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Biology education plays a vital role in nurturing the understanding of learners about the intricacy of life. Various efforts have emerged to strengthen learning biological concepts but there were still studies that showed that learners have low mastery in some aspects. To determine how well students understood various biological topics, including human physiology, Concept inventory tests (CIT) were used. The concept inventory test may be able to spot students' misconceptions and ultimately lead to improved comprehension. The crafted CIT developed with the aid of a table of specifications based on Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive domain was assessed according to its validity and reliability. In validation, content validity and item analysis were considered while reliability test was employed through Cronbach's alpha. Distractor analysis was also performed to determine possible source of misconception per item. The CIT was administered to 120 senior high school STEM students (50.8% from the private schools, 37.5% in regular public schools and 11.7% from public schools with special programs in science). The results displayed high content validity with a mean of 4.83 for content validity and an average Aiken's validity coefficient of 0.98. It also highlighted that the test is moderately difficult with the test difficulty of 0.58, as well as, discriminatory with a discriminating level of 0.46. After item classification, 63 items were retained (39 accepted, 24 for revisions) and Chronbach's alpha ([alpha]=0.74) indicated good internal consistency. The concept inventory test propounds to be a good classroom test science with minor items to be revised.

The use of a drama-based pedagogical (DBP) approach, while well-documented to promote active learning and enhance students' generic skills, is under-utilised in the context of higher education, particularly in psychology learning and teaching (L&T). A project, comprising two virtual drama-integrated learning sessions, was implemented to gauge the efficacy of the DBP approach in psychology L&T at a Hong Kong university. Aside from facilitating effective learning and application of psychological theories on the topic of classroom management in a semi-authentic setting (i.e. a drama context highly analogous to a real-life situation), this project aimed to enhance students' creative thinking, problem-solving, communication, and critical thinking skills. A mixed-method evaluation framework was utilised to evaluate students' feedback upon completion. The project's quantitative analyses, while utilizing the subjective outcome evaluation approach, underscored students' acknowledgement of DBP's positive impact on their learning in alignment with prior research. Qualitative analyses, meanwhile, uncovered the underlying five elements through which DBP is conducive to achieving the current expected outcomes. Discussions pertaining to the possible interconnection of these five elements behind DBP and its implications on university psychology education are featured.

Despite psychology's position within the National Council for the Social Studies' definition of social studies, the American Psychological Association is advocating the rebranding of psychology as a science course. This study interviews six high school psychology teachers and employs a Foucauldian framework to understand different perspectives on this rebranding, what makes teachers position their psychology course as science or social studies, and how that rebranding has impacted teachers' perceived ability to make psychology content relevant to students' lived experiences. We find significant disagreement among psychology teachers about the degree to which they should embrace the "psychology-as-science" paradigm. We also find that most professional development for high school psychology teachers is rooted in the science paradigm and that many teachers feel limited by their ability to connect psychology content to students' lived experiences under the science paradigm. We conclude with recommendations for teachers, curriculum leaders, researchers, and teacher preparation programs for upholding psychology as an interdisciplinary social studies course.

The intersection in 2020 of the new COVID-19 pandemic with the ongoing pandemic of anti-black racism exacerbated existing injustices as well as caused and revealed new inequities in US higher education. Because inequities in assessment in particular were intensified by these twin pandemics, faculty at several US colleges revised assessment approaches as part of their pedagogical partnership work over the last year. This paper describes the one-on-one, semester-long, pedagogical partnerships these faculty undertook with undergraduates not enrolled in the faculty members' courses. It reviews the commitments of such partnership work to equity and justice, offers examples of how four faculty-student pairs across the disciplines at three US colleges revised their approaches to assessment, and analyzes how these examples work toward equity and justice. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of such work not only at the intersection of twin pandemics but under all circumstances.

