studies. The recommendations for each grade level cover:…

  16. Selective Attentional Effects of Adjunct Study Questions on Achievement in Nigerian Secondary School Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Okoye, Nnamdi S.

    2008-01-01

    The study investigated the selective attentional effects of adjunct study questions inserted before or after the presentation of science flow diagrams. The basic design for the study was a post-test only control group design involving a total of 252 students randomly selected from six secondary schools in Ile-Ife, Oshun State Nigeria. These were…

  17. Theta synchronization networks emerge during human object-place memory encoding.

    PubMed

    Sato, Naoyuki; Yamaguchi, Yoko

    2007-03-26

    Recent rodent hippocampus studies have suggested that theta rhythm-dependent neural dynamics ('theta phase precession') is essential for an on-line memory formation. A computational study indicated that the phase precession enables a human object-place association memory with voluntary eye movements, although it is still an open question whether the human brain uses the dynamics. Here we elucidated subsequent memory-correlated activities in human scalp electroencephalography in an object-place association memory designed according the former computational study. Our results successfully demonstrated that subsequent memory recall is characterized by an increase in theta power and coherence, and further, that multiple theta synchronization networks emerge. These findings suggest the human theta dynamics in common with rodents in episodic memory formation.

  18. Essential Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wilhelm, Jeffrey D.

    2012-01-01

    The secret to teaching may be as simple as asking students good questions--and then giving them the opportunity to find the answers. The author shares how he uses essential questions that set the class off on an inquiry. Rather than consuming information that he distributes and then repeating it on a test, students carry out their own…

  19. Screening for depression with a brief questionnaire in a primary care setting: validation of the two questions with help question (Malay version).

    PubMed

    Mohd-Sidik, Sherina; Arroll, Bruce; Goodyear-Smith, Felicity; Zain, Azhar M D

    2011-01-01

    To determine the diagnostic accuracy of the two questions with help question (TQWHQ) in the Malay language. The two questions are case-finding questions on depression, and a question on whether help is needed was added to increase the specificity of the two questions. This cross sectional validation study was conducted in a government funded primary care clinic in Malaysia. The participants included 146 consecutive women patients receiving no psychotropic drugs and who were Malay speakers. The main outcome measures were sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios of the two questions and help question. The two questions showed a sensitivity of 99% (95% confidence interval 88% to 99.9%) and a specificity of 70% (62% to 78%), respectively. The likelihood ratio for a positive test was 3.3 (2.5 to 4.5) and the likelihood ratio for a negative test was 0.01 (0.00 to 0.57). The addition of the help question to the two questions increased the specificity to 95% (89% to 98%). The two qeustions on depression detected most cases of depression in this study. The questions have the advantage of brevity. The addition of the help question increased the specificity of the two questions. Based on these findings, the TQWHQ can be strongly recommended for detection of depression in government primary care clnics in Malaysia. Translation did not apear to affect the validity of the TQWHQ.

  20. Management by Objectives (MBO) Imperatives for Transforming Higher Education for a Globalised World

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ofojebe, Wenceslaus N.; Olibie, Eyiuche Ifeoma

    2014-01-01

    This study was conducted to determine the extent to which the stipulations and visions of Management by Objectives (MBO) would be integrated in higher education institutions in South Eastern Nigeria to enhance higher education transformation in a globalised world. Four research questions and a null hypothesis guided the study. A sample of 510…

  1. A questions-based investigation of consumer mental-health information.

    PubMed

    Crangle, Colleen E; Kart, Joyce Brothers

    2015-01-01

    Despite the wealth of mental-health information available online to consumers, research has shown that the mental-health information needs of consumers are not being met. This study contributes to that research by soliciting consumer questions directly, categorizing them, analyzing their form, and assessing the extent to which they can be answered from a trusted and vetted source of online information, namely the website of the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). As an alternative to surveys and analyses of online activity, this study shows how consumer questions provide new insight into what consumers do not know and how they express their information needs. The study crowdsourced 100 consumer questions through Amazon Inc.'s Mechanical Turk. Categorization of the questions shows broad agreement with earlier studies in terms of the content of consumer questions. It also suggests that consumers' grasp of mental health issues may be low compared to other health topics. The majority of the questions (74%) were simple in form, with the remainder being multi-part, multifaceted or narrative. Even simple-form questions could, however, have complex interpretations. Fifty four questions were submitted to the search box at the NIMH website. For 32 questions, no answer could be found in the top one to three documents returned. Inadequacies in the search and retrieval technology deployed at websites account for some of the failure to find answers. The nature of consumer questions in mental health also plays a role. A question that has a false presupposition is less likely to have an answer in trusted and vetted sources of information. Consumer questions are also expressed with a degree of specificity that makes the retrieval of relevant information difficult. The significance of this study is that it shows what an analysis of consumer mental-health questions can tell us about consumer information needs and it provides new insight into the difficulties facing

  2. A questions-based investigation of consumer mental-health information

    PubMed Central

    Kart, Joyce Brothers

    2015-01-01

    Despite the wealth of mental-health information available online to consumers, research has shown that the mental-health information needs of consumers are not being met. This study contributes to that research by soliciting consumer questions directly, categorizing them, analyzing their form, and assessing the extent to which they can be answered from a trusted and vetted source of online information, namely the website of the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). As an alternative to surveys and analyses of online activity, this study shows how consumer questions provide new insight into what consumers do not know and how they express their information needs. The study crowdsourced 100 consumer questions through Amazon Inc.’s Mechanical Turk. Categorization of the questions shows broad agreement with earlier studies in terms of the content of consumer questions. It also suggests that consumers’ grasp of mental health issues may be low compared to other health topics. The majority of the questions (74%) were simple in form, with the remainder being multi-part, multifaceted or narrative. Even simple-form questions could, however, have complex interpretations. Fifty four questions were submitted to the search box at the NIMH website. For 32 questions, no answer could be found in the top one to three documents returned. Inadequacies in the search and retrieval technology deployed at websites account for some of the failure to find answers. The nature of consumer questions in mental health also plays a role. A question that has a false presupposition is less likely to have an answer in trusted and vetted sources of information. Consumer questions are also expressed with a degree of specificity that makes the retrieval of relevant information difficult. The significance of this study is that it shows what an analysis of consumer mental-health questions can tell us about consumer information needs and it provides new insight into the difficulties facing

  3. The effect of Tomm's therapeutic questioning styles on therapeutic alliance: a clinical analog study.

    PubMed

    Dozier, R M; Hicks, M W; Cornille, T A; Peterson, G W

    1998-01-01

    Tomm (1988) suggests that circular and reflexive questions tend to elicit feelings of freedom/acceptance whereas lineal and strategic questions usually trigger feelings of judgment/constraint. Employing an analog methodology, each of Tomm's four questioning styles was portrayed in the form of a 5-minute videotaped intake scenario. Forty family triads with a mother, father, and adolescent son were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions with ten families each. Each condition involved viewing one of four questioning style scenarios. All participants (N = 120 individuals--40 mothers, 40 fathers, and 40 adolescent sons) completed the Family Therapy Alliance Scale (FTAS; Pinsof & Catherall, 1986) and a validity-check instrument. The results indicated that circular and reflexive questioning styles elicited significantly higher (p < 0.001) alliance scores on the FTAS than did either lineal or strategic questions. Implications for the use of different types of questions in family therapy are discussed.

  4. Effect of two types of control questions and two question formats on the outcomes of polygraph examinations.

    PubMed

    Horvath, Frank; Palmatier, John J

    2008-07-01

    Two major variations of polygraph "Control Question" testing, the Zone Comparison (ZoC) and the Modified General Question Test (MGQT) were evaluated. Within each, the type of control question, Exclusive or "time bar" (e.g., "Before you were 21, did you ever...") and Nonexclusive or "no time bar" (e.g., "Did you ever....?") was manipulated in a mock theft scenario, with 80 male and 40 female subjects randomly assigned to be either innocent or guilty. Polygraphic data collected by experienced field examiners were numerically scored by an evaluator blind to all aspects of the study. Decision accuracy was not related to the type of procedure (ZoC/MGQT) used or the subject's sex. Accuracy was significantly related to the type of control question [chi(2) (2) = 11.46, p = 0.003; tau c = 0.29]. Nonexclusive control questions produced greater accuracy than Exclusive control questions on both innocent and guilty subjects. These results and subjects' self-reports support the general "theory" on which control question (CQ) testing is based. The need for better empirical support of accepted dogma and current field practices is strongly indicated by these findings.

  5. Unpark Those Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ness, Molly

    2013-01-01

    Whenever Mr. Henderson's 3rd grade students had a question that he couldn't immediately answer or that seemed off-topic, he asked them to write the question on a sticky note and place it on a poster dubbed the "Parking Lot." His intention was to find time later to answer those questions, but too often, he said, the parking lot…

  6. The Role of Questions in the Science Classroom--How Girls and Boys Respond to Teachers' Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Eliasson, Nina; Karlsson, Karl Göran; Sørensen, Helene

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore (a) to what extent male and female science teachers pose different types of questions and (b) if the type of science question posed influences the extent to which boys or girls respond to them. Transcripts of the teacher-student interaction in a whole-class situation were analysed, with attention paid to…

  7. Curiosity Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nelsen, Jane; DeLorenzo, Chip

    2010-01-01

    Have you ever found yourself lecturing a child, with the best of intentions, in an attempt to help him or her learn a lesson or process a situation in a manner that you feel will be productive? Curiosity questions, which the authors also call What and How questions, help children process an experience, event, or natural consequence so that they…

  8. Question Classification Taxonomies as Guides to Formulating Questions for Use in Chemistry Classrooms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Festo, Kayima

    2016-01-01

    Teacher questions play an important role in facilitating classroom discourse. Using appropriate question types and proper questioning techniques help to create reflective-active learners. Teacher questions can elicit students' explanations, elaboration of their ideas and thinking, and they can be used to disclose students' misconceptions. Despite…

  9. Toward Enhancing Automated Credibility Assessment: A Model for Question Type Classification and Tools for Linguistic Analysis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moffitt, Kevin Christopher

    2011-01-01

    The three objectives of this dissertation were to develop a question type model for predicting linguistic features of responses to interview questions, create a tool for linguistic analysis of documents, and use lexical bundle analysis to identify linguistic differences between fraudulent and non-fraudulent financial reports. First, The Moffitt…

  10. Studying Information Needs as Question-Negotiations in an Educational Context: A Methodological Comment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lundh, Anna

    2010-01-01

    Introduction: The concept of information needs is significant within the field of Information Needs Seeking and Use. "How" information needs can be studied empirically is however something that has been called into question. The main aim of this paper is to explore the methodological consequences of discursively oriented theories when…

  11. Question-Asking and Question-Exploring

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sands, Lorraine; Carr, Margaret; Lee, Wendy

    2012-01-01

    The Centre of Innovation Research at Greerton Early Childhood Centre was characterised as a dispositional milieu where working theories were explored through a narrative research methodology. As the research progressed, the teachers at Greerton strengthened the way we were listening to, and watching out for young children's questions to enable…

  12. Schoolyard Geographies: The Influence of Object-Play and Place-Making on Relationships

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, Paul

    2013-01-01

    The exploration of relationships between the physical characteristics of place and the activities that occur there is a fundamental question for geography (Patton 2002). This report is part of a larger case study documenting how the places, objects and practices in a naturalized primary school playground influenced a newly enrolled student's…

  13. Student-led objective tutorials in Pharmacology: An interventional study.

    PubMed

    Sukhlecha, Anupama; Jadav, Shilpa P; Gosai, Tushar R; Balusamy, Divakar

    2016-10-01

    Students learn in a better way if they are involved in active learning. Hence, the study was designed to introduce student-led objective tutorials (SLOTs) as an alternative to conventional tutorials (CTs) in pharmacology and to compare SLOT and CT on outcomes such as improved score in tests, active involvement of students, and faculty requirement of each. Didactic lectures taken on a topic in pharmacology were followed by a preintervention test for a batch of the 2 nd year medical undergraduates. They were allotted either in SLOT or CT group. For a SLOT session, students of Group A (interventional group) were divided into teams and each team prepared five multiple choice questions on the given topic in PowerPoint format, which were presented to other teams and audience. The proceedings were facilitated by two lecturers. Group B undertook CT (controls). A postintervention test was then taken for both groups. Feedback was sought from students and teachers on SLOT. The total marks for the test were 20. The mean marks in Group A improved by 31% (from 5.1 to 11.2). In Group B, they improved by 11% (from 5 to 7.2). Academic performance following SLOT was better than CT. Students (63%) favored SLOT as it stimulated their interest in the topic, improved self-learning skills, and teamwork. The teachers also favored SLOT for similar reasons. SLOT leads to greater satisfaction and better performance in tests. SLOT is an effective alternative to CT to promote active learning among students through group work. It helps overcome the logistic difficulties due to faculty shortage.

  14. Intuitive physical reasoning about occluded objects by inexperienced chicks

    PubMed Central

    Chiandetti, Cinzia; Vallortigara, Giorgio

    2011-01-01

    Questions concerning the role of nature and nurture in higher cognition appear to be intractable if one restricts one's attention to development in humans. However, in other domains, such as sensory development, much information has been gained from controlled rearing studies with animals. Here, we used a similar experimental strategy to investigate intuitive reasoning about occluded objects. Newborn domestic chicks (Gallus gallus) were reared singly with a small object that became their social partner. They were then accustomed to rejoin such an imprinting object when it was made to move and disappear behind either one of two identical opaque screens. After disappearance of the imprinting object, chicks were faced with two screens of different slants, or of different height or different width, which may or may not have been compatible with the presence of the imprinting object hidden beneath/behind them. Chicks consistently chose the screen of slant/height/width compatible with the presence of the object beneath/behind it. Preventing chicks from touching and pecking at the imprinting object before testing did not affect the results, suggesting that intuitive reasoning about physical objects is largely independent of specific experience of interaction with objects and of objects' occluding events. PMID:21270036

  15. Questioning for Controversial and Critical Thinking Dialogues in the Social Studies Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lennon, Sean

    2017-01-01

    The design and implementation of questioning, specifically in regards towards a higher level of thinking, is a common practice in many secondary social science classrooms (Bickmore & Parker, 2012). Questioning can help the teacher develop critical thinking concepts, scaffold discussions, and prod students towards an elevated level of cognition…

  16. Physical Characterization of the Near-Earth Object Population

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Binzel, Richard P.

    2003-01-01

    This program seeks to address the fundamental question: What are the relationships between asteroids, comets, and meteorites? To answer this question, we are studying the population of asteroids near the Earth which likely contain both asteroids and extinct comets and which is the immediate source for meteorites. An analysis of new and existing visible wavelength spectral data for more than 100 (Near-Earth Objects) NEOs, and Keck albedo data for more than 20 NEOs is underway. New asteroid-meteorite links are being found, the NEO population and hazard is being characterized, and the extinct comet component is being constrained. These results are contained within the following publication work during the current period: 1 book, 2 book chapters, 1 published paper, 2 papers submitted, 2 papers in preparation, 1 Ph. D. thesis in preparation, and 7 meeting abstracts/presentations.

  17. Does the sequence of data collection influence participants' responses to closed and open-ended questions? A methodological study.

    PubMed

    Covell, Christine L; Sidani, Souraya; Ritchie, Judith A

    2012-06-01

    The sequence used for collecting quantitative and qualitative data in concurrent mixed-methods research may influence participants' responses. Empirical evidence is needed to determine if the order of data collection in concurrent mixed methods research biases participants' responses to closed and open-ended questions. To examine the influence of the quantitative-qualitative sequence on responses to closed and open-ended questions when assessing the same variables or aspects of a phenomenon simultaneously within the same study phase. A descriptive cross-sectional, concurrent mixed-methods design was used to collect quantitative (survey) and qualitative (interview) data. The setting was a large multi-site health care centre in Canada. A convenience sample of 50 registered nurses was selected and participated in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two sequences for data collection, quantitative-qualitative or qualitative-quantitative. Independent t-tests were performed to compare the two groups' responses to the survey items. Directed content analysis was used to compare the participants' responses to the interview questions. The sequence of data collection did not greatly affect the participants' responses to the closed-ended questions (survey items) or the open-ended questions (interview questions). The sequencing of data collection, when using both survey and semi-structured interviews, may not bias participants' responses to closed or open-ended questions. Additional research is required to confirm these findings. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Objectivity in psychosocial measurement: what, why, how.

    PubMed

    Fisher, W P

    2000-01-01

    This article raises and tries to answer questions concerning what objectivity in psychosocial measurement is, why it is important, and how it can be achieved. Following in the tradition of the Socratic art of maiuetics, objectivity is characterized by the separation of meaning from the geometric, metaphoric, or numeric figure carrying it, allowing an ideal and abstract entity to take on a life of its own. Examples of objective entities start from anything teachable and learnable, but for the purposes of measurement, the meter, gram, volt, and liter are paradigmatic because of their generalizability across observers, instruments, laboratories, samples, applications, etc. Objectivity is important because it is only through it that distinct conceptual entities are meaningfully distinguished. Seen from another angle, objectivity is important because it defines the conditions of the possibility of shared meaning and community. Full objectivity in psychosocial measurement can be achieved only by attending to both its methodological and its social aspects. The methodological aspect has recently achieved some notice in psychosocial measurement, especially in the form of Rasch's probabilistic conjoint models. Objectivity's social aspect has only recently been noticed by historians of science, and has not yet been systematically incorporated in any psychosocial science. An approach to achieving full objectivity in psychosocial measurement is adapted from the ASTM Standard Practice for Conducting an Interlaboratory Study to Determine the Precision of a Test Method (ASTM Committee E-11 on Statistical Methods, 1992).

  19. An unforgettable apple: memory and attention for forbidden objects.

    PubMed

    Truong, Grace; Turk, David J; Handy, Todd C

    2013-12-01

    Are we humans drawn to the forbidden? From jumbo-sized soft drinks to illicit substances, the influence of prohibited ownership on subsequent demand has made this question a pressing one. We know that objects that we ourselves own have a heightened psychological saliency, relative to comparable objects that are owned by others, but do these kinds of effects extend from self-owned to "forbidden" objects? To address this question, we developed a modified version of the Turk shopping paradigm in which "purchased" items were assigned to various recipients. Participants sorted everyday objects labeled as "self-owned", "other-owned," and either "forbidden to oneself" (Experiment 1) or "forbidden to everyone" (Experiment 2). Subsequent surprise recognition memory tests revealed that forbidden objects with high (Experiment 1) but not with low (Experiment 2) self-relevance were recognized as well as were self-owned objects, and better than other-owned objects. In a third and final experiment, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to determine whether self-owned and self-forbidden objects, which showed a common memory advantage, are in fact treated the same at a neurocognitive-affective level. We found that both object types were associated with enhanced cognitive analysis, relative to other-owned objects, as measured by the P300 ERP component. However, we also found that self-forbidden objects uniquely triggered an enhanced response preceding the P300, in an ERP component (the N2) that is sensitive to more rapid, affect-related processing. Our findings thus suggest that, whereas self-forbidden objects share a common cognitive signature with self-owned objects, they are unique in being identified more quickly at a neurocognitive level.

  20. When are do-gooders treated badly? Legitimate power, role expectations, and reactions to moral objection in organizations.

    PubMed

    Wellman, Ned; Mayer, David M; Ong, Madeline; DeRue, D Scott

    2016-06-01

    Organization members who engage in "moral objection" by taking a principled stand against ethically questionable activities help to prevent such activities from persisting. Unfortunately, research suggests that they also may be perceived as less warm (i.e., pleasant, nice) than members who comply with ethically questionable procedures. In this article, we draw on role theory to explore how legitimate power influences observers' responses to moral objection. We argue that individuals expect those high in legitimate power to engage in moral objection, but expect those low in legitimate power to comply with ethically questionable practices. We further propose that these contrasting role expectations influence the extent to which moral objectors are perceived as warm and subjected to social sanctions (i.e., insults, pressure, unfriendly behavior). We test our predictions with 3 experiments. Study 1, which draws on participants' prior workplace experiences, supports the first section of our mediated moderation model in which the negative association between an actor's moral objection (vs. compliance) and observers' warmth perceptions is weaker when the actor is high rather than low in legitimate power and this effect is mediated by observers' met role expectations. Study 2, an online experiment featuring a biased hiring task, reveals that the warmth perceptions fostered by the Behavior × Legitimate Power interaction influence observers' social sanctioning intentions. Finally, Study 3, a laboratory experiment which exposes participants to unethical behavior in a virtual team task, replicates Study 2's findings and extends the results to actual as well as intended social sanctions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  1. Interactive use of online health resources: a comparison of consumer and professional questions

    PubMed Central

    Demner-Fushman, Dina

    2016-01-01

    Objective To understand how consumer questions on online resources differ from questions asked by professionals, and how such consumer questions differ across resources. Materials and Methods Ten online question corpora, 5 consumer and 5 professional, with a combined total of over 40 000 questions, were analyzed using a variety of natural language processing techniques. These techniques analyze questions at the lexical, syntactic, and semantic levels, exposing differences in both form and content. Results Consumer questions tend to be longer than professional questions, more closely resemble open-domain language, and focus far more on medical problems. Consumers ask more sub-questions, provide far more background information, and ask different types of questions than professionals. Furthermore, there is substantial variance of these factors between the different consumer corpora. Discussion The form of consumer questions is highly dependent upon the individual online resource, especially in the amount of background information provided. Professionals, on the other hand, provide very little background information and often ask much shorter questions. The content of consumer questions is also highly dependent upon the resource. While professional questions commonly discuss treatments and tests, consumer questions focus disproportionately on symptoms and diseases. Further, consumers place far more emphasis on certain types of health problems (eg, sexual health). Conclusion Websites for consumers to submit health questions are a popular online resource filling important gaps in consumer health information. By analyzing how consumers write questions on these resources, we can better understand these gaps and create solutions for improving information access. This article is part of the Special Focus on Person-Generated Health and Wellness Data, which published in the May 2016 issue, Volume 23, Issue 3. PMID:27147494

  2. Small Schools Science Curriculum, K-3: Reading, Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies. Scope, Objectives, Activities, Resources, Monitoring Procedures.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hartl, David, Ed.; And Others

    Learning objectives and suggested activities, monitoring procedures and resources for the Washington K-3 Small Schools Science Curriculum are based on the rationale that "young children need the opportunity to observe, classify, predict, test ideas again and again in a variety of contexts, ask questions, explain, discuss ideas, fail, and succeed.…

  3. A Survey on the Levels of Questioning of ELT: A Case Study in an Indonesian Tertiary Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ashadi, Rido Imam; Lubis, Nazriani

    2017-01-01

    This present study focused on examining the levels of questions in Indonesia tertiary education. A survey research was conducted in one of the private universities in North Sumatra. The English summative assessment in an undergraduate education was used as target of survey. There were a collection of questions that had been administered by four…

  4. Subjective Wellbeing, Objective Wellbeing and Inequality in Australia

    PubMed Central

    Western, Mark

    2016-01-01

    In recent years policy makers and social scientists have devoted considerable attention to wellbeing, a concept that refers to people’s capacity to live healthy, creative and fulfilling lives. Two conceptual approaches dominate wellbeing research. The objective approach examines the objective components of a good life. The subjective approach examines people’s subjective evaluations of their lives. In the objective approach how subjective wellbeing relates to objective wellbeing is not a relevant research question. The subjective approach does investigate how objective wellbeing relates to subjective wellbeing, but has focused primarily on one objective wellbeing indicator, income, rather than the comprehensive indicator set implied by the objective approach. This paper attempts to contribute by examining relationships between a comprehensive set of objective wellbeing measures and subjective wellbeing, and by linking wellbeing research to inequality research by also investigating how subjective and objective wellbeing relate to class, gender, age and ethnicity. We use three waves of a representative state-level household panel study from Queensland, Australia, undertaken from 2008 to 2010, to investigate how objective measures of wellbeing are socially distributed by gender, class, age, and ethnicity. We also examine relationships between objective wellbeing and overall life satisfaction, providing one of the first longitudinal analyses linking objective wellbeing with subjective evaluations. Objective aspects of wellbeing are unequally distributed by gender, age, class and ethnicity and are strongly associated with life satisfaction. Moreover, associations between gender, ethnicity, class and life satisfaction persist after controlling for objective wellbeing, suggesting that mechanisms in addition to objective wellbeing link structural dimensions of inequality to life satisfaction. PMID:27695042

  5. Subjective Wellbeing, Objective Wellbeing and Inequality in Australia.

    PubMed

    Western, Mark; Tomaszewski, Wojtek

    2016-01-01

    In recent years policy makers and social scientists have devoted considerable attention to wellbeing, a concept that refers to people's capacity to live healthy, creative and fulfilling lives. Two conceptual approaches dominate wellbeing research. The objective approach examines the objective components of a good life. The subjective approach examines people's subjective evaluations of their lives. In the objective approach how subjective wellbeing relates to objective wellbeing is not a relevant research question. The subjective approach does investigate how objective wellbeing relates to subjective wellbeing, but has focused primarily on one objective wellbeing indicator, income, rather than the comprehensive indicator set implied by the objective approach. This paper attempts to contribute by examining relationships between a comprehensive set of objective wellbeing measures and subjective wellbeing, and by linking wellbeing research to inequality research by also investigating how subjective and objective wellbeing relate to class, gender, age and ethnicity. We use three waves of a representative state-level household panel study from Queensland, Australia, undertaken from 2008 to 2010, to investigate how objective measures of wellbeing are socially distributed by gender, class, age, and ethnicity. We also examine relationships between objective wellbeing and overall life satisfaction, providing one of the first longitudinal analyses linking objective wellbeing with subjective evaluations. Objective aspects of wellbeing are unequally distributed by gender, age, class and ethnicity and are strongly associated with life satisfaction. Moreover, associations between gender, ethnicity, class and life satisfaction persist after controlling for objective wellbeing, suggesting that mechanisms in addition to objective wellbeing link structural dimensions of inequality to life satisfaction.

  6. A study of binary Kuiper belt objects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kern, Susan Diane

    2006-06-01

    About 10 5 bodies larger than 100km in diameter (Jewitt 1998) reside in the Kuiper Belt, beyond the orbit of Neptune. Since 1992 observational surveys have discovered over one thousand of these objects, believed to be fossil remnants of events that occurred nearly 4.5 billion years ago. Sixteen of these objects are currently known to be binaries, and many more are expected to be discovered. As part of the Deep Ecliptic Survey (DES) I have helped catalog nearly one third of the known Kuiper Belt object (KBO) population, and used that database for further physical studies. Recovery observations for dynamical studies of newly discovered objects with the Magellan telescopes and a high resolution imager, MagIC, revealed three binaries, 88611 (2001QT297), 2003QY90, and 2005EO304. One binary was found in the discovery observations, 2003UN284. Lightcurve measurements of these, and other non-binary KBOs, were obtained to look for unique rotational characteristics. Eleven of thirty-three objects, excluding the binaries, were found to have measurable variability. One of these objects, 2002GW32 has a particularly large amplitude (> 1 magnitude) of variability, and 2002GP32 has a relatively short (~3.3 hours, single-peaked) lightcurve. Among the binary population all the observed objects showed some level of variation. The secondary of 88611 was fit with a single-peaked period of 5.5±0.02 hours while the primary component appears to be non-variable above the measurement errors (0.05 magnitudes). Neither component appears to be color variable. The components of 2003QY90 are both highly variable yielding single- peaked rotation periods of 3.5±1.1 and 7.2±2.9 hours with amplitudes of 0.34±0.06 and 0.90±0.18 magnitudes, respectively. The rotation periods are comparable to those of other non-binary KBOs although distinct from that of an identified contact binary. Orbits and partial orbits for Kuiper belt binaries (KBBs) show a wide range of eccentricities, and an increasing

  7. Statistics Test Questions: Content and Trends

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Salcedo, Audy

    2014-01-01

    This study presents the results of the analysis of a group of teacher-made test questions for statistics courses at the university level. Teachers were asked to submit tests they had used in their previous two semesters. Ninety-seven tests containing 978 questions were gathered and classified according to the SOLO taxonomy (Biggs & Collis,…

  8. Prereading Questions and Online Text Comprehension

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lewis, Mark Rose; Mensink, Michael C.

