Frank L. Friedman

The encoding versus the external storage hypothesis in note taking

Abstract College students ( N = 85) read a passage in which each sentence had been normatively assessed as to its importance to the overall meaning of the passage. Students expecting an essay examination took notes on sentences of higher structural importance than those anticipating a multiple choice test, even though there was no difference in the number of notes taken or in total test performance. The students took notes on 31% of the passage sentences and such notes were of high structural importance value. Most importantly, note taking seemed to serve as both an encoding device and as an external storage mechanism, with the latter being the more important function. The external storage function not only led to enhanced recall of the notes, but also facilitated the reconstruction of other parts of the passage.

The Effects of Environmental Scanning On Creativity

The effect of environmental scanning on creativity test performance of 49 fourth and sixth graders was assessed. Four groups were tested under different conditions of environmental richness and instructions to search for cues for responses. Significant differences between groups were found on each of three creativity tests used in the experiment. These results suggested that the utilization of environmental cues might be an important aspect of creativity testing. The results also suggest that the results of creativity testing must be interpreted in light of specified environmental conditions.

Some pedagogic considerations in teaching elementary programming using structured FORTRAN

This paper contains a description of several aspects of a course in introductory computer programming that is taught using a few basic control structure extensions to FORTRAN. The FORTRAN syntactic forms and flow diagram patterns of these structures are defined, and some of the advantages of these forms are listed. The problem solving methods developed in the course are outlined, and the structures are shown to be consistent with these methods. Some pedagogic considerations which provide an effective environment for the presentation of these control structures are described.

Effects of expectancies of different reward magnitudes in transfer from noncontingent pairings to instrumental performance

Abstract In two experiments, rats received noncontingent pairings of two stimuli with food reward, one paired with small reward and the other with large reward, and received bar press training with large reward or with small reward. When the noncontingent stimuli (NS) were presented for test during subsequent rewarded bar pressing and during early extinction of bar pressing, responding for each group was faster in the presence of the NS which was paired with the same reward magnitude that group received in bar press training than to the NS which had been paired with a different reward magnitude. As extinction progressed, all groups responded more slowly in the presence of the NS which had been paired with the large reward than in the presence of the NS which had been paired with small reward. These results were interpreted as indicating that responding in the presence of an NS depends on: (i) whether the reward expectancy elicited by the NS has been conditioned to the instrumental response, and (ii) the relationship between the reward expected in the presence of the NS and that received in test.

A Framework for Incorporating Object‐Oriented Software Engineering in the Undergraduate Curriculum

The recent ACM/IEEE Computing Curricula ‘91 report identifies important and recurring concepts that pervade computer science. These include complexity of large programs, the concept of binding, abstract data types, evolution of requirements, levels of abstraction, and the importance of software reuse. We present an improved curriculum for the software oriented courses that better addresses these concepts. The major objective of the proposed curriculum is the introduction of the concept of components as building blocks for creating solutions to software design problems. Component‐based software engineering is currently best facilitated by the object‐oriented approach through reuse of available class libraries and application frameworks. Based on our experience in the use of the object‐oriented approach for the introductory programming courses as compared to past instruction using a predominantly procedural‐oriented point of view, we believe that our approach can be successfully integrated into the computer...

An undergraduate compiler laboratory

A one semester, upper-division undergraduate course in compiler techniques is described. The course is based upon the material contained in Chapter 5 of the text Algorithms + Data Structures &equil; Programs, by Niklaus Wirth. The goals of the course are (1) to introduce students to the fundamental concepts of the design and translation of higher level languages, and (2) to provide an introductory exposure to the related literature. A compiler-writing project of about nine weeks duration is required of all students. Simulators supporting generated code for static and dynamic run-time environments are provided for student use.

Teaching problem solving and structured programming in FORTRAN

This paper describes an approach towards teaching problem solving in an introductory service course using the FORTRAN programming language. The course is centered around s set of problems which are used to illustrate a problem solving methodology. Three pedogogical tools (data table, flow diagram, and program system chart) are used to provide a framework for algorithm development. Two control structures (the Block IF decision structured and WHILE loop) have been added to the FORTRAN language to facilitate the implementation of algorithms.

Deprivation and reward stimuli as compound stimuli

Abstract In Experiment 1 the experimental group was tested with a deprivation level and a reward magnitude which it had experienced previously but which it had not experienced in combination. This group was inferior in test performance to a group which had experienced the test deprivation-reward combination prior to test. These results were interpreted as indicating that deprivation stimuli and reward stimuli form a compound stimulus and training on the elements of the compound produces performance inferior to training directly on the compound. In Experiment 2, the decrement associated with two different shifts in deprivation and reward did not differ despite the different size change of total incentive involved in the two shifts. The results were interpreted as indicating that the deprivation-reward stimulus is not produced by a single underlying incentive mechanism.

The impact of object-oriented software engineering in the introductory computer science curriculum

The planning and design phases of the work reported herein are being partially supported by National Science Foundation Grant # USE 9156079.

A computer-aided flow diagram teaching system

This paper describes a system intended to aid beginning computer science students develop a systematic approach towards problem solution using structured flow diagrams. The student is carefully monitored during the specification of an initial flow diagram and through successive stages of refinement. As each new flow diagram symbol is entered, the system checks to see that the student is being consistent with earlier work and has not introduced potential errors. The flow diagram is an intermediate level representation of an algorithm which is independent of the particular programming language chosen for implementation. When the structured flow diagram has been completely refined, the final translation to a programming language is relatively automatic. To test the program logic, the resultant source code should be executed. The student can modify the flow diagram, generate new code, and re-execute until the program runs correctly.