The effects of teacher expectancy and self-expectancy on performance

The present study was designed to investigate the effect on performance of the relationship between teacher expectancy and self-expectancy. For the induced expectancy, a random half of 96 high school students enrolled in a four-week summer language course of a Christian association were described to the instructors as having high success potential. The remaining trainees served as controls. Correct scores on the learning task, instructor ratings of behavior and attitude of the instructors were measured on three sessions of the course. Ratings of teacher's behavior were factor-analyzed and four interpretable factors emerged: Support, Caring, Attention, and Tutoring. The induced expectancy and specific levels of self-expectancy had significant effects on the subjects' performance and ratings of the instructor. It was concluded that self-expectancy mediates the effects of teacher expectancy on learning performance. Implications of these results for the Pygmalion effect were discussed.     

学习动机在大学生专业承诺对学习倦怠影响的中介作用

探讨学习动机在专业承诺与学习倦怠之间的中介作用。采用学习倦怠量表、专业承诺量表以及学习动机策略量表对487名大学生进行测量并采用偏差矫正的非参数百分位Bootstrap方法对学习动机在专业承诺影响学习倦怠过程中的中介效应进行检验。结果显示:外驱动机、任务价值、学习信念、自我效能、考试焦虑与专业承诺(情感承诺、理想承诺)和学习倦怠(情绪低落、行为不当、成就感低)的相关性显著;外驱动机、学习信念、考试焦虑在理想承诺与行为不当之间起部分中介作用;考试焦虑在理想承诺与成就感低之间起部分中介作用。可见,学习动机在大学生专业承诺对学习倦怠的影响中起中介作用。     

初中生父母教养方式及其对成就动机的影响

目的探讨父母教养方式与初中生成就动机的关系。方法采用父母教养方式量表（EMBU）和成就动机量表（AMS）对学生进行测评。回收数据采用spss13.0统计软件进行统计。结果1父母教养方式对青少年成就动机影响差异不显著;2父亲温暖因子与初中生的追求成功动机有显著的负相关,与青少年回避失败动机有显著的正相关。结论初中生父母教养方式对其成就动机相关不显著,但初中生成就动机与抚养方式中父亲的情感温暖维度有关联。     

The effects of certain student and institutional characteristics on minority medical student specialty choice.

This article investigates the possible effects of minority status, presence of a Minority Affairs Office or Student National Medical Association (SNMA) Chapter, level of indebtedness, and number of years (4 to 5) to complete medical school on specialty choice of minority medical students. The 5-year experiences of 20 medical schools in the southern region (including three in Puerto Rico) were examined via a questionnaire. Information was sought for African Americans, Afro-Caribbean, Mexican American, other minority, and nonminority students. Minority graduates entered the specialities of internal medicine, pediatrics, and family medicine in far greater numbers than any other speciality. Also, the percentage of minorities who entered these fields was greater than the percentage of non-minorities. Conversely, minorities were significantly underrepresented in the surgical subspecialties and radiology. Additional study is needed to further examine the medical school experience for indications of why the clustering in primary care specialities occurs. Moreover, while most schools had some kind of minority affairs organization, few were active in the writing of the Dean''s letter. Other suggestions to assure adequate minority representation across specialties include early exposure to the different specialties and subspecialties for minority students, a mentorship program with practicing physicians, and stronger recruitment of minorities into underrepresented specialties.     

Factors related to correspondence between teacher ratings of elementary student depression and student self-ratings.

Fourth through sixth graders (n = 418) completed the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI; Kovacs, 1980). Each teacher (n = 31) rated 6 students with high, low, or medium CDI scores (n = 181) using the CDI items (teacher-CDI) and a single global rating. Remaining students received the global rating only. Sixteen teachers were randomly assigned to receive instruction on childhood depression. Contrary to earlier studies, moderate correspondence was found for both measures. Familiarity was related to correspondence, whereas confidence and student gender were unrelated to correspondence. Instruction improved knowledge, but not correspondence. School-related behaviors yielded the highest correspondence. The teacher-CDI displayed high test-retest reliability.     

Corticofugal effects on the formation of feeding motivation

Influences from various parts of the cortex on the development of feeding motivation giving rise to goal-directed behavior were established in chronic experiments on rabbits. Electrical stimulation of the frontal and anterior parietal regions of the cortex inhibited the formation of feeding responses evoked by stimulation of the hypothalimic “food center.” Inhibitory influences of the frontal region were stronger. Stimulation of the posterior parietal and occipital regions was accompanied by lowering of the threshold of the evoked feeding response or even by its appearance in satiated animals.     

