Kay G. Schulze

Are auditory P300 and duration MMN heritable and putative endophenotypes of psychotic bipolar disorder? A Maudsley Bipolar Twin and Family Study

BACKGROUND Impaired P300 auditory response has been reported in patients with psychotic bipolar disorder (BPD) and unaffected relatives of psychotic bipolar patients. Deficits in mismatch negativity (MMN), however, have not been observed in bipolar patients. To our knowledge, no family study of MMN in BPD has been reported. The current study combined the Maudsley twin and bipolar family samples using genetic model fitting analyses to: (1) assess the relationship between BPD and MMN, (2) substantiate the association between psychotic BPD and P300 variables, (3) verify the genetic overlap of BPD with P300 amplitude previously reported in the twin sample, and (4) examine the shared genetic influences between BPD and bilateral temporal scalp locations of P300 components. METHOD A total of 301 subjects were included in this study, including 94 twin pairs, 31 bipolar families, and 39 unrelated healthy controls. Statistical analyses were based on structural equation modelling. RESULTS Both P300 and MMN are heritable, with heritability estimates of 0.58 for MMN, 0.68-0.80 for P300 amplitude, and 0.21-0.56 for P300 latency. The bipolar patients and their relatives showed normal MMN. No significant association, either genetic or environmental, was found with BPD. BPD was significantly associated with reduced P300 amplitude and prolonged latency on midline and bilateral temporal-posterior scalp areas. Shared genetic factors were the main source of these associations. CONCLUSIONS The results confirm that MMN is not an endophenotype for psychotic BPD whereas P300 amplitude and latency components are valid endophenotypes for psychotic BPD.

Minimally Invasive Tutoring of Complex Physics Problem Solving

Solving complex physics problems requires some kind of knowledge for selecting appropriate applications of physics principles. This knowledge is tacit, in that it is not explicitly taught in textbooks, existing tutoring systems or anywhere else. Experts seem to have acquired it via implicit learning and may not be aware of it. Andes is a coach for physics problem solving that has had good evaluations, but still does not teach complex problem solving as well as we would like. The conventional ITS approach to increasing its effectiveness requires teaching the tacit knowledge explicitly, and yet this would cause Andes to be more invasive. In particular, the textbooks and instructors would have to make space in an already packed curriculum for teaching the tacit knowledge. This paper discusses our attempts to teach the tacit knowledge without making Andes more invasive.

Implicit versus explicit learning of strategies in a non-procedural cognitive skill

University physics is typical of many cognitive skills in that there is no standard procedure for solving problems, and yet a few students still master the skill. This suggests that their learning of problem solving strategies is implicit, and that an effective tutoring system need not teach problem solving strategies as explicitly as model-tracing tutors do. In order to compare implicit vs. explicit learning of problem solving strategies, we developed two physics tutoring systems, Andes and Pyrenees. Pyrenees is a model-tracing tutor that teaches a problem solving strategy explicitly, whereas Andes uses a novel pedagogy, developed over many years of use in the field, that provides virtually no explicit strategic instruction. Preliminary results from an experiment comparing the two systems are reported.

Teaching ethical issues in computer science: what worked and what didn't

Foun&tion sponsored a week long workshop at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on teaching computer ethicsl. These workshops were led by Deborah Johnson, a philosopher at Rensselaer, and Keith Miller, a computer scientist at Sangamon University. The goal of the workshop was to educate undergraduate computer science teachers in some of the relevant ethical issues in computer science and to train them in how to teach these issues to their students. Twenty-five computer scientists, philosophers and sociat scientists from undergraduate institutions attended the first summer and twenty-six attended the second. Eighteen of the first group met again in the summer of 1995 to assess and discuss their experiences. As members of the first group of educators, we would like to report on which activities were particularly successful, which ones were not Before students can start discussing ethical issues that arise in computer science, such as privacy, intellectual property rights, reliability and responsibility, it is imperative that they be given an understanding of the fundamentals of the major ethical theories. Most computer ethics texts [8] [10] [12] offer brief descriptions of utilitarianism, relativism, and Kant’s deontological theory. These are illustrated by presenting varying solutions to a problem witbin a scenario as argued by a utilitarian, Kantian or relativist. It often helps to give outside readings on Mill and Kant, either as primary or secondary sources, to further explicate the theory behind the solutions. While philosophical readings can be complex, they can be clarified by classroom discussions and interactive activities.

Developing and maintaining an effective assessment program

The increased emphasis on assessment by regional accrediting bodies and the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET has caused institutions of higher education and computer science departments to seriously consider the tools and techniques they are using to evaluate their programs effectiveness. The current shortage of computer science professors at many schools has greatly reduced the time available to develop and maintain an effective assessment program. Successful assessment programs require the development of a variety of carefully chosen and properly timed assessment instruments to be effective and yet avoid overburdening faculty. Successful assessment also requires a process model that carefully builds faculty support for the assessment process.

Comparing three numbers: The effect of number of digits, range, and leading zeros

The literature is abundant with results on the cognitive processes involved in determining the larger of two numbers. In the present experiment, range, number of digits, and leading zeros were varied to determine whether some of the major results for comparing two numbers generalize to judgments of the largest of three numbers. There were consistencies as well as inconsistencies between our results and previous two-number comparison data. For example, the distance effect(Moyer & Landauer, 1967) held for three-digit numbers but was not replicated for single-digit numbers. A two-stage process is suggested, with an encoding stage and a comparison stage. At the comparison stage, strategies may vary, depending on the nature of the comparison that is to be made.

Ethical and professional issues in computing (abstract)

Privacy, autonomy, property rights, and power are moral issues that have been considered for many years. While the issues remain the same, the ability to infringe on the rights of society increases as technology continues to advance. The speed and volume by which data can be obtained, stored, and retrieved forces our society to take a serious look at legal restraints and moral awareness in terms of computerized data and software limits.