Purpose: The present paper aims to examine the concept of "plant blindness" in the context of current sustainability debates. "Plant blindness" was the term introduced in 1999 by the botanists and educators James H Wandersee and Elisabeth E Schussler to describe what they saw as a pervasive insensitivity to the green environment and a general neglect of plants on the part of biology education. Design/methodology/approach: The fundamental importance of plants for life on Earth and the socio-educational challenges of redacted awareness of this importance are considered. Also, the diverse physiological, psychological, philosophical, cultural and geopolitical origins and consequences of indifference to plants in relation to aspects of sustainability agendas are examined with special reference to education. Findings: An examination of the outcomes of a range of research and practical initiatives reveals how multidisciplinary approaches to education and public engagement have the potential to address the challenge of "plant blindness". The need for these opportunities to be reflected in curriculums is not widely appreciated, and the socio-economic forces of resistance to confronting plant neglect continue to be formidable. Originality/value: Plant blindness is a relatively new field of research, and the full breadth of its implications are only gradually becoming apparent. If the present paper contributes to positioning plants as an essential element in sustainability education and practice, it will have met its objective.

During the last decades of the XIXth century, there was an awakening of consciousness for the need of a Spanish cultural renovation, of which one of the aims was to create and develop a Spanish science, resembling the scientific models already established in more advanced countries. There was a desire of Europeanization. Since it was a global social objective, it was necessary to start from the educator's training. In this climate the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas, appeared. The role that the Junta played in Spanish research and in the innovation in the Psychopedagogical field through the first third of the XXth century was extremely important. The Junta's policy of scholarship was one of its most substantial achievements, for it made possible that the country reached in a few decades (1907-1936) the European scientific and psychological level. The relations among Spanish teachers and the Institute J.J. Rousseau is to highlighted, as "Geneva School" was to influence deeply the further development of psychology in Spain.

Science deals with the world around us, and we understand, experience, and study this world through and with our bodies. While science educators have started to acknowledge the critical role of the body in science learning, approaches to conceptualising the body in science education vary greatly. Embodiment and embodied cognition serve as umbrella terms for different approaches to bodily learning processes. Unfortunately, researchers and educators often blur these different approaches and use various claims of embodiment interchangeably. Understanding and acknowledging the diversity of embodied perspectives strengthen arguments in science education research and allows realising the potential of embodied cognition in science education practice. We need a comprehensive overview of the various ways the body bears on science learning. With this paper, we wish to present such an overview by disentangling key ideas of embodiment and embodied cognition with a view towards science education. Drawing on the historical traditions of phenomenology and ecological psychology, we propose four senses of embodiment that conceptualise the body in "physical," "phenomenological," "ecological," and "interactionist" terms. By illustrating the multiple senses of embodiment through examples from the recent science education literature, we show that embodied cognition bears on practical educational problems and has a variety of theoretical implications for science education. We hope that future work can recognise such different senses of embodiment and show how they might work together to strengthen the many roles of the body in science education research and practice.

Learners are more disconnected from the natural environment than ever before. Science education occurs predominantly in classrooms and laboratories, settings that rationalize and deconstruct the natural world in a Cartesian-Newtonian paradigm. This often negates humans' relationality and interdependence with other life phenomena and furthermore negates nonhuman agency. I examine the alienation from the natural world in a screen-dominated society, review ecopsychology studies that show the effect of nature on human mental and physiological health, and address the limitations of anthropocentric arguments for reconnecting students with nature. Examples of learning about microbes in a biology laboratory, and the importance of what I call wild fascination, as methods to reconnect with our "forgotten forest" are discussed. Finally, I argue that environmental outdoor education is not only vital to foster an ecocentric ethic, but that it is a necessity for ensuring a sustainable future for the biotic community.

The article reports on preliminary research aimed at developing a methological tool applicable to studies of learning in informal educational settings. The study was conducted at two science museums, using a modified version of the stimulated recall method. Digital photographs replaced the traditional video in the final phase, during which eight interviews were conducted, with satisfactory results. The digital photos efficaciously and efficiently stimulated visitors to narrate their experiences and to convey the meanings they took with them from their interactions with the exhibits.

