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Student incivility, defined as a student behavior perceived to be disrespectful or disruptive to the overall learning environment in a course, can negatively affect the science learning environment and instructors. The transition to online science courses during the COVID-19 pandemic created a unique environment for student incivility to take place in undergraduate courses. There are few studies that examine student incivility in online synchronous courses, and we know of no studies that have investigated student incivility during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we surveyed 283 instructors across U.S. institutions who taught undergraduate science courses with synchronous online components. We probed their experiences with student incivility during the fall 2020 term. Over half of instructors surveyed reported experiencing student incivility, with women being more likely than men to report student incivility. Compared with white instructors, people of color were more likely to perceive an increase in student incivility in fall 2020 relative to previous in-person terms. This work indicates that student incivility is perceived in the online synchronous learning environment and that the negative impacts of perceived student incivility during COVID-19 online instruction were not distributed equally among instructors, disproportionately burdening women and people of color.

Mental health conditions can impact college students' academic achievements and experiences. As such, students may choose to disclose mental illnesses on medical school applications. Yet, no recent studies have investigated to what extent disclosure of a mental health condition may impact whether an applicant is accepted to medical school. We conducted an audit study to address this gap and surveyed 99 potential medical school admissions committee members from over 40 M.D.-granting schools in the United States. Participants rated a fictitious portion of a single medical school application on acceptability, competence, and likeability. They were randomly assigned to a condition: an application that explained a low semester grade-point average due to (1) a mental health condition, (2) a physical health condition, or (3) offered no explanation. After rating their respective application, all committee members were asked about when revealing a mental health condition would be beneficial and when it would be detrimental. Using ANOVAs, multinomial regression, and open coding, we found that medical school admissions committee members do not rate applications lower when a mental health condition is revealed. Committee members highlighted that revealing a mental health condition to demonstrate resiliency could be beneficial, but if the reference is vague or the condition is not being managed, it could be detrimental to a student's application. This work indicates that medical school admissions committee members do not exhibit a bias against mental health conditions and provides recommendations on how to discuss mental illness on medical school applications.

The human ability to tell apart reality from fiction is intriguing. Through a range of media, such as novels and movies, we are able to readily engage in fictional worlds and experience alternative realities. Yet even when we are completely immersed and emotionally engaged within these worlds, we have little difficulty in leaving the fictional landscapes and getting back to the day-to-day of our own world. How are we able to do this? How do we acquire our understanding of our real world? How is this similar to and different from the development of our knowledge of fictional worlds? In exploring these questions, this article makes the case for a novel multilevel explanation (called BLINCS) of our implicit understanding of the reality-fiction distinction, namely that it is derived from the fact that the worlds of fiction, relative to reality, are bounded, inference-light, curated, and sparse. KEYWORDS: fantasy, arts, narrative, knowledge, imagination, reality-fiction distinction, 'Tis strange,--but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction. --Lord Byron, Don Juan (XIV, 101) Much of our waking life is spent engaging in the realm of fiction. [...]

People are inundated with readily accessible entertainment media choices. Recommender systems are frequently utilized to support people's media selection and engagement. The psychological factors that influence people's engagement with recommender systems and entertainment content is an under-explored area. This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study where users' explicit experiences of audiovisual media services (e.g., Netflix, TikTok, YouTube, HBO Max) and their recommender systems were examined through an online survey (n = 339). Thematic analysis, factor analysis, and path analysis were used to evaluate the data. The results indicate that (1) recommender systems influence users' emotions and media use, (2) people prefer personalized compared to generic recommendation lists, (3) the temporal length of recommended content influences people's interest, and (4) perceived utility leads to the endorsement of recommender systems and may influence users' well-being. The findings point to wider psychological implications associated with user awareness of recommender systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People have access to varied entertainment choices through online audiovisual media. Uses and Gratification Theory postulates viewers as active participants in their entertainment selection who watch media for a variety of reasons. Both hedonic and eudaimonic motivations drive user engagement. This paper focuses on how users' implicit psychological factors (e.g., curiosity, need for affect) influence their motivations for watching online audiovisual media (n = 339). We employed multiple regression to examine predictors of eudaimonic and hedonic motivations alongside information, social interaction, and entertainment uses. The results indicate (1) people's awareness of AI recommender systems does not influence their media engagement, (2) people's need for affect underlies all types of media engagement, and (3) the effect of people's curiosity on their media engagement motivations were dimension-specific (i.e., dependent on the subtype). Our findings are in line with entertainment gratification models and reveal curiosity's unique role in people's motivations for audiovisual entertainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Neuroscience of Creativity By Anna Abraham. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 386 pp. Paper, $34.99. Systematic exploration of human creativity is a very recent enterprise, which until barely [...]

Previous research has examined how creative potential develops during childhood and has identified peaks, slumps, and bumps during maturation. However, little is known about the causes of such changes. This study employed a longitudinal approach to assess predictors of change in creative ideation over 2 years in young people (N = 76) aged 14–20 years old at the first time point. The analysis employed frequentist and Bayesian methods to evaluate the effect of individual factors, such as openness to experience (assessed using the BFI‐10 short form), and contextual factors, such as pursuing creative hobbies (measured with a leisure questionnaire). Openness at the first time point and change in openness over time predicted change in peak originality. Engagement in creative hobbies at the first time point predicted change in fluency. The findings support the contribution of individual factors, in the form of openness to experience, and contextual factors, in the form of engagement in creative hobbies, in the development of divergent thinking abilities in mid‐adolescence and young adulthood. Altogether, this study suggests that interventions aimed at increasing time spent on creative activities and promoting openness to experience may enhance divergent thinking abilities, which are essential components of creative potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurophysiological studies of creativity thus far have not allowed for clear conclusions to be made regarding the specific neural underpinnings of such complex cognition due to overgeneralizations concerning the creativity construct, heterogeneity in the type of creativity tasks used, and the questionable efficacy of the employed comparison tasks. A novel experimental design was developed in the present fMRI study which rendered it possible to investigate a critical facet of creative cognition--that of conceptual expansion--as distinct from general divergent thinking, working memory, or cognitive load. Brain regions involved in the retention, retrieval and integration of conceptual knowledge such as the anterior inferior frontal gyrus, the temporal poles and the lateral frontopolar cortex were found to be selectively involved during conceptual expansion. The findings go against generic ideas that argue for the dominance of the right hemisphere during creative thinking and indicate the necessity to reconsider the functions of regions such as the anterior cingulate cortex to include more abstract facets of cognitive control. This study represents a new direction in the investigation of creativity in that it highlights the necessity to adopt a process based perspective in which the multifaceted nature of creativity can be truly grasped. (Contains 2 tables and 6 figures.)