[From Tom Hancock (930812.0800)
To Dick Robertson (930803.1730CDT),
I too I am sorry for not getting right back to you-I do not have much
time these days for net interaction, but I would like to pursue our
common interests as time permits.
DR
(They had to pass a test for each chapter before moving to the next
chapter; a different alternate form was given as often as needed.)
The three ratings were: How well prepared do you feel you are? How
well do you understand the material? How many questions do you
predict you will get right? -- All on 5-pt scales...
I used various combinations of the preparedness ratings, looking
for any combination that would correlate highly with the error
signal from each previous test. (ES defined as difference between
score they indicated they wanted & the score actually attained.)I'm
still analysing the data, but without any great enthusiasm.
The reason for that is that I can't find any hint of a common
pattern for all subjects, such as the guys who do tracking
experiments find.
TH
Based on my work in this area I would guess that your students were
behaving or studying (getting prepared, understanding, and predicting
scores?) in reaction to several error signals. One of the signals
might be the difference between indicated and actual scores.
However, other error signals would be the difference between
desired understanding of the course material (independent of grade)
and the perceived understanding. Another error signal would be the
difference between time available for study (based on other life
priorities) and the actual time preparing. Another error signal
would be the difference between how much I usually study and how
much I have up to now.
In addition, the magnitude of the signal from each of these systems
probably varies between and within subjects. For example, at some
times the need to do something else other than study will be
stronger than the need to get a higher grade. In addition, it seems to
me that the awareness or signal of the difference between indicated
score and actual will not be always firing and will probably not
drive all preparation.
In these kind of tasks it seems that the student's self-reports must
come from a monitoring of present time perceptions (Working
Memory) rather than as a generalization of previous perceptions,
such as you asked them to do. [Ericsson and Nobel prize winner,
Simon (1980) said something along that line.] Generalizations would
tend to produce estimates about study that did not vary much-such
as you reported.
DR
I have some hunches about what it should be -- I
would say a tutor-text arrangement, in which each student can
answer a question after each bit of information and get referred to
a tutorial each time they get a question wrong
TH
Some of my previous posts described work such as this-and I believe
the findings help explain what was happening in your study. I believe
I was able to detect the higher level control by observing how post-
response information (PRI) was treated. Each subject was given PRI
after responding to each task. Those subjects, who I assume had
active references for good grades or being outwardly correct, would
take more time with the PRI when they were wrong but not when
they were correct. (These are the type of control systems I assume
you were targeting) However, those subjects, who I assume had
active references for understanding, would take more time with PRI
even when they were correct-->IF they had not been confident of
their answer. However, a third category of students treated all PRI
about the same. These students I assume did not have references for
understanding or for being correct, or if they did the signals were
not stronger than from other references such as TI hate this task and
I want to be done with itU. Dick, when I read your post it jumped out
at me that the same phenomenon may have been operative with your
students. Thus you could not find a common pattern.
DR
Greg Williams told me you are going to
use the textbook in a course this coming term. Congratulations and
felicitations! Did you know that I have at least 4 alternate 20-
items quizzes for each chapter, along with tutorial sheets that
explain the "right" answers? They have some bugs, but you are
welcome to them, if you are interested. Send me an address and a
blank disk for IBM, if you want them (preferably 1.4 ).
TH
Yes, I would like a copy of your materials and whatever suggestions
you have on helping people to understand the text-especially the
sections with lots of math, which scare many students. What is your
address, to which I would send a blank diskette?
Tom Hancock
Summer Faculty Research Associate, Armstrong Lab, USAF
Grand Canyon University