At the Competencies Conference: Future Directions in Education and Credentialing in Professional Psychology, the Scientific Foundations and Research Competencies Work Group focused on identifying how psychologists practice scientifically. This article presents the subcomponents associated with the core competency of scientific practice. The subcomponents include: 1). access and apply current scientific knowledge habitually and appropriately; 2). contribute to knowledge; 3). critically evaluate interventions and their outcomes; 4). practice vigilance about how sociocultural variables influence scientific practice; and 5). routinely subject work to the scrutiny of colleagues, stakeholders, and the public. In addition, the article briefly discusses how the depth of training for and assessment of each subcomponent will vary by training model. Implications and future directions for individual psychologists, training programs, and the profession are discussed. This is one of a series of articles published in this issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology. Several other articles that resulted from the Competencies Conference will appear in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice and The Counseling Psychologist., (Copyright 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

This study describes and evaluates a psychology course specifically focused on computer skills for undergraduate psychology majors. Learning by 136 undergraduates was evaluated on a 57-item objective test. Mean posttest scores were significantly higher than the mean pretest scores in all classes across all topic areas.

The Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) is a qualitative method, based on the Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) theory, which provides a powerful tool to elicit tacit personal construction systems, with minimal intervention and interpretation. Although the contributory potential of the RGT as a cognitive research tool in science education has been documented, few researchers are familiar with it. In this article we describe in detail the principles and steps of the RGT, and how it can be utilised, including practical recommendations and analyzed examples. We illustrate how different studies in science education have utilised the diverse models of the RGT to address different research questions, and its advantages and contribution to the field. We hope to open a window to the PCP theory and the use of the RGT as a profound method for science education research, which may have implications for teaching and learning processes.

Science and science education are recognised internationally as essential for ensuring a sustainable and prosperous future. At the same time, significant equity issues are apparent in science education. This study used enrolment and academic result data, routinely collected from government schools in Victoria, Australia, to examine the impact of socioeconomic status and school location on patterns of participation and achievement in senior school Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics and Psychology. This research shows that though non-metropolitan students are less likely to have the sciences provided by their school, where they are provided they enrol in similar proportions to metropolitan students. In line with other research, it shows that high SES students are more likely than other students to study senior secondary Chemistry and Physics, and outperform low SES students in all senior sciences. While the findings of this study suggest that non-metropolitan students underperform their metropolitan counterparts in senior sciences, they suggest the gap in performance is not dramatic. More promising, the variation in school performance revealed in this study suggests that non-metropolitan schools can achieve just as well as metropolitan schools in the sciences. The study also suggests location has a moderating effect on SES not noted in the current literature, where science achievement in non-metropolitan schools appears less impacted upon by SES than similar schools in urban environments. This provides impetus for further research into high science performing non-metropolitan schools as a step towards addressing some of the equity concerns in science education.

Meaningful societal change begins with individual change. One cannot do for a community what one cannot do for one's self. The topic of Individual Sustainability is a controversial one, as students often appear to be unable to align their demonstrated behaviors with their admirable values related to sustainability. Individual behavior creates the foundation for action in social, economic, and environmental sustainability, and potentially guides our ability to work with one another to make life-affirming decisions. In short, it is a matter of aligning our day-to-day behaviors with our well-stated values that will result in greater sustainable community action. The general objective of this research is to determine how an interactive website providing multisource feedback on personality motivates students to change their behaviors or values, or to align their behaviors and values. We believe that creating a "cognitive dissonance" between individuals' values and behaviors tends to encourage them to balance more effectively the self-knowledge that motivates intentional personal development towards more sustainable behavior. Most students indicated changes in their awareness, behaviors, and values following the study, but fewer indicated a greater alignment between their values and behaviors.

In this study, the intuitive physics of free fall was explored using Information Integration Theory and Functional Measurement. The participants had to rate the speed of objects differing in mass and height of release at the end of an imagined free fall. According to physics, falling speed increases with height of release but it is substantially independent of mass. The results reveal that the participants hold a strong mass-speed belief, i.e., they believe that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones. Mass and height of release are integrated according to a multiplicative rule. The results are interpreted as providing support to the hypothesis of the perceptual-motor origin of the mass-speed belief. Implications of the results for physics education are discussed.

