A computer-based Personalized System of Instruction course in applied behavior analysis

Crosbie, John; Kelly, Glenn

doi:10.3758/bf03204527

Cited by 25 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The WWW course that is described in Case 3 was originally designed to substitute on-line activities for lectures (w. S. Maki & R. H. Maki, 1997), but it shares some features with a type of mastery learning-the computer-based Personalized System of Instruction (PSI; Crosbie & Kelly, 1993). In PSI, course material is divided into small units, and students take formative tests on each unit.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring study time distributions: Implications for designing computer-based courses

Taraban

Maki

Rynearson

1999

Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers

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In both traditional lecture-test courses and courses delivered over the World-Wide Web (WWW), both beginning and experienced college students reported studying almost exclusively just before exams. Automatic measures (computer records, WWW page hits, and electronic mail archives) confirmed the self-reported distributions of study times, Weeklydeadlines produced weekly volleys oftaking on-line quizzes, a pattern that was reflected in self-reports of study times. However, on-line study materials were used primarily for review for regularly scheduled in-class exams. Thus, regardless of course format, students engaged in massed practice and did not experience study aids at appropriate times. Computer technology provides new forms of learning for students, as well as opportunities for instructors to observe patterns of student study time. Management of instructional contingencies will be necessary to bring students into contact with the rich cognitive aids enabled by technology.As the world's population increases and as the demographics of student populations change, there is an increasing need to rework our educational practices to make them more effective and efficient (see, e.g., Barr & Tagg, 1995;Bork, 1997). Advances in computers and information technologies are seen to be a cornerstone of educational change (see, e.g., Bork, 1997), and emerging technologies now offer the hope ofproviding rich learning aids to students at a distance (Dede, 1996). However, anecdotal lore suggests that what students actually do is often at odds with what the instructor intends them to do. The data reported in this paper were gathered in differently formatted courses and confirm the suspicion that students behave in ways that do not bring them into contact with the instructional activities and cognitive aids that are produced for them. Traditional classroom contingencies encourage massed practice-for example, resulting in concentration ofstudy and course work just prior to scheduled exams. Thus, common educational practices and students' adaptations to them threaten to blunt the impact of new educational technology.Students' use ofcourse materials was measured in three types ofcourses taught at a large public university (Texas Tech). Three cases from psychology are presented: (1) traditional lecture-test courses at both beginning and advanced levels, (2) report ofstudy times to automatically collected date-timestamped electronic records of computer-based course work. This report describes the characteristics ofthe studied courses, summarizes the measures and results, and concludes with some implications for the design ofinstruction that uses computers. CASE I Self-Reports of Study Time in a Traditional Lecture-Test Class MethodA three-item paper-and-pencil questionnaire was developed in order to gather self-reports of total estimated study time, to determine how students distributed their study time, to establish whether they thought that their study behaviors differed from their peers' study times, and to determine how students' ...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring study time distributions: Implications for designing computer-based courses

Taraban

Maki

Rynearson

1999

Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers

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“…Consequently, performance may have improved because postfeedback delay func- Postfeedback delay may also serve another function. During a course that used computerized testing (Crosbie & Kelly, 1993), students frequendy made mistakes because they responded too quickly.To the extent that test completion and escape from dass functioned as reinforcers, presentation of each question was a conditioned negative reinforcer on a ratio schedule. Faster responding produced the conditioned reinforcer more quickly, so rapid responding (racing) became the dominant pattern.…”

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Effects of Imposed Postfeedback Delays in Programmed Instruction

Crosbie

Kelly

1994

J of App Behav Analysis

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Imposed postfeedback delays promote discrimination training; the present experiments determined whether they also improve performance in programmed instruction. In two experiments, college students completed 45 sets of Holland and Skinner's (1961) programmed text on behavior analysis in a computerized format in a three-component multiple schedule. In Experiment 1, the conditions were (a) no delay between questions, (b) a 10-s delay after each question (noncontingent delay), and (c) a 10-s delay after each question answered incorrectly (contingent delay). Noncontingent delay produced better performance than no delay and contingent delay. To determine whether performance increased in the noncontingent delay condition because subjects studied the material during delay periods, Experiment 2 tested three conditions: (a) no delay between questions, (b) a 10-s delay after each question (noncontingent delay), and (c) a 10-s delay after each question with the screen blank during the delay period. Noncontingent delay produced better performance than no delay, but there was no difference in performance between no delay and noncontingent delay with blank screen. Hence, noncontingent delay improved performance because students used delay periods to study. Furthermore, subjects preferred noncontingent delay to the other conditions, and session time increased only slightly.DESCRIPTORS: computer-based instruction, programmed instruction, multiple schedule, delay, college students Programmed instruction is discrimination training: Learners examine a stimulus, emit a response, receive feedback, and consequently make appropriate responses in the presence of novel stimuli (Skinner, 1954(Skinner, , 1968. Several researchers have obtained superior discriminated performance with college students when delays were imposed after feedback on concept-identification tasks (e.g., Bourne, 1957;Bourne & Bunderson, 1963;Bourne, Guy, Dodd, & Justesen, 1965;White & Schmidt, 1972). In a typical study (Bourne, 1957), subjects were presented with geometric patterns that had seven dimensions, but only two were necessary for correct dassification. Subjects reported which combination of dimensions was correct (e.g., largeThe present experiments were supported by grants from Deakin University's Internal and Science Research Budgets. We are grateful to Linda Blackman, Suzanne Brown, Sezen Ildiri, and Jo Taraborrelli for collecting the data in Experiment 1; Andrew Eltringham for helping to prepare test items;and Phil Chase and Mike Perone for helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.Reprint requests should be sent to John Crosbie, who is now at the Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506-6040. square, large triangle, small square, or small triangle). After all stimulus patterns had been presented, subjects pressed one of four unlabeled keys that corresponded to the four possible combinations of relevant dimensions. Following a delay between o s and 8 s, a light was illuminated above the corre...

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“…Skinner's work also inspired the development of the personalized system of instruction (PSI), which allows students to move at their own pace through courses that are broken into curricular units that have to be mastered before moving on to new material (Keller, 1968). PSI has been used in schools and universities nationally and internationally for decades with much success and is currently being integrated with computer technology to increase its usefulness (Crosbie & Glenn, 1993;Martin, Pear, & Martin, 2002). Skinner's influence on education is also shown in the development of entire schools based on behavior analysis scattered around the United States, such as CABAS (Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling; Twyman, 1998).…”

Section: Wisdommentioning

confidence: 98%

B. F. Skinner's utopian vision: behind and beyondwalden two

Altus

Morris

2004

Contemporary Justice Review

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the historical, intellectual, and social context that situates the book in the utopian genre, the critiques of its premises and practices, and the fate of intentional communities patterned on the book. In the second part, we review practices in Skinner's book that advance social justice and human well-being under the themes of health, wealth, and wisdom, and then focus on contemporary practices that are the legacy of his vision. His vision was neither the a priori truth of a particular premise about human behavior or a necessary practice (blueprint) for an intentional community but rather the use of empirical methods to discover premises and practices that work to advance the health, wealth, and wisdom of individuals and survival of the culture. . We would like to thank Lyman Sargent, Nathaniel Smith, and James Todd for their advice and assistance with the manuscript.

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A computer-based Personalized System of Instruction course in applied behavior analysis

Cited by 25 publications

References 12 publications

Measuring study time distributions: Implications for designing computer-based courses

Measuring study time distributions: Implications for designing computer-based courses

Effects of Imposed Postfeedback Delays in Programmed Instruction

B. F. Skinner's utopian vision: behind and beyondwalden two

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