Iranian Journal of Learning and Memory

Retention and learning are neurolinguistic and psycholinguistic processes. The brain electrical response to the cognitive processes that happen in the cortices is inescapable. During neuronal activities, created waves can be recorded and displayed by quantitative electroencephalogram (QEEG) in a non-invasive form. Beta waves are created by thinking, learning, computations, reasoning, attention, and problem-solving activities. This study's primary goal is to objectively investigate the variables impacts of multisensory and non-multisensory methods of instruction on vocabulary retention concerning beta and beta1 waves frequency changes. To meet the purpose, some pre-school novice male and female foreign language learners (age: 5-6 years) participated in this study voluntarily and were assigned into two experimental groups: The Multisensory (three girls and four boys) and Non-multisensory (one girl and six boys) teaching groups. The analyses of the collected data on pre- and post-brain QEEG records of beta and beta1/SMR waves' variations indicated no significant difference between the two groups in the brain oscillatory changes. However, the case study analyses specified the supremacy of beta1 frequency ranges in the Multisensory post-records. The comparative findings of pre- and post-Expressive One Word-Picture-Matching Test (EWPMT) showed that the Multisensory group outperformed the Non-multisensory one; besides, a significant positive relationship was found between beta wave frequency changes on Fp1 and mean score of EWPM post-test in the Multisensory group. The study concluded that the multisensory approach could be a promising method to improve retention at the pre-school level.   

Using chunks is said to bring about fluency into speech as they save speakers from constructing their speech upon a word-by-word basis. Particle phrases (A term coined in this study to refer to phrasal verbs and their derived and deviated nouns and adjectives) are also among those chunks. This study seeks to see whether memorizing them will affect EFL learners' spoken fluency. To this end, 51 Persian speaking participants (37 females, 14 males) who were selected from 3 intact classes based on their performance in narrative video-based retelling constituted the sample of the study. The study was a quasi-experimental one in design because of the non-random assignment of the participants into either of the experimental and control groups. They were assigned to three groups: two experimental and one control. Both experimental groups received the same instructions on metaphorical concepts of particles (out, off, etc.) in the 150 phrasal verbs available in Garnier and Schmitt’s (2015) frequency list. They both engaged in self-generated contexts except that those in the first came up with hands-on task of drawing sketches, too. The control group, however, received none of the above treatments. The results of a one-way ANOVA procedure in the immediate post-test indicated that the participants in the first experimental group significantly outperformed not only the control group, but also the second experimental group that made more relative gains than their counterparts in the control group. The outperformance of the first experimental group was also found in the delayed post-test, which represented the long-term effects of the methods. The findings suggest several implications for this vital but surprisingly neglected issue of engaging students with self-generated sketches.

This study attempted to investigate the effect of over-learning and off-line different periods on stabilization-based consolidation process and proactive interference in explicit motor memory. Previous experiences can affect future performance. However, it is not clear how much exercise is needed to stimulate these effects, and what is the best offline period between workouts to prevent interference? In this research, the performance of 40 female students, who were between 20-30 years old and had been called to attend in the test voluntarily, was studied in two offline Periods of 5 minutes and 24 hours between the first (forehand) and the second (backhand) strokes. Data were analyzed using a variance analysis test with repeated measurement tests and a Tukey follow-up test. Two main findings emerged from the study. Firstly, it was determined that offline period (5 minutes and 24 hours) are not effective on the learning of the second task. The second finding was that overlearning performed consolidation in both of the offline Periods (24 hours and 5 minutes) and the learning of backhand stroke became resistant to anterograde interference. These results suggest that learning can play an important role in explicit motor memory, but offline period cannot make learning resistant to interference.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of emotional and cognitive processing strategies on students' academic adjustment and academic engagement. This study was applied and in terms of research method was quasi-experimental with pre-test-post-test design and control group. The statistical population of this study consisted of male high school students in region 2 of Kerman. They were selected through cluster sampling method and randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. Then the experimental group was trained and intervened for 8 sessions (90 minutes per session) and the control group did not receive any training. After the training sessions, the post-test was taken. The instruments used in this study included Sina Wesing (1993) adjustment questionnaire and Zarang academic engagement questionnaire (2012).To analyze the data, multivariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and multivariate analysis of variance (MANCOVA)were performed using SPSS-22 software. The results of analysis of covariance showed that the intervention of strategies based on emotional and cognitive processing is effective in increasing academic adjustment and academic engagement of students. The results also showed that the effectiveness of emotional and cognitive processing strategies separately with academic engagement and students' academic adjustment was significantly related at the level of (p<0.05).Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that teaching intervention strategies of cognitive processing and emotional processing is effective in the process of increasing academic adjustment and students' academic engagement.

Students with attention disorders face many challenges in the educational process, which also affects their academic future. The goal of this study was to compare the effect of the Cup Stacking Method and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on the working memory and information processing rate on students with attention deficits. The research population included all fifth and sixth grade students in public schools in Tehran in 2019-2020. Forty-five students with attention deficit were purposefully selected and then randomly divided into three groups of 15: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation; Cup Stacking; and Control groups. The Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation group was given a 10-session therapeutic trial; a 30-minute cup stacking game was played for 10 sessions by the second group. The Symbol Digit Modalities Test and the Digit Span subtest were used to assess the study variables. The results of mixed variance analysis showed that although both cup stacking and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation improved the information processing rate and working memory of students with attention deficit, the two methods did not have a significant difference in their impact on these functions of the research subjects. It is recommended that school teachers use cup stacking in their daily interaction with the students, and that clinical professionals use Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to address executive function issues.

A flipped classroom, as one of the participatory learning techniques, is based on group dynamics and social interactions. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the flipped classroom technique in promoting academic motivation and self-efficacy among high school students. The research method was quasi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design and a control group. The statistical population included all female high school students in Ahvaz city in the academic year 2019-2020. Using the purposive sampling method, 30 ones were selected and divided into experimental and control groups (n=15 per group). The research instrument included the Academic Motivation Questionnaire and Student Self-Efficacy Scale. The experimental group received the flipped teaching program during eight 90-minute sessions; however, the control group received the traditional teaching method. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between the flipped and traditional teaching methods in experimental and control groups (p<0.0001). The flipped classroom technique was effective in increasing academic motivation and self-efficacy among students. The study findings indicate that the flipped classroom method can be used to promote academic motivation and self-efficacy and decrease academic failure among students.

Previous studies have shown that autonomy support (AS) can foster a person’s motivation and facilitate motor learning. However, the effects of AS on observational motor learning are not well understood. The present study investigated this issue by manipulating to-be-observed-model. Forty-eight male students were assigned into autonomy, yoked, and no-demonstration control groups. Three male Baseball coaches acted as models A, B, and C. Model A was instructor of students of AU group and acted as a model with high social status for AU group. Models B and C were not familiar for all participants and acted as low social status models. Participants were asked to perform a Baseball-pitch into a target during pretest (10 trials), acquisition phase (5 blocks of 10 trials), and retention test (10 trials). Prior to each acquisition block, the participants of AU and YO groups observed a model three times. Participants of AU group were free to choose model A, B, or C for any single observation. Participants in YO group were matched with those in AU group. Movement outcome, movement form, self-efficacy (SE), perceived learning effect (PLE), and perceived model attractiveness (PMA) were measured as dependent variables. Results showed that AS, relative to yoked and control conditions, led to better movement outcome during acquisition and retention. Action observation enhanced movement form during acquisition and retention. AS increased SE, PLE, and PMA compared with yoked and control conditions. Results provide support for the OPTIMAL theory and indicate that AS facilitates observational motor learning.