    2012-01-01

    Prereading questions can be an effective tool for directing students' learning. However, it is not always clear what the online effects of a set of prereading questions will be. In two experiments, this study investigated whether readers direct additional attention to and learn more from sentences that are potentially relevant to a set of…

  9. "Inspired to Be Creative?": Persons, Objects, and the Public Pedagogy of Museums

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sabeti, Shari

    2015-01-01

    This paper explores an enactment of public pedagogy through the ethnographic study of one museum creative writing class. It questions a theory of creativity that insists it is the properties of objects on display that inspire individuals. On the contrary, I argue that the flows of agency identified by the subjects themselves suggest creativity is…

  10. A procedural, pragmatist account of ethical objectivity.

    PubMed

    Roth, Amanda

    2013-06-01

    This article offers a procedural, pragmatist account of objectivity in the domain of the good that is inspired by pragmatic and feminist critiques of objectivity in philosophy of science and epistemology. I begin by asking first what we want to capture--or ought to want to capture--with a notion of ethical objectivity and in answer to this question I identify four "points" to ethical objectivity: undergirding the possibility of mistakenness, making genuine disagreement possible, making sense of our appreciation of the ethical perspectives of others, and making possible a sense of ethical improvement or learning. I then lay out a process-based account of objectivity in ethics that makes good on the four points I have identified. Finally, I consider worries related to convergence, bias, and ontology and defend the procedural, pragmatist account in light of those potential objections.

  11. The internal/external issue what is an outer object? Another person as object and as separate other in object relations models.

    PubMed

    Zachrisson, Anders

    2013-01-01

    The question of what we mean by the term outer object has its roots in the epistemological foundation of psychoanalysis. From the very beginning, Freud's view was Kantian, and psychoanalysis has kept that stance, as it seems. The author reviews the internal/external issue in Freud's thinking and in the central object relations theories (Klein, Winnicott, and Bion). On this background he proposes a simple model to differentiate the concept of object along one central dimension: internal object, external object, and actual person. The main arguments are: (1) there is no direct, unmediated perception of the actual person--the experience of the other is always affected by the perceiver's subjectivity; (2) in intense transference reactions and projections, the perception of the person is dominated by the qualities of an inner object--and the other person "becomes" an external object for the perceiver; (3) when this distortion is less dominating, the other person to a higher degree remains a separate other--a person in his or her own right. Clinical material illustrates these phenomena, and a graphical picture of the model is presented. Finally with the model as background, the author comments on a selection of phenomena and concepts such as unobjectionable transference, "the third position," mourning and loneliness. The way that the internal colours and distorts the external is of course a central preoccupation of psychoanalysis generally. (Spillius et al., 2011, p. 326)

  12. The impact of attentional, linguistic, and visual features during object naming

    PubMed Central

    Clarke, Alasdair D. F.; Coco, Moreno I.; Keller, Frank

    2013-01-01

    Object detection and identification are fundamental to human vision, and there is mounting evidence that objects guide the allocation of visual attention. However, the role of objects in tasks involving multiple modalities is less clear. To address this question, we investigate object naming, a task in which participants have to verbally identify objects they see in photorealistic scenes. We report an eye-tracking study that investigates which features (attentional, visual, and linguistic) influence object naming. We find that the amount of visual attention directed toward an object, its position and saliency, along with linguistic factors such as word frequency, animacy, and semantic proximity, significantly influence whether the object will be named or not. We then ask how features from different modalities are combined during naming, and find significant interactions between saliency and position, saliency and linguistic features, and attention and position. We conclude that when the cognitive system performs tasks such as object naming, it uses input from one modality to constraint or enhance the processing of other modalities, rather than processing each input modality independently. PMID:24379792

  13. Object attributes combine additively in visual search

    PubMed Central

    Pramod, R. T.; Arun, S. P.

    2016-01-01

    We perceive objects as containing a variety of attributes: local features, relations between features, internal details, and global properties. But we know little about how they combine. Here, we report a remarkably simple additive rule that governs how these diverse object attributes combine in vision. The perceived dissimilarity between two objects was accurately explained as a sum of (a) spatially tuned local contour-matching processes modulated by part decomposition; (b) differences in internal details, such as texture; (c) differences in emergent attributes, such as symmetry; and (d) differences in global properties, such as orientation or overall configuration of parts. Our results elucidate an enduring question in object vision by showing that the whole object is not a sum of its parts but a sum of its many attributes. PMID:26967014

  14. Object attributes combine additively in visual search.

    PubMed

    Pramod, R T; Arun, S P

    2016-01-01

    We perceive objects as containing a variety of attributes: local features, relations between features, internal details, and global properties. But we know little about how they combine. Here, we report a remarkably simple additive rule that governs how these diverse object attributes combine in vision. The perceived dissimilarity between two objects was accurately explained as a sum of (a) spatially tuned local contour-matching processes modulated by part decomposition; (b) differences in internal details, such as texture; (c) differences in emergent attributes, such as symmetry; and (d) differences in global properties, such as orientation or overall configuration of parts. Our results elucidate an enduring question in object vision by showing that the whole object is not a sum of its parts but a sum of its many attributes.

  15. [The Durkheim Test. Remarks on Susan Leigh Star's Boundary Objects].

    PubMed

    Gießmann, Sebastian

    2015-09-01

    The article reconstructs Susan Leigh Star's conceptual work on the notion of 'boundary objects'. It traces the emergence of the concept, beginning with her PhD thesis and its publication as Regions of the Mind in 1989. 'Boundary objects' attempt to represent the distributed, multifold nature of scientific work and its mediations between different 'social worlds'. Being addressed to several 'communities of practice', the term responded to questions from Distributed Artificial Intelligence in Computer Science, Workplace Studies and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), and microhistorical approaches inside the growing Science and Technology Studies. Yet the interdisciplinary character and interpretive flexibility of Star’s invention has rarely been noticed as a conceptual tool for media theory. I therefore propose to reconsider Star's 'Durkheim test' for sociotechnical media practices.

  16. Using Written-Answer Questions To Complement Numerical Problems. Case Study: A Separation Processes Course.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Iveson, Simon M.

    2002-01-01

    Describes the process and outcome of including in assignments and examinations some questions requiring written answers along with traditional questions requiring only numerical calculations. Lists questions used in a chemical engineering course on separation processes along with sample responses from students. Student feedback indicates a…

  17. Telephone survey respondents' reactions to questions regarding interpersonal violence.

    PubMed

    Black, Michele C; Kresnow, Marcie-jo; Simon, Thomas R; Arias, Ileana; Shelley, Gene

    2006-08-01

    Concerns have been raised regarding the appropriateness of asking about violence victimization in telephone interviews and whether asking such questions increases respondents' distress or risk for harm. However, no large-scale studies have evaluated the impact of asking such questions during a telephone interview. This study explored respondents' reactions to questions regarding violence in two large recently completed telephone surveys. After respondents were asked about violence, they were asked if they thought surveys should ask such questions and whether they felt upset or afraid because of the questions. In both surveys, the majority of respondents (regardless of their victimization history) were willing to answer questions about violence and were not upset or afraid because of the questions. More than 92% of respondents thought such questions should be asked. These results challenge commonly held beliefs and assumptions and provide some assurance to those concerned with the ethical collection of data on violent victimization.

  18. Category Specificity in Normal Episodic Learning: Applications to Object Recognition and Category-Specific Agnosia

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bukach, Cindy M.; Bub, Daniel N.; Masson, Michael E. J.; Lindsay, D. Stephen

    2004-01-01

    Studies of patients with category-specific agnosia (CSA) have given rise to multiple theories of object recognition, most of which assume the existence of a stable, abstract semantic memory system. We applied an episodic view of memory to questions raised by CSA in a series of studies examining normal observers' recall of newly learned attributes…

  19. Do Japanese children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder respond differently to Wh-questions and Yes/No-questions?

    PubMed

    Oi, Manabu

    2010-09-01

    The present study compared 12 Japanese children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD), ranging in age from 7.3-14.8 years, with 12 typically developing (TD) children matched for age, gender, and vocabulary. The means of full-scale IQ and verbal-IQ of the children with HFASD were 95.92 (SD = 15.30) and 98.00 (SD = 18.44), respectively. Children responded to questions from their mothers in conversations collected under a semi-structured setting, and the responses of both groups were examined from the viewpoint of adequacy. Compared to TD children, HFASD children produced more inadequate responses to Wh-questions than to Yes/No questions. To both types of questions, HFASD children produced more inappropriate responses than TD children. The findings suggest that parents of HFASD children should consider the influence of the question format on these children's response inadequacies.

  20. The Gender Question and the Study of Jewish Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Charme, Stuart Z.

    2006-01-01

    Although some researchers argue that a generation of feminist innovations and changes in American Jewish life has produced an egalitarian generation in which gender differences among Jewish children and adolescents are insignificant, this article argues that the salience of gender differences is a factor of the kinds of questions that children are…

  1. Student Engagement with a Flipped Classroom Teaching Design Affects Pharmacology Examination Performance in a Manner Dependent on Question Type

    PubMed Central

    Naidu, Som; Yuriev, Elizabeth; Short, Jennifer L.; McLaughlin, Jacqueline E.; Larson, Ian C.

    2017-01-01

    Objective: To investigate the relationship between student engagement with the key elements of a flipped classroom approach (preparation and attendance), their attitudes to learning, including strategy development, and their performance on two types of examination questions (knowledge recall and providing rational predictions when faced with novel scenarios). Methods. This study correlated student engagement with the flipped classroom and student disposition to learning with student ability to solve novel scenarios in examinations. Results. Students who both prepared for and attended classes performed significantly better on examination questions that required analysis of novel scenarios compared to students who did not prepare and missed classes. However, there was no difference for both groups of students on examination questions that required knowledge and comprehension. Student motivation and use of strategies correlated with higher examination scores on questions requiring novel scenario analysis. Conclusion. There is a synergistic relationship between class preparation and attendance. The combination of preparation and attendance was positively correlated to assessment type; the relationship was apparent for questions requiring students to solve novel problems but not for questions requiring knowledge or comprehension. PMID:29302082

  2. Student Engagement with a Flipped Classroom Teaching Design Affects Pharmacology Examination Performance in a Manner Dependent on Question Type.

    PubMed

    White, Paul J; Naidu, Som; Yuriev, Elizabeth; Short, Jennifer L; McLaughlin, Jacqueline E; Larson, Ian C

    2017-11-01

    Objective: To investigate the relationship between student engagement with the key elements of a flipped classroom approach (preparation and attendance), their attitudes to learning, including strategy development, and their performance on two types of examination questions (knowledge recall and providing rational predictions when faced with novel scenarios). Methods. This study correlated student engagement with the flipped classroom and student disposition to learning with student ability to solve novel scenarios in examinations. Results. Students who both prepared for and attended classes performed significantly better on examination questions that required analysis of novel scenarios compared to students who did not prepare and missed classes. However, there was no difference for both groups of students on examination questions that required knowledge and comprehension. Student motivation and use of strategies correlated with higher examination scores on questions requiring novel scenario analysis. Conclusion. There is a synergistic relationship between class preparation and attendance. The combination of preparation and attendance was positively correlated to assessment type; the relationship was apparent for questions requiring students to solve novel problems but not for questions requiring knowledge or comprehension.

  3. The Role of Teacher Questions in the Chemistry Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dohrn, Sofie Weiss; Dohn, Niels Bonderup

    2018-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate how a chemistry teacher's questions influence the classroom discourse. It presents a fine-grained analysis of the rich variety of one teacher's questions and the roles they play in an upper secondary chemistry classroom. The study identifies six different functions for the teacher's questions:…

  4. Object Permanence, Reaching, and Locomotion in Infants Who Are Blind.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ross, S.; Tobin, M. J.

    1997-01-01

    The literature on the effects of congenital blindness on infants' development of motor functions and concepts of object permanence is reviewed. The article questions the idea that infants must first develop an object concept before sound clues alone will elicit reaching. Possible interventions to redress the effects of congenital blindness on…

  5. The Top 10 Questions for Active Debris Removal

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Liou, J. -C.

    2010-01-01

    This slide presentation reviews the requirement and issues around removal of debris from the earth orbital environment. The 10 questions discussed are: 1. Which region (LEO/MEO/GEO) has the fastest projected growth rate and the highest collision activities? 2. Can the commonly-adopted mitigation measures stabilize the future environment? 3. What are the objectives of active debris removal (ADR)? 4. How can effective ADR target selection criteria to stabilize the future LEO environment be defined? 5. What are the keys to remediate the future LEO environment? 6. What is the timeframe for ADR implementation? 7. What is the effect of practical/operational constraints? 8. What are the collision probabilities and masses of the current objects? 9. What are the benefits of collision avoidance maneuvers? 10. What is the next step?

  6. The "surprise question" for predicting death in seriously ill patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

    PubMed

    Downar, James; Goldman, Russell; Pinto, Ruxandra; Englesakis, Marina; Adhikari, Neill K J

    2017-04-03

    The surprise question - "Would I be surprised if this patient died in the next 12 months?" - has been used to identify patients at high risk of death who might benefit from palliative care services. Our objective was to systematically review the performance characteristics of the surprise question in predicting death. We searched multiple electronic databases from inception to 2016 to identify studies that prospectively screened patients with the surprise question and reported on death at 6 to 18 months. We constructed models of hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristics (sROCs) to determine prognostic performance. Sixteen studies (17 cohorts, 11 621 patients) met the selection criteria. For the outcome of death at 6 to 18 months, the pooled prognostic characteristics were sensitivity 67.0% (95% confidence interval [CI] 55.7%-76.7%), specificity 80.2% (73.3%-85.6%), positive likelihood ratio 3.4 (95% CI 2.8-4.1), negative likelihood ratio 0.41 (95% CI 0.32-0.54), positive predictive value 37.1% (95% CI 30.2%-44.6%) and negative predictive value 93.1% (95% CI 91.0%-94.8%). The surprise question had worse discrimination in patients with noncancer illness (area under sROC curve 0.77 [95% CI 0.73-0.81]) than in patients with cancer (area under sROC curve 0.83 [95% CI 0.79-0.87; p = 0.02 for difference]). Most studies had a moderate to high risk of bias, often because they had a low or unknown participation rate or had missing data. The surprise question performs poorly to modestly as a predictive tool for death, with worse performance in noncancer illness. Further studies are needed to develop accurate tools to identify patients with palliative care needs and to assess the surprise question for this purpose. © 2017 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors.

  7. Sexual Health questions included in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Study: an international methodological pilot investigation.

    PubMed

    Young, Honor; Költő, András; Reis, Marta; Saewyc, Elizabeth M; Moreau, Nathalie; Burke, Lorraine; Cosma, Alina; Windlin, Béat; Gabhainn, Saoirse Nic; Godeau, Emmanuelle

    2016-12-05

    This paper describes the methodological developments of the sexual health items included in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study since their mandatory inclusion in the study in 2002. The current methodological, ethical and pedagogical challenges in measuring young people's sexual health behaviours are discussed along with the issues associated with the sexual health items introduced to the HBSC study in 2002. The development and piloting of new cross-national items for use in the 2013/14 HBSC data collection are presented and discussed. An international pilot study was undertaken to determine the impact of these proposed changes. Questionnaires and classroom discussion groups were conducted in five pilot countries in 2012/2013 (France, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal and Romania) with a total of 612 school-aged children (age M = 15.55 years, SD = 0.95). The majority of participants in each country provided positive feedback about the appropriateness of the questions. Some small cross-national differences were found in the self-reported quantitative data relating to the appropriateness of the questions (χ 2  = 22.831, df = 9, p = .007, V = .117). Qualitative feedback suggests that for the vast majority of students the phrasing and age-targeting of the questions were considered appropriate. With the exception of a small number of respondents who commented on the clarity and/or personal nature of the content, no specific issues with the questions were identified. These findings provide guidance on the answerability (including the extent of missing and inconsistent data), understandability, acceptability (including in different cultures) and relevance of questions to potential participants. The findings from the pilot study suggest that in general, the questions are understandable, acceptable, and of a high priority to the target population, and that the simplification has significantly reduced the proportion of missing data

  8. Improving Student Question Classification

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Heiner, Cecily; Zachary, Joseph L.

    2009-01-01

    Students in introductory programming classes often articulate their questions and information needs incompletely. Consequently, the automatic classification of student questions to provide automated tutorial responses is a challenging problem. This paper analyzes 411 questions from an introductory Java programming course by reducing the natural…

  9. Analysis of Newton's Third Law Questions on the Force Concepts Inventory at Georgia State University

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oakley, Christopher; Thoms, Brian

    2012-03-01

    A major emphasis of the Physics Education Research program at Georgia State University is an effort to assess and improve students' understanding of Newton's Laws concepts. As part of these efforts the Force Concepts Inventory (FCI) has been given to students in both the algebra-based and calculus-based introductory physics sequences. In addition, the algebra-based introductory physics sequence is taught in both a SCALE-UP and a traditional lecture format. The results of the FCI have been analyzed by individual question and also as categorized by content. The analysis indicates that students in both algebra and calculus-based courses are successful at overcoming Aristotelian misconceptions regarding Newton's Third Law (N3) in the context of a stationary system. However, students are less successful on N3 questions involving objects in constant motion or accelerating. Interference between understanding of Newton's Second and Third Laws as well as other possible explanations for lower student performance on N3 questions involving non-stationary objects will be discussed.

  10. FAQ Question Submission

    Science.gov Websites

    , fax, or phone. Use this area to send us your question. Your name: Your E-Mail address: Your Phone Number (voice): Please include area code. Your Fax Number: Please include area code. Send Your Question

  11. Augmenting Fellow Education Through Spaced Multiple-Choice Questions.

    PubMed

    Barsoumian, Alice E; Yun, Heather C

    2018-01-01

    . 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.

  12. Evocative Objects: Reflections on Teaching, Learning, and Living in between

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hesse, Doug; Sommers, Nancy; Yancey, Kathleen Blake

    2012-01-01

    Objects are rich sources of inquiry; they invite individuals to observe closely, pose questions, forge connections, and anchor ideas in the concrete. By examining a son's craft project, a family photograph, and an image of tectonic plates, the authors demonstrate how objects can elicit rhetorical invention. While this venture started as a writing…

  13. Object based implicit contextual learning: a study of eye movements.

    PubMed

    van Asselen, Marieke; Sampaio, Joana; Pina, Ana; Castelo-Branco, Miguel

    2011-02-01

    Implicit contextual cueing refers to a top-down mechanism in which visual search is facilitated by learned contextual features. In the current study we aimed to investigate the mechanism underlying implicit contextual learning using object information as a contextual cue. Therefore, we measured eye movements during an object-based contextual cueing task. We demonstrated that visual search is facilitated by repeated object information and that this reduction in response times is associated with shorter fixation durations. This indicates that by memorizing associations between objects in our environment we can recognize objects faster, thereby facilitating visual search.

  14. State contraceptive coverage laws: creative responses to questions of "conscience".

    PubMed

    Dailard, C

    1999-08-01

    The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) guaranteed contraceptive coverage for employees of the federal government. However, opponents of the FEHBP contraceptive coverage questioned the viability of the conscience clause. Supporters of the contraceptive coverage pressed for the narrowest exemption, one that only permit religious plans that clearly states religious objection to contraception. There are six of the nine states that have enacted contraceptive coverage laws aimed at the private sector. The statutes included a provision of conscience clause. The private sector disagrees to the plan since almost all of the employees¿ work for employers who only offer one plan. The scope of exemption for employers was an issue in five states that have enacted the contraceptive coverage. In Hawaii and California, it was exemplified that if employers are exempted from the contraceptive coverage based on religious grounds, an employee will be entitled to purchase coverage directly from the plan. There are still questions on how an insurer, who objects based on religious grounds to a plan with contraceptive coverage, can function in a marketplace where such coverage is provided by most private sector employers.

  15. The 150 most important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology series: questions 40-49.

    PubMed

    2017-07-13

    Since the beginning of 2017, Chinese Journal of Cancer has published a series of important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology, which sparkle diverse thoughts, interesting communications, and potential collaborations among researchers all over the world. In this article, 10 more questions are presented as followed. Question 40. Why do mice being used as tumorigenesis models raised in different places or different conditions possess different tumor formation rate? Question 41. How could we generate more effective anti-metastasis drugs? Question 42. What is the molecular mechanism underlying heterogeneity of cancer cachexia in patients with the same pathologic type? Question 43. Will patients with oligo-metastatic disease be curable by immunotherapy plus stereotactic body radiotherapy? Question 44. Can the Warburg effect regulation be targeted for cancer treatment? Question 45. Why do adenocarcinomas seldom occur in the small intestine? Question 46. Is Epstein-Barr virus infection a causal factor for nasal natural killer/T cell lymphoma formation? Question 47. Why will not all but very few human papillomavirus-infected patients eventually develop cervical cancer? Question 48. Why do cervical carcinomas induced by human papilloma virus have a low mutation rate in tumor suppressor genes? Question 49. Can viral infection trigger lung cancer relapse?

  16. Unproven (questionable) dietary and nutritional methods in cancer prevention and treatment.

    PubMed

    Herbert, V

    1986-10-15

    "Unproven" is a euphemism for questionable. The definition of a questionable method is that it has not successfully answered the two basic consumer protection questions of efficacy and safety, to wit: Has it been responsibly, objectively, reproducibly, and reliably demonstrated in humans in the responsible (peer-reviewed) literature accepted for the shelves of the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, to be: More effective than suggestion or doing nothing? and in addition, either As safe as doing nothing? or, in the alternative, If there is any question with respect to safety, to have a reasonably and objectively clear potential for benefit which exceeds its potential for harm? Any proposed cancer prevention or treatment modality which has not successfully answered the above efficacy question plus one of the two safety questions is by definition questionable. It is experimental if it is new, and very probably quackery if it is old. Experimental therapy may be either ethical and responsible or unethical and irresponsible. It is unethical and irresponsible to not tell the patient experiments are being conducted on him, to charge the patient to perform research on him, or to ask the patient to sign an informed consent aimed at exculpating the doctor rather than protecting the patient. Ethical and responsible informed consents clearly delineate that what is being done is experimental, and that efficacy and safety have not been determined. Products promoted for profit to the public without passing peer process are almost without exception ineffective, often harmful, and sometimes lethal. This includes Laetrile, immunoaugmentative therapy, chelation therapy, macrobiotic diets, and other alternative therapies. Anecdotal and testimonial claims of cure, on investigation, almost invariably prove due to coincidence, suggestibility, and/or the natural history of the disorder, and fall into one of the five categories of "cures that are not": The patient never had

  17. Student-written single-best answer questions predict performance in finals.

    PubMed

    Walsh, Jason; Harris, Benjamin; Tayyaba, Saadia; Harris, David; Smith, Phil

    2016-10-01

    Single-best answer (SBA) questions are widely used for assessment in medical schools; however, often clinical staff have neither the time nor the incentive to develop high-quality material for revision purposes. A student-led approach to producing formative SBA questions offers a potential solution. Cardiff University School of Medicine students created a bank of SBA questions through a previously described staged approach, involving student question-writing, peer-review and targeted senior clinician input. We arranged questions into discrete tests and posted these online. Student volunteer performance on these tests from the 2012/13 cohort of final-year medical students was recorded and compared with the performance of these students in medical school finals (knowledge and objective structured clinical examinations, OSCEs). In addition, we compared the performance of students that participated in question-writing groups with the performance of the rest of the cohort on the summative SBA assessment. Often clinical staff have neither the time nor the incentive to develop high-quality material for revision purposes Performance in the end-of-year summative clinical knowledge SBA paper correlated strongly with performance in the formative student-written SBA test (r = ~0.60, p <0.01). There was no significant correlation between summative OSCE scores and formative student-written SBA test scores. Students who wrote and reviewed questions scored higher than average in the end-of-year summative clinical knowledge SBA paper. Student-written SBAs predict performance in end-of-year SBA examinations, and therefore can provide a potentially valuable revision resource. There is potential for student-written questions to be incorporated into summative examinations. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  18. The effects of changes in object location on object identity detection: A simultaneous EEG-fMRI study.

    PubMed

    Yang, Ping; Fan, Chenggui; Wang, Min; Fogelson, Noa; Li, Ling

    2017-08-15

    Object identity and location are bound together to form a unique integration that is maintained and processed in visual working memory (VWM). Changes in task-irrelevant object location have been shown to impair the retrieval of memorial representations and the detection of object identity changes. However, the neural correlates of this cognitive process remain largely unknown. In the present study, we aim to investigate the underlying brain activation during object color change detection and the modulatory effects of changes in object location and VWM load. To this end we used simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recordings, which can reveal the neural activity with both high temporal and high spatial resolution. Subjects responded faster and with greater accuracy in the repeated compared to the changed object location condition, when a higher VWM load was utilized. These results support the spatial congruency advantage theory and suggest that it is more pronounced with higher VWM load. Furthermore, the spatial congruency effect was associated with larger posterior N1 activity, greater activation of the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and less suppression of the right supramarginal gyrus (SMG), when object location was repeated compared to when it was changed. The ERP-fMRI integrative analysis demonstrated that the object location discrimination-related N1 component is generated in the right SMG. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Suicide case with multiple injuries with sharp objects.

    PubMed

    Черняк, Валентина В; Девяткин, Александр Е; Мустафина, Галия М; Никифоров, Артём Г

    The work of forensic - medical expert examination of the corpse at the place of its discovery and further research in the morgue often there are certain difficulties associated with the solution of a number of issues, including the establishment of a kind of death. Bringing the case demonstrates that, during the initial examination of the corpse to the place of its discovery the presence of multiple injuries on the body of a different nature, as a rule, initially suggest investigators to suspect that the murder occurred. But further questioning around him lately those studying survey data and scene study results allowed the corpse to make objective conclusions.

  20. Development of the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project Sleep Health Surveillance Questions

    PubMed Central

    Morgenthaler, Timothy I.; Croft, Janet B.; Dort, Leslie C.; Loeding, Lauren D.; Mullington, Janet M.; Thomas, Sherene M.

    2015-01-01

    Objectives: For the first time ever, as emphasized by inclusion in the Healthy People 2020 goals, sleep health is an emphasis of national health aims. The National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project (NHSAP) was tasked to propose questions for inclusion in the next Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a survey that includes a number of questions that target behaviors thought to impact health, as a means to measure community sleep health. The total number of questions could not exceed five, and had to include an assessment of the risk for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Methods: An appointed workgroup met via teleconference and face-to-face venues to develop an inventory of published survey questions being used to identify sleep health, to develop a framework on which to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of current survey questions concerning sleep, and to develop recommendations for sleep health and disease surveillance questions going forward. Results: The recommendation was to focus on certain existing BRFSS questions pertaining to sleep duration, quality, satisfaction, daytime alertness, and to add to these other BRFSS existing questions to make a modified STOP-BANG questionnaire (minus the N for neck circumference) to assess for risk of OSA. Conclusions: Sleep health is an important dimension of health that has previously received less attention in national health surveys. We believe that 5 questions recommended for the upcoming BRFSS question banks will assist as important measures of sleep health, and may help to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to improve sleep health in our nation. Citation: Morgenthaler TI, Croft JB, Dort LC, Loeding LD, Mullington JM, Thomas SM. Development of the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project sleep health surveillance questions. J Clin Sleep Med 2015;11(9):1057–1062. PMID:26235156

  1. Francis Bacon's concept of objectivity and the idols of the mind.

    PubMed

    Zagorin, P

    2001-12-01

    This paper examines the concept of objectivity traceable in Francis Bacon's natural philosophy. After some historical background on this concept, it considers the question of whether it is not an anachronism to attribute such a concept to Bacon, since the word 'objectivity' is a later coinage and does not appear anywhere in his writings. The essay gives reasons for answering this question in the negative, and then criticizes the accounts given of Bacon's understanding of objectivity by Lorraine Daston and Julie Robin Solomon. It argues that this understanding is most directly and fully expressed in his discussion of the idols of the mind. In this connection, the paper notes Bacon's critical attitude to sixteenth-century scepticism and its relevance to the idea of objectivity implicit in his comments on the idols. In conclusion, the paper argues that Bacon was not a pure empiricist and describes the place assigned to theories and hypotheses in his natural philosophy.

