Marion A. Eppler

ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION GOALS IN RELATION TO ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN TRADITIONAL AND NONTRADITIONAL COLLEGE STUDENTS

This study extended Dwecks model of achievement motivation to the collegiate level, and it is the first to apply this model to nontraditional students. We examined the relationship between goal orientations and academic performance in 262 undergraduate students grouped by nontraditional vs. traditional status. Although both groups rated themselves higher on learning goals than on performance goals, non-traditional students endorsed learning goals even more strongly than their traditional peers. Goal orientations were a better predictor of academic success than student status. Consistent with Dwecks model, a learning goal orientation was positively related to successful academic performance for both groups. The relationship between performance goals and academic success was less straightforward, but students who rated both goal orientations as relatively weak had the lowest cumulative GPAs. Traditional and nontraditional students differed on variables that were inversely related to academic performance. Less successful traditional students endorsed irrational beliefs (a possible index of learned helplessness), while less successful nontraditional students worked more hours at a paid job.

Exploration in the service of prospective control

Abstract We propose a sequential process of exploration that can account for perception-action coupling in infant locomotion. Each phase in the sequence is a process of obtaining progressively more information leading to a motor decision—exploration from a distance, exploration via direct contact, and exploration of alternative means. Quick glances and prolonged looking from afar serve to alert the perceiver to important changes in the terrain. Intentional touching and testing alternative ways to traverse an obstacle are only prompted when prior information indicates a potential threat to balance. We further propose that depth information is privileged because it can be detected from a distance more readily than other surface properties such as rigidity and friction. Studies of infants walking down slopes and across “hole/patch” transitions illustrate the important role of exploration in prospective control of locomotion.

Infants’ Perception of Affordances of Slopes Under High and Low Friction Conditions

Three experiments investigated whether 14- and 15-month-old infants use information for both friction and slant for prospective control of locomotion down slopes. In Experiment 1, high- and low-friction conditions were interleaved on a range of shallow and steep slopes. In Experiment 2, friction conditions were blocked. In Experiment 3, the low-friction surface was visually distinct from the surrounding high-friction surface. In all three experiments, infants could walk down steeper slopes in the high-friction condition than they could in the low-friction condition. Infants detected affordances for walking down slopes in the high-friction condition, but in the low-friction condition, they attempted impossibly slippery slopes and fell repeatedly. In both friction conditions, when infants paused to explore slopes, they were less likely to attempt slopes beyond their ability. Exploration was elicited by visual information for slant (Experiments 1 and 2) or by a visually distinct surface that marked the change in friction (Experiment 3).

The developmental relationship between infants' exploration and action on slanted surfaces☆

Abstract This research provides converging evidence that infants use exploratory activity to differentiate slant around a horizontal axis before they relate information about slant to consequences for locomotion. In Experiment 1, 14-month-old toddlers walked down safe, shallow 10° hills and slid down or avoided risky, steep 36° hills when height of the hills was held constant. Results indicate that judgements were based on slant. In Experiment 2, 9-month-old crawling infants explored shallow 10° and steep 30° slopes differentially in a nonlocomotor task. Exploration was similar to previous locomotor research with full-size hills, even though crawlers plunged head-long over both shallow and steep hills in the earlier study.

Review question formats and web design usability in computer‐assisted instruction

We tested the effects of two embedded review question formats and the application of web design guidelines in a computer-assisted mastery learning course in developmental psychology. Students used either a branching review question format that redirected them to relevant portions of the study module after incorrect answers or a linear format that only provided the correct answer and then continued to the next review question. Students who used the branching format scored higher on their first attempt to pass the mastery quiz, and they required fewer tries to achieve the 90% mastery criterion. The effectiveness of web design guidelines was evaluated based on students’ opinions. Students with positive opinions about the readability and navigational usability of the study module scored higher on their first quiz.