Foreign Language Effect and Psychological Distance.

Does using a foreign language result in forming different moral decisions than using our mother tongue? Two studies were conducted to investigate whether there is a relationship between foreign language effects (differences between native vs. foreign language conditions) and psychological distance. Study 1 tested four moral dilemmas adapted from Greene et al. (Cognition 107: 1144-1155, 2008). Non-fluent Korean-English bilingual participants (N = 161) indicated decisions regarding four moral dilemmas in either Korean or English languages. The study found that for personal moral conflict situations, in which emotion and automatic intuition were more important than deliberation, there were significant differences in ratios of utilitarian decisions between the native language (L1) and the foreign language (L2) conditions. The participants tended to make more utilitarian decisions in L2 than in L1, which implies reduced emotionality in L2. Study 2 examined whether the psychological distance increased using the foreign language (English) utilizing an automatic self-test. Nonproficient Korean-English bilinguals (N = 26) formed associations between three kinds of geometric shapes (ellipses, rectangles and triangles) and three kinds of labels ('me', 'friends' and 'others'). The results of the study found the self-bias effect decreased when labels were presented in the foreign language (in English). This implies that the foreign language effect resulted from the reduced emotional response, and deliberation in decision making which may result from increased psychological distance.

The Role of the Situation Model for Rereading Benefits in Korean-German Bilinguals.

This study examines whether rereading effects transfer across two different languages at the passage level. Fluent Korean-German bilinguals read passages twice either in the same language or a different language, and passages shared either words or situations. The dependent measure was the overall reading time for the second passage reading. Repetition effects were found only for passages in which situation models were preserved, although the translation altered the surface form and the textbase, demonstrating that the situation model plays an important role in bilingual repetition effects and that the context-dependent model Raney (Psychon Bull Rev 10:15-28, 2003) provides a theoretically meaningful guide for explaining rereading effects.

"I'm Not Happy, But I Don't Care": Help-Seeking Behavior, Academic Difficulties, and Happiness.

PURPOSE: Medical education is perceived as being very stressful, which leads to declines in subjective well-being in medical students. Therefore, student counseling is becoming an exigent issue. The goal of this study was to investigate the academic difficulties and subjective well-being of medical students to identify their needs with regard to counseling. In addition, we analyzed help-seeking behaviors of students to develop an effective counseling program. METHODS: We performed a survey (n=205) to determine the extent to which medical students encounter academic difficulties in their lives in medical school and how they attempt to resolve their problems. In addition, we used the Oxford Happiness Scale to examine the relationships between academic performance, previous help-seeking behavior, and happiness in medical students. RESULTS: Of various types of problems, 62% of medical students perceived learning difficulties to be the most serious issue in medical school. Despite encountering difficulties, more than 67% of students failed to seek help from faculty or their fellow students. There was a significant relationship between happiness score and previous help-seeking behavior. A lack of perceived seriousness was identified as the most significant barrier to seeking help. CONCLUSION: Access to counseling programs must be improved for students with apparent academic difficulties who do not seek counseling. Through such programs, students can learn and practice methods of coping with their difficulties and develop medical and professional competence.

Relationship between Learning Strategies and Academic Achievement in Medical College and Graduate Medical School Students.

PURPOSE: Cognitive researchers assume that learning strategies are related to three types of learning processes: 'surface learning,' 'strategy learning,' and 'deep learning.' A 'deep learning' approach is widely accepted to be associated with long-term success in medical school, contributing to the development of doctors who take desirable approaches to self-directed learning and studying in medical practice. Therefore, this study measured how medical students learn and determined whether the use of learning strategies differs between high and low academic performers. In addition, we compared medical college students with graduate medical school students with regard to the use of learning strategies. METHODS: To explore the learning strategies of students and their relation to academic achievement, we performed LIST (Learning Strategies in Higher Education Inventory) in a sample of 111 Year 1 medical students. RESULTS: Medical students with high academic performance scored higher in most learning strategies than low performers. Additionally, learning strategies were used more frequently by graduate medical school students than medical students, specifically with regard to organization, elaboration, critical thinking, and time management. CONCLUSION: We conclude that learning strategy instruments provide information that enables medical students to optimize their study. To foster deep learning and intrinsic motivation in students, it might also be necessary to adopt more changes in teaching and assessment in medical schools.