  2. Simple neck pain questions used in surveys, evaluated in relation to health outcomes: a cohort study

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Background The high prevalence of pain reported in many epidemiological studies, and the degree to which this prevalence reflects severe pain is under discussion in the literature. The aim of the present study was to evaluate use of the simple neck pain questions commonly included in large epidemiological survey studies with respect to aspects of health. We investigated if and how an increase in number of days with pain is associated with reduction in health outcomes. Methods A cohort of university students (baseline age 19–25 years) were recruited in 2002 and followed annually for 4 years. The baseline response rate was 69% which resulted in 1200 respondents (627 women, 573 men). Participants were asked about present and past pain and perceptions of their general health, sleep disturbance, stress and energy levels, and general performance. The data were analyzed using a mixed model for repeated measurements and a random intercept logistic model. Results When reporting present pain, participants also reported lower prevalence of very good health, higher stress and sleep disturbance scores and lower energy score. Among those with current neck pain, additional questions characterizing the pain such as duration (categorized), additional pain sites and decreased general performance were associated with lower probability of very good health and higher amounts of sleep disturbance. Knowing about the presence or not of pain explains more of the variation in health between individuals, than within individuals. Conclusion This study of young university students has demonstrated that simple neck pain survey questions capture features of pain that affect aspects of health such as perceived general health, sleep disturbance, mood in terms of stress and energy. Simple pain questions are more useful for group descriptions than for describing or following pain in an individual. PMID:23102060

  3. Simple neck pain questions used in surveys, evaluated in relation to health outcomes: a cohort study.

    PubMed

    Grimby-Ekman, Anna; Hagberg, Mats

    2012-10-26

    The high prevalence of pain reported in many epidemiological studies, and the degree to which this prevalence reflects severe pain is under discussion in the literature. The aim of the present study was to evaluate use of the simple neck pain questions commonly included in large epidemiological survey studies with respect to aspects of health. We investigated if and how an increase in number of days with pain is associated with reduction in health outcomes. A cohort of university students (baseline age 19-25 years) were recruited in 2002 and followed annually for 4 years. The baseline response rate was 69% which resulted in 1200 respondents (627 women, 573 men). Participants were asked about present and past pain and perceptions of their general health, sleep disturbance, stress and energy levels, and general performance. The data were analyzed using a mixed model for repeated measurements and a random intercept logistic model. When reporting present pain, participants also reported lower prevalence of very good health, higher stress and sleep disturbance scores and lower energy score. Among those with current neck pain, additional questions characterizing the pain such as duration (categorized), additional pain sites and decreased general performance were associated with lower probability of very good health and higher amounts of sleep disturbance. Knowing about the presence or not of pain explains more of the variation in health between individuals, than within individuals. This study of young university students has demonstrated that simple neck pain survey questions capture features of pain that affect aspects of health such as perceived general health, sleep disturbance, mood in terms of stress and energy. Simple pain questions are more useful for group descriptions than for describing or following pain in an individual.

  4. The Priority of the Question: Focus Questions for Sustained Reasoning in Science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lustick, David

    2010-08-01

    Science education standards place a high priority on promoting the skills and dispositions associated with inquiry at all levels of learning. Yet, the questions teachers employ to foster sustained reasoning are most likely borrowed from a textbook, lab manual, or worksheet. Such generic questions generated for a mass audience, lack authenticity and contextual cues that allow learners to immediately appreciate a question’s relevance. Teacher queries intended to motivate, guide, and foster learning through inquiry are known as focus questions. This theoretical article draws upon science education research to present a typology and conceptual framework intended to support science teacher educators as they identify, develop, and evaluate focus questions with their students.

  5. Importance of questionnaire context for a physical activity question.

    PubMed

    Jørgensen, M E; Sørensen, M R; Ekholm, O; Rasmussen, N K

    2013-10-01

    Adequate information about physical activity habits is essential for surveillance, implementing, and evaluating public health initiatives in this area. Previous studies have shown that question order and differences in wording result in systematic differences in people's responses to questionnaires; however, this has never been shown for physical activity questions. The aim was to study the influence of different formulations and question order on self-report physical activity in a population-based health interview survey. Four samples of each 1000 adults were drawn at random from the National Person Register. A new question about physical activity was included with minor differences in formulations in samples 1-3. Furthermore, the question in sample 2 was included in sample 4 but was placed in the end of the questionnaire. The mean time spent on moderate physical activity varied between the four samples from 57 to 100 min/day. Question order was associated with the reported number of minutes spent on moderate-intensity physical activity and with prevalence of meeting the recommendation, whereas physical inactivity was associated with the differences in formulation of the question. Questionnaire context influences the way people respond to questions about physical activity significantly and should be tested systematically in validation studies of physical activity questionnaires. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. Error and objectivity: cognitive illusions and qualitative research.

    PubMed

    Paley, John

    2005-07-01

    Psychological research has shown that cognitive illusions, of which visual illusions are just a special case, are systematic and pervasive, raising epistemological questions about how error in all forms of research can be identified and eliminated. The quantitative sciences make use of statistical techniques for this purpose, but it is not clear what the qualitative equivalent is, particularly in view of widespread scepticism about validity and objectivity. I argue that, in the light of cognitive psychology, the 'error question' cannot be dismissed as a positivist obsession, and that the concepts of truth and objectivity are unavoidable. However, they constitute only a 'minimal realism', which does not necessarily bring a commitment to 'absolute' truth, certainty, correspondence, causation, reductionism, or universal laws in its wake. The assumption that it does reflects a misreading of positivism and, ironically, precipitates a 'crisis of legitimation and representation', as described by constructivist authors.

  7. Leyendas. (Legends.) In English and Spanish with Questions, Vocabulary and Patterns.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McLaughlin, Kathy; And Others

    The guide includes the English and Spanish versions of five legends. Ten to twelve questions in Spanish follow each legend. A list of Spanish words taken from each legend is given, along with their English counterparts. Patterns of drawings of the main characters or objects of each legend are also included. The legends are "Pajaro Cu" which is…

  8. The influence of question type, reasoning level, and wait time on student participation rates when using clicker questions with large classes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hartman, K.; Koh, J.; Murty, S. A.; Ramos, R. D. P.; Goodkin, N.

    2017-12-01

    "Wait time" is defined as the length of the pause between an instructor initiating a question and either the student answering it or the instructor interjecting (Rowe, 1974). However, the nature of the question-answer dynamic changes with student response systems that allow hundreds of students to answer the same question simultaneously before displaying the results to the class. In this study, we looked at 129 student response questions asked across 240 minutes of class lectures to determine if longer wait times were associated with higher student response rates. We also examined whether the type and reasoning level of the questions were diagnostic of their response rates. 644 undergraduate science students enrolled in an interdisciplinary environmental science course. During each of the course's lessons, the instructor presented a mix of lecture content, short student response activities (clicker questions), and small group discussion opportunities. Using the recorded videos, we coded each student response question for its question type and reasoning level. We divided the question types into three categories: yes/no questions, yes/no/maybe questions, and other questions. To code for the reasoning level necessary to answer each question, we used a collapsed version of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy (Krathwohl, 2002). Questions that had a definite answer and relied on recalling facts or paraphrasing the lecture content were coded as "knowledge" questions. Questions that required students to apply what they had learned to analyze a new scenario, or come to a judgement were coded as "higher order" questions. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the question type and reasoning level as fixed factors and wait time as a covariate to predict student response rate indicated a strong interaction between question type and reasoning level F(6, 94) = 4.53, p<.01. In general, knowledge questions were answered by a higher percentage (M=91%) of students than higher order questions (M

  9. The Effects of Questioning on Thinking Processes.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shiang, Ching-Pyng; McDaniel, Ernest

    This study investigated the effects of self-generated questions and external questions on thinking processes. Thirty-three college students acted as investigators in a computer simulation of a Congressional investigation into the Pearl Harbor attack. The simulation--known as "The Attack on Pearl Harbor: Cloud of Mystery?"--presented the…

  10. Teaching Object Permanence: An Action Research Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bruce, Susan M.; Vargas, Claudia

    2013-01-01

    "Object permanence," also known as "object concept" in the field of visual impairment, is one of the most important early developmental milestones. The achievement of object permanence is associated with the onset of representational thought and language. Object permanence is important to orientation, including the recognition of landmarks.…

  11. Preceptor questioning and student critical thinking.

    PubMed

    Myrick, Florence; Yonge, Olive

    2002-01-01

    Questioning is fundamental to student learning. Not only does it enable students to elevate their level of thinking, but in the process it also affords them the opportunity to deal with their world intelligently. The practice setting is an environment rich in opportunity for enabling critical thinking through the use of questioning. In the preceptorship experience, preceptors are in a prime position to use questioning behaviors that can challenge the way preceptees think, encourage them to justify or clarify their assertions, promote the generation of original ideas, explanations, or solutions to patient problems, provide mental and emotional tools to help resolve dilemmas, promote discussion, and evaluate learning. This article discusses the importance of preceptor questioning for the development and promotion of student critical thinking. Contextually, the authors draw on the findings of a recent study in which preceptor questioning of the knowledge base, decision making, and actions of the preceptee were found to directly bring about or trigger their critical thinking. This article allows for some further reflection on that process and its contribution to the enhancement of the preceptorship experience. Copyright 2002, Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.

  12. Transforming classroom questioning using emerging technology.

    PubMed

    Mahon, Paul; Lyng, Colette; Crotty, Yvonne; Farren, Margaret

    2018-04-12

    Classroom questioning is a common teaching and learning strategy in postgraduate nurse education. Technologies such as audience response systems (ARS) may offer advantage over traditional approaches to classroom questioning. However, despite being available since the 1960s, ARSs are still considered novel in many postgraduate nurse education classroom settings. This article aims to explicate the attitudes of postgraduate nursing students in an Irish academic teaching hospital towards classroom questioning (CQ) and the use of ARSs as an alternative to traditional CQ techniques. The results of this small-scale study demonstrate that ARSs have a role to play in CQ in the postgraduate setting, being regarded by students as beneficial to learning, psychological safety and classroom interaction.

  13. Evidence-Based Guidelines for Fatigue Risk Management in EMS: Formulating Research Questions and Selecting Outcomes.

    PubMed

    Patterson, P Daniel; Higgins, J Stephen; Lang, Eddy S; Runyon, Michael S; Barger, Laura K; Studnek, Jonathan R; Moore, Charity G; Robinson, Kathy; Gainor, Dia; Infinger, Allison; Weiss, Patricia M; Sequeira, Denisse J; Martin-Gill, Christian

    2017-01-01

    Greater than half of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel report work-related fatigue, yet there are no guidelines for the management of fatigue in EMS. A novel process has been established for evidence-based guideline (EBG) development germane to clinical EMS questions. This process has not yet been applied to operational EMS questions like fatigue risk management. The objective of this study was to develop content valid research questions in the Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome (PICO) framework, and select outcomes to guide systematic reviews and development of EBGs for EMS fatigue risk management. We adopted the National Prehospital EBG Model Process and Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) framework for developing, implementing, and evaluating EBGs in the prehospital care setting. In accordance with steps one and two of the Model Process, we searched for existing EBGs, developed a multi-disciplinary expert panel and received external input. Panelists completed an iterative process to formulate research questions. We used the Content Validity Index (CVI) to score relevance and clarity of candidate PICO questions. The panel completed multiple rounds of question editing and used a CVI benchmark of ≥0.78 to indicate acceptable levels of clarity and relevance. Outcomes for each PICO question were rated from 1 = less important to 9 = critical. Panelists formulated 13 candidate PICO questions, of which 6 were eliminated or merged with other questions. Panelists reached consensus on seven PICO questions (n = 1 diagnosis and n = 6 intervention). Final CVI scores of relevance ranged from 0.81 to 1.00. Final CVI scores of clarity ranged from 0.88 to 1.00. The mean number of outcomes rated as critical, important, and less important by PICO question was 0.7 (SD 0.7), 5.4 (SD 1.4), and 3.6 (SD 1.9), respectively. Patient and personnel safety were rated as critical for most PICO questions. PICO questions and

  14. The Emergence of Objects from Mathematical Practices

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Font, Vicenc; Godino, Juan D.; Gallardo, Jesus

    2013-01-01

    The nature of mathematical objects, their various types, the way in which they are formed, and how they participate in mathematical activity are all questions of interest for philosophy and mathematics education. Teaching in schools is usually based, implicitly or explicitly, on a descriptive/realist view of mathematics, an approach which is not…

  15. Governmental Objectives in Exchanges of Persons Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Harkness, Albert, Jr.

    The paper questions whether educational and cultural activities sponsored by the United States government should be aimed at foreign policy objectives or should be treated as ends in themselves. Arguments are presented by political leaders, educators, and government officials in favor of and against cultural exchange as a form of foreign policy…

  16. Individuation of objects and events: a developmental study.

    PubMed

    Wagner, Laura; Carey, Susan

    2003-12-01

    This study investigates children's ability to use language to guide their choice of individuation criterion in the domains of objects and events. Previous work (Shipley, E. F., & Shepperson, B. (1990). Countable entities: developmental changes. Cognition, 34, 109-136.) has shown that children have a strong bias to use a spatio-temporal individuation strategy when counting objects and that children will ignore a conflicting linguistic description in favor of this spatio-temporal bias. Experiment 1 asked children (3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds) and adults to count objects and events under different linguistic descriptions. In the object task, subjects counted pictures of familiar objects split into multiple pieces (as in Shipley, E. F., & Shepperson, B. (1990). Countable entities: developmental changes. Cognition, 34, 109-136.) and described either using an appropriate kind label (e.g. "car") or the general term "thing". In the event task, subjects watched short animated movies consisting of a goal-oriented event achieved via multiple, temporally separated steps. The events were described either with an appropriate telic predicate targeting the goal (e.g. "paint a flower") or with an atelic predicate targeting the steps in the process (e.g. "paint") and the subjects' task was to count the events. Relative to adults, children preferred a spatio-temporal counting strategy in both tasks; there was no difference among the three groups of children. However, children were able to significantly change their counting strategy to follow the linguistic description in the event but not the object task. Experiment 2 extended the object task to include counting of other types of non-spatio-temporal units such as sub-parts of objects and collections. Results showed that children could use the linguistic descriptions to guide their counting strategy for these new items, though they continued to show a bias for a spatio-temporal individuation strategy with the collections. We suggest

  17. Student questions in urban middle school science communities of practice

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Groome, Meghan

    This dissertation examines student questions within three Communities of Practice (CoP), all urban middle school science environments. The study analyzed student questions from a sociocultural perspective and used ethnographic research techniques to detail how the CoP's shaped questions in the classroom. In the first study, two case study girls attempted to navigate questioning events that required them to negotiation participation. Their access to participation was blocked by participation frameworks that elevated some students as "gatekeepers" while suppressing the participation of others. The next two studies detail the introduction of written questioning opportunities, one into a public middle school classroom and the other into an informal classroom. In both studies, students responded to the interventions differently, most notable the adoption of the opportunity by female students who do not participate orally. Dissertation-wide findings indicate all students were able to ask questions, but varied in level of cognitive complexity, and the diagnostic interventions were able to identify students who were not known to be "target students", students who asked a high number of questions and were considered "interested in science". Some students' roles were as "gatekeepers" to participation of their peers. Two out of three teachers in the studies reported major shifts in their teaching practice due to the focus on questions and the methods used here have been found to be effective in producing educational research as well as supporting high-need classrooms in prior research. In conclusion, these studies indicate that social factors, including participation frameworks, gender dynamics, and the availability of alternative participation methods, play an important role in how students ask science-related questions. It is recommended that researchers continue to examine social factors that reduce student questions and modify their teaching strategies to facilitate

  18. Questions about the behaviour of bacterial pathogens in vivo.

    PubMed Central

    Smith, H

    2000-01-01

    Bacterial pathogens cause disease in man and animals. They have unique biological properties, which enable them to colonize mucous surfaces, penetrate them, grow in the environment of the host, inhibit or avoid host defences and damage the host. The bacterial products responsible for these five biological requirements are the determinants of pathogenicity (virulence determinants). Current knowledge comes from studies in vitro, but now interest is increasing in how bacteria behave and produce virulence determinants within the infected host. There are three aspects to elucidate: bacterial activities, the host factors that affect them and the metabolic interactions between the two. The first is relatively easy to accomplish and, recently, new methods for doing this have been devised. The second is not easy because of the complexity of the environment in vivo and its ever-changing face. Nevertheless, some information can be gained from the literature and by new methodology. The third aspect is very difficult to study effectively unless some events in vivo can be simulated in vitro. The objectives of the Discussion Meeting were to describe the new methods and to show how they, and conventional studies, are revealing the activities of bacterial pathogens in vivo. This paper sets the scene by raising some questions and suggesting, with examples, how they might be answered. Bacterial growth in vivo is the primary requirement for pathogenicity. Without growth, determinants of the other four requirements are not formed. Results from the new methods are underlining this point. The important questions are as follows. What is the pattern of a developing infection and the growth rates and population sizes of the bacteria at different stages? What nutrients are present in vivo and how do they change as infection progresses and relate to growth rates and population sizes? How are these nutrients metabolized and by what bacterial mechanisms? Which bacterial processes handle

  19. Variation objective analyses for cyclone studies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Achtemeier, G. L.; Kidder, S. Q.; Ochs, H. T.

    1985-01-01

    The objectives were to: (1) develop an objective analysis technique that will maximize the information content of data available from diverse sources, with particular emphasis on the incorporation of observations from satellites with those from more traditional immersion techniques; and (2) to develop a diagnosis of the state of the synoptic scale atmosphere on a much finer scale over a much broader region than is presently possible to permit studies of the interactions and energy transfers between global, synoptic and regional scale atmospheric processes. The variational objective analysis model consists of the two horizontal momentum equations, the hydrostatic equation, and the integrated continuity equation for a dry hydrostatic atmosphere. Preliminary tests of the model with the SESMAE I data set are underway for 12 GMT 10 April 1979. At this stage of purpose of the analysis is not the diagnosis of atmospheric structures but rather the validation of the model. Model runs for rawinsonde data and with the precision modulus weights set to force most of the adjustment of the wind field to the mass field have produced 90 to 95 percent reductions in the imbalance of the initial data after only 4-cycles through the Euler-Lagrange equations. Sensitivity tests for linear stability of the 11 Euler-Lagrange equations that make up the VASP Model 1 indicate that there will be a lower limit to the scales of motion that can be resolved by this method. Linear stability criteria are violated where there is large horizontal wind shear near the upper tropospheric jet.

  20. The myth of objectivity: a reply to Weitzer.

    PubMed

    Boyle, Karen

    2012-04-01

    In this article, the editor of Everyday Pornography offers a response to Ronald Weitzer's 2011 review of that book, addressing questions about objectivity, the framing of pornography as violence against women, the role of women's testimony in debates about pornography, and research on porn's consumers.

  1. A cross-national study to objectively evaluate the quality of diverse simulation approaches for undergraduate nursing students.

    PubMed

    Kable, Ashley K; Levett-Jones, Tracy L; Arthur, Carol; Reid-Searl, Kerry; Humphreys, Melanie; Morris, Sara; Walsh, Pauline; Witton, Nicola J

    2018-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to report the results of a cross-national study that evaluated a range of simulation sessions using an observation schedule developed from evidence-based quality indicators. Observational data were collected from 17 simulation sessions conducted for undergraduate nursing students at three universities in Australia and the United Kingdom. The observation schedule contained 27 questions that rated simulation quality. Data were collected by direct observation and from video recordings of the simulation sessions. Results indicated that the highest quality scores were for provision of learning objectives prior to the simulation session (90%) and debriefing (72%). Student preparatiosn and orientation (67%) and perceived realism and fidelity (67%) were scored lower than other components of the simulation sessions. This observational study proved to be an effective strategy to identify areas of strength and those needing further development to improve simulation sessions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Automatic Chinese Factual Question Generation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Liu, Ming; Rus, Vasile; Liu, Li

    2017-01-01

    Question generation is an emerging research area of artificial intelligence in education. Question authoring tools are important in educational technologies, e.g., intelligent tutoring systems, as well as in dialogue systems. Approaches to generate factual questions, i.e., questions that have concrete answers, mainly make use of the syntactical…

  3. Examining the Changes in Novice and Experienced Mathematics Teachers' Questioning Techniques through the Lesson Study Process

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ong, Ewe Gnoh; Lim, Chap Sam; Ghazali, Munirah

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the changes in novice and experienced mathematics teachers' questioning techniques. This study was conducted in Sarawak where ten (experienced and novice) teachers from two schools underwent the lesson study process for fifteen months. Four data collection methods namely, observation, interview, lesson…

  4. The Levels of Questioning and Their Effects Upon Student Performance Above the Knowledge Level of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. A Research Paper.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Martikean, Alexandria

    Reported is an investigation of the effects on student performance above the knowledge level (Bloom's taxonomy) as influenced by the use of teacher's questioning strategies. Two parallel forms of an elementary science unit on plants and seeds were constructed. In form A, most of the teacher questions were low level in terms of cognitive thinking;…

  5. Conceptual Questions and Challenge Problems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nurrenbern, Susan C.; Robinson, William R.

    1998-11-01

    The JCE Internet Conceptual Question and Challenge Problem Web site is a source of questions and problems that can be used in teaching and assessing conceptual understanding and problem solving in chemistry. Here you can find a library of free-response and multiple-choice conceptual questions and challenge problems, tips for writing these questions and problems, and a discussion of types of conceptual questions. This site is intended to be a means of sharing conceptual questions and challenge problems among chemical educators. This is a living site that will grow as you share conceptual questions and challenge problems and as we find new sources of information. We would like to make this site as inclusive as possible. Please share your questions and problems with us and alert us to references or Web sites that could be included on the site. You can use email, fax, or regular mail. Email: nurrenbern@purdue.edu or wrrobin@purdue.edu Fax: 765/494-0239 Mailing address: Susan C. Nurrenbern or William R. Robinson; Department of Chemistry; Purdue University; 1393 Brown Building; West Lafayette, IN 47907-1393. The Conceptual Questions and Challenge Problems Web site can be found here.

  6. Evaluating an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) Adapted for Social Work

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bogo, Marion; Regehr, Cheryl; Katz, Ellen; Logie, Carmen; Tufford, Lea; Litvack, Andrea

    2012-01-01

    Objectives: To evaluate an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) adapted for social work in a lab course and examine the degree to which it predicts competence in the practicum. Method: 125 Masters students participated in a one-scenario OSCE and wrote responses to standardized reflection questions. OSCE performance and reflections were…

  7. Improving Learning in Computer-Based Instruction through Questioning and Grouping Strategies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Niemczyk, Mary; Savenye, Wilhelmina

    2010-01-01

    This study investigated the comparative effects of adjunct questions, student self-generated questions, and note taking on learning from a multimedia database. High school students worked individually or in cooperative dyads on a computer-based multimedia unit using a study guide to answer either adjunct questions, generate self-questions, or take…

  8. Problem of Questioning

    ScienceCinema

    None

    2017-12-09

    Le Prof.Leprince-Ringuet, chercheur sur le plan scientifique, artistique et humain, parle de la remise en question des hommes et la remise en question scientifique fondamentale ou exemplaire- plusieurs personnes prennent la parole p.ex Jeanmairet, Adam, Gregory. Le Prof.Gregory clot la soirée en remerciant le Prof.Leprince-Ringuet

  9. Questioning and Its Implications for Educational Research.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reed, Rodney L.

    Since the questioning process is critical in stimulating student learning, an urgent need for more extensive, controlled research on this topic exists. Previous studies indicate that a high percentage of questions asked by teachers call only for factual answers and that oral activity in the classroom is largely teacher-dominated. Further, no…

  10. Student teachers’ mathematical questioning and courage in metaphorical thinking learning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hendriana, H.; Hidayat, W.; Ristiana, M. G.

    2018-01-01

    This study was designed in the form of experiments with control group design and post-test only which aimed to examine the role of metaphorical thinking learning in the mathematical questioning ability of student teachers based on the level of mathematical courage. The population of this study was student teachers of mathematics education study program in West Java Province, while the sample of this study was 152 student teachers which were set purposively and then randomly to be included in the experimental class and control class. Based on the results and discussion, it was concluded that: (a) the mathematical questioning ability of student teachers who received Metaphorical Thinking learning was better than those who received conventional learning seen from mathematical courage level; (b) learning and mathematical courage level factors affected the achievement of student teachers’ mathematical questioning ability. In addition, there was no interaction effect between learning and mathematical courage level (high, medium, and low) simultaneously in developing student teachers’ mathematical questioning ability; (c) achievement of mastering mathematical questioning ability of student teacher was still not well achieved on indicator of problem posing in the form of non-routine question and open question.

  11. Cross-domain question classification in community question answering via kernel mapping

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Su, Lei; Hu, Zuoliang; Yang, Bin; Li, Yiyang; Chen, Jun

    2015-10-01

    An increasingly popular method for retrieving information is via the community question answering (CQA) systems such as Yahoo! Answers and Baidu Knows. In CQA, question classification plays an important role to find the answers. However, the labeled training examples for statistical question classifier are fairly expensive to obtain, as they require the experienced human efforts. Meanwhile, unlabeled data are readily available. This paper employs the method of domain adaptation via kernel mapping to solve this problem. In detail, the kernel approach is utilized to map the target-domain data and the source-domain data into a common space, where the question classifiers are trained under the closer conditional probabilities. The kernel mapping function is constructed by domain knowledge. Therefore, domain knowledge could be transferred from the labeled examples in the source domain to the unlabeled ones in the targeted domain. The statistical training model can be improved by using a large number of unlabeled data. Meanwhile, the Hadoop Platform is used to construct the mapping mechanism to reduce the time complexity. Map/Reduce enable kernel mapping for domain adaptation in parallel in the Hadoop Platform. Experimental results show that the accuracy of question classification could be improved by the method of kernel mapping. Furthermore, the parallel method in the Hadoop Platform could effective schedule the computing resources to reduce the running time.

  12. Assessing Question Quality Using NLP

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kopp, Kristopher J.; Johnson, Amy M.; Crossley, Scott A.; McNamara, Danielle S.

    2017-01-01

    An NLP algorithm was developed to assess question quality to inform feedback on questions generated by students within iSTART (an intelligent tutoring system that teaches reading strategies). A corpus of 4575 questions was coded using a four-level taxonomy. NLP indices were calculated for each question and machine learning was used to predict…

  13. What is a Question?

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Knuth, Kevin H.; Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    A given question can be defined in terms of the set of statements or assertions that answer it. Application of the logic of inference to this set of assertions allows one to derive the logic of inquiry among questions. There are interesting symmetries between the logics of inference and inquiry; where probability describes the degree to which a premise implies an assertion, there exists an analogous quantity that describes the bearing or relevance that a question has on an outstanding issue. These have been extended to suggest that the logic of inquiry results in functional relationships analogous to, although more general than, those found in information theory. Employing lattice theory, I examine in greater detail the structure of the space of assertions and questions demonstrating that the symmetries between the logical relations in each of the spaces derive directly from the lattice structure. Furthermore, I show that while symmetries between the spaces exist, the two lattices are not isomorphic. The lattice of assertions is described by a Boolean lattice 2(sup N) whereas the lattice of real questions is shown to be a sublattice of the free distributive lattice FD(N) = 2(sup 2(sup N)). Thus there does not exist a one-to-one mapping of assertions to questions, there is no reflection symmetry between the two spaces, and questions in general do not possess unique complements. Last, with these lattice structures in mind, I discuss the relationship between probability, relevance and entropy.