Effects of prenatal nutrition on learning and motivation in rats.

The results of two learning experiments revealed that adult male rats whose dams suffered either prenatal zinc deficiency or undernutrition showed, as compared to rats whose dams were fed ad lib, normal diets during pregnancy (1) more resistance to extinction following partial reinforcement, and (2) a faster occurring negative contrast effect when shifted from large to small reward. An incentive-motivation interpretation of the data suggests that the nutritionally deprived and normal animals differ with respect to the incentive value of the consummatory reward. This effect appears to be long-term.     

Effects of early undernutrition on motivation and discrimination learning in rats.

Offspring were either adequately nourished or undernourished during the suckling period. They had free access to food from weaning, and were given 2 behavioral tests between 13 and 19 weeks of age. Motivation for water was tested on a variable interval (VI) schedule at 3 levels of deprivation and a test of light-dark discrimination made at 23.5 hr of water deprivation. The results indicated (1) no clear difference in VI response rate, but (2) significant differences in discrimination performance between the 2 groups. A learning ability or certain relevant abilities rather than motivation for water appeared responsible for the difference in discrimination learning.     

The influence of teacher support on student adjustment in the middle school years: a latent growth curve study

The influence of perceived teacher support on trajectories of depression and self-esteem in middle school was examined using multigroup latent growth cross-domain models. A longitudinal sample of 2,585 students was followed from the sixth through the eighth grades. Students' perceptions of teacher support and general self-esteem declined and depressive symptoms increased over the course of middle school. We further found that, for both boys and girls, changes in perceptions of teachers' support reliably predicted changes in both self-esteem and depression. In particular, those students perceiving increasing teacher support showed corresponding decreases in depressive symptoms and increases in self-esteem. Gender differences were found for the initial levels of both perceptions of teacher support and general self-esteem. A competing model was also tested, which gave additional support for pathways of influence from perceptions of teacher support to depression and self-esteem, rather than the reverse. This study underscores the role of teacher support in facilitating students' adjustment to middle school and highlights the importance of using idiographic methodologies in the study of developmental processes. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Effect of stimulation of the hypothalamic and amygdalar motivation centers on vestibular nystagmus

Chronic experiments on rabbits with electrodes implanted into hypothalamic and amygdalar structures showed that weak electrical stimulation of the food center of the lateral hypothalamus, giving a food response to preliminary testing, induces marked facilitation of vestibular (especially rotatory) nystagmus, whereas stimulation of the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus inhibits it. The effect of amygdalar stimulation was manifested more often as facilitation, but sometimes as inhibition of the nystagmus. The results are evidence of the modulating influence of the hypothalamic and amygdalar motivation centers on the vestibular system.     

The thalamic rat: general behavior, operant learning with rewarding hypothalamic stimulation, and effects of amphetamine

In 52 rats the major forebrain areas, including the cortex, hippocampus, striatum, amygdala and septum were bilaterally ablated, resulting in a chronic thalamic preparation. Experiment 1 measured body temperature and motor activity, showing continuous cyclic 10–60 minute rest- activity cycles. Intragastric feeding was followed by periods of quiescence accompanied by hypothermia lasting from 1–5 hrs. Experiment 2 demonstrated sucessful operant conditioning of limb movements in 12 animals by use of rewarding hypothalamic stimulation. Once a response was strengthened by conditioning no extinction could be observed, although the response was modifiable by further conditioning. In Experiment 3 the effects of d-amphetamine were investigated. Amphetamine induced hyperthermia, hyperactivity and stereotyped behaviors, and was found to facilitate primarily the performance of the previously conditioned behavior.     

The effects of cutaneous mechanoreceptor stimulation on the stretch reflex

The effects of cutaneous stimulation on tonic and phasic responses to stretch were studied in the triceps surae complex of unanesthetized, decerebrate cats. The tonic response was produced by a maintained stretch of the muscle group to 80-85% of its maximum length. Stretch was applied directly to the isolated tendon at the calcaneus. Phasic responses were elicited by a ramp stretch of 1.0 to 2.0 mm superimposed on the maintained stretch. Mild, brief, electrical or mechanical stimulation of the plantar cushion caused a sequence of inhibitory and excitatory changes in the tonic EMG activity in the soleus muscle. Mild stimuli, applied 0.01 to 5 ms before the start of ramp stretch, decreased the size of the phasic response to stretch and converted it into a biphasic response. It is suggested that stimulation of cutaneous mechanoreceptors may be responsible for variations in the initial burst of EMG activity seen in the agonist muscle during the response to perturbation or fast voluntary movement in animals and man.