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Repeatedly switching between a series of to-be-learned topics, also called interleaved practice (interleaving), can improve learning over traditional, one-topic-at-a-time blocked practice (blocking). We investigated whether interleaving’s benefits for foreign language learning are facilitated by random schedules, wherein training trials follow unpredictable patterns, or systematically alternating schedules, wherein trials are predictably sorted. Students learned to conjugate Spanish verbs in the preterite and imperfect tenses and then took a 48-hr. delayed verb conjugation test. A consistently random (Experiment 1) or systematically alternating schedule (Experiment 2) did not improve learning versus blocking. However, the combination of both types – systematic alternation for study trials and randomization for practice trials – enhanced learning (Experiments 3-4). Thus, neither interleaving schedule alone appears to be sufficient; for verb conjugation skills and likely other materials involving study followed by problem-solving practice, both are needed. Interleaving’s benefits are therefore impacted by the alignment between training schedule and task type.

Previous work has demonstrated that cued recall of a term from a fact yields learning that does not transfer, relative to a restudy control, to recall of another term from the same fact. Here we report six experiments in which a series of manipulations during the initial study and training phases of learning, hypothesized to increase transfer for process-based biology concepts, were investigated. In Experiments 1-2, fill-in-the-blank questions combined with immediate or delayed and repeated correct answer feedback improved learning but not transfer. In Experiments 3-4, practice questions that involved recalling process steps, understanding ordinal relationships, or making inferences, did not improve transfer. Positive transfer was produced, however, in Experiments 5-6 via retrieval-verification-scoring, a new method in which difficult fill-in-the-blank questions were combined with extensive feedback processing. We discuss implications for transfer in both theoretical and applied contexts.

"One chapter is concerned with the period after settlement."-- Lowther, B. J., & Laing, M. (1968). A bibliography of British Columbia: Laying the foundations, 1849-1899. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, p. 204"Bibliographical footnotes. A popular history of the pre-European and exploration periods, Columbia. Each nation's contribution is preceded by a survey of its domestic history at that period."-- Strathern, G. M., & Edwards, M. H. (1970). Navigations, traffiques & discoveries, 1774-1848: A guide to publications relating to the area now British Columbia. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, p. 247

Limited natural resources and landfill space, as well as increasing amounts of ash produced from incineration of bio fuel and municipal solid waste, have created a demand for useful applications of ash, of which road construction is one application. Along national road 90, situated about 20 km west of Solleftea in the middle of Sweden, an experiment road was constructed with a 40 cm bio fuel ash layer. The environmental impact of the ash layer was evaluated from soil solutions obtained by centrifugation of soil samples taken on four occasions during 2001–2003. Soil samples were taken in the ash layer, below the ash layer at two depths in the road and in the ditch. In the soil solutions, pH, conductivity, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and the total concentration of cations (metals) and anions were determined. Two years after the application of the ash layers in the test road, the concentrations in the ash layer of K, SO 4 , Zn, and Hg had increased significantly while the concentration of Se, Mo and Cd had decreased significantly. Below the ash layer in the road an initial increase of pH was observed and the concentrations of K, SO 4 , Se, Mo and Cd increased significantly, while the concentrations of Cu and Hg decreased significantly in the road and also in the ditch. Cd was the element showing a potential risk of contamination of the groundwater. The concentrations of Ca in the ash layer indicated an ongoing hardening, which is important for the leaching rate and the strength of the road construction.

Recent behavioral investigations indicate that the processes underlying mental arithmetic change systematically with practice from deliberate, conscious calculation to automatic, direct retrieval of answers from memory [Bourne, L.E.Jr. and Rickard, T.C., Mental calculation: The development of a cognitive skill, Paper presented at the Interamerican Congress of Psychology, San Jose, Costa Rica, 1991; Psychol. Rev., 95 (1988) 492-527]. Results reviewed by Moscovitch and Winocur [In: The handbook of aging and cognition, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1992, pp. 315-372] suggest that consciously controlled processes are more dependent on frontal lobe function than are automatic processes. It is appropriate, therefore to determine whether transitions in the locus of primary brain activity occur with practice on mental calculation. In this experiment, we examine the relationship between characteristics of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and mental arithmetic. Single-digit mental multiplication problems varying in difficulty (problem size) were used, and subjects were trained on these problems for four sessions. Problem-size and practice effects were reliably found in behavioral measures (RT). The ERP was characterized by a pronounced late positivity after task presentation followed by a slow wave, and a negativity during response indication. These components responded differentially to the practice and problem-size manipulations. Practice mainly affected topography of the amplitude of positivity and offset latency of slow wave, and problem-size mainly offset latency of slow wave and pre-response negativity. Fronto-central positivity diminished from session to session, and the focus of positivity centered finally at centro-parietal regions. This finding suggests that frontal lobe processing is necessary as long as task performance is not automatized, while automatized arithmetic processing requires parietal brain activity only. The pre-response negativity observed in the first session and during more difficult tasks is assumed to reflect excitatory preparatory processes, which could be associated with activation of calculation strategies.

We have determined this item to be in the public domain according to US copyright law through information in the bibliographic record and/or US copyright renewal records. The digital version is available for all educational uses worldwide. Please contact HathiTrust staff at hathitrust-help@umich.edu with any questions about this item., Mineral industries--Finance., Mining engineering--Costs., (LCCN)06001878., GLADN33793448., (OCoLC)1687798., Sdr-nrlf.b102913092., TN153 .R53., Http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3112810.