  14. Addressing Phonological Questions with Ultrasound

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Davidson, Lisa

    2005-01-01

    Ultrasound can be used to address unresolved questions in phonological theory. To date, some studies have shown that results from ultrasound imaging can shed light on how differences in phonological elements are implemented. Phenomena that have been investigated include transitional schwa, vowel coalescence, and transparent vowels. A study of…

  15. Questioning skills of clinical facilitators supporting undergraduate nursing students.

    PubMed

    Phillips, Nicole M; Duke, Maxine M; Weerasuriya, Rona

    2017-12-01

    To report on a study investigating questioning skills of clinical facilitators who support the learning of undergraduate nursing students. The ability to think critically is integral to decision-making and the provision of safe and quality patient care. Developing students' critical thinking skills is expected of those who supervise and facilitate student learning in the clinical setting. Models used to facilitate student learning in the clinical setting have changed over the years with clinicians having dual responsibility for patient care and facilitating student learning. Many of these nurses have no preparation for the educative role. This study adapted a comparative study conducted over fifteen years ago. Descriptive online survey including three acute care patient scenarios involving an undergraduate nursing student. Participants were required to identify the questions they would ask the student in relation to the scenario. A total of 133 clinical facilitators including clinical teachers, clinical educators and preceptors from five large partner healthcare organisations of one Australian university participated. The majority of questions asked were knowledge questions, the lowest category in the cognitive domain requiring only simple recall of information. Facilitators who had undertaken an education-related course/workshop or formal qualification asked significantly more questions from the higher cognitive level. The study provides some evidence that nursing facilitators in the clinical setting ask students predominantly low-level questions. Further research is needed to identify strategies that develop the capacity of facilitators to ask higher level cognitive questions. Clinical facilitators should undertake targeted education that focuses on how to frame questions for students that demand application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  16. Questions for the Study and Teaching of Shakespeare and Milton.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    DeVito, Angela, Ed.; Medine, Peter, Ed.

    The discussion questions and essay prompts in this collection were compiled from contributions made by participants in the 1991 Arizona Shakespeare-Milton Institute. After an introduction which presents some general guidelines for teachers and students, the collection addresses the following works: "As You Like It"; "The…

  17. Question asking by family caregivers in hospice interdisciplinary team meetings

    PubMed Central

    Wittenberg-Lyles, Elaine; Oliver, Debra Parker; Demiris, George; Washington, Karla; Regehr, Kelly; Wilder, Heidi M.

    2009-01-01

    This paper reports findings from a pilot study that enabled family caregivers to use videophone technology to participate in hospice interdisciplinary team meetings. The goal of the study was to ascertain which issues were important to caregivers and the hospice team. A qualitative content analysis of video-recorded team meetings between team members and caregivers was conducted. In a sample of 12 caregivers in 36 discussions, caregivers asked a total of 137 questions, with the majority as Yes/No questions (45.5%) mainly used to seek clarification (19.7%). Hospice staff asked 396 questions, with the majority of questions consisting of Yes/No questions (66.6%) mainly used to ask about the overall condition of the patient (17.2%). Data from this study suggest that when given the opportunity to participate in hospice team meetings caregivers will ask questions of hospice staff. Additionally, in light of prior research, this study’s findings suggest that caregivers may have questions that go unaddressed, specifically in regards to pain and medication. PMID:20415357

  18. Science education: A meta-analysis of major questions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Anderson, Ronald D.; Kahl, Stuart R.; Glass, Gene V.; Smith, Mary Lee

    A multi-institutional endeavor was initiated to integrate the findings of extant research studies directed toward the major science education research questions. The research questions were selected by a largely empirical process of identifiying the most frequently researched questions in the literature. These questions were assigned to various researchers who developed coding sheets and procedures with many features in common. This article describes the overall operation of the project, the research questions identified, and some rudiments of meta-analysis. The results of the several meta-analysis are reported in the other articles of this issue of the Journal. The final article in this issue deals with research topics for which data are drawn from one or more of the separate meta-analyses.

  19. Some Questions on Accountability.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Follett, Robert J. R.

    An educational publisher poses several questions that are related to accountability for the purpose of stimulating discussion on this topic at a national convention of social studies teachers. Is it appropriate to insist upon the verification or validation of instructional materials? Is it possible to make more money available for the purchase of…

  20. 'Any questions?'--Clinicians' usage of invitations to ask questions (IAQs) in outpatient plastic surgery consultations.

    PubMed

    Bristowe, Katherine; Patrick, Peter L

    2014-12-01

    To explore use of 'Invitations to Ask Questions' (IAQs) by plastic surgeons in outpatient consultations, and consider how type of IAQ impacts on patients' responses to, and recollection of, IAQs. Descriptive study: 63 patients were audio recorded in consultation with 5 plastic surgeons, and completed a brief questionnaire immediately after the consultation. Consultation transcripts were analyzed using inductive qualitative methods of Discourse Analysis and compared with questionnaire findings. A taxonomy of IAQs was developed, including three types of IAQ (Overt, Covert, and Borderline). Overt IAQs were rarely identified, and almost all IAQs occurred in the closing stages of the consultation. However, when an overt IAQ was used, patients always recollected being asked if they had any questions after the consultation. Patients are rarely explicitly offered the opportunity to ask questions. When this does occur, it is often in the closing stages of the consultation. Clinicians should openly encourage patients to ask questions frequently throughout the consultation, and be mindful that subtle differences in construction of these utterances may impact upon interpretation. Clear communication, of message and intention, is essential in clinical encounters to minimize misunderstanding, misinterpretation, or missed opportunities for patients to raise concerns. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

  1. Detecting temporal change in freshwater fisheries surveys: statistical power and the important linkages between management questions and monitoring objectives

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wagner, Tyler; Irwin, Brian J.; James R. Bence,; Daniel B. Hayes,

    2016-01-01

    Monitoring to detect temporal trends in biological and habitat indices is a critical component of fisheries management. Thus, it is important that management objectives are linked to monitoring objectives. This linkage requires a definition of what constitutes a management-relevant “temporal trend.” It is also important to develop expectations for the amount of time required to detect a trend (i.e., statistical power) and for choosing an appropriate statistical model for analysis. We provide an overview of temporal trends commonly encountered in fisheries management, review published studies that evaluated statistical power of long-term trend detection, and illustrate dynamic linear models in a Bayesian context, as an additional analytical approach focused on shorter term change. We show that monitoring programs generally have low statistical power for detecting linear temporal trends and argue that often management should be focused on different definitions of trends, some of which can be better addressed by alternative analytical approaches.

  2. Patterns of Question Selection and Writing Performance of ESL Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chiste, Katherine Beaty; O'Shea, Judith

    1988-01-01

    Reports on a study examining the pattern of question selection by English as a Second Language (ESL) students on a writing competence test and the relationship to performance. Results suggest that ESL students heavily favored first and second questions in each set of four questions, and shorter questions in sets. (CB)

  3. Kyiv Small Rivers in Metropolis Water Objects System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Krelshteyn, P.; Dubnytska, M.

    2017-12-01

    The article answers the question, what really are the small underground rivers with artificial watercourses: water bodies or city engineering infrastructure objects? The place of such rivers in metropolis water objects system is identified. The ecological state and the degree of urbanization of small rivers, as well as the dynamics of change in these indicators are analysed on the Kiev city example with the help of water objects cadastre. It was found that the registration of small rivers in Kyiv city is not conducted, and the summary information on such water objects is absent and is not taken into account when making managerial decisions at the urban level. To solve this problem, we propose to create some water bodies accounting system (water cadastre).

  4. Exploring Relationship between Students' Questioning Behaviors and Inquiry Tasks in an Online Forum through Analysis of Ideational Function of Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tan, Seng-Chee; Seah, Lay-Hoon

    2011-01-01

    In this study we explored questioning behaviors among elementary students engaging in inquiry science using the "Knowledge Forum", a computer-supported collaborative learning tool. Adapting the theory of systemic functional linguistics, we developed the Ideational Function of Question (IFQ) analytical framework by means of inductive analysis of…

  5. Career Education Curriculum Development Project: Instructional Objectives. Technical Paper No. 339-1.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bergan, John R.; And Others

    Part of the AIR Career Education Curriculum Development Project, the paper is directed to assisting teachers with a step-by-step procedure in preparing instructional objectives for career education programs. Clearly defined objectives are useful in providing: direction for teacher and learner, opportunity for questioning traditional educational…

  6. Defining and Quantifying Potentially Discriminatory Questions in Employment Interviewing.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Springston, Jeffery K.; Keyton, Joann

    A study determined what constitutes an illegal pre-employment question, reviewed current laws and literature on the subject, and determined the prevalence of illegal questions asked by organizations. Except in the case of specific statutory law, there is no precise way to define what constitutes an illegal question; however, state and federal…

  7. Consumer Health Information Needs and Question Classification: Analysis of Hypertension Related Questions Asked by Consumers on a Chinese Health Website.

    PubMed

    Guo, Haihong; Li, Jiao; Dai, Tao

    2015-01-01

    This study built up a classification schema of consumer health questions which consisted of 48 quaternary categories and 35 annotation rules. Using such a schema, we manually classified 2,000 questions randomly selected from nearly 100 thousand hypertension-related messages posted by consumers on a Chinese health website to analyze the information needs of health consumers. The results showed questions in the categories of treatment, diagnosis, healthy lifestyle, management, epidemiology, and health provider choosing were 48.1%, 23.8%, 11.9%, 5.2%, 9.0%, and 1.9% respectively. The comparison of the questions asked by consumers and physicians showed that their health information needs were significantly different (P<0.0001).

  8. Through Efficient Use of LORs: Prospective Teachers' Views on Operational Aspects of Learning Object Repositories

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yalcinalp, Serpil; Emiroglu, Bulent

    2012-01-01

    Although many developments have been made in the design and development of learning object repositories (LORs), the efficient use of such systems is still questionable. Without realising the functional use of such systems or considering the involvement of their dynamic users, these systems would probably become obsolete. This study includes both…

  9. The High School Experiences of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Students: A Phenomenological Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lloyd, Chelsey N.

    2012-01-01

    Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (GLBTQ) students in public education are challenged with the detrimental effects of homophobic harassment. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand the perceptions and lived experiences of former GLBTQ high school students and their experiences with school…

  10. Visual short-term memory for oriented, colored objects.

    PubMed

    Shin, Hongsup; Ma, Wei Ji

    2017-08-01

    A central question in the study of visual short-term memory (VSTM) has been whether its basic units are objects or features. Most studies addressing this question have used change detection tasks in which the feature value before the change is highly discriminable from the feature value after the change. This approach assumes that memory noise is negligible, which recent work has shown not to be the case. Here, we investigate VSTM for orientation and color within a noisy-memory framework, using change localization with a variable magnitude of change. A specific consequence of the noise is that it is necessary to model the inference (decision) stage. We find that (a) orientation and color have independent pools of memory resource (consistent with classic results); (b) an irrelevant feature dimension is either encoded but ignored during decision-making, or encoded with low precision and taken into account during decision-making; and (c) total resource available in a given feature dimension is lower in the presence of task-relevant stimuli that are neutral in that feature dimension. We propose a framework in which feature resource comes both in packaged and in targeted form.

  11. Question 1 tobacco education expenditures in Massachusetts, USA.

    PubMed

    Begay, M E; Glantz, S A

    1997-01-01

    In 1992, voters in Massachusetts (United States) approved Question 1, a state ballot initiative, which raised the state excise tax to provide funds for tobacco education. To examine Question 1 expenditures for tobacco-specific programmes in the 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997 fiscal years. This study examined trends in Question 1 expenditures. Data were collected from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Massachusetts Department of Revenue for the 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997 fiscal years. The amount of spending on tobacco-specific programmes. Excluding the 1994 fiscal year because the state allocated 18 months of new revenues, from the 1995 fiscal year to the projected 1997 fiscal year, the state will have spent 22% of Question 1 funds for tobacco-specific programmes. Question 1 expenditures for tobacco-specific programmes have declined by 15%, whereas Question 1 expenditures for the other programmes decreased only 0.4%. The legislature has established a trend that has produced real reductions in Question 1 funding for tobacco education, which appears contrary to the mandate of the voters when they enacted Question 1 in 1992. These reductions undermine the effectiveness of tobacco-specific programmes that are an integral part of the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Programme. These results also highlight the fact that the initial compromises made after initiatives such as Question 1 are adopted have important long-term consequences for funding of tobacco control initiatives.

  12. "Remember to Hand out Medals": Peer Rating and Expertise in a Question-and-Answer Study Group

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ponti, Marisa

    2015-01-01

    This article reports on an exploratory study of giving medals as part of a peer rating system in a question-and-answer (Q&A) study group on Python, a programming language. There are no professional teachers tutoring learners. The study aimed to understand whether and how medals, awarded to responses in a peer-based learning environment, can…

  13. Semantic annotation of consumer health questions.

    PubMed

    Kilicoglu, Halil; Ben Abacha, Asma; Mrabet, Yassine; Shooshan, Sonya E; Rodriguez, Laritza; Masterton, Kate; Demner-Fushman, Dina

    2018-02-06

    Consumers increasingly use online resources for their health information needs. While current search engines can address these needs to some extent, they generally do not take into account that most health information needs are complex and can only fully be expressed in natural language. Consumer health question answering (QA) systems aim to fill this gap. A major challenge in developing consumer health QA systems is extracting relevant semantic content from the natural language questions (question understanding). To develop effective question understanding tools, question corpora semantically annotated for relevant question elements are needed. In this paper, we present a two-part consumer health question corpus annotated with several semantic categories: named entities, question triggers/types, question frames, and question topic. The first part (CHQA-email) consists of relatively long email requests received by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) customer service, while the second part (CHQA-web) consists of shorter questions posed to MedlinePlus search engine as queries. Each question has been annotated by two annotators. The annotation methodology is largely the same between the two parts of the corpus; however, we also explain and justify the differences between them. Additionally, we provide information about corpus characteristics, inter-annotator agreement, and our attempts to measure annotation confidence in the absence of adjudication of annotations. The resulting corpus consists of 2614 questions (CHQA-email: 1740, CHQA-web: 874). Problems are the most frequent named entities, while treatment and general information questions are the most common question types. Inter-annotator agreement was generally modest: question types and topics yielded highest agreement, while the agreement for more complex frame annotations was lower. Agreement in CHQA-web was consistently higher than that in CHQA-email. Pairwise inter-annotator agreement proved most

  14. Questioning Leadership: A Study of Leadership Style, Teacher Perceptions, and Student Achievement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rowley, Steven P.

    2013-01-01

    This research study sought to examine the effects of transformational leadership behaviors and characteristics on institutional variables such as teacher organizational citizenship behaviors, commitment, and job satisfaction, the perceived overall effectiveness of school leaders, and objective measures of student performance. The study used a…

  15. 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

  16. ARTEMIS Science Objectives

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sibeck, D. G.; Angelopoulos, V.; Brain, D. A.; Delory, G. T.; Eastwood, J. P.; Farrell, W. M.; Grimm, R. E.; Halekas, J. S.; Hasegawa, H.; Hellinger, P.; hide

    2011-01-01

    NASA's two spacecraft ARTEMIS mission will address both heliospheric and planetary research questions, first while in orbit about the Earth with the Moon and subsequently while in orbit about the Moon. Heliospheric topics include the structure of the Earth's magnetotail; reconnection, particle acceleration, and turbulence in the Earth's magnetosphere, at the bow shock, and in the solar wind; and the formation and structure of the lunar wake. Planetary topics include the lunar exosphere and its relationship to the composition of the lunar surface, the effects of electric fields on dust in the exosphere, internal structure of the Moon, and the lunar crustal magnetic field. This paper describes the expected contributions of ARTEMIS to these baseline scientific objectives.

  17. Organising the Chemistry of Question-Based Learning: A Case Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    de Jesus, Helena Pedrosa; de Souza, Francisle Neri; Teixeira-Dias, Jose J. C.; Watts, Mike

    2005-01-01

    Designing inquiry-based-learning with and for university students develops problem-solving skills and logical reasoning, as well as reflective thinking. It involves working as a member of a team, questioning, being creative, shaping the skills for continued intellectual development. It is argued that inquiry-based group work is one of the most…

  18. Correlational Analysis of Objective and Subjective Measures of Cataract Quantification.

    PubMed

    Cochener, Béatrice; Patel, Sunni R; Galliot, Florence

    2016-02-01

    To evaluate whether correlations exist between objective and subjective measures of vision quality as a consequence of cataract and whether this may qualify the Objective Scatter Index as a supplementary means of cataract assessment. A prospective multicenter, cross-sectional study was conducted in 10 centers across France in patients undergoing cataract extraction surgery (lens opacity evaluated with the Lens Opacities Classification System III). A quality of life assessment using the Visual Function Index-14 (VF-14) (14 questions scored from 0 to 4) and measurement of visual acuity and evaluation of the Objective Scatter Index (HD Analyzer, Visiometrics SL, Terrassa, Spain) to assess the alteration of light scatter were used as measures in the study. The study included 1,768 eyes of 1,768 patients (mean age: 72.5 years; range: 28 to 93 years). The average OSI score was 4.97 ± 3.13 (range: 0.4 to 20.5). There was good correlation between visual acuity and OSI (r = -0.47, P < .001) and between OSI and VF-14 (r = -0.11, P < .001). The results presented in this study confirm that the Objective Scatter Index has sufficient correlations with visual acuity and VF-14 to supplement existing cataract diagnosis in a large population encompassing a broad spectrum of cataract presentations. Copyright 2016, SLACK Incorporated.

  19. Oil and Floating Objects. Science in Your Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cowens, John

    2005-01-01

    Despite density differences, oil and water get along just fine when it comes to these experiments. This article explores the relationship between oil and water and provides brief experiments (including materials needed; procedure instructions; and evaluative questions) relating to: making layers with liquids; dropping a few objects in a tall glass…

  20. Alignment of learning objectives and assessments in therapeutics courses to foster higher-order thinking.

    PubMed

    FitzPatrick, Beverly; Hawboldt, John; Doyle, Daniel; Genge, Terri

    2015-02-17

    To determine whether national educational outcomes, course objectives, and classroom assessments for 2 therapeutics courses were aligned for curricular content and cognitive processes, and if they included higher-order thinking. Document analysis and student focus groups were used. Outcomes, objectives, and assessment tasks were matched for specific therapeutics content and cognitive processes. Anderson and Krathwohl's Taxonomy was used to define higher-order thinking. Students discussed whether assessments tested objectives and described their thinking when responding to assessments. There were 7 outcomes, 31 objectives, and 412 assessment tasks. The alignment for content and cognitive processes was not satisfactory. Twelve students participated in the focus groups. Students thought more short-answer questions than multiple choice questions matched the objectives for content and required higher-order thinking. The alignment analysis provided data that could be used to reveal and strengthen the enacted curriculum and improve student learning.

  1. Pesticide Labeling Questions & Answers

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Pesticide manufacturers, applicators, state regulatory agencies, and other stakeholders raise questions or issues about pesticide labels. The questions on this page are those that apply to multiple products or address inconsistencies among product labels.

  2. Selecting Question-Specific Genes to Reduce Incongruence in Phylogenomics: A Case Study of Jawed Vertebrate Backbone Phylogeny.

    PubMed

    Chen, Meng-Yun; Liang, Dan; Zhang, Peng

    2015-11-01

    Incongruence between different phylogenomic analyses is the main challenge faced by phylogeneticists in the genomic era. To reduce incongruence, phylogenomic studies normally adopt some data filtering approaches, such as reducing missing data or using slowly evolving genes, to improve the signal quality of data. Here, we assembled a phylogenomic data set of 58 jawed vertebrate taxa and 4682 genes to investigate the backbone phylogeny of jawed vertebrates under both concatenation and coalescent-based frameworks. To evaluate the efficiency of extracting phylogenetic signals among different data filtering methods, we chose six highly intractable internodes within the backbone phylogeny of jawed vertebrates as our test questions. We found that our phylogenomic data set exhibits substantial conflicting signal among genes for these questions. Our analyses showed that non-specific data sets that are generated without bias toward specific questions are not sufficient to produce consistent results when there are several difficult nodes within a phylogeny. Moreover, phylogenetic accuracy based on non-specific data is considerably influenced by the size of data and the choice of tree inference methods. To address such incongruences, we selected genes that resolve a given internode but not the entire phylogeny. Notably, not only can this strategy yield correct relationships for the question, but it also reduces inconsistency associated with data sizes and inference methods. Our study highlights the importance of gene selection in phylogenomic analyses, suggesting that simply using a large amount of data cannot guarantee correct results. Constructing question-specific data sets may be more powerful for resolving problematic nodes. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Society of Systematic Biologists. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  3. How much is enough? The recurrent problem of setting measurable objectives in conservation

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Tear, T.H.; Kareiva, P.; Angermeier, P.L.; Comer, P.; Czech, B.; Kautz, R.; Landon, L.; Mehlman, D.; Murphy, K.; Ruckelshaus, M.; Scott, J.M.; Wilhere, G.

    2005-01-01

    International agreements, environmental laws, resource management agencies, and environmental nongovernmental organizations all establish objectives that define what they hope to accomplish. Unfortunately, quantitative objectives in conservation are typically set without consistency and scientific rigor. As a result, conservationists are failing to provide credible answers to the question "How much is enough?" This is a serious problem because objectives profoundly shape where and how limited conservation resources are spent, and help to create a shared vision for the future. In this article we develop guidelines to help steer conservation biologists and practitioners through the process of objective setting. We provide three case studies to highlight the practical challenges of objective setting in different social, political, and legal contexts. We also identify crucial gaps in our science, including limited knowledge of species distributions and of large-scale, long-term ecosystem dynamics, that must be filled if we hope to do better than setting conservation objectives through intuition and best guesses. ?? 2005 American Institute of Biological Sciences.

  4. Metacognitive Analysis of Pre-Service Teachers of Chemistry in Posting Questions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Santoso, T.; Yuanita, L.

    2017-04-01

    Questions addressed to something can induce metacognitive function to monitor a person’s thinking process. This study aims to describe the structure of the level of student questions based on thinking level and chemistry understanding level and describe how students use their metacognitive knowledge in asking. This research is a case study in chemistry learning, followed by 87 students. Results of the analysis revealed that the structure of thinking level of student question consists of knowledge question, understanding and application question, and high thinking question; the structure of chemistry understanding levels of student questions are a symbol, macro, macro-micro, macro-process, micro-process, and the macro-micro-process. The level Questioning skill of students to scientific articles more qualified than the level questioning skills of students to the teaching materials. The analysis result of six student interviews, a student question demonstrate the metacognitive processes with categories: (1) low-level metacognitive process, which is compiled based on questions focusing on a particular phrase or change the words; (2) intermediate level metacognitive process, submission of questions requires knowledge and understanding, and (3) high-level metacognitive process, the student questions posed based on identifying the central topic or abstraction essence of scientific articles.

  5. Review of Research: Teacher Questioning Behavior in Science Classrooms.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Blosser, Patricia E.

    Selected for this review are dissertations and other research reports related to science teacher questioning behavior, with particular emphasis on those studies designed to help teachers change their questioning behavior. Summarizing the section on observational studies (N=11), the author concludes that science teachers appear to function…

  6. Ecological Origins of Object Salience: Reward, Uncertainty, Aversiveness, and Novelty

    PubMed Central

    Ghazizadeh, Ali; Griggs, Whitney; Hikosaka, Okihide

    2016-01-01

    Among many objects around us, some are more salient than others (i.e., attract our attention automatically). Some objects may be inherently salient (e.g., brighter), while others may become salient by virtue of their ecological relevance through experience. However, the role of ecological experience in automatic attention has not been studied systematically. To address this question, we let subjects (macaque monkeys) view a large number of complex objects (>300), each experienced repeatedly (>5 days) with rewarding, aversive or no outcome association (mere-perceptual exposure). Test of salience was done on separate days using free viewing with no outcome. We found that gaze was biased among the objects from the outset, affecting saccades to objects or fixations within objects. When the outcome was rewarding, gaze preference was stronger (i.e., positive) for objects with larger or equal but uncertain rewards. The effects of aversive outcomes were variable. Gaze preference was positive for some outcome associations (e.g., airpuff), but negative for others (e.g., time-out), possibly due to differences in threat levels. Finally, novel objects attracted gaze, but mere perceptual exposure of objects reduced their salience (learned negative salience). Our results show that, in primates, object salience is strongly influenced by previous ecological experience and is supported by a large memory capacity. Owing to such high capacity for learned salience, the ability to rapidly choose important objects can grow during the entire life to promote biological fitness. PMID:27594825

  7. The inclusion of 'then-test' questions in post-test questionnaires alters post-test responses: a randomized study of bias in health program evaluation.

    PubMed

    Nolte, Sandra; Elsworth, Gerald R; Sinclair, Andrew J; Osborne, Richard H

    2012-04-01

    Program evaluations are frequently based on 'then-test' data, i.e., pre-test collected in retrospect. While the application of the then-test has practical advantages, little is known about the validity of then-test data. Because of the collection of then-test in close proximity to post-test questions, this study was aimed at exploring whether the presence of then-test questions in post-test questionnaires influenced subjects' responses to post-test. To test the influence of then-test questions, we designed a randomized three-group study in the context of chronic disease self-management programs. Interventions had comparable goals and philosophies, and all 949 study participants filled out identical Health Education Impact Questionnaires (heiQ) at pre-test. At post-test, participants were then randomized to one of the following three groups: Group A responded to post-test questions only (n = 331); Group B filled out transition questions in addition to post-test (n = 304); and Group C filled out then-test questions in addition to post-test (n = 314). Significant post-test differences were found in six of eight heiQ scales, with respondents who filled out then-test questions reporting significantly higher post-test scores than respondents of the other groups. This study provides evidence that the inclusion of then-test questions alters post-test responses, suggesting that change scores based on then-test data be interpreted with care.

  8. To bind or not to bind, that's the wrong question: Features and objects coexist in visual short-term memory.

    PubMed

    Geigerman, Shriradha; Verhaeghen, Paul; Cerella, John

    2016-06-01

    In three experiments, we investigated whether features and whole-objects can be represented simultaneously in visual short-term memory (VSTM). Participants were presented with a memory set of colored shapes; we probed either for the constituent features or for the whole object, and analyzed retrieval dynamics (cumulative response time distributions). In our first experiment, we used whole-object probes that recombined features from the memory display; we found that subjects' data conformed to a kitchen-line model, showing that they used whole-object representations for the matching process. In the second experiment, we encouraged independent-feature representations by using probes that used features not present in the memory display; subjects' data conformed to the race-model inequality, showing that they used independent-feature representations for the matching process. In a final experiment, we used both types of probes; subjects now used both types of representations, depending on the nature of the probe. Combined, our three experiments suggest that both feature and whole-object representations can coexist in VSTM. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Questions about complementary and alternative medicine to the Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Centres in Norway (RELIS): a descriptive pilot study.