Academic psychology which made a new beginning in India in the early part of 20th century was modelled on the Western scientific tradition. The teaching of psychology was very much on the British pattern since the colonial rule, whereas the research was mostly an extension of the Western work in India. Psychology went through massive expansion after the Independence of India, and with that there were dissenting voices about its imitative nature. A movement toward indigenisation of psychology teaching and research gained momentum over the decades. Psychology in India is now seeking a new identity which is rooted in its rich heritage and also trans-national in its orientation.

Previous studies have identified physics students' difficulties with graph slope and area under a graph in different contexts. In this study we compared physics and nonphysics (psychology) students' understanding of graphs; i.e., we evaluated the effects of concept (graph slope vs area under graph), type of question (qualitative vs quantitative), and context (physics vs finance) on their scores, strategies, and eye-tracking data. All students solved questions about graph slope better than the questions about area under a graph. Psychology students scored rather low on the questions about area under a graph, and physics students spent more time on questions about area under a graph than on slope questions, indicating that understanding of area under a graph is quite a difficult concept that seems unlikely to develop spontaneously. Generally, physics students had comparable scores on the qualitative and quantitative questions, whereas psychology students solved qualitative questions much better. As expected, students' scores and eye-tracking measures indicated that problems involving physics context were easier for physics students since they typically had higher scores and shorter total and axes viewing times for physics than finance questions. Some physics students may have transferred the concepts and techniques from physics to finance because they typically scored better than psychology students on the finance questions that were novel for both groups. Analysis of student strategies showed that physics students mostly relied on strategies learned in physics courses, with strong emphasis on the use of formulas, whereas psychology students mostly used common-sense strategies, as they did not know the physics formulas. The implications of the results for teaching and learning about graphs in physics courses are also discussed.

Argument diagramming is the process of spatially representing an argument by its component parts and their relationships. A growing body of evidence supports the use of argument diagramming to aid student learning and writing within disciplines including science education. However, most of these studies have focused on basic contrasts between diagramming and no diagramming. The purpose of this study was to learn how different diagramming frameworks affect the benefits afforded by argument diagramming. Three groups of undergraduate students in psychology research methods lab courses were given either no diagramming support, support with a domain-general framework, or support with a domain-specific framework to help them write a research paper introduction. Students given any diagramming support included more relevant citations and considered opposing citations in their papers. Students using the domain-specific framework wrote more about the scientific validity of cited studies than the other two groups, whereas students using the domain-general framework trended towards included more supporting citations.

The purpose of this study was to explore whether conceptual change predicted emotional and attitudinal change while learning about genetically modified foods (GMFs). Participants were 322 college students; half read a refutation text designed to shift conceptual knowledge, emotions, and attitudes, while the other half served as a control group. The results suggest that the refutation text effectively facilitated change in conceptual knowledge, emotions, and attitudes. The hypothesized relationship among the variables was explored using structural equation modeling. The analysis showed that when participants experienced knowledge change toward more scientifically accepted conceptions of GMFs, their emotions became more positive and less negative, which predicted a subsequent shift toward more-positive attitudes. The results suggest that change in emotions mediates the relationship between conceptual and attitudinal change. Several theoretical and practical implications are discussed including the impact that these findings may have on science education.

