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Background: The substantial growth in gamification research has connected gamified learning to enhanced engagement, improved performance, and greater motivation. Similar to gamification, personalized learning analytics dashboards can enhance student engagement. Objectives: This study explores the student experiences and academic achievements using a gamified dashboard in a large, introductory STEM course. Methods: We examined two groups of students enrolled in different sections of a one-semester-long physical geology course with a total enrollment of 223 students. The only difference between the groups was that one had access to the dashboard. The data collection included students' assignments, overall performances, and exam scores. Students in both sections completed a Science Literacy Concept Inventory survey at the beginning and end of the term. Additionally, students completed an end-of-term survey containing open-ended questions on their experience and interactions with specific elements. Results: Students shared mostly positive comments about their experience with the dashboard, and the final grade of students with access to the dashboard was 13% higher, on average, compared to their peers in the non-dashboard section. Conclusion: With low costs and little time invested, gamified dashboards could have a significant impact on student performance in large STEM lecture courses.

Under most circumstances, children (and adults) can safely assume that the testimony they hear is true. In two studies, we investigated whether 3-year-olds (N = 100) would continue to hold this assumption even if the person who provided the testimony behaved in an uncertain, ignorant, and/or distracted manner. In Study 1, children were less likely to trust that, for example, a key-like object was a spoon if the speaker indicated uncertainty about her testimony (e.g., "I think this is a spoon") than if she simply labeled the object ostensively (e.g., "This is a spoon"). In Study 2, 3-year-olds were also more skeptical about a speaker's testimony when she had earlier made an obvious naming error and seemed distracted, but not when she either made an error or seemed distracted. These results indicate that 3-year-olds can respond differently to the same testimony, depending on the speaker's behavior. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.)

In this study; we evaluate the performance of waivered recruits in the U.S. military. Unlike the private sector, the military has formal standards for identifying ideal recruits and uses a formal screening process to determine those within risky populations who are most likely to. succeed. (Recruits who make it through the screening process are issued a waiver.) The military's establishment of waiver categories and its tracking of waiver status provide us with a case study for determining whether such risk-identification strategies work. Using FY99--FY08 service-level waiver and personnel data, we evaluate whether the military recruiting strategy has been successful and whether firms should consider adopting similar screening mechanisms. We estimate the effect of waiver status on attrition and promotion, our primary performance indicators, after controlling for other quality indicators; We find that waivered recruits, on the whole, are not particularly poor performers, although their inherent riskiness does vary by service and by waiver type. (JEL J45, M51, J23), I. INTRODUCTION Each year, the services must recruit thousands of new people in order to support the military's capabilities and to promote long-term force health.' Their primary recruiting pool consists [...]

An increasing amount of evidence suggests that the family of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) transcription factors plays an important role in synaptic plasticity and long-term memory formation. The present study investigated the regulation of NF-κB family members p50, p65/RelA, and c-Rel in the hippocampus in response to metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) signaling. Activation of group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (GpI-mGluRs) with the agonist (S)-3,5-dihydroxyphenylglycine (DHPG) resulted in a time-dependent increase in DNA binding activity of p50, p65, and c-Rel in area CA1 of the hippocampus. An antagonist of mGluR5, 2-Methyl-6- (phenylethynyl)pyridine, inhibited the DHPG-induced activation of NF-κB, whereas an antagonist of mGluR1, (S)-(+)-α-amino-4-carboxy-2-methylbenzeneacetic acid, did not. Using a series of inhibitors, we investigated the signaling pathways necessary for DHPG-induced activation of NF-κB and found that they included the phosphatidyl inositol 3-kinase, protein kinase C, mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase, and p38-mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways. To determine the functional significance of mGluR-induced regulation of NF-κB, we measured long-term depression (LTD) of Schaffer-collateral synapses in the hippocampus of c-Rel knock-out mice. Early phase LTD was normal in c-rel-/- mice. However, late-phase LTD (>90 min) was impaired in c-rel-/- mice. The observations of this deficit in hippocampal synaptic plasticity prompted us to further investigate long-term memory formation in c-rel-/-mice. c-rel-/- mice exhibited impaired performance in a long-term passive avoidance task, providing additional evidence for c-Rel in long-term memory formation. These results demonstrate that the NF-κB transcription factor family is regulated by GpI-mGluRs in the hippocampus and that the c-Rel transcription factor is necessary for long-term maintenance of LTD and formation of long-term memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing amount of evidence suggests that the family of nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) transcription factors plays an important role in synaptic plasticity and long-term memory formation. The present study investigated the regulation of NF-kappaB family members p50, p65/RelA, and c-Rel in the hippocampus in response to metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) signaling. Activation of group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (GpI-mGluRs) with the agonist (S)-3,5-dihydroxyphenylglycine (DHPG) resulted in a time-dependent increase in DNA binding activity of p50, p65, and c-Rel in area CA1 of the hippocampus. An antagonist of mGluR5, 2-Methyl-6-(phenylethynyl)pyridine, inhibited the DHPG-induced activation of NF-kappaB, whereas an antagonist of mGluR1, (S)-(+)-alpha-amino-4-carboxy-2-methylbenzeneacetic acid, did not. Using a series of inhibitors, we investigated the signaling pathways necessary for DHPG-induced activation of NF-kappaB and found that they included the phosphatidyl inositol 3-kinase, protein kinase C, mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase, and p38-mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways. To determine the functional significance of mGluR-induced regulation of NF-kappaB, we measured long-term depression (LTD) of Schaffer-collateral synapses in the hippocampus of c-Rel knock-out mice. Early phase LTD was normal in c-rel(-/-) mice. However, late-phase LTD (>90 min) was impaired in c-rel(-/-) mice. The observations of this deficit in hippocampal synaptic plasticity prompted us to further investigate long-term memory formation in c-rel(-/-) mice. c-rel(-/-) mice exhibited impaired performance in a long-term passive avoidance task, providing additional evidence for c-Rel in long-term memory formation. These results demonstrate that the NF-kappaB transcription factor family is regulated by GpI-mGluRs in the hippocampus and that the c-Rel transcription factor is necessary for long-term maintenance of LTD and formation of long-term memory.