    PubMed

    Schjøtt, Jan; Erdal, Hilde

    2014-02-14

    Provision of clinically relevant information about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to health care professionals is not well described. The aim of the study was to assess questions about CAM to the Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Centres in Norway (RELIS). All question-answers pairs (QAPs) in the RELIS database indexed with alternative medicine from 2005-2010 constituted the study material. A randomly selected sample of 100 QAPs was characterized with regard to type of question (category, patient-specific or general), occupation and workplace of enquirer, the type of information search performed (simple or advanced), and if the answers contained information to provide factual or consultative replies (facts about or advice on clinical use of CAM, respectively). Proportions were compared with Fisher's exact test with significance at the 0.05 level. One thousand and thirty-eight (7.7%) out of 13 482 questions involved CAM. Eighty-two out of 100 questions concerned products containing one or more herbs, vitamins and minerals as well as other substances. Thirty-eight out of 100 questions concerned the category documentation (substance identification and/or literature reports about clinical effects), 36 interactions, 16 adverse effects, 9 pregnancy and lactation, and 1 question concerned contraindications. Sixty-three questions were patient-specific and 37 general. Fifty-four questions came from physicians, 33 from pharmacists and 13 from others (including nurses, midwives, students, CAM practitioners, and the public). Pharmacists asked more frequently about interactions while physicians asked more frequently about adverse effects (p < 0.05). Seventy-six of the questions came from outside hospital, mainly general practice and community pharmacies. Fifty-nine answers were based on a simple and 41 on an advanced information search. Thirty-three factual and 38 consultative answers were provided. In 29 answers, search provided no

  10. Questions about complementary and alternative medicine to the Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Centres in Norway (RELIS): a descriptive pilot study

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background Provision of clinically relevant information about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to health care professionals is not well described. The aim of the study was to assess questions about CAM to the Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Centres in Norway (RELIS). Methods All question-answers pairs (QAPs) in the RELIS database indexed with alternative medicine from 2005-2010 constituted the study material. A randomly selected sample of 100 QAPs was characterized with regard to type of question (category, patient-specific or general), occupation and workplace of enquirer, the type of information search performed (simple or advanced), and if the answers contained information to provide factual or consultative replies (facts about or advice on clinical use of CAM, respectively). Proportions were compared with Fisher’s exact test with significance at the 0.05 level. Results One thousand and thirty-eight (7.7%) out of 13 482 questions involved CAM. Eighty-two out of 100 questions concerned products containing one or more herbs, vitamins and minerals as well as other substances. Thirty-eight out of 100 questions concerned the category documentation (substance identification and/or literature reports about clinical effects), 36 interactions, 16 adverse effects, 9 pregnancy and lactation, and 1 question concerned contraindications. Sixty-three questions were patient-specific and 37 general. Fifty-four questions came from physicians, 33 from pharmacists and 13 from others (including nurses, midwives, students, CAM practitioners, and the public). Pharmacists asked more frequently about interactions while physicians asked more frequently about adverse effects (p < 0.05). Seventy-six of the questions came from outside hospital, mainly general practice and community pharmacies. Fifty-nine answers were based on a simple and 41 on an advanced information search. Thirty-three factual and 38 consultative answers were provided. In 29 answers

  11. Rats' Visual-Spatial Working Memory: New Object Choice Accuracy as a Function of Number of Objects in the Study Array

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cohen, Jerome; Han, Xue; Matei, Anca; Parameswaran, Varakini; Zuniga, Robert; Hlynka, Myron

    2010-01-01

    When rats had to find new (jackpot) objects for rewards from among previously sampled baited objects, increasing the number of objects in the sample (study) segment of a trial from 3 to 5 and then to 7 (Experiment 1) or from 3 to 6 and 9 (Experiments 2 and 3) or from 6 to 9 and 12 (Experiment 4) did not reduce rats' test segment performance.…

  12. Lower bound on the compactness of isotropic ultracompact objects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hod, Shahar

    2018-04-01

    Horizonless spacetimes describing spatially regular ultracompact objects which, like black-hole spacetimes, possess closed null circular geodesics (light rings) have recently attracted much attention from physicists and mathematicians. In the present paper we raise the following physically intriguing question: how compact is an ultracompact object? Using analytical techniques, we prove that ultracompact isotropic matter configurations with light rings are characterized by the dimensionless lower bound maxr{2 m (r )/r }>7 /12 on their global compactness parameter.

  13. Uncovering students' misconceptions by assessment of their written questions.

    PubMed

    Olde Bekkink, Marleen; Donders, A R T Rogier; Kooloos, Jan G; de Waal, Rob M W; Ruiter, Dirk J

    2016-08-24

    Misconceptions are ideas that are inconsistent with current scientific views. They are difficult to detect and refractory to change. Misconceptions can negatively influence how new concepts in science are learned, but are rarely measured in biomedical courses. Early identification of misconceptions is of critical relevance for effective teaching, but presents a difficult task for teachers as they tend to either over- or underestimate students' prior knowledge. A systematic appreciation of the existing misconceptions is desirable. This explorative study was performed to determine whether written questions generated by students can be used to uncover their misconceptions. During a small-group work (SGW) session on Tumour Pathology in a (bio)medical bachelor course on General Pathology, students were asked to write down a question about the topic. This concerned a deepening question on disease mechanisms and not mere factual knowledge. Three independent expert pathologists determined whether the content of the questions was compatible with a misconception. Consensus was reached in all cases. Study outcomes were to determine whether misconceptions can be identified in students' written questions, and if so, to measure the frequency of misconceptions that can be encountered, and finally, to determine if the presence of such misconceptions is negatively associated with the students' course formal examination score. A subgroup analysis was performed according to gender and discipline. A total of 242 students participated in the SGW sessions, of whom 221 (91 %) formulated a question. Thirty-six questions did not meet the inclusion criteria. Of the 185 questions rated, 11 % (n = 20) was compatible with a misconception. Misconceptions were only found in medical students' questions, not in biomedical science students' questions. Formal examination score on Tumour Pathology was 5.0 (SD 2.0) in the group with misconceptions and 6.7 (SD 2.4) in the group without

  14. The 150 most important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology series: questions 50-56.

    PubMed

    2017-08-29

    Since the beginning of 2017, Chinese Journal of Cancer has published a series of important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology, which sparkle diverse thoughts, interesting communications, and potential collaborations among researchers all over the world. In this article, seven more questions are presented as followed. Question 50. When tumor cells spread from primary site to distant sites, are they required to be "trained" or "armed" in the bone marrow niche prior to colonizing soft tissues? Question 51. Are there tipping points during cancer progression which can be identified for manipulation? Question 52. Can we replace molecular biomarkers by network biomarkers? Question 53. Are conventional inhibitors of key cellular processes such as cell proliferation and differentiation more effective than targeted chemotherapeutics that antagonize the downstream cell signaling network via cell-surface receptors such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) and c-Met, or intracellular receptors such as androgen receptor (AR) and estrogen receptor (ER), by drugs like erlotinib, sunitinib and cabozantinib, or enzalutamide and tomoxifen? Question 54. How can we robustly identify the candidate causal event of somatic genome alteration (SGA) by using computational approach? Question 55. How can we systematically reveal the immune evasion mechanism exploited by each tumor and utilize such information to guide targeted therapy to restore immune sensitivity? Question 56. Can the nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients with sarcomatoid carcinoma (SC) subtype benefit from more specific targeted therapy?

  15. Perspectives on Games, Computers, and Mental Health: Questions about Paradoxes, Evidences, and Challenges.

    PubMed

    Desseilles, Martin

    2016-01-01

    In the field of mental health, games and computerized games present questions about paradoxes, evidences, and challenges. This perspective article offers perspectives and personal opinion about these questions, evidences, and challenges with an objective of presenting several ideas and issues in this rapidly developing field. First, games raise some questions in the sense of the paradox between a game and an issue, as well as the paradox of using an amusing game to treat a serious pathology. Second, games also present evidence in the sense that they involve relationships with others, as well as learning, communication, language, emotional regulation, and hedonism. Third, games present challenges, such as the risk of abuse, the critical temporal period that may be limited to childhood, their important influence on sociocognitive learning and the establishment of social norms, and the risk of misuse of games.

  16. Perspectives on Games, Computers, and Mental Health: Questions about Paradoxes, Evidences, and Challenges

    PubMed Central

    Desseilles, Martin

    2016-01-01

    In the field of mental health, games and computerized games present questions about paradoxes, evidences, and challenges. This perspective article offers perspectives and personal opinion about these questions, evidences, and challenges with an objective of presenting several ideas and issues in this rapidly developing field. First, games raise some questions in the sense of the paradox between a game and an issue, as well as the paradox of using an amusing game to treat a serious pathology. Second, games also present evidence in the sense that they involve relationships with others, as well as learning, communication, language, emotional regulation, and hedonism. Third, games present challenges, such as the risk of abuse, the critical temporal period that may be limited to childhood, their important influence on sociocognitive learning and the establishment of social norms, and the risk of misuse of games. PMID:27458390

  17. Analysis of questioning technique during classes in medical education.

    PubMed

    Cho, Young Hye; Lee, Sang Yeoup; Jeong, Dong Wook; Im, Sun Ju; Choi, Eun Jung; Lee, Sun Hee; Baek, Sun Yong; Kim, Yun Jin; Lee, Jeong Gyu; Yi, Yu Hyone; Bae, Mi Jin; Yune, So Jung

    2012-06-12

    Questioning is one of the essential techniques used by lecturers to make lectures more interactive and effective. This study surveyed the perception of questioning techniques by medical school faculty members and analyzed how the questioning technique is used in actual classes. Data on the perceptions of the questioning skills used during lectures was collected using a self-questionnaire for faculty members (N = 33) during the second semester of 2008. The questionnaire consisted of 18 items covering the awareness and characteristics of questioning skills. Recorded video tapes were used to observe the faculty members' questioning skills. Most faculty members regarded the questioning technique during classes as being important and expected positive outcomes in terms of the students' participation in class, concentration in class and understanding of the class contents. In the 99 classes analyzed, the median number of questions per class was 1 (0-29). Among them, 40 classes (40.4 %) did not use questioning techniques. The frequency of questioning per lecture was similar regardless of the faculty members' perception. On the other hand, the faculty members perceived that their usual wait time after question was approximately 10 seconds compared to only 2.5 seconds measured from video analysis. More lecture-experienced faculty members tended to ask more questions in class. There were some discrepancies regarding the questioning technique between the faculty members' perceptions and reality, even though they had positive opinions of the technique. The questioning skills during a lecture need to be emphasized to faculty members.

  18. The International Space Station, Providing Opportunities to Tackle Most Challenging Questions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gregory, Frederick; Suzuki, Nantel

    2002-01-01

    The International Space Station (ISS) now soars overhead, representing NASA's newest research center. It is a fully autonomous facility more capable than any Space laboratory ever deployed, with over 60 thousand hours of experiment operations time completed to date. Technical performance has been exceptional in the deployment and operation of the over 300 thousand pounds of hardware and the over one million plus line of software on orbit. Yet many obstacles are yet to be overcome to realize its fullest potential. The Agency has recently revalidated its research objectives for ISS to identify and answer questions that cannot be studied here on earth. These objectives include fundamental and applied research as well as engineering technology. The International Space Station is our first full-service weigh station on the road map for human-robotic exploration beyond low earth orbit. It will provide answers to a breadth of research questions and it will enable our ability the successfully overcome hurdles in the areas of crew health and safety, human/robotic partnerships, and space systems performance that now impede future exploration. Management control for the development and operation of large complex space systems has become one of the most important skills to develop at NASA. Many issues have surfaced concerning ISS management and organization. These problems are being addressed and we are moving to resolve our deficiencies and demonstrate the high degree of managerial performance already seen in our attention to technical challenges and safety. This paper will address the steps being taken, and the road ahead to provide answers of importance for our society and to further humankind's quest for exploration.

  19. [Mechanism of drug dependency: answers to the questions of KATO].

    PubMed

    Takigawa, M

    2000-01-01

    The complicated mechanisms of drug dependency were discussed from the perspective of a reward, especially the perspective of psychic dependency of the brain. In Kato's article, the following questions were raised. (1) Improper usage of terminology in describing the objective pharmacological behavior and describing the subjective psychic experience, e.g. the term "obsessional comfort". (2) The enhanced effects of morphine and d-amphetamine in ICSS (intracranial self-stimulation) were not suitably regarded, as these might be the results of stimulus current running in the brain. The conclusion that "morphine and d-amphetamine are 2 kinds of addictive drugs due to the reinforcement effects on ICSS" appears to be putting the incidental before the fundamental because these are addictive drugs in clinical use. (3) It was unknown why the basic problem of drug dependency was limited to psychic stimulant (antihypnotic, etc.), and why only opiates were represented as an addictive drug. (4) The conclusion that the reinforcement effects of barbital and benzodiazepine were not observed in ICSS contradicted Kato's conclusion, in which the reinforcement effects were detected in an experiment involving self-administration. (5) He reiterated that the usage of terminology was confused in describing the psychic experience and pharmacological behavioral. In response to the comments of the editors, I would answer the questions as follows: It is well-known that the terminologies used in psychiatry are strict and prudent. This should also be the case in the description of pharmacological behaviors in animal models. The author admitted Kato's profound relevant experiences in drug dependency, and did not disapprove of his criticisms about the terminology used in the article to describe objective behaviors and observe subjective experience. That article was excerpted from one of my lectures, which to some extent allowed freedom in phrases and sentences. The following are my answers to Kato

  20. Measuring Victimization inside Prisons: Questioning the Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wolff, Nancy; Shi, Jing; Bachman, Ronet

    2008-01-01

    Violence and victimization inside the prison setting are accepted as facts, although the facts about their prevalence remain uncertain. Variation in the methods used to estimate rates of sexual and physical victimization contribute to the wide range in estimates appearing in the prison literature. This article focuses on the questions used in the…

  1. The Priority of the Question: Focus Questions for Sustained Reasoning in Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lustick, David

    2010-01-01

    Science education standards place a high priority on promoting the skills and dispositions associated with inquiry at all levels of learning. Yet, the questions teachers employ to foster sustained reasoning are most likely borrowed from a textbook, lab manual, or worksheet. Such generic questions generated for a mass audience, lack authenticity…

  2. Problem-based learning: Using students' questions to drive knowledge construction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chin, Christine; Chia, Li-Gek

    2004-09-01

    This study employed problem-based learning for project work in a year 9 biology class. The purpose of the study was to investigate (a) students' inspirations for their self-generated problems and questions, (b) the kinds of questions that students asked individually and collaboratively, and (c) how students' questions guided them in knowledge construction. Data sources included observation and field notes, students' written documents, audiotapes and videotapes of students working in groups, and student interviews. Sources of inspiration for students' problems and questions included cultural beliefs and folklore; wonderment about information propagated by advertisements and the media; curiosity arising from personal encounters, family members' concerns, or observations of others; and issues arising from previous lessons in the school curriculum. Questions asked individually pertained to validation of common beliefs and misconceptions, basic information, explanations, and imagined scenarios. The findings regarding questions asked collaboratively are presented as two assertions. Assertion 1 maintained that students' course of learning were driven by their questions. Assertion 2 was that the ability to ask the right'' questions and the extent to which these could be answered, were important in sustaining students' interest in the project. Implications of the findings for instructional practice are discussed.

  3. Beyond Objectivity and Subjectivity: The Intersubjective Foundations of Psychological Science.

    PubMed

    Mascolo, Michael F

    2016-12-01

    The question of whether psychology can properly be regarded as a science has long been debated (Smedslund in Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science, 50, 185-195, 2016). Science is typically understood as a method for producing reliable knowledge by testing falsifiable claims against objective evidence. Psychological phenomena, however, are traditionally taken to be "subjective" and hidden from view. To the extent that science relies upon objective observation, is a scientific psychology possible? In this paper, I argue that scientific psychology does not much fail to meet the requirements of objectivity as much as the concept of objectivity fails as a methodological principle for psychological science. The traditional notion of objectivity relies upon the distinction between a public, observable exterior and a private, subjective interior. There are good reasons, however, to reject this dichotomy. Scholarship suggests that psychological knowledge arises neither from the "inside out" (subjectively) nor from the outside-in (objectively), but instead intersubjective processes that occur between people. If this is so, then objectivist methodology may do more to obscure than illuminate our understanding of psychological functioning. From this view, we face a dilemma: Do we, in the name of science, cling to an objective epistemology that cuts us off from the richness of psychological activity? Or do we seek to develop a rigorous intersubjective psychology that exploits the processes through which we gain psychological knowledge in the first place? If such a psychology can produce systematic, reliable and useful knowledge, then the question of whether its practices are "scientific" in the traditional sense would become irrelevant.

  4. Pacific Northwest residential energy survey. Volume 3. Question-by-question results

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

    None

    1980-07-01

    Tabulations are presented of responses to approximately 105 questions. Results are tabulated by 9 geographic regions: the four states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington; four climate zones in the region; and a weighted Pacific Northwest total. A description of the tabulated data is given in the Introduction. Tabulated data deal with questions on dwelling characteristics; heating and air-conditioning systems; water heating; appliances; demographic and swelling characteristics; and insulation.

  5. Conscientious objection in healthcare: why tribunals might be the answer.

    PubMed

    Hughes, Jonathan A

    2017-04-01

    A recent focus of the debate on conscientious objection in healthcare is the question of whether practitioners should have to justify their refusal to perform certain functions. A recent article by Cowley addresses a practical aspect of this controversy, namely the question of whether doctors claiming conscientious objector status in relation to abortion should be required, like their counterparts claiming exemption from military conscription, to defend their claim before a tribunal. Cowley argues against the use of tribunals in the medical case, on the grounds that there are likely to be fewer unjustified claims to conscientious objection in this context than in the military, and that in any case tribunals will not be an effective way of distinguishing genuine and false cases. I reject these arguments and propose a different conception of the role of a medical conscientious objection tribunal. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  6. An Exploratory Study of Objective Attainment in the Divergent Physics Laboratory.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lerch, Robert Donald

    Students enrolled in the introductory physics laboratory at New Mexico State University participated in this study. A stated set of objectives, developed by Dr. John M. Fowler of the Commission on College Physics, was used in the laboratory. This study attempted to measure student achievement based on the use of these objectives as opposed to the…

  7. Frequent Questions on Recycling

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This is a list of frequent questions on recycling, broken down into five categories. These are answers to common questions that EPA has received from press and web inquiries. This list is located on the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle website.

  8. Solutions to Infertility: Even the Simplest Medical Answer Raises Troubling Ethical Questions for Catholics.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Boyle, Philip

    1989-01-01

    Considers the ethical issues surrounding the "simplest" case of in vitro fertilization from the author's interpretation of a Catholic perspective. Discusses serious moral objections to in vitro fertilization voiced by the Vatican, and presents theological reasons why Catholics should question in vitro fertilization. (Author/NB)

  9. An Examination of Music Teacher Job Interview Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Juchniewicz, Jay

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine which interview questions principals consider most important when interviewing prospective music teachers. Additionally, data were examined to determine any differences between school grade level, school setting, or years of experience as a principal in preferences for specific interview questions.…

  10. Examining Research Questions on Germination from the Perspective of Scientific Creativity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Demir Kaçan, Sibel

    2015-01-01

    This study was conducted with the participation of 31 pre-service science teachers. Participants were asked to develop various research questions on germination. The study aims to examine research questions on the subject germination from the perspective of scientific creativity. The research questions were examined using the fluency, science…

  11. Object Localization Does Not Imply Awareness of Object Category at the Break of Continuous Flash Suppression

    PubMed Central

    Kobylka, Florian; Persike, Malte; Meinhardt, Günter

    2017-01-01

    In continuous flash suppression (CFS), a dynamic noise masker, presented to one eye, suppresses conscious perception of a test stimulus, presented to the other eye, until the suppressed stimulus comes to awareness after few seconds. But what do we see breaking the dominance of the masker in the transition period? We addressed this question with a dual-task in which observers indicated (i) whether the test object was left or right of the fixation mark (localization) and (ii) whether it was a face or a house (categorization). As done recently Stein et al. (2011a), we used two experimental varieties to rule out confounds with decisional strategy. In the terminated mode, stimulus and masker were presented for distinct durations, and the observers were asked to give both judgments at the end of the trial. In the self-paced mode, presentation lasted until the observers responded. In the self-paced mode, b-CFS durations for object categorization were about half a second longer than for object localization. In the terminated mode, correct categorization rates were consistently lower than correct detection rates, measured at five duration intervals ranging up to 2 s. In both experiments we observed an upright face advantage compared to inverted faces and houses, as concurrently reported in b-CFS studies. Our findings reveal that more time is necessary to enable observers judging the nature of the object, compared to judging that there is “something other” than the noise which can be localized, but not recognized. This suggests gradual transitions in the first break of CFS. Further, the results imply that suppression is such that no cues to object identity are conveyed in potential “leaks” of CFS (Gelbard-Sagiv et al., 2016). PMID:28663728

  12. Planning and setting objectives in field studies: Chapter 2

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Fisher, Robert N.; Dodd, C. Kenneth

    2016-01-01

    This chapter enumerates the steps required in designing and planning field studies on the ecology and conservation of reptiles, as these involve a high level of uncertainty and risk. To this end, the chapter differentiates between goals (descriptions of what one intends to accomplish) and objectives (the measurable steps required to achieve the established goals). Thus, meeting a specific goal may require many objectives. It may not be possible to define some of them until certain experiments have been conducted; often evaluations of sampling protocols are needed to increase certainty in the biological results. And if sampling locations are fixed and sampling events are repeated over time, then both study-specific covariates and sampling-specific covariates should exist. Additionally, other critical design considerations for field study include obtaining permits, as well as researching ethics and biosecurity issues.

  13. Examining the Impact of Question Surface Features on Students’ Answers to Constructed-Response Questions on Photosynthesis

    PubMed Central

    Weston, Michele; Haudek, Kevin C.; Prevost, Luanna; Urban-Lurain, Mark; Merrill, John

    2015-01-01

    One challenge in science education assessment is that students often focus on surface features of questions rather than the underlying scientific principles. We investigated how student written responses to constructed-response questions about photosynthesis vary based on two surface features of the question: the species of plant and the order of two question prompts. We asked four versions of the question with different combinations of the two plant species and order of prompts in an introductory cell biology course. We found that there was not a significant difference in the content of student responses to versions of the question stem with different species or order of prompts, using both computerized lexical analysis and expert scoring. We conducted 20 face-to-face interviews with students to further probe the effects of question wording on student responses. During the interviews, we found that students thought that the plant species was neither relevant nor confusing when answering the question. Students identified the prompts as both relevant and confusing. However, this confusion was not specific to a single version. PMID:25999312

  14. Syntactic Priming Effects between Modalities: A Study of Indirect Questions/Requests among Persian English Learners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Biria, Reza; Ameri-Golestan, Ahmad; Antón-Méndez, Inés

    2010-01-01

    This study examines the impact of syntactic priming on production of indirect questions/requests by Persian learners of English as a foreign language. Eighty learners participated in two experiments investigating the impact of syntactic priming on oral production and the possibility of transfer of the priming effects to a different modality.…

  15. The Geography of Virtual Questioning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mon, Lorri; Bishop, Bradley Wade; McClure, Charles R.; McGilvray, Jessica; Most, Linda; Milas, Theodore Patrick; Snead, John T.

    2009-01-01

    This article explores the geography of virtual questioning by using geographic information systems to study activity within the Florida Electronic Library "Ask a Librarian" collaborative chat service. Researchers mapped participating libraries throughout the state of Florida that served as virtual "entry portals" for users as…

  16. 32 CFR 316.7 - Questions.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Questions. 316.7 Section 316.7 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (CONTINUED) PRIVACY PROGRAM DEFENSE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AGENCY PRIVACY PROGRAM § 316.7 Questions. Questions on both the substance and procedure of...

  17. Exhaustivity in Questions & Clefts; and the Quantifier Connection: A Study in German and English

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Heizmann, Tanja

    2012-01-01

    This thesis investigates children's acquisition of exhaustivity across four structures: quantifiers, single questions, multiple questions and clefts. Two languages, English and German, are probed. Exhaustivity needs some sort of plural set to be mentioned without leaving out a member of that set. This dissertation provides experimental data…

  18. Orientation-Invariant Object Recognition: Evidence from Repetition Blindness

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Harris, Irina M.; Dux, Paul E.

    2005-01-01

    The question of whether object recognition is orientation-invariant or orientation-dependent was investigated using a repetition blindness (RB) paradigm. In RB, the second occurrence of a repeated stimulus is less likely to be reported, compared to the occurrence of a different stimulus, if it occurs within a short time of the first presentation.…

  19. Neural Mechanisms of Recognizing Camouflaged Objects: A Human fMRI Study

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-07-30

    Unlimited Final Report: Neural Mechanisms of Recognizing Camouflaged Objects: A Human fMRI Study The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this...27709-2211 Visual search, Camouflage, Functional magnetic resonance imaging ( fMRI ), Perceptual learning REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE 11. SPONSOR...ABSTRACT Number of Papers published in peer-reviewed journals: Final Report: Neural Mechanisms of Recognizing Camouflaged Objects: A Human fMRI Study

  20. Object oriented studies into artificial space debris

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Adamson, J. M.; Marshall, G.

    1988-01-01

    A prototype simulation is being developed under contract to the Royal Aerospace Establishment (RAE), Farnborough, England, to assist in the discrimination of artificial space objects/debris. The methodology undertaken has been to link Object Oriented programming, intelligent knowledge based system (IKBS) techniques and advanced computer technology with numeric analysis to provide a graphical, symbolic simulation. The objective is to provide an additional layer of understanding on top of conventional classification methods. Use is being made of object and rule based knowledge representation, multiple reasoning, truth maintenance and uncertainty. Software tools being used include Knowledge Engineering Environment (KEE) and SymTactics for knowledge representation. Hooks are being developed within the SymTactics framework to incorporate mathematical models describing orbital motion and fragmentation. Penetration and structural analysis can also be incorporated. SymTactics is an Object Oriented discrete event simulation tool built as a domain specific extension to the KEE environment. The tool provides facilities for building, debugging and monitoring dynamic (military) simulations.

  1. Violations of information structure: an electrophysiological study of answers to wh-questions.

    PubMed

    Cowles, H W; Kluender, Robert; Kutas, Marta; Polinsky, Maria

    2007-09-01

    This study investigates brain responses to violations of information structure in wh-question-answer pairs, with particular emphasis on violations of focus assignment in it-clefts (It was the queen that silenced the banker). Two types of ERP responses in answers to wh-questions were found. First, all words in the focus-marking (cleft) position elicited a large positivity (P3b) characteristic of sentence-final constituents, as did the final words of these sentences, which suggests that focused elements may trigger integration effects like those seen at sentence end. Second, the focusing of an inappropriate referent elicited a smaller, N400-like effect. The results show that comprehenders actively use structural focus cues and discourse-level restrictions during online sentence processing. These results, based on visual stimuli, were different from the brain response to auditory focus violations indicated by pitch-accent [Hruska, C., Steinhauer, K., Alter, K., & Steube, A. (2000). ERP effects of sentence accents and violations of the information structure. In Poster presented at the 13th annual CUNY conference on human sentence processing, San Diego, CA.], but similar to brain responses to newly introduced discourse referents [Bornkessel, I., Schlesewsky, M., & Friederici, A. (2003). Contextual information modulated initial processes of syntactic integration: the role of inter- versus intrasentential predictions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 29, 871-882.].

  2. Object-based selection from spatially-invariant representations: evidence from a feature-report task.

    PubMed

    Matsukura, Michi; Vecera, Shaun P

    2011-02-01

    Attention selects objects as well as locations. When attention selects an object's features, observers identify two features from a single object more accurately than two features from two different objects (object-based effect of attention; e.g., Duncan, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113, 501-517, 1984). Several studies have demonstrated that object-based attention can operate at a late visual processing stage that is independent of objects' spatial information (Awh, Dhaliwal, Christensen, & Matsukura, Psychological Science, 12, 329-334, 2001; Matsukura & Vecera, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 529-536, 2009; Vecera, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 126, 14-18, 1997; Vecera & Farah, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123, 146-160, 1994). In the present study, we asked two questions regarding this late object-based selection mechanism. In Part I, we investigated how observers' foreknowledge of to-be-reported features allows attention to select objects, as opposed to individual features. Using a feature-report task, a significant object-based effect was observed when to-be-reported features were known in advance but not when this advance knowledge was absent. In Part II, we examined what drives attention to select objects rather than individual features in the absence of observers' foreknowledge of to-be-reported features. Results suggested that, when there was no opportunity for observers to direct their attention to objects that possess to-be-reported features at the time of stimulus presentation, these stimuli must retain strong perceptual cues to establish themselves as separate objects.

  3. Attachment to inanimate objects and early childcare: A twin study

    PubMed Central

    Fortuna, Keren; Baor, Liora; Israel, Salomon; Abadi, Adi; Knafo, Ariel

    2014-01-01

    Extensive non-maternal childcare plays an important role in children’s development. This study examined a potential coping mechanism for dealing with daily separation from caregivers involved in childcare experience – children’s development of attachments toward inanimate objects. We employed the twin design to estimate relative environmental and genetic contributions to the presence of object attachment, and assess whether childcare explains some of the environmental variation in this developmental phenomenon. Mothers reported about 1122 3-year-old twin pairs. Variation in object attachment was accounted for by heritability (48%) and shared environment (48%), with childcare quantity accounting for 2.2% of the shared environment effect. Children who spent half-days in childcare were significantly less likely to attach to objects relative to children who attended full-day childcare. PMID:24904499

  4. Evidence-based decision-making in infectious diseases epidemiology, prevention and control: matching research questions to study designs and quality appraisal tools.