Applying a previously learned concept to a novel problem is an important but difficult process called transfer. Practicing multiple concepts together (mixed practice mode) has been shown superior to practicing concepts separately (blocked practice mode) for transfer. This study examined the effect of single and multiple practice contexts for both mixed and blocked practice modalities on transfer performance. We looked at performance on near transfer (familiar contexts) cases and far transfer (unfamiliar contexts) cases. First year psychology students (n = 42) learned three physiological concepts in a 2 × 2 factorial study (one or two practice contexts and blocked or mixed practice). Each concept was practiced with two clinical cases; practice context was defined as the number of organ systems used (one system per concept vs. two systems). In blocked practice, two practice cases followed each concept; in mixed practice, students learned all concepts before seeing six practice cases. Transfer testing consisted of correctly classifying and explaining 15 clinical cases involving near and far transfer. The outcome was ratings of quality of explanations on a 0-3 scale. The repeated measures analysis showed a significant near versus far by organ system interaction [F(1,38) = 3.4, p < 0.002] with practice with a single context showing lower far transfer scores than near transfer [0.58 (0.37)-0.83 (0.37)] compared to the two contexts which had similar far and near transfer scores [1.19 (0.50)-1.01 (0.38)]. Practicing with two organ contexts had a significant benefit for far transfer regardless of mixed or blocked practice; the single context mixed practice group had the lowest far transfer performance; this was a large effect size (Cohen's d = 0.81). Using only one practice context during practice significantly lowers performance even with the usually superior mixed practice mode. Novices should be exposed to multiple contexts and mixed practice to facilitate transfer.

The present study reports on the development and evaluation of a classroom module to train scientific thinking skills. The module was implemented in two of four parallel sections of introductory psychology. To assess learning, a passage-based question set from the medical college admissions test (MCAT[superscript 2015]) preview guide was included as extra credit on the final exam in all sections. This provided an outcome that was distinct in content from the module, while tapping the same underlying scientific thinking skills. Students in the experimental classrooms answered more questions correctly on targeted scientific thinking skills than students in the comparison classrooms. These data support the benefit of targeted activities for training scientific thinking skills in introductory psychology.

One of the main challenges in tapping the full potential of modern educational software is to devise mechanisms to automatically analyze and adaptively support students' problem solving and learning. A number of such approaches have been developed to teach argumentation skills in domains as diverse as science, the Law, and ethics. Yet, imbuing educational software with effective intelligent tutoring functions requires considerable time and effort. We present a highly configurable software framework, "Configurable Argumentation Support Engine" (CASE), designed to reduce effort and development costs considerably when building tutorial agents for graphical argumentation learning systems. CASE detects pedagogically relevant patterns in argument diagrams and provides feedback and hints in response. A wide variety of patterns are supported, including ones sensitive to students' understanding of the domain, problem-solving processes, and collaboration processes. Teachers and researchers can configure the behavior of tutorial agents on three levels: patterns, tutorial actions, and tutorial strategies. The paper discusses design concerns, the architecture, and the configuration mechanisms of CASE. As a proof of concept, four showcases are presented each showing different aspects of CASE and thus demonstrating the flexibility and breadth of applicability of the CASE approach in supporting single user and collaborative scenarios across different argumentation domains.

This article critically reviews the extant literature on scientific creativity and metaphorical thinking. Metaphorical thinking is based on a conceptual transfer of relationships or mapping, from a well-known source domain to a poorly known target domain, which could result in creative outcomes in sciences. Creativity leads to products that are deemed to be novel and original as well as useful and adaptive. After reviewing the concepts of metaphor and analogy and the types of metaphor identified in the literature, the relationships traditionally theorized between metaphors and creativity from different scientific disciplines were discussed, with special focus on the psychology of creativity. The empirical study of the links between creativity and metaphors can contribute to a better understanding of the scientific process. Promising lines for future research are advanced, such as the exploration of the relationship between the presence of certain types of metaphors in scientific theories and the level of creativity of such theories.