    PubMed

    Harder, Thomas; Takla, Anja; Rehfuess, Eva; Sánchez-Vivar, Alex; Matysiak-Klose, Dorothea; Eckmanns, Tim; Krause, Gérard; de Carvalho Gomes, Helena; Jansen, Andreas; Ellis, Simon; Forland, Frode; James, Roberta; Meerpohl, Joerg J; Morgan, Antony; Schünemann, Holger; Zuiderent-Jerak, Teun; Wichmann, Ole

    2014-05-21

    The Project on a Framework for Rating Evidence in Public Health (PRECEPT) was initiated and is being funded by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to define a methodology for evaluating and grading evidence and strength of recommendations in the field of public health, with emphasis on infectious disease epidemiology, prevention and control. One of the first steps was to review existing quality appraisal tools (QATs) for individual research studies of various designs relevant to this area, using a question-based approach. Through team discussions and expert consultations, we identified 20 relevant types of public health questions, which were grouped into six domains, i.e. characteristics of the pathogen, burden of disease, diagnosis, risk factors, intervention, and implementation of intervention. Previously published systematic reviews were used and supplemented by expert consultation to identify suitable QATs. Finally, a matrix was constructed for matching questions to study designs suitable to address them and respective QATs. Key features of each of the included QATs were then analyzed, in particular in respect to its intended use, types of questions and answers, presence/absence of a quality score, and if a validation was performed. In total we identified 21 QATs and 26 study designs, and matched them. Four QATs were suitable for experimental quantitative study designs, eleven for observational quantitative studies, two for qualitative studies, three for economic studies, one for diagnostic test accuracy studies, and one for animal studies. Included QATs consisted of six to 28 items. Six of the QATs had a summary quality score. Fourteen QATs had undergone at least one validation procedure. The results of this methodological study can be used as an inventory of potentially relevant questions, appropriate study designs and QATs for researchers and authorities engaged with evidence-based decision-making in infectious disease epidemiology

  5. Evidence-based decision-making in infectious diseases epidemiology, prevention and control: matching research questions to study designs and quality appraisal tools

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background The Project on a Framework for Rating Evidence in Public Health (PRECEPT) was initiated and is being funded by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to define a methodology for evaluating and grading evidence and strength of recommendations in the field of public health, with emphasis on infectious disease epidemiology, prevention and control. One of the first steps was to review existing quality appraisal tools (QATs) for individual research studies of various designs relevant to this area, using a question-based approach. Methods Through team discussions and expert consultations, we identified 20 relevant types of public health questions, which were grouped into six domains, i.e. characteristics of the pathogen, burden of disease, diagnosis, risk factors, intervention, and implementation of intervention. Previously published systematic reviews were used and supplemented by expert consultation to identify suitable QATs. Finally, a matrix was constructed for matching questions to study designs suitable to address them and respective QATs. Key features of each of the included QATs were then analyzed, in particular in respect to its intended use, types of questions and answers, presence/absence of a quality score, and if a validation was performed. Results In total we identified 21 QATs and 26 study designs, and matched them. Four QATs were suitable for experimental quantitative study designs, eleven for observational quantitative studies, two for qualitative studies, three for economic studies, one for diagnostic test accuracy studies, and one for animal studies. Included QATs consisted of six to 28 items. Six of the QATs had a summary quality score. Fourteen QATs had undergone at least one validation procedure. Conclusions The results of this methodological study can be used as an inventory of potentially relevant questions, appropriate study designs and QATs for researchers and authorities engaged with evidence-based decision

  6. 47 CFR 13.215 - Question pools.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Question pools. 13.215 Section 13.215 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION GENERAL COMMERCIAL RADIO OPERATORS Examination System § 13.215 Question pools. The question pool for each written examination element will be composed of questions...

  7. Questions for Assessing Higher-Order Cognitive Skills: It's Not Just Bloom’s

    PubMed Central

    Lemons, Paula P.; Lemons, J. Derrick

    2013-01-01

    We present an exploratory study of biologists’ ideas about higher-order cognition questions. We documented the conversations of biologists who were writing and reviewing a set of higher-order cognition questions. Using a qualitative approach, we identified the themes of these conversations. Biologists in our study used Bloom's Taxonomy to logically analyze questions. However, biologists were also concerned with question difficulty, the length of time required for students to address questions, and students’ experience with questions. Finally, some biologists demonstrated an assumption that questions should have one correct answer, not multiple reasonable solutions; this assumption undermined their comfort with some higher-order cognition questions. We generated a framework for further research that provides an interpretation of participants’ ideas about higher-order questions and a model of the relationships among these ideas. Two hypotheses emerge from this framework. First, we propose that biologists look for ways to measure difficulty when writing higher-order questions. Second, we propose that biologists’ assumptions about the role of questions in student learning strongly influence the types of higher-order questions they write. PMID:23463228

  8. [Objective and subjective knowledge of HIV/AIDS as predictor of condom use in adolescents].

    PubMed

    Villaseñor-Sierra, Alberto; Caballero-Hoyos, Ramiro; Hidalgo-San Martín, Alfredo; Santos-Preciado, José Ignacio

    2003-01-01

    To evaluate the association between objective and subjective knowledge on HIV/AIDS and condom use. Analysis of a database from an anonymous, self-applied, randomized survey conducted between 1995 and 1996. Study subjects were 1,410 adolescents of four socioeconomic strata from Guadalajara, Mexico. Objective knowledge was assessed with 24 questions regarding HIV/AIDS, and subjective knowledge with the question "how much do you think you know about HIV/AIDS?" The variables associated with condom use were identified using logistic regression analysis and by calculating odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval. The degree of objective knowledge was "average", differentiated by socioeconomic strata (p < 0.001), and was higher in adolescents from medium and high socioeconomic strata (p < 0.008). Regarding subjective knowledge, adolescents from the low, medium, and high socioeconomic strata claimed to know "a little", and the ones from the lowest stratum claimed to know "very little". Condom use was higher in males (35.4%), and in adolescents from high socioeconomic strata (p < 0.005), than in females (15.3%) (p < 0.001). Although there was a correlation between objective and subjective knowledge (r = 0.37, p < 0.001), a higher degree of subjective knowledge was associated with condom use (p < 0.001). Subjective knowledge, belonging to medium and high socioeconomic strata and being male, were predictors of condom use.

  9. Questions for Music Education Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jorgensen, Estelle R.

    2008-01-01

    In addressing the question-set "What questions do music education researchers need to address?", an illustrative list of juxtaposed descriptive and normative questions is sketched as follows: What are and should be the dimensions of music education? What are and should be the institutional agencies of music education? What are and should be the…

  10. Cognitive Levels of Questioning Demonstrated by New Social Studies Textbooks: What the Future Holds for Elementary Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Risner, Gregory P.; Nicholson, Janice I.; Webb, Brenda

    A major aim of the social studies according to state and local educational goals is to foster students' thinking skills. This study was conducted to determine, according to Bloom's taxonomy, the levels of questioning generated by third-grade social studies textbooks. It examined the extent to which each selected textbook emphasized higher levels…

  11. Profiling Students' Multiple Source Use by Question Type

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    List, Alexandra; Grossnickle, Emily M.; Alexander, Patricia A.

    2016-01-01

    The present study examined undergraduate students' multiple source use in response to two different types of academic questions, one discrete and one open-ended. Participants (N = 240) responded to two questions using a library of eight digital sources, varying in source type (e.g., newspaper article) and reliability (e.g., authors' credentials).…

  12. The Object Oriented Approach in Systems Analysis and Design Texts: Consistency within the IS Curriculum

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wood, David F.; Kohun, Frederick G.; Laverty, Joseph Packy

    2010-01-01

    This paper reports on a study of systems analysis textbooks in terms of topics covered and academic background of the authors. It addresses the consistency within IS curricula with respect to the content of a systems analysis and design course using the object-oriented approach. The research questions addressed were 1: Is there a consistency among…

  13. Distinctions between manipulation and function knowledge of objects: evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging.

    PubMed

    Boronat, Consuelo B; Buxbaum, Laurel J; Coslett, H Branch; Tang, Kathy; Saffran, Eleanor M; Kimberg, Daniel Y; Detre, John A

    2005-05-01

    A prominent account of conceptual knowledge proposes that information is distributed over visual, tactile, auditory, motor and verbal-declarative attribute domains to the degree to which these features were activated when the knowledge was acquired [D.A. Allport, Distributed memory, modular subsystems and dysphagia, In: S.K. Newman, R. Epstein (Eds.), Current perspectives in dysphagia, Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, 1985, pp. 32-60]. A corollary is that when drawing upon this knowledge (e.g., to answer questions), particular aspects of this distributed information is re-activated as a function of the requirements of the task at hand [L.J. Buxbaum, E.M. Saffran, Knowledge of object manipulation and object function: dissociations in apraxic and non-apraxic subjects. Brain and Language, 82 (2002) 179-199; L.J. Buxbaum, T. Veramonti, M.F. Schwartz, Function and manipulation tool knowledge in apraxia: knowing 'what for' but not 'how', Neurocase, 6 (2000) 83-97; W. Simmons, L. Barsalou, The similarity-in-topography principle: Reconciling theories of conceptual deficits, Cognitive Neuropsychology, 20 (2003) 451-486]. This account predicts that answering questions about object manipulation should activate brain regions previously identified as components of the distributed sensory-motor system involved in object use, whereas answering questions about object function (that is, the purpose that it serves) should activate regions identified as components of the systems supporting verbal-declarative features. These predictions were tested in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in which 15 participants viewed picture or word pairs denoting manipulable objects and determined whether the objects are manipulated similarly (M condition) or serve the same function (F condition). Significantly greater and more extensive activations in the left inferior parietal lobe bordering the intraparietal sulcus were seen in the M condition with pictures and, to a lesser

  14. Interrupting the Silence: An Action Research Study to Transform a Juvenile Justice Culture for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning & Intersex (LGBTQI) Youth

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McRae, Dawn N.

    2015-01-01

    This action research (AR) study explored practitioners' knowledge of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Intersex (LGBTQI) youth issues in a juvenile justice setting. A research and service approach was employed to develop a LGBTQI policy and training. This study was motivated by three research questions. Does sensitivity…

  15. Comparison of integrated testlet and constructed-response question formats

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Slepkov, Aaron D.; Shiell, Ralph C.

    2014-12-01

    Constructed-response (CR) questions are a mainstay of introductory physics textbooks and exams. However, because of the time, cost, and scoring reliability constraints associated with this format, CR questions are being increasingly replaced by multiple-choice (MC) questions in formal exams. The integrated testlet (IT) is a recently developed question structure designed to provide a proxy of the pedagogical advantages of CR questions while procedurally functioning as set of MC questions. ITs utilize an answer-until-correct response format that provides immediate confirmatory or corrective feedback, and they thus allow not only for the granting of partial credit in cases of initially incorrect reasoning, but, furthermore, the ability to build cumulative question structures. Here, we report on a study that directly compares the functionality of ITs and CR questions in introductory physics exams. To do this, CR questions were converted to concept-equivalent ITs, and both sets of questions were deployed in midterm and final exams. We find that both question types provide adequate discrimination between stronger and weaker students, with CR questions discriminating slightly better than the ITs. There is some indication that any difference in discriminatory power may result from the baseline score for guessing that is inherent in MC testing. Meanwhile, an analysis of interrater scoring of the CR questions raises serious concerns about the reliability of the granting of partial credit when this traditional assessment technique is used in a realistic (but nonoptimized) setting. Furthermore, we show evidence that partial credit is granted in a valid manner in the ITs. Thus, together with consideration of the vastly reduced costs of administering IT-based examinations compared to CR-based examinations, our findings indicate that ITs are viable replacements for CR questions in formal examinations where it is desirable both to assess concept integration and to reward partial

  16. The Epistemological Conditions of Moral Education: The Notions of Rationality and Objectivity Revisited

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holma, Katariina

    2011-01-01

    The crucial epistemological question for formulating the principles that underlie moral education concerns the status of rationality and objectivity in ethics and education. In this essay Katariina Holma argues that the intertwined understanding of the concepts of education, ethics, rationality, and objectivity is built into our language and our…

  17. Deficits in comprehending wh-questions in children with hearing loss - the contribution of phonological short-term memory and syntactic complexity.

    PubMed

    Penke, Martina; Wimmer, Eva

    2018-01-01

    The aim of the study is to investigate if German children with hearing loss (HL) display persisting problems in comprehending complex sentences and to find out whether these problems can be linked to limitations in phonological short-term memory (PSTM). A who-question comprehension test (picture pointing) and a nonword repetition (NWR) task were conducted with 21 German children with bilateral sensorineural HL (ages 3-4) and with age-matched 19 normal hearing (NH) children. Follow-up data (ages 6-8) are reported for 10 of the children with HL. The data reveal that the comprehension of who-questions as well as PSTM was significantly more impaired in children with HL than in children with NH. For both groups of participants, there were no correlations between question comprehension scores and performance in the NWR test. Syntactic complexity (subject vs. object question) affected question comprehension in children with HL, however, these problems were overcome at school age. In conclusion, the data indicate that a hearing loss affects the comprehension of complex sentences. The observed problems did, however, not persist and were, therefore, unlikely to be caused by a genuine syntactic deficit. For the tested wh-questions, there is no indication that syntactic comprehension problems of children with HL are due to limitations in PSTM.

  18. No Measured Effect of a Familiar Contextual Object on Color Constancy.

    PubMed

    Kanematsu, Erika; Brainard, David H

    2014-08-01

    Some familiar objects have a typical color, such as the yellow of a banana. The presence of such objects in a scene is a potential cue to the scene illumination, since the light reflected from them should on average be consistent with their typical surface reflectance. Although there are many studies on how the identity of an object affects how its color is perceived, little is known about whether the presence of a familiar object in a scene helps the visual system stabilize the color appearance of other objects with respect to changes in illumination. We used a successive color matching procedure in three experiments designed to address this question. Across the experiments we studied a total of 6 subjects (2 in Experiment 1, 3 in Experiment 2, and 4 in Experiment 3) with partial overlap of subjects between experiments. We compared measured color constancy across conditions in which a familiar object cue to the illuminant was available with conditions in which such a cue was not present. Overall, our results do not reveal a reliable improvement in color constancy with the addition of a familiar object to a scene. An analysis of the experimental power of our data suggests that if there is such an effect, it is small: less than approximately a change of 0.09 in a constancy index where an absence of constancy corresponds to an index value of 0 and perfect constancy corresponds to an index value of 1.

  19. No Measured Effect of a Familiar Contextual Object on Color Constancy

    PubMed Central

    Kanematsu, Erika; Brainard, David H.

    2013-01-01

    Some familiar objects have a typical color, such as the yellow of a banana. The presence of such objects in a scene is a potential cue to the scene illumination, since the light reflected from them should on average be consistent with their typical surface reflectance. Although there are many studies on how the identity of an object affects how its color is perceived, little is known about whether the presence of a familiar object in a scene helps the visual system stabilize the color appearance of other objects with respect to changes in illumination. We used a successive color matching procedure in three experiments designed to address this question. Across the experiments we studied a total of 6 subjects (2 in Experiment 1, 3 in Experiment 2, and 4 in Experiment 3) with partial overlap of subjects between experiments. We compared measured color constancy across conditions in which a familiar object cue to the illuminant was available with conditions in which such a cue was not present. Overall, our results do not reveal a reliable improvement in color constancy with the addition of a familiar object to a scene. An analysis of the experimental power of our data suggests that if there is such an effect, it is small: less than approximately a change of 0.09 in a constancy index where an absence of constancy corresponds to an index value of 0 and perfect constancy corresponds to an index value of 1. PMID:25313267

  20. Improving Teacher Communications: Focus on Clarity and Questioning Skills.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Harris, Paulette P.; Swick, Kevin J.

    1985-01-01

    Reviews the literature on teacher clarity and communication skills, then describes a study showing that teachers must be trained in ways to reduce vagueness terms, mazes, multiple utterance questions, and overall frequency of questions posed to students. (FL)

  1. Target-object integration, attention distribution, and object orientation interactively modulate object-based selection.

    PubMed

    Al-Janabi, Shahd; Greenberg, Adam S

    2016-10-01

    The representational basis of attentional selection can be object-based. Various studies have suggested, however, that object-based selection is less robust than spatial selection across experimental paradigms. We sought to examine the manner by which the following factors might explain this variation: Target-Object Integration (targets 'on' vs. part 'of' an object), Attention Distribution (narrow vs. wide), and Object Orientation (horizontal vs. vertical). In Experiment 1, participants discriminated between two targets presented 'on' an object in one session, or presented as a change 'of' an object in another session. There was no spatial cue-thus, attention was initially focused widely-and the objects were horizontal or vertical. We found evidence of object-based selection only when targets constituted a change 'of' an object. Additionally, object orientation modulated the sign of object-based selection: We observed a same-object advantage for horizontal objects, but a same-object cost for vertical objects. In Experiment 2, an informative cue preceded a single target presented 'on' an object or as a change 'of' an object (thus, attention was initially focused narrowly). Unlike in Experiment 1, we found evidence of object-based selection independent of target-object integration. We again found that the sign of selection was modulated by the objects' orientation. This result may reflect a meridian effect, which emerged due to anisotropies in the cortical representations when attention is oriented endogenously. Experiment 3 revealed that object orientation did not modulate object-based selection when attention was oriented exogenously. Our findings suggest that target-object integration, attention distribution, and object orientation modulate object-based selection, but only in combination.

  2. RICO Graduate Student Research Flight: The Island Tail Objective

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Small, J. D.; Anderson-Bereznicki, S. D.; Medeiros, B.; Nuijens, L.; Henry, C. K.; O'Donnell, D. M.; Morales, F.; Shen, H.

    2005-12-01

    The Rain in Cumulus over the Ocean (RICO) project was an intensive field project aimed to study and understand precipitation processes in trade wind cumulus. The project took place from Nov 23, 2004 until Jan 25, 2005 on two small islands of the Lesser Antilles, Antigua and Barbuda, where trade wind cumulus fields frequently occur during suppressed wintertime conditions. RICO provided a unique combination of research and education by offering the RICO Graduate Seminar Series and the development and implementation of a graduate student designed and directed research flight. One of the main goals of the graduate student research flight was to allow graduate students to participate in the process of developing a research flight plan and identifying scientific goals and objectives first-hand. Added benefits included the possibility of addressing scientific questions not included in the main RICO objectives. This also involved collaboration when discussing different ideas and initiatives and the full development of all stages of the research flight including the coordination of two research aircraft (NCAR-C130, University of Wyoming King Air), one research vessel (RV Seward Johnson), S-Pol radar site and real time operations center satellite information. Seventeen graduate students from both the US and Europe developed two different plans to be presented to RICO project principle investigators; both of which were approved. The island tail objective aimed at characterizing the line of clouds known as 'island tails' that frequently form off the leeward coast of the Caribbean islands. This objective was successful in its implementation on Jan 18, 2005 with measurements made in vigorous, waterspout producing tail clouds immediately downwind of Barbuda. The investigation of these 'tails' fills a void in current cloud physics research since it is the first time this ubiquitous feature of trade-wind islands has been the focus of careful study. Scientific questions to be

  3. The Evolution of Massive Stars: a Selection of Facts and Questions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vanbeveren, D.

    In the present paper we discuss a selection of facts and questions related to observations and evolutionary calculations of massive single stars and massive stars in interacting binaries. We focus on the surface chemical abundances, the role of stellar winds, the early Be-stars, the high mass X-ray binaries and the effects of rotation on stellar evolution. Finally, we present an unconventionally formed object scenario (UFO-scenario) of WR binaries in dense stellar environments.

  4. Improving the Questions Students Ask

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Donohue-Smith, Maureen

    2006-01-01

    Teachers often tell their classes that "there is no such thing as a stupid question." But this is not completely honest. Questions aren't asked in a vacuum; their intelligence or stupidity depends on a variety of contextual variables. The ideal question is the right one, posed to the right source in the right way at the right time for the right…

  5. A Statistical Analysis of Student Questions in a Cell Biology Laboratory

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Keeling, Elena L.; Polacek, Kelly M.; Ingram, Ella L.

    2009-01-01

    Asking questions is an essential component of the practice of science, but question-asking skills are often underemphasized in science education. In this study, we examined questions written by students as they prepared for laboratory exercises in a senior-level cell biology class. Our goals were to discover 1) what types of questions students…

  6. The role of line junctions in object recognition: The case of reading musical notation.

    PubMed

    Wong, Yetta Kwailing; Wong, Alan C-N

    2018-04-30

    Previous work has shown that line junctions are informative features for visual perception of objects, letters, and words. However, the sources of such sensitivity and their generalizability to other object categories are largely unclear. We addressed these questions by studying perceptual expertise in reading musical notation, a domain in which individuals with different levels of expertise are readily available. We observed that removing line junctions created by the contact between musical notes and staff lines selectively impaired recognition performance in experts and intermediate readers, but not in novices. The degree of performance impairment was predicted by individual fluency in reading musical notation. Our findings suggest that line junctions provide diagnostic information about object identity across various categories, including musical notation. However, human sensitivity to line junctions does not readily transfer from familiar to unfamiliar object categories, and has to be acquired through perceptual experience with the specific objects.

  7. Reply & Supply: Efficient crowdsourcing when workers do more than answer questions

    PubMed Central

    McAndrew, Thomas C.; Guseva, Elizaveta A.

    2017-01-01

    Crowdsourcing works by distributing many small tasks to large numbers of workers, yet the true potential of crowdsourcing lies in workers doing more than performing simple tasks—they can apply their experience and creativity to provide new and unexpected information to the crowdsourcer. One such case is when workers not only answer a crowdsourcer’s questions but also contribute new questions for subsequent crowd analysis, leading to a growing set of questions. This growth creates an inherent bias for early questions since a question introduced earlier by a worker can be answered by more subsequent workers than a question introduced later. Here we study how to perform efficient crowdsourcing with such growing question sets. By modeling question sets as networks of interrelated questions, we introduce algorithms to help curtail the growth bias by efficiently distributing workers between exploring new questions and addressing current questions. Experiments and simulations demonstrate that these algorithms can efficiently explore an unbounded set of questions without losing confidence in crowd answers. PMID:28806413

  8. Investigating Students' Interest in Chemistry through Self-Generated Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Demirdogen, Betul; Cakmakci, Gultekin

    2014-01-01

    This study investigates Turkish students' (age 15 or older) interest in chemistry by analysing 1027 of their self-generated chemistry-related questions, which had been submitted to a popular science magazine. These questions were classified based on the field of interest, the cognitive level of the question, and the stimulating impetus for asking…

  9. Fifty important research questions in microbial ecology.

    PubMed

    Antwis, Rachael E; Griffiths, Sarah M; Harrison, Xavier A; Aranega-Bou, Paz; Arce, Andres; Bettridge, Aimee S; Brailsford, Francesca L; de Menezes, Alexandre; Devaynes, Andrew; Forbes, Kristian M; Fry, Ellen L; Goodhead, Ian; Haskell, Erin; Heys, Chloe; James, Chloe; Johnston, Sarah R; Lewis, Gillian R; Lewis, Zenobia; Macey, Michael C; McCarthy, Alan; McDonald, James E; Mejia-Florez, Nasmille L; O'Brien, David; Orland, Chloé; Pautasso, Marco; Reid, William D K; Robinson, Heather A; Wilson, Kenneth; Sutherland, William J

    2017-05-01

    Microbial ecology provides insights into the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of microbial communities underpinning every ecosystem on Earth. Microbial communities can now be investigated in unprecedented detail, although there is still a wealth of open questions to be tackled. Here we identify 50 research questions of fundamental importance to the science or application of microbial ecology, with the intention of summarising the field and bringing focus to new research avenues. Questions are categorised into seven themes: host-microbiome interactions; health and infectious diseases; human health and food security; microbial ecology in a changing world; environmental processes; functional diversity; and evolutionary processes. Many questions recognise that microbes provide an extraordinary array of functional diversity that can be harnessed to solve real-world problems. Our limited knowledge of spatial and temporal variation in microbial diversity and function is also reflected, as is the need to integrate micro- and macro-ecological concepts, and knowledge derived from studies with humans and other diverse organisms. Although not exhaustive, the questions presented are intended to stimulate discussion and provide focus for researchers, funders and policy makers, informing the future research agenda in microbial ecology. © FEMS 2017. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  10. Urban Service Providers' Perspectives on School Responses to Gay, Lesbian, and Questioning Students: An Exploratory Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Varjas, Kris; Graybill, Emily; Mahan, Will; Meyers, Joel; Dew, Brian; Marshall, Megan; Singh, Anneliese; Birckbichler, Lamar

    2007-01-01

    Perspectives regarding bullying of gay, lesbian, and questioning (GLQ) students were obtained from 16 school and community service providers in this exploratory study. Insights were gained regarding in-school responses to homophobic bullying threats beyond traditional punishments (e.g., suspension). Barriers to developing safe schools for GLQ…

  11. Comparison of Object Recognition Behavior in Human and Monkey

    PubMed Central

    Rajalingham, Rishi; Schmidt, Kailyn

    2015-01-01

    Although the rhesus monkey is used widely as an animal model of human visual processing, it is not known whether invariant visual object recognition behavior is quantitatively comparable across monkeys and humans. To address this question, we systematically compared the core object recognition behavior of two monkeys with that of human subjects. To test true object recognition behavior (rather than image matching), we generated several thousand naturalistic synthetic images of 24 basic-level objects with high variation in viewing parameters and image background. Monkeys were trained to perform binary object recognition tasks on a match-to-sample paradigm. Data from 605 human subjects performing the same tasks on Mechanical Turk were aggregated to characterize “pooled human” object recognition behavior, as well as 33 separate Mechanical Turk subjects to characterize individual human subject behavior. Our results show that monkeys learn each new object in a few days, after which they not only match mean human performance but show a pattern of object confusion that is highly correlated with pooled human confusion patterns and is statistically indistinguishable from individual human subjects. Importantly, this shared human and monkey pattern of 3D object confusion is not shared with low-level visual representations (pixels, V1+; models of the retina and primary visual cortex) but is shared with a state-of-the-art computer vision feature representation. Together, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that rhesus monkeys and humans share a common neural shape representation that directly supports object perception. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT To date, several mammalian species have shown promise as animal models for studying the neural mechanisms underlying high-level visual processing in humans. In light of this diversity, making tight comparisons between nonhuman and human primates is particularly critical in determining the best use of nonhuman primates to

  12. Rethinking Trends in Instructional Objectives: Exploring the Alignment of Objectives with Activities and Assessment in Higher Education--A Case Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yamanaka, Akio; Wu, Leon Yufeng

    2014-01-01

    This study explored higher education level syllabi to identify trends in educational objectives. Bloom's Taxonomy and various strategic models were used to classify 714 objectives from 114 sections of courses administered through a Midwest teacher education institution in the United States. 1229 verbs and verb phrases were classified through the…

  13. Now That's a Good Question! How to Promote Cognitive Rigor through Classroom Questioning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Francis, Erik M.