Social influences (e.g., by teachers, parents and peers) on students' experience of interest are typically described in terms of affecting students' initial choice of and/or completion of specific educational activities. When considered within the framework of the Self-Regulation of Motivation (SRM) model, however, other people may influence the interest experience even "after" activity completion, by influencing how a person evaluates that past experience. Previous experimental research showed that when students talked about a game upon completion, listeners' responsiveness influenced their evaluation of interest. The present research examined whether peer responsiveness when undergraduates talked about topics covered in actual classes predicted students' evaluation of class interest. In Study 1, we examined responsiveness in the context of conversations that took place as a structured part of an online psychology class (i.e., discussion board), and found that the frequency of replies from classmates to students' posts (but not the reverse) predicted students' interest in the class measured at the end of the semester. In Study 2, we examined responsiveness in the context of students' reported everyday conversations about two completed interesting class topics or two completed class exams in an introductory physics course. Perceived listener responsiveness in conversations about class topics (but not about exams) predicted students' concurrent evaluation of class interest, even when controlling for anticipated interest at the beginning of the semester. Moreover, listeners indirectly affected interest measured at the end of the semester via their influence on interest during the semester. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

In this response, the author addresses Hansen's (2012) call for the counseling profession to substitute science with humanities as its primary ideology. The author uses Epstein's (1994) cognitive-experiential self-theory to show that an equal appreciation for science and humanities is more congruent with a holistic humanistic vision for counseling. (Contains 1 table.)

Mario Bunge is one of the most prolific philosophers of our time. Over the past sixty years he has written extensively about semantics, ontology, epistemology, philosophy of science and ethics. Bunge has been interested in the philosophical and methodological implications of modern psychology and more specifically in the philosophies of the relation between the neural and psychological realms. According to Bunge, functionalism, the philosophical stand of current psychology, has limited explanatory power in that neural processes are not explicitly acknowledged as components or factors of psychological phenomena. In "Matter and Mind" (2010), Bunge has elaborated in great detail the philosophies of the mind-brain dilemma and the basis of the psychoneural identity hypothesis, which suggests that all psychological processes can be analysed in terms of neural and physical phenomena. This article is the result of a long interview with Dr. Bunge on psychoneural identity and brain-behaviour relations.

Our purpose in this paper is to try to make a significant contribution to the analysis of cognitive capabilities of the organization of active social systems such as the business enterprise by re-examining the concepts of organizational intelligence, organizational memory and organizational learning in light of the findings of modern neuroscience. In fact, in this paper we propose that neuroscience shows that sociocognitivity is for real. In other words, cognition, in the broad sense, is not exclusive to living organisms: Certain kinds of social organizations (e.g. the enterprise) possess elementary cognitive capabilities by virtue of their structure and their functions. The classical theory of organizational cognition is the theory of Artificial Intelligence. We submit that this approach has proven to be false and barren, and that a materialist emergentist neuroscientific approach, in the tradition of Mario Bunge (2003, 2006), leads to a far more fruitful viewpoint, both for theory development and for eventual factual verification. Our proposals for "sociocognitivity" are based on findings in three areas of modern neuroscience and biopsychology: (1) The theory of intelligence and of intelligent systems; (2) The neurological theory of memory as distributed, hierarchical neuronal systems; (3) The theory of cognitive action in general and of learning in particular. We submit that findings in every one of these areas are applicable to the social organization.

George Sarton had a strong influence on modern history of science. The method he pursued throughout his life was the method he had discovered in Ernst Mach's "Mechanics" when he was a student in Ghent. Sarton was in fact throughout his life implementing a research program inspired by the epistemology of Mach. Sarton in turn inspired many others (James Conant, Thomas Kuhn, Gerald Holton, etc.). What were the origins of these ideas in Mach and what can this origin tell us about the history of science and science education nowadays? Which ideas proved to be successful and which ones need to be improved upon? The following article will elaborate the epistemological questions, which Darwin's "Origin" raised concerning human knowledge and scientific knowledge and which led Mach to adapt the concept of what is "empirical" in contrast to metaphysical a priori assumptions a second time after Galileo. On this basis Sarton proposed "genesis and development" as the major goal of "Isis." Mach had elaborated this epistemology in "La Connaissance et l'Erreur" ("Knowledge and Error"), which Sarton read in 1913 (Hiebert 1905/1976; de Mey 1984). Accordingly for Sarton, history becomes not only a subject of science, but a method of science education. Culture--and science as part of culture--is a result of a genetic process. History of science shapes and is shaped by science and science education in a reciprocal process. Its epistemology needs to be adapted to scientific facts and the philosophy of science. Sarton was well aware of the need to develop the history of science and the philosophy of science along the lines of this reciprocal process. It was a very fruitful basis, but a specific part of it, Sarton did not elaborate further, namely the psychology of science education. This proved to be a crucial missing element for all of science education in Sarton's succession, especially in the US. Looking again at the origins of the central questions in the thinking of Mach, which provided the basis and gave rise to Sarton's research program, will help in resolving current epistemic and methodological difficulties, contradictions and impasses in science education influenced by Sarton. The difficulties in science education will prevail as long as the omissions from their Machian origins are not systematically recovered and reintegrated.

Identification of the second of two targets (T2) is impaired when presented shortly after the first (T1). This "attentional blink" (AB) is thought to arise from a delay in T2 processing during which T2 is vulnerable to masking. Conventional studies have measured T2 accuracy which is constrained by the 100% ceiling. We avoided this problem by using a dynamic threshold-tracking procedure that is inherently free from ceiling constraints. In two experiments we examined how AB magnitude is affected by three masking-related factors: (a) presence/absence of T2 mask, (b) T2-mask stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), and (c) level of T2 impoverishment (signal-to-noise ratio [SNR]). In Experiment 1, overall accuracy decreased with T2-mask SOA. The magnitude of the AB, however, was invariant with SOA and with mask presence/absence. Experiment 2 further showed that the AB was invariant with T2 SNR. The relationship among mask presence/absence, SOA, and T2 SNR and the AB is encompassed in a qualitative model. (Contains 5 figures and 1 footnote.)

The science-technology-society agenda has evolved over time to meet emerging educational aims in the light of changes in society and the environment. There is increasing emphasis on students' decision-making on socio-scientific issues (SSIs) not only to highlight the intricate relationships between science, technology, society, and the environment, but also to allow students to incorporate multiple viewpoints into the development of critical reasoning and responsible citizenship. Most research emphases have been on the rationality of reasoning rather than on the internal psychological context that underpins reasoning. This paper explores how these various aspects of reasoning interact in decision-making on SSIs in health contexts through case studies of recent issues in this field. The case studies reveal the negotiation of multiple influences in addressing SSIs in health contexts and the potential interactions between the psychological processes of individuals, science, and sociocultural perspectives. A tentative model to address these interactions emerges from this explorative study and has implications for the use of health-related issues in promoting SSI education. (Contains 1 figure.)

Infants can track small groups of solid objects, and infants can respond when these quantities change. But earlier work is equivocal about whether infants can track continuous substances, such as piles of sand. Experiment 1 ("N" = 88) used a habituation paradigm to show infants can register changes in the size of piles of sand that they see poured from a container when there is a 1-to-4 ratio. Experiment 2 ("N" = 82) tested whether infants could discriminate a 1-to-2 ratio. The results demonstrate that females could discriminate the difference but males could not. These findings constitute the youngest evidence of successful quantity discriminations for a noncohesive substance and begin to characterize the nature of the representation for noncohesive entities.

Many weather forecast providers believe that forecast uncertainty in the form of the worst-case scenario would be useful for general public end users. We tested this suggestion in 4 studies using realistic weather-related decision tasks involving high winds and low temperatures. College undergraduates, given the statistical equivalent of the worst-case scenario (1 boundary of the 80% predictive interval), demonstrated biased understanding of future weather conditions compared with those given both bounds or no uncertainty information. We argue that this was due to an anchoring effect on numeric estimates, which were closer to the worst-case scenario than was warranted and increased linearly as the anchor became more extreme. In many situations tested here, anchoring in numeric estimates also extended to subsequent binary decisions, leading participants with the worst-case scenario to take action more often than did other participants. These results suggest that worst-case scenario forecasts can mislead the user. They appear to convince people that wind speeds will be higher and temperatures will be lower than what are indicated by the forecast. In addition, participants systematically "corrected" the forecast they were given. This effect was most prominent in the condition in which no uncertainty was provided, suggesting that people feel compelled to take uncertainty into account, even when it is not acknowledged by the forecast. Both the anchoring and correction biases were least evident when both bounds were provided, suggesting that balanced uncertainty leads to the best understanding of future weather conditions. (Contains 3 tables.)