    2016-01-01

    In this book, Erik M. Francis explores how one of the most fundamental instructional strategies--questioning--can provide the proper scaffolding to deepen student thinking, understanding, and application of knowledge. You'll learn: (1) Techniques for using questioning to extend and evaluate student learning experiences; (2) Eight different kinds…

  14. Five Strategies for Questioning with Intention

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Costa, Arthur L.; Kallick, Bena

    2015-01-01

    Masterful teachers don't just ask a lot of questions; they ask questions in a purposeful way. In this article, Costa and Kallick describe five strategies that can help teachers become more purposeful in designing and posing questions. One strategy is to plan questions that elicit student thinking at various cognitive levels, from simple recall of…

  15. Investigating Teacher Questions within the Framework of Knowledge Building Pedagogy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kiss, Tamas; Wang, Alex

    2017-01-01

    This study is designed to investigate the impact of teacher experience and cognition on teacher questioning in the framework of Knowledge Building (KB) pedagogy. We already know that teachers ask the most questions in a classroom and that the majority of their questions have little impact on learning since they focus on classroom management…

  16. A Survey of Hospice Volunteer Coordinators: Training Methods and Objectives of Current Hospice Volunteer Training Programs.

    PubMed

    Brock, Cara M; Herndon, Christopher M

    2017-06-01

    Currently more than 5800 hospice organizations operate in the United States. 1 Hospice organizations are required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to use volunteers for services provided to patients. 2 Although CMS regulates the amount of hours hospice volunteers should provide, there are currently no national requirements for objectives of training. 3 The purpose of this study was to gather information from a sample of hospices regarding volunteer coordinator background, current training for volunteers, importance of training objectives, and any comments regarding additional objectives. Representative state hospice organizations were contacted by e-mail requesting their participation and distribution of the survey throughout their member hospices. The survey asked demographical questions, along with ratings of training components based on perceived level of importance and time spent on each objective. A total of 90 surveys were received, and the response rate was undeterminable. Results showed the majority of hospices were nonprofit, had less than 100 currently trained volunteers, and maintained an average daily patient census of less than 50. Questions regarding training programs indicated that most use live lecture methods of approximately 19 hours or less in duration. Overall, responding hospice organizations agreed that all objectives surveyed were important in training volunteers. The small number of respondents to this survey makes generalization nationwide difficult, however it is a strong starting point for the development of further surveys on hospice volunteer training and achieving a standardized set of training objectives and delivery methods.

  17. Computing with Connections in Visual Recognition of Origami Objects.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sabbah, Daniel

    1985-01-01

    Summarizes an initial foray in tackling artificial intelligence problems using a connectionist approach. The task chosen is visual recognition of Origami objects, and the questions answered are how to construct a connectionist network to represent and recognize projected Origami line drawings and the advantages such an approach would have. (30…

  18. Dissociable intrinsic functional networks support noun-object and verb-action processing.

    PubMed

    Yang, Huichao; Lin, Qixiang; Han, Zaizhu; Li, Hongyu; Song, Luping; Chen, Lingjuan; He, Yong; Bi, Yanchao

    2017-12-01

    The processing mechanism of verbs-actions and nouns-objects is a central topic of language research, with robust evidence for behavioral dissociation. The neural basis for these two major word and/or conceptual classes, however, remains controversial. Two experiments were conducted to study this question from the network perspective. Experiment 1 found that nodes of the same class, obtained through task-evoked brain imaging meta-analyses, were more strongly connected with each other than nodes of different classes during resting-state, forming segregated network modules. Experiment 2 examined the behavioral relevance of these intrinsic networks using data from 88 brain-damaged patients, finding that across patients the relative strength of functional connectivity of the two networks significantly correlated with the noun-object vs. verb-action relative behavioral performances. In summary, we found that verbs-actions and nouns-objects are supported by separable intrinsic functional networks and that the integrity of such networks accounts for the relative noun-object- and verb-action-selective deficits. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. B, V, and R Band Photometry of Trans-Neptunian Objects and Centaur Objects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tegler, S.; Romanishin, W.; Levine, J.; Butler, N.

    1996-09-01

    We present a progress report on our program at the Steward Observatory 2.3-m Telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona to carry out B, V, and R band photometry of Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) and Centaur Objects. The goal of our program is to answer the following first order questions: (1) Is there color diversity and hence surface composition diversity among TNOs? (2) What is the mechanism responsible for the diversity among Centaurs (and possibly TNOs)? We present B, V, and R band photometry of two TNOs (1994 TB and 1993 SC) and four Centaurs (1995 GO, 1993 HA2, 5145 Pholus, and 2060 Chiron). We find that 1994 TB, 1993 SC, 1993 HA2, and 5145 Pholus are among the reddest objects in the solar system and 1995 GO and 2060 Chiron are solar in color. In order to determine whether a diversity exists among TNOs and the nature of the mechanism responsible for the diversity among Cenaturs, we present our colors as well as colors in the literature on two diagrams: (1) a B-V vs V-R diagram and (2) a V-R vs semi-major axis diagram. We draw a number of interesting conclusions from these diagrams. However, colors are needed for many more objects before firm conclusions can be drawn. This research is sponsored by the NASA Origins of Solar Systems Program. J. L. and N. B. thank the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates Program at Northern Arizona University.

  20. Visualization: a tool for enhancing students' concept images of basic object-oriented concepts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cetin, Ibrahim

    2013-03-01

    The purpose of this study was twofold: to investigate students' concept images about class, object, and their relationship and to help them enhance their learning of these notions with a visualization tool. Fifty-six second-year university students participated in the study. To investigate his/her concept images, the researcher developed a survey including open-ended questions, which was administered to the participants. Follow-up interviews with 12 randomly selected students were conducted to explore their answers to the survey in depth. The results of the first part of the research were utilized to construct visualization scenarios. The students used these scenarios to develop animations using Flash software. The study found that most of the students experienced difficulties in learning object-oriented notions. Overdependence on code-writing practice and examples and incorrectly learned analogies were determined to be the sources of their difficulties. Moreover, visualization was found to be a promising approach in facilitating students' concept images of basic object-oriented notions. The results of this study have implications for researchers and practitioners when designing programming instruction.

  1. Validating two questions in the Force Concept Inventory with subquestions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yasuda, Jun-ichiro; Taniguchi, Masa-aki

    2013-06-01

    In this study, we evaluate the structural validity of Q.16 and Q.7 in the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). We address whether respondents who answer Q.16 and Q.7 correctly actually have an understanding of the concepts of physics tested in the questions. To examine respondents’ levels of understanding, we use subquestions that test them on concepts believed to be required to answer the actual FCI questions. Our sample size comprises 111 respondents; we derive false-positive ratios for prelearners and postlearners and then statistically test the difference between them. We find a difference at the 0.05 significance level for both Q.16 and Q.7, implying that it is possible for postlearners to answer both questions without an understanding of the concepts of physics tested in the questions; therefore, the structures of Q.16 and Q.7 are invalid. In this study, we only evaluate the validity of these two FCI questions; we do not assess the validity of previous studies that have compared total FCI scores.

  2. It's about the Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bearwald, Ronald R.

    2011-01-01

    The best coaching partnerships are built on conversation and listening, and they are not built on a coach giving answers to a mentee. Ronald Bearward explains how coaches can use questions to help mentees find answers for themselves. Effective questions lead to greater reflection and solutions that teachers can use now and in the future.

  3. Designing Great Hinge Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wiliam, Dylan

    2015-01-01

    According to author Dylan Wiliam, because lessons never go exactly as planned, teachers should build plan B into plan A. This involves designing a lesson with a "hinge" somewhere in the middle and using specific kinds of questions--what he calls hinge questions--to quickly assess students' understanding of a concept before moving on.…

  4. Attitudes towards conscientious objection among community pharmacists in Poland.

    PubMed

    Piecuch, Anna; Gryka, Malwina; Kozłowska-Wojciechowska, Małgorzata

    2014-04-01

    The European Council Resolution 1763 (2010), ‘‘The right to conscientious objection in lawful medical care’’, provoked a discussion among Polish pharmacists on the necessity for granting them the right to refuse to dispense medicinal products which invoke conscientious objection. To explore attitudes of Polish pharmacists towards the conscience clause. Pharmacies with public e-mail addresses in various parts of Poland (Lower Silesia Province, Mazovia Province, Kuyavia-Pomerania Province, and West Pomeranian Province). An online survey questionnaire addressed to 1,454 pharmacies. The participants were asked 8 questions,including a question addressed only to pharmacy managers and owners. Attitudes towards the right to conscientious objection for pharmacists. Ultimately, responses of 126 pharmacists (83 women, 43 men, average age-39 years of age) were taken into consideration. Most participants (92 %) have never refused to fill a prescription due to their beliefs; however, 15 % of participants state that if the conscience clause were legally sanctioned, they would exercise this right. Most participants(73 %) think that pharmacists should not have the right to conscientious objection. Almost half of participants who support implementation of the conscience clause would grant this right to pharmacists on a conditional basis, if the pharmacists were obliged to present other real options to the patient about obtaining a specific product. Pharmacists are rather reluctant to the idea of implementing the conscience clause, but despite a clear majority of its opponents, there seems to be a necessity for introducing such a regulation.

  5. Decoding information about dynamically occluded objects in visual cortex

    PubMed Central

    Erlikhman, Gennady; Caplovitz, Gideon P.

    2016-01-01

    During dynamic occlusion, an object passes behind an occluding surface and then later reappears. Even when completely occluded from view, such objects are experienced as continuing to exist or persist behind the occluder, even though they are no longer visible. The contents and neural basis of this persistent representation remain poorly understood. Questions remain as to whether there is information maintained about the object itself (i.e. its shape or identity) or, non-object-specific information such as its position or velocity as it is tracked behind an occluder as well as which areas of visual cortex represent such information. Recent studies have found that early visual cortex is activated by “invisible” objects during visual imagery and by unstimulated regions along the path of apparent motion, suggesting that some properties of dynamically occluded objects may also be neurally represented in early visual cortex. We applied functional magnetic resonance imaging in human subjects to examine the representation of information within visual cortex during dynamic occlusion. For gradually occluded, but not for instantly disappearing objects, there was an increase in activity in early visual cortex (V1, V2, and V3). This activity was spatially-specific, corresponding to the occluded location in the visual field. However, the activity did not encode enough information about object identity to discriminate between different kinds of occluded objects (circles vs. stars) using MVPA. In contrast, object identity could be decoded in spatially-specific subregions of higher-order, topographically organized areas such as ventral, lateral, and temporal occipital areas (VO, LO, and TO) as well as the functionally defined LOC and hMT+. These results suggest that early visual cortex may represent the dynamically occluded object’s position or motion path, while later visual areas represent object-specific information. PMID:27663987

  6. Foreign Study-Travel: A Handbook Dealing with a Variety of Questions, Concerns, and Information Involving Foreign Study/Travel in School Situations.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brouillet, Frank B.; And Others

    This handbook addresses the most frequently asked questions about international travel and exchange and gives suggestions to help parents, students, and school personnel avoid some of the problems arising from exchange activity. Chapters include information about: criteria for evaluating and selecting foreign travel and study programs;…

  7. Making sense of sexual orientation measures: findings from a cognitive processing study with adolescents on health survey questions.

    PubMed

    Austin, S Bryn; Conron, Kerith; Patel, Aarti; Freedner, Naomi

    2007-01-01

    To carry out a study using cognitive processing interview methods to explore ways in which adolescents understand sexual orientation questions currently used on epidemiologic surveys. In-depth, individual interviews were conducted to probe cognitive processes involved in answering four self-report survey questions assessing sexual identity, sexual attraction, and sex of sexual partners.A semi-structured interview guide was used to explore variation in question interpretation, information retrieval patterns and problems, item clarity, valence of reactions to items (positive, negative, neutral), respondent burden, and perceived threat associated with the measures. Thirty adolescents aged 15 to 21 of diverse sexual orientations and race/ethnicities participated in the study, including female, male, and transgender youth. A question on sexual attraction was the most consistently understood and thus was easy for nearly all youth to answer. In contrast, a measure of sexual identity with options heterosexual, bisexual, gay/lesbian, and unsure was the most difficult to answer. Most preferred a sexual identity item that also provided the intermediate options mostly heterosexual and mostly homosexual, which many said reflected their experience of feeling between categories. Participants had varying and inconsistent interpretations of sexual behavior terms, such as sex and sexual intercourse, used in assessing the sex of sexual partners. Differences in understanding could affect interpretation of survey data in important ways. Development of valid measures of sexual orientation will be essential to better monitor health disparities.

  8. Unanswered questions in ecology.

    PubMed Central

    May, R

    1999-01-01

    This is very much a personal view of what I think are some of the most important unanswered questions in ecology. That is, these are the questions that I expect will be high on the research agenda over the coming century. The list is organized hierarchically, beginning with questions at the level of individual populations, and progressing through interacting populations to entire communities or ecosystems. I will try to guess both at possible advances in basic knowledge and at potential applications. The only thing that is certain about this view of the future is that much of it will surely turn out to be wrong, and many of the most interesting future developments will be quite unforeseen. PMID:10670015

  9. Are 2 Questions Enough to Screen for Depression and Anxiety in Patients With Chronic Low Back Pain?

    PubMed Central

    Lie, Stein Atle; Eriksen, Hege R.

    2014-01-01

    Study Design. Cross-sectional study. Objective. To examine the sensitivity of 2 single-item questions compared with 2 longer questionnaires for screening depression and anxiety among patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). Summary of Background Data. Psychosocial factors are frequently identified as risk factors for developing CLBP and as predictors for treatment, and questionnaires are often used to screen for this. Shorter instruments may be easier to use in clinical practice settings. Methods. A total of 564 patients with 2 to 10 months of at least 50% sickness absence due to nonspecific low back pain were assessed for depression and anxiety with the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Single-item questions for depression and anxiety from the Subjective Health Complaint Inventory and 2 longer questionnaires, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Hopkins Symptom Checklist–25, were compared with MINI results, considered the “gold standard” in this study. Sensitivity and specificity of single-item and longer questionnaires and receiver operating characteristic curves were compared. Results. According to MINI, the prevalence of anxiety disorders was 12% whereas that of depressive disorders was 4%. The screening questions showed 95% sensitivity and 56% specificity for depressive disorders and 68% sensitivity and 85% specificity for anxiety disorders. The longer questionnaire, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, showed 91% sensitivity and 85% specificity for depressive disorders and 58% sensitivity and 83% specificity for anxiety disorders. Hopkins Symptom Checklist–25 showed 86% sensitivity and 74% specificity for depressive disorders and 67% sensitivity and 87% specificity for anxiety disorders. For 3 of the anxiety disorders and 2 of the depressive disorders, a perfect sensitivity was found between the screening questions and MINI. Conclusions. A single-item screening question was sensitive for depression but less sensitive

  10. Does real-time objective feedback and competition improve performance and quality in manikin CPR training--a prospective observational study from several European EMS.

    PubMed

    Smart, J R; Kranz, K; Carmona, F; Lindner, T W; Newton, A

    2015-10-15

    Previous studies have reported that the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is important for patient survival. Real time objective feedback during manikin training has been shown to improve CPR performance. Objective measurement could facilitate competition and help motivate participants to improve their CPR performance. The aims of this study were to investigate whether real time objective feedback on manikins helps improve CPR performance and whether competition between separate European Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and between participants at each EMS helps motivation to train. Ten European EMS took part in the study and was carried out in two stages. At Stage 1, each EMS provided 20 pre-hospital professionals. A questionnaire was completed and standardised assessment scenarios were performed for adult and infant out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). CPR performance was objectively measured and recorded but no feedback given. Between Stage 1 and 2, each EMS was given access to manikins for 6 months and instructed on how to use with objective real-time CPR feedback available. Stage 2 was undertaken and was a repeat of Stage 1 with a questionnaire with additional questions relating to usefulness of feedback and the competition nature of the study (using a 10 point Likert score). The EMS that improved the most from Stage 1 to Stage 2 was declared the winner. An independent samples Student t-test was used to analyse the objective CPR metrics with the significance level taken as p < 0.05. Overall mean Improvement of CPR performance from Stage 1 to Stage 2 was significant. The improvement was greater for the infant assessment. The participants thought the real-time feedback very useful (mean score of 8.5) and very easy to use (mean score of 8.2). Competition between EMS organisations recorded a mean score of 5.8 and competition between participants recorded a mean score of 6.0. The results suggest that the use of real time objective feedback can

  11. Explaining Errors in Children's Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rowland, Caroline F.

    2007-01-01

    The ability to explain the occurrence of errors in children's speech is an essential component of successful theories of language acquisition. The present study tested some generativist and constructivist predictions about error on the questions produced by ten English-learning children between 2 and 5 years of age. The analyses demonstrated that,…

  12. Object-Location Memory: A Lesion-Behavior Mapping Study in Stroke Patients

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    van Asselen, Marieke; Kessels, Roy P. C.; Frijns, Catharina J. M.; Kappelle, L. Jaap; Neggers, Sebastiaan F. W.; Postma, Albert

    2009-01-01

    Object-location memory is an important form of spatial memory, comprising different subcomponents that each process specific types of information within memory, i.e. remembering objects, remembering positions and binding these features in memory. In the current study we investigated the neural correlates of binding categorical (relative) or…

  13. Color Makes a Difference: Two-Dimensional Object Naming in Literate and Illiterate Subjects

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reis, Alexandra; Faisca, Luis; Ingvar, Martin; Petersson, Karl Magnus

    2006-01-01

    Previous work has shown that illiterate subjects are better at naming two-dimensional representations of real objects when presented as colored photos as compared to black and white drawings. This raises the question if color or textural details selectively improve object recognition and naming in illiterate compared to literate subjects. In this…

  14. Let's Switch Questioning Around

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tovani, Cris

    2015-01-01

    English teacher Cris Tovani knows from her experiences teaching elementary school that students are naturally curious. But, too often, students are so trained to be question answerers that by the time they reach high school, they no longer form questions of their own and instead focus on trying to figure out what answer the teacher wants. Tovani…

  15. Object individuation is invariant to attentional diffusion: Changes in the size of the attended region do not interact with object-substitution masking.

    PubMed

    Goodhew, Stephanie C; Edwards, Mark

    2016-12-01

    When the human brain is confronted with complex and dynamic visual scenes, two pivotal processes are at play: visual attention (the process of selecting certain aspects of the scene for privileged processing) and object individuation (determining what information belongs to a continuing object over time versus what represents two or more distinct objects). Here we examined whether these processes are independent or whether they interact. Object-substitution masking (OSM) has been used as a tool to examine such questions, however, there is controversy surrounding whether OSM reflects object individuation versus substitution processes. The object-individuation account is agnostic regarding the role of attention, whereas object-substitution theory stipulates a pivotal role for attention. There have been attempts to investigate the role of attention in OSM, but they have been subject to alternative explanations. Here, therefore, we manipulated the size of the attended region, a pure and uncontaminated attentional manipulation, and examined the impact on OSM. Across three experiments, there was no interaction. This refutes the object-substitution theory of OSM. This, in turn, tell us that object-individuation is invariant the distribution of attention. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Difficult Questions of Difficult Questions: The Role of The Researcher and Transcription Styles

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Henderson, Holly

    2018-01-01

    This paper refracts a comparison of three distinct transcription styles through questions of researcher reflexivity. It uses the data from a single question asked by the researcher in multiple interviews for a small empirical project. These data are transcribed in three ways, and the resulting transcripts are discussed in relation to the analysis…

  17. A Qualitative Study of US Clinical Ethics Services: Objectives and Outcomes.

    PubMed

    McClimans, Leah; Pressgrove, Geah; Rhea, James

    2016-01-01

    The quality of clinical ethics services in health care organizations is increasingly seen as an important aspect of the overall quality of care. But measuring this quality is difficult because there is a lack of clarity and consensus regarding the objectives of clinical ethics and the best outcome domains to measure. The aim of this qualitative study is to explore the views of experts about the objectives and outcomes of clinical ethics services in the US. We interviewed 19 experts in clinical ethics, focusing on the appropriate objectives and outcomes of a clinical ethics service (CES). Participants were selected using a purposive snowball sampling strategy. The development of the interview protocol was informed by the clinical ethics literature as well as by research and theories that inform clinical ethics practice. Interviews were conducted by phone, recorded, and transcribed for individual analysis. Analysis proceeded through the development of a codebook of categories using QDA Miner software. Our experts identified 12 objectives and nine outcomes. Some of these identifications were familiar (e.g., mediation and satisfaction) and some were novel (e.g., be of service and transformation). We found that experts are divided in their emphasis on the kinds of objectives that are most important. In terms of outcomes, our experts were concerned with the appropriateness of different proxy and direct measures. This study provides the perspectives of a select group of experts on the objectives and outcomes appropriate for a CES in the United States. The themes identified will be used in future research to inform a Delphi study to refine and obtain expert consensus.

  18. The ultimate question of origins: God and the beginning of the Universe.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Craig, W. L.

    Both cosmology and philosophy trace their roots to the wonder felt by the ancient Greeks as they contemplated the Universe. The ultimate question remains why the Universe exists rather than nothing. This question led Leibniz to postulate the existence of a metaphysically necessary being, which he identified as God. Leibniz's critics, however, disputed this identification, claiming that the space-time universe itself may be the metaphysically necessary being. The discovery during this century that the Universe began to exist, however, calls into question the Universe's status as metaphysically necessary, since any necessary being must be eternal in its existence. Although various cosmogonic models claiming to avert the beginning of the Universe predicted by the standard model have been and continue to be offered, no model involving an eternal universe has proved as plausible as the standard model. Unless we are to assert that the Universe simply sprang into being uncaused out of nothing, we are thus led to Leibniz's conclusion. Several objections to inferring a supernatural cause of the origin of the Universe are considered and found to be unsound.

  19. The Ultimate Question of Origins: God and the Beginning of the Universe

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Craig, William Lane

    1999-12-01

    Both cosmology and philosophy trace their roots to the wonder felt by the ancient Greeks as they contemplated the universe. The ultimate question remains why the universe exists rather than nothing. This question led Leibniz to postulate the existence of a metaphysically necessary being, which he identified as God. Leibniz's critics, however, disputed this identification, claiming that the space-time universe itself may be the metaphysically necessary being. The discovery during this century that the universe began to exist, however, calls into question the universe's status as metaphysically necessary, since any necessary being must be eternal in its existence. Although various cosmogonic models claiming to avert the beginning of the universe predicted by the standard model have been and continue to be offered, no model involving an eternal universe has proved as plausible as the standard model. Unless we are to assert that the universe simply sprang into being uncaused out of nothing, we are thus led to Leibniz's conclusion. Several objections to inferring a supernatural cause of the origin of the universe are considered and found to be unsound.

  20. Reliability and Validity of a Two-Question Alcohol Screen in the Pediatric Emergency Department

    PubMed Central

    Spirito, Anthony; Bromberg, Julie R.; Casper, T. Charles; Chun, Thomas H.; Mello, Michael J.; Dean, J. Michael

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: A multisite study was conducted to determine the psychometric properties of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) 2-question alcohol screen within pediatric emergency departments (PEDs). METHODS: Participants (N = 4838) included 12- to 17-year-old subjects treated in 1 of the 16 participating PEDs across the United States. A criterion assessment battery (including the NIAAA 2-question alcohol screen and other measures of alcohol, drug use, and risk behaviors) was self-administered on a tablet computer. A subsample (n = 186) was re-administered the NIAAA 2-question screen 1 week later to assess test-retest reliability. RESULTS: Moderate to good test-retest reliability was demonstrated. A classification of moderate risk or higher on the screen had the best combined sensitivity and specificity for determining a diagnosis of alcohol use disorder (AUD) for all students. Any past year drinking among middle school students increased the odds of a diagnosis of an AUD according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition criteria, whereas the optimal cutoff for high school ages was ≥3 drinking days in the past year. The optimal cutoff for drinking days determining a positive Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test score among middle school subjects was ≥1 drinking day, whereas the optimal cutoff for high school subjects was ≥2 drinking days. CONCLUSIONS: The NIAAA 2-question screen is a brief, valid approach for alcohol screening in PEDs. A positive screen suggests that referral for further evaluation is indicated to determine if an adolescent has an AUD. PMID:27940674

  1. Object Manipulation Facilitates Kind-Based Object Individuation of Shape-Similar Objects

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kingo, Osman S.; Krojgaard, Peter

    2011-01-01

    Five experiments investigated the importance of shape and object manipulation when 12-month-olds were given the task of individuating objects representing exemplars of kinds in an event-mapping design. In Experiments 1 and 2, results of the study from Xu, Carey, and Quint (2004, Experiment 4) were partially replicated, showing that infants were…

  2. Reconciling Intuitive Physics and Newtonian Mechanics for Colliding Objects

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sanborn, Adam N.; Mansinghka, Vikash K.; Griffiths, Thomas L.

    2013-01-01

    People have strong intuitions about the influence objects exert upon one another when they collide. Because people's judgments appear to deviate from Newtonian mechanics, psychologists have suggested that people depend on a variety of task-specific heuristics. This leaves open the question of how these heuristics could be chosen, and how to…

  3. Studies in Dialogue and Discourse: An Exponential Law of Successive Questioning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mishler, Elliot G.

    1975-01-01

    The structure of natural conversations in first-grade classrooms is the focus of this inquiry. Analyses of a particular type of discourse, namely, connected conversations initiated and sustained by questioning, suggest that the probability that a conversation will be continued may be expressed as a simple exponential function. (Author/RM)

  4. Measuring what matters: does 'objectivity' mean good science?

    PubMed

    Kayes, Nicola M; McPherson, Kathryn M

    2010-01-01

    While the limitations of self-report measures are clearly acknowledged, less apparent is attention to the potential limitations of their 'objective' counterparts leading to the assumption that objectivity results in more robust and scientifically valid measurement tools. This article aims to: (1) test this assumption; (2) consider the implications of advocating for a measure on the basis of its objectivity; (3) propose an alternative approach to measure selection. A critical evaluation of one 'objective' measure highlights a number of potential limitations suggesting that the apparent willingness to adopt 'objective' measures with little questioning may be misguided. The possible implications of this are discussed and include a risk to the advancement of, and capacity for, knowledge in rehabilitation; or worse, of making clinical decisions based on erroneous conclusions. Characterising a measure on the basis of objectivity (or not) assumes an overly simplistic dichotomy that is unhelpful and perhaps misleading. We argue that assessing whether a measure is fit for purpose and makes mathematical sense is the key consideration. Indeed, in some cases, using both an 'objective' measure and a subjective rating scale may be appropriate and the only way of truly capturing the phenomenon of interest.

  5. The Effects of Behavioral Objectives on Learning: A Review of Empirical Studies.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Duchastel, Philippe C.; Merrill, Paul F.

    In a review of over 25 empirical investigations of effects of communicating behavioral objectives to students, several trends were apparent. Advance knowledge of behavioral objectives led to improved posttest performance in five of ten studies and to improved retention in two of three instances. Only two of seven studies found an interaction…

  6. Selective Benefits of Question Self-Generation and Answering for Remembering Expository Text

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bugg, Julie M.; McDaniel, Mark A.

    2012-01-01

    The present study examined possible memory and metacomprehension benefits of using a combined question self-generation and answering technique, relative to rereading, as a study strategy for expository passages. In the 2 question self-generation and answering conditions (detail or conceptual questions), participants were prompted on how to…

  7. An Examination of the Questioning Interactions of Prospective Teachers during Mathematical Discussions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Darke, Kelly Marie

    2010-01-01

    Questioning is an essential and generative studying practice for prospective teachers (PTs) as they develop their mathematical content knowledge needed for teaching. This study examines PTs' questioning interactions by describing the types of questions they ask during small group discussions in a required mathematics content course and how their…

  8. Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in the Environment: What Are the Big Questions?