Several different explanations have been proposed to account for the search asymmetry (SA) for angry schematic faces (i.e., the fact that an angry face target among friendly faces can be found faster than vice versa). The present study critically tested the perceptual grouping account, (a) that the SA is not due to emotional factors, but to perceptual differences that render angry faces more salient than friendly faces, and (b) that the SA is mainly attributable to differences in distractor grouping, with angry faces being more difficult to group than friendly faces. In visual search for angry and friendly faces, the number of distractors visible during each fixation was systematically manipulated using the gaze-contingent window technique. The results showed that the SA emerged only when multiple distractors were visible during a fixation, supporting the grouping account. To distinguish between emotional and perceptual factors in the SA, we altered the perceptual properties of the faces (dented-chin face) so that the friendly face became more salient. In line with the perceptual account, the SA was reversed for these faces, showing faster search for a friendly face target. These results indicate that the SA reflects feature-level perceptual grouping, not emotional valence. (Contains 2 footnotes, 3 tables, and 4 figures.)

Saccadic reaction time (SRT) is more strongly slowed by target-similar than dissimilar distractors (similarity effect). The time course of this similarity effect was investigated by varying target contrast and analyzing SRT distributions. With foveal distractors, the similarity effect increased with increasing SRT, suggesting that top-down enhancement of target features increased over time. This allowed for successful saccades to the peripheral target, but also entailed larger distraction by target-similar stimuli. Similarity effects with peripheral distractors did not increase with SRT, which we attribute to location-based inhibition containing the growing enhancement of target features. Strong inhibition was likely with peripheral distractors because they always appeared at the same task-irrelevant location. Prior inhibition with foveal distractors was weaker because this would have partially released fixation and entailed anticipations. (Contains 6 figures.)

It is well established that visual search becomes harder when the similarity between target and distractors is increased and the similarity between distractors is decreased. However, in models of visual search, similarity is typically treated as a static, time-invariant property of the relation between objects. Data from other perceptual tasks (e.g., categorization) demonstrate that similarity is dynamic and changes as perceptual information is accumulated (Lamberts, 1998). In three visual search experiments, the time course of target-distractor similarity effects and distractor-distractor similarity effects was examined. A version of the extended generalized context model (EGCM; Lamberts, 1998) provided a good account of the time course of the observed similarity effects, supporting the notion that similarity in search is dynamic. Modeling also indicated that increasing distractor homogeneity influences both perceptual and decision processes by (respectively) increasing the rate at which stimulus features are processed and enabling strategic weighting of stimulus information. (Contains 9 tables and 11 figures.)

With attention and eye-movements humans orient to targets of interest. This orienting occurs faster when the same target repeats: priming of pop-out (PoP). While reaction times (RTs) can be important, PoP's real function could be to steer "where" to orient, a possibility underexposed in many current paradigms, as these predesignate a target to which to orient. In a novel procedure we intermixed pop-out trials (one oddball target, two identical distractors) with choice trials (one item of each kind) where observers freely chose an item to attend to. Pop-out trials strongly drove subsequent choice: observers typically chose the preceding target. Conversely, choice trials affected subsequent pop-out RTs. Conventional PoP measures correlated positively with our choice measures among observers, suggesting common mechanisms. Our results support PoP accounts centered on altered target priority, and underscore PoP's importance for visual exploration. (Contains 1 footnote and 5 figures.)

Assessment of general education has a long history, although relative to the age of liberal education and educational evaluation it is a very recent development. One of the first recorded efforts to comprehensively assess student achievement in higher education in the United States occurred in the late 1920s and early 1930s, when many institutions had general education programs in practice but not necessarily in name. In this effort, nearly forty-five thousand high school and college students