    PubMed Central

    Rudd, Murray A.; Brooks, Bryan W.; Caldwell, Daniel J.; Choi, Kyungho; Hickmann, Silke; Innes, Elizabeth; Ostapyk, Kim; Staveley, Jane P.; Verslycke, Tim; Ankley, Gerald T.; Beazley, Karen F.; Belanger, Scott E.; Berninger, Jason P.; Carriquiriborde, Pedro; Coors, Anja; DeLeo, Paul C.; Dyer, Scott D.; Ericson, Jon F.; Gagné, François; Giesy, John P.; Gouin, Todd; Hallstrom, Lars; Karlsson, Maja V.; Larsson, D. G. Joakim; Lazorchak, James M.; Mastrocco, Frank; McLaughlin, Alison; McMaster, Mark E.; Meyerhoff, Roger D.; Moore, Roberta; Parrott, Joanne L.; Snape, Jason R.; Murray-Smith, Richard; Servos, Mark R.; Sibley, Paul K.; Straub, Jürg Oliver; Szabo, Nora D.; Topp, Edward; Tetreault, Gerald R.; Trudeau, Vance L.; Van Der Kraak, Glen

    2012-01-01

    Background: Over the past 10–15 years, a substantial amount of work has been done by the scientific, regulatory, and business communities to elucidate the effects and risks of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment. Objective: This review was undertaken to identify key outstanding issues regarding the effects of PPCPs on human and ecological health in order to ensure that future resources will be focused on the most important areas. Data sources: To better understand and manage the risks of PPCPs in the environment, we used the “key question” approach to identify the principle issues that need to be addressed. Initially, questions were solicited from academic, government, and business communities around the world. A list of 101 questions was then discussed at an international expert workshop, and a top-20 list was developed. Following the workshop, workshop attendees ranked the 20 questions by importance. Data synthesis: The top 20 priority questions fell into seven categories: a) prioritization of substances for assessment, b) pathways of exposure, c) bioavailability and uptake, d) effects characterization, e) risk and relative risk, f ) antibiotic resistance, and g) risk management. Conclusions: A large body of information is now available on PPCPs in the environment. This exercise prioritized the most critical questions to aid in development of future research programs on the topic. PMID:22647657

  9. The answer is questions: accelerated-nursing students report practice questions are fundamental to first-time NCLEX-RN success.

    PubMed

    Blozen, Barbara B

    2014-01-01

    There are a number of anecdotal reports on demographic characteristics and academic success of accelerated-nursing students; yet few empirical studies have examined accelerated-nursing students NCLEX-RN success. Applying Knowles' adult learning theory as a guiding framework, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore, from the accelerated-nursing students' perspective, the factors reported as contributing to their success on the NCLEX-RN. The research questions aimed to elicit participants' descriptions of their experiences and factors contributing to their success via individual interviews. The most significant finding the participants identified as the factor that contributed to their success was the practicing of NCLEX-RN questions. The findings of this study have several implications for educational policy and practice for universities and schools of nursing as the information gained from this study applies to recruitment and retention as well as curriculum and educational strategies in an accelerated-nursing program.

  10. Representational dynamics of object recognition: Feedforward and feedback information flows.

    PubMed

    Goddard, Erin; Carlson, Thomas A; Dermody, Nadene; Woolgar, Alexandra

    2016-03-01

    Object perception involves a range of visual and cognitive processes, and is known to include both a feedfoward flow of information from early visual cortical areas to higher cortical areas, along with feedback from areas such as prefrontal cortex. Previous studies have found that low and high spatial frequency information regarding object identity may be processed over different timescales. Here we used the high temporal resolution of magnetoencephalography (MEG) combined with multivariate pattern analysis to measure information specifically related to object identity in peri-frontal and peri-occipital areas. Using stimuli closely matched in their low-level visual content, we found that activity in peri-occipital cortex could be used to decode object identity from ~80ms post stimulus onset, and activity in peri-frontal cortex could also be used to decode object identity from a later time (~265ms post stimulus onset). Low spatial frequency information related to object identity was present in the MEG signal at an earlier time than high spatial frequency information for peri-occipital cortex, but not for peri-frontal cortex. We additionally used Granger causality analysis to compare feedforward and feedback influences on representational content, and found evidence of both an early feedfoward flow and later feedback flow of information related to object identity. We discuss our findings in relation to existing theories of object processing and propose how the methods we use here could be used to address further questions of the neural substrates underlying object perception. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Discriminatory Questions and Applicant Reactions in the Employment Interview.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Saks, Alan M.; And Others

    This study investigated the effects of discriminatory interview questions on applicants' perceptions and intentions toward an organization. Participants included 118 graduate business students (59 percent male), average age of 31 with more than eight years of full-time work experience. Discriminatory questions addressed handicaps, plans for…

  12. Restabilizing attachment to cultural objects. Aesthetics, emotions and biography.

    PubMed

    Benzecry, Claudio E

    2015-12-01

    The scholarship on aesthetics and materiality has studied how objects help shape identity, social action and subjectivity. Objects, as 'equipment[s] for living' (Luhmann 2000), become the 'obligatory passage points humans have to contend with in order to pursue their projects (Latour 1991). They provide patterns to which bodies can unconsciously latch onto, or help human agents work towards particular states of being (DeNora 2000, 2003). Objects are central in the long term process of taste construction, as any attachment to an object is made out of a delicate equilibrium of mediators, bodies, situations and techniques (Hennion and his collaborators (Hennion and Fouquet 2001; Hennion and Gomart 1999). In all of these accounts objects are the end result of long-term processes of stabilization, in which the actual material object (a musical piece, a sculpture, an art installation, a glass of wine, the oeuvre of Bach as we know it) is both a result and yet a key co-producer of its own generation. Whereas the literature has been generous and detailed in exploring the processes of assembling and sustaining object-centered attachments, it has not sufficiently engaged with what happens when the aesthetic elements of cultural artifacts that have produced emotional resonance are transformed: what do these artifacts morph into? What explains the transition (or not) of different cultural objects? And relatedly, what happens to the key aesthetic qualities that were so central to how the objects had been defined, and to those who have emotionally attached to them? To answer these questions, this article uses as exemplars two different cases of attachment, predicated on the distinctive features of a cultural object--the transcendence of opera and the authenticity of a soccer jersey--that have undergone transformations. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2015.

  13. Examining the Impact of Question Surface Features on Students' Answers to Constructed-Response Questions on Photosynthesis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Weston, Michele; Haudek, Kevin C.; Prevost, Luanna; Urban-Lurain, Mark; Merrill, John

    2015-01-01

    One challenge in science education assessment is that students often focus on surface features of questions rather than the underlying scientific principles. We investigated how student written responses to constructed-response questions about photosynthesis vary based on two surface features of the question: the species of plant and the order of…

  14. Examining the impact of question surface features on students' answers to constructed-response questions on photosynthesis.

    PubMed

    Weston, Michele; Haudek, Kevin C; Prevost, Luanna; Urban-Lurain, Mark; Merrill, John

    2015-01-01

    One challenge in science education assessment is that students often focus on surface features of questions rather than the underlying scientific principles. We investigated how student written responses to constructed-response questions about photosynthesis vary based on two surface features of the question: the species of plant and the order of two question prompts. We asked four versions of the question with different combinations of the two plant species and order of prompts in an introductory cell biology course. We found that there was not a significant difference in the content of student responses to versions of the question stem with different species or order of prompts, using both computerized lexical analysis and expert scoring. We conducted 20 face-to-face interviews with students to further probe the effects of question wording on student responses. During the interviews, we found that students thought that the plant species was neither relevant nor confusing when answering the question. Students identified the prompts as both relevant and confusing. However, this confusion was not specific to a single version. © 2015 M. Weston et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2015 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

  15. Generic Drugs: Questions and Answers

    MedlinePlus

    ... Vaccines, Blood & Biologics Animal & Veterinary Cosmetics Tobacco Products Drugs Home Drugs Resources for You Information for Consumers (Drugs) Questions & Answers Generic Drugs: Questions & Answers Share Tweet Linkedin Pin it More ...

  16. Lesson Imaging in Math and Science: Anticipating Student Ideas and Questions for Deeper STEM Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stephan, Michelle; Pugalee, David; Cline, Julie; Cline, Chris

    2016-01-01

    Help turn students into problem solvers. With lesson imaging, teachers anticipate how chosen activities will unfold in real time--what solutions, questions, and misconceptions students might have and how teachers can promote deeper reasoning. When lesson imaging occurs before instruction, students achieve lesson objectives more naturally and…

  17. Nanotechnology and health: From boundary object to bodily intervention

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Perry, Karen-Marie Elah

    Nanotechnology is commonly understood to involve the manipulation of individual molecules and atoms. Increasingly, healthcare practices in British Columbia are articulated through the nanotechnological in relationship to the body. The hope for better treatment and diagnosis of disease is located in the specificity of nanotechnological applications -- the finely tuned targeting of cells and treatments geared towards individual molecular profiles. However, this same specificity also alarms regulators, activists and consumer groups in the potential for increased toxicity. Drawing from participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and theoretical orientations adopted by Susan Leigh Star and Jeffrey Bowker, this thesis explores three questions: 1) How can nanotechnology inhabit multiple contexts at once and have both local and shared meaning; 2) How can people who live in one community draw their meanings from people and objects situated there and communicate with those inhabiting another; and 3) What moral and political consequences attend each of these questions? Keywords: nanotechnology; medical anthropology; anthropology of the body; science studies; critical theory; feminist theory; ethnography; qualitative research; biomedicine; nanotoxicology; bionanotechnology; British Columbia; Canada; nanomedicine; medical nanotechnology.

  18. [Diabetes and connected objects, appropriation or rejection?

    PubMed

    Guillot, Caroline

    2017-11-01

    There are numerous connected objects aimed at the 3.5 million people with diabetes in France. What do patients think of them and what use do they actually get out of them? Diabète LAB, the living lab of the French Federation of Diabetics, questions patients with diabetes about their experiences, their uses of the technical devices and health services, as well as their needs. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  19. Ordered questions bias eyewitnesses and jurors.

    PubMed

    Michael, Robert B; Garry, Maryanne

    2016-04-01

    Eyewitnesses play an important role in the justice system. But suggestive questioning can distort eyewitness memory and confidence, and these distorted beliefs influence jurors (Loftus, Learning & Memory, 12, 361-366, 2005; Penrod & Culter, Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 1, 817-845, 1995). Recent research, however, hints that suggestion is not necessary: Simply changing the order of a set of trivia questions altered people's beliefs about their accuracy on those questions (Weinstein & Roediger, Memory & Cognition, 38, 366-376, 2010, Memory & Cognition, 40, 727-735, 2012). We wondered to what degree eyewitnesses' beliefs-and in turn the jurors who evaluate them-would be affected by this simple change to the order in which they answer questions. Across six experiments, we show that the order of questions matters. Eyewitnesses reported higher accuracy and were more confident about their memory when questions seemed initially easy, than when they seemed initially difficult. Moreover, jurors' beliefs about eyewitnesses closely matched those of the eyewitnesses themselves. These findings have implications for eyewitness metacognition and for eyewitness questioning procedures.

  20. Beyond Information Retrieval—Medical Question Answering

    PubMed Central

    Lee, Minsuk; Cimino, James; Zhu, Hai Ran; Sable, Carl; Shanker, Vijay; Ely, John; Yu, Hong

    2006-01-01

    Physicians have many questions when caring for patients, and frequently need to seek answers for their questions. Information retrieval systems (e.g., PubMed) typically return a list of documents in response to a user’s query. Frequently the number of returned documents is large and makes physicians’ information seeking “practical only ‘after hours’ and not in the clinical settings”. Question answering techniques are based on automatically analyzing thousands of electronic documents to generate short-text answers in response to clinical questions that are posed by physicians. The authors address physicians’ information needs and described the design, implementation, and evaluation of the medical question answering system (MedQA). Although our long term goal is to enable MedQA to answer all types of medical questions, currently, we currently implement MedQA to integrate information retrieval, extraction, and summarization techniques to automatically generate paragraph-level text for definitional questions (i.e., “What is X?”). MedQA can be accessed at http://www.dbmi.columbia.edu/~yuh9001/research/MedQA.html. PMID:17238385

  1. You Know Arnold Schwarzenegger? On Doing Questioning in Second Language Dyadic Tutorials

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Belhiah, Hassan

    2012-01-01

    This study analyses question-answer (QA) sequences in second language tutorial interaction. Using conversation analysis methodology as an analytical tool, the study demonstrates how the act of questioning is a dominant form of interaction in tutoring discourse. The doing of questioning is accomplished through a myriad of forms other than…

  2. What's "Verbil" Sex? An Analysis of Adolescents' Questions about Sex.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Campbell, Toni A.; Campbell, David E.

    Although many studies have described adolescents' sexual behavior and attitudes, there are little data available on the nature of the questions that occur to adolescents as they move toward maturity. A study was conducted to determine whether the questions children and adolescents ask reflect developmental differences in cognitive abilities and…

  3. Question Asking in the Science Classroom: Teacher Attitudes and Practices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Eshach, Haim; Dor-Ziderman, Yair; Yefroimsky, Yana

    2014-02-01

    Despite the wide agreement among educators that classroom learning and teaching processes can gain much from student and teacher questions, their potential is not fully utilized. Adopting the view that reporting both teachers' (of varying age groups) views and actual classroom practices is necessary for obtaining a more complete view of the phenomena at hand, the present study closely examines both cognitive and affective domains of: (a) teachers' views (via interviews) concerning: (1) importance and roles of teacher and student questions, (2) teacher responses, and (3) planning and teacher training; and (b) teachers' actual practices (via classroom observations) concerning: (1) number and (2) level of teacher and student questions, as well as (3) teachers' responses to questions. The data were collected from 3 elementary, 3 middle, and 3 high school science teachers and their respective classroom students. The findings lay out a wide view of classroom questioning and teachers' responses, and relate what actually occurs in classes to teachers' stated views. Some of the study's main conclusions are that a gap exists between how science researchers and teachers view the role of teacher questions: the former highlight the cognitive domain, while the latter emphasize the affective domain.

  4. 75 FR 42362 - Responsibility of Applicants for Promoting Objectivity in Research for Which Public Health...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-07-21

    ...] RIN 0925-AA53 Responsibility of Applicants for Promoting Objectivity in Research for Which Public... Responsibility of Applicants for Promoting Objectivity in Research for which PHS Funding is Sought and.... Sally Rockey, NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research, concerning substantive questions about the...

  5. Questioning context: a set of interdisciplinary questions for investigating contextual factors affecting health decision making

    PubMed Central

    Charise, Andrea; Witteman, Holly; Whyte, Sarah; Sutton, Erica J.; Bender, Jacqueline L.; Massimi, Michael; Stephens, Lindsay; Evans, Joshua; Logie, Carmen; Mirza, Raza M.; Elf, Marie

    2011-01-01

    Abstract Objective  To combine insights from multiple disciplines into a set of questions that can be used to investigate contextual factors affecting health decision making. Background  Decision‐making processes and outcomes may be shaped by a range of non‐medical or ‘contextual’ factors particular to an individual including social, economic, political, geographical and institutional conditions. Research concerning contextual factors occurs across many disciplines and theoretical domains, but few conceptual tools have attempted to integrate and translate this wide‐ranging research for health decision‐making purposes. Methods  To formulate this tool we employed an iterative, collaborative process of scenario development and question generation. Five hypothetical health decision‐making scenarios (preventative, screening, curative, supportive and palliative) were developed and used to generate a set of exploratory questions that aim to highlight potential contextual factors across a range of health decisions. Findings  We present an exploratory tool consisting of questions organized into four thematic domains – Bodies, Technologies, Place and Work (BTPW) – articulating wide‐ranging contextual factors relevant to health decision making. The BTPW tool encompasses health‐related scholarship and research from a range of disciplines pertinent to health decision making, and identifies concrete points of intersection between its four thematic domains. Examples of the practical application of the questions are also provided. Conclusions  These exploratory questions provide an interdisciplinary toolkit for identifying the complex contextual factors affecting decision making. The set of questions comprised by the BTPW tool may be applied wholly or partially in the context of clinical practice, policy development and health‐related research. PMID:21029277

  6. Getting Answers to Natural Language Questions on the Web.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Radev, Dragomir R.; Libner, Kelsey; Fan, Weiguo

    2002-01-01

    Describes a study that investigated the use of natural language questions on Web search engines. Highlights include query languages; differences in search engine syntax; and results of logistic regression and analysis of variance that showed aspects of questions that predicted significantly different performances, including the number of words,…

  7. Phonological loop affects children's interpretations of explicit but not ambiguous questions: Research on links between working memory and referent assignment.

    PubMed

    Meng, Xianwei; Murakami, Taro; Hashiya, Kazuhide

    2017-01-01

    Understanding the referent of other's utterance by referring the contextual information helps in smooth communication. Although this pragmatic referential process can be observed even in infants, its underlying mechanism and relative abilities remain unclear. This study aimed to comprehend the background of the referential process by investigating whether the phonological loop affected the referent assignment. A total of 76 children (43 girls) aged 3-5 years participated in a reference assignment task in which an experimenter asked them to answer explicit (e.g., "What color is this?") and ambiguous (e.g., "What about this?") questions about colorful objects. The phonological loop capacity was measured by using the forward digit span task in which children were required to repeat the numbers as an experimenter uttered them. The results showed that the scores of the forward digit span task positively predicted correct response to explicit questions and part of the ambiguous questions. That is, the phonological loop capacity did not have effects on referent assignment in response to ambiguous questions that were asked after a topic shift of the explicit questions and thus required a backward reference to the preceding explicit questions to detect the intent of the current ambiguous questions. These results suggest that although the phonological loop capacity could overtly enhance the storage of verbal information, it does not seem to directly contribute to the pragmatic referential process, which might require further social cognitive processes.

  8. Objective structured practical examination in biochemistry: An experience in Medical College, Kolkata.

    PubMed

    Kundu, Dipankar; Das, H N; Sen, Gargi; Osta, Manish; Mandal, T; Gautam, Divyendu

    2013-01-01

    Undergraduate medical examination is undergoing extensive re evaluation with new core educational objectives being defined. Consequently, new exam systems have also been designed to test the objectives. Objective structured practical examination (OSPE) is one of them. To introduce OSPE as a method of assessment of practical skills and learning and to determine student satisfaction regarding the OSPE. Furthermore, to explore the faculty perception of OSPE as a learning and assessment tool. The first M.B.B.S students of 2011 12 batch of Medical College, Kolkata, were the subjects for the study. OSPE was organized and conducted on "Identification of Unknown Abnormal Constituents in Urine." Coefficient of reliability of questions administered was done by calculating Cronbach's alpha. A questionnaire on various components of the OSPE was administered to get the feedback. 16 students failed to achieve an average of 50% or above in the assessment. However, 49 students on an average achieved >75%, 52 students achieved between 65% and 75%, and 29 students scored between 50% and 65%. Cronbach's alpha of the questions administered showed to be having high internal consistency with a score of 0.80. Ninety nine percent of students believed that OSPE helps them to improve and 81% felt that this type of assessment fits in as both learning and evaluation tools. Faculty feedback reflected that such assessment tested objectivity, measured practical skills better, and eliminated examiner bias to a greater extent. OSPE tests different desired components of competence better and eliminated examiner bias. Student feedback reflects that such assessment helps them to improve as it is effective both as teaching and evaluation tools.

  9. A characterization of clinical questions asked by rehabilitation therapists.

    PubMed

    Kloda, Lorie Andrea; Bartlett, Joan C

    2014-04-01

    This study explored the information needs of rehabilitation therapists (occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech-language pathologists) working with patients who have had strokes in order to characterize their clinical questions, defined as their formalized information needs arising in the context of everyday clinical practice. The researchers took a constructivist, interpretive approach, in which fifteen rehabilitation therapists working in various settings were recruited. Data were gathered using diaries, followed by diary-guided interviews, and thematically analyzed using template analysis. Rehabilitation therapists' clinical questions were characterized as having one or more of twelve foci and containing one or more of eight possible structural elements. Findings demonstrate that the evidence-based practice framework currently applied for questions relating to rehabilitation is inadequate for representing rehabilitation therapists' clinical questions. A new framework that is more comprehensive and descriptive is proposed. Librarians working with students and clinicians in rehabilitation can employ knowledge of the twelve foci and the question structure for rehabilitation to guide the reference interview. Instruction on question formulation in evidence-based practice can employ the revised structure for rehabilitation, offering students and clinicians an alternative to the traditional patient, intervention, comparison, outcome (PICO) structure. Information products, including bibliographic databases and synopsis services, can tailor their interfaces according to question foci and prompt users to enter search terms corresponding to any of the eight possible elements found in rehabilitation therapists' clinical questions.

  10. Error Patterns in Young German Children's "Wh"-Questions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schmerse, Daniel; Lieven, Elena; Tomasello, Michael

    2013-01-01

    In this article we report two studies: a detailed longitudinal analysis of errors in "wh"-questions from six German-learning children (age 2 ; 0-3 ; 0) and an analysis of the prosodic characteristics of "wh"-questions in German child-directed speech. The results of the first study demonstrate that German-learning children…

  11. Urinary incontinence self-report questions: reproducibility and agreement with bladder diary.

    PubMed

    Bradley, Catherine S; Brown, Jeanette S; Van Den Eeden, Stephen K; Schembri, Michael; Ragins, Arona; Thom, David H

    2011-12-01

    This study aims to measure self-report urinary incontinence questions' reproducibility and agreement with bladder diary. Data were analyzed from the Reproductive Risk of Incontinence Study at Kaiser. Participating women reporting at least weekly incontinence completed self-report incontinence questions and a 7-day bladder diary. Self-report question reproducibility was assessed and agreement between self-reported and diary-recorded voiding and incontinence frequency was measured. Test characteristics and area under the curve were calculated for self-reported incontinence types using diary as the gold standard. Five hundred ninety-one women were included and 425 completed a diary. The self-report questions had moderate reproducibility and self-reported and diary-recorded incontinence and voiding frequencies had moderate to good agreement. Self-reported incontinence types identified stress and urgency incontinence more accurately than mixed incontinence. Self-report incontinence questions have moderate reproducibility and agreement with diary, and considering their minimal burden, are acceptable research tools in epidemiologic studies.

  12. Questionable Exercises.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Liemohn, Wendell; Haydu, Traci; Phillips, Dawn

    1999-01-01

    This publication presents general guidelines for exercise prescription that have an anatomical basis but also consider the exerciser's ability to do the exercise correctly. It reviews various common questionable exercises, explaining how some exercises, especially those designed for flexibility and muscle fitness, can cause harm. Safer…

  13. How Question Types Reveal Student Thinking: An Experimental Comparison of Multiple-True-False and Free-Response Formats

    PubMed Central

    Hubbard, Joanna K.; Potts, Macy A.; Couch, Brian A.

    2017-01-01

    Assessments represent an important component of undergraduate courses because they affect how students interact with course content and gauge student achievement of course objectives. To make decisions on assessment design, instructors must understand the affordances and limitations of available question formats. Here, we use a crossover experimental design to identify differences in how multiple-true-false (MTF) and free-response (FR) exam questions reveal student thinking regarding specific conceptions. We report that correct response rates correlate across the two formats but that a higher percentage of students provide correct responses for MTF questions. We find that MTF questions reveal a high prevalence of students with mixed (correct and incorrect) conceptions, while FR questions reveal a high prevalence of students with partial (correct and unclear) conceptions. These results suggest that MTF question prompts can direct students to address specific conceptions but obscure nuances in student thinking and may overestimate the frequency of particular conceptions. Conversely, FR questions provide a more authentic portrait of student thinking but may face limitations in their ability to diagnose specific, particularly incorrect, conceptions. We further discuss an intrinsic tension between question structure and diagnostic capacity and how instructors might use multiple formats or hybrid formats to overcome these obstacles. PMID:28450446

  14. Primary care validation of a single screening question for drinkers.

    PubMed

    Seale, J Paul; Boltri, John M; Shellenberger, Sylvia; Velasquez, Mary M; Cornelius, Monica; Guyinn, Monique; Okosun, Ike; Sumner, Heather

    2006-09-01

    The aim of this study was to conduct a primary care validation study of a single screening question for alcohol misuse ("When was the last time you had more than X drinks in 1 day?," where X was four for women and X was five for men), which was previously validated in a study conducted in emergency departments. This cross-sectional study was accomplished by interviewing 625 male and female adult drinkers who presented to five southeastern primary care practices. Patients answered the single question (coded as within 3 months, within 12 months, ever, or never), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), and AUDIT consumption questions (AUDIT-C). Alcohol misuse was defined as either at-risk drinking, identified by a 29-day Timeline Followback interview or a current (past-year) alcohol-use disorder by Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, criteria, or both. Among 625 drinkers interviewed, 25.6% were at-risk drinkers, 21.7% had a current alcohol- use disorder, and 35.2% had either or both conditions. Considering "within the last 3 months" as positive, the sensitivity of the single question was 80% and the specificity was 74%. Chi-square analyses revealed similar sensitivity across ethnic and gender groups; however, specificity was higher in women and whites (p = .0187 and .0421, respectively). Considering "within the last 12 months" as positive increased the question's sensitivity, especially for those with alcohol-use disorders. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the single alcohol screening question (0.79) was slightly lower than for the AUDIT and AUDIT-C, but sensitivity and specificity were similar. A single question about the last episode of heavy drinking is a sensitive, time-efficient screening instrument that shows promise for increasing alcohol screening in primary care practices.

  15. Questioning Many Mysteries

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Martin, Sara F.

    2015-04-01

    The first section of this memoir queries my formative years. Indirectly I address the question, did my childhood and early years make a difference in my choice of career? Why and how did I begin my journey to becoming a scientist? Did I choose the field of solar astronomy or did circumstances dictate it for me? In the second section, I travel through my work environments and experiences, talking about interactions and aspects of being a scientist that do not appear in our research papers. What parts of my research were happenstances and what parts did I plan? What does it feel like to be on scientific quests? Using examples in my journey, I also turn to questions that have intrigued me throughout my sojourn as a solar astronomer. How do scientific discoveries come about? What factors lead to little discoveries? And what factors lead to major exciting discoveries? Are there timely questions we do not think to ask? How can small, seemingly scattered pieces of knowledge suddenly coalesce into a deeper understanding - what is called the "Aha!" experience - the times when our mental light switches on, and with child-like wonder we behold a "big picture"?

  16. Postreading Questioning and Middle School Students' Understanding of Literature

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Liang, Lauren Aimonette; Watkins, Naomi M.; Graves, Michael F.; Hosp, John

    2010-01-01

    The study examined the effectiveness of a "story map," a questioning technique (Beck & McKeown, 1981) for improving students' understanding of literature. Though the story map idea was widely adopted as a student-initiated strategy, the original story map--a teacher-generated, postreading questioning framework--was never empirically tested. This…

  17. Should We Be Encouraging Pupils to Ask More Questions?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Whittaker, Andrew

    2012-01-01

    This article investigates the issue of secondary school pupils asking questions. This is an important topic on which very little has been published to date. The article reviews the current literature, which almost exclusively reports the lack of student initiated, content related questioning in classrooms. A small study is described that…

  18. Regional Screening Levels Frequent Questions

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Regional Screening Level RSL frequently asked question FAQ page provides risk assessors answers to common questions about the preliminary remediation goal PRG risk based concentration RBC and risk calculator for the assessment of human Health.

  19. The Role of Visual Experience in Changing the Size of Objects in Imagery Processing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Szubielska, Magdalena; Marek, Boguslaw

    2015-01-01

    Introduction: This paper investigates the question of whether or not subjects who are congenitally blind experience greater difficulties mentally in resizing images of objects than those who have low vision or are adventitiously blind. Methods: Two experiments were conducted--one in which subjects were asked to mentally enlarge objects they…

  20. Designing Studies to Test Causal Questions About Early Math: The Development of Making Pre-K Count.

    PubMed

    Mattera, Shira K; Morris, Pamela A; Jacob, Robin; Maier, Michelle; Rojas, Natalia

    2017-01-01

    A growing literature has demonstrated that early math skills are associated with later outcomes for children. This research has generated interest in improving children's early math competencies as a pathway to improved outcomes for children in elementary school. The Making Pre-K Count study was designed to test the effects of an early math intervention for preschoolers. Its design was unique in that, in addition to causally testing the effects of early math skills, it also allowed for the examination of a number of additional questions about scale-up, the influence of contextual factors and the counterfactual environment, the mechanism of long-term fade-out, and the role of measurement in early childhood intervention findings. This chapter outlines some of the design considerations and decisions put in place to create a rigorous test of the causal effects of early math skills that is also able to answer these questions in early childhood mathematics and intervention. The study serves as a potential model for how to advance science in the fields of preschool intervention and early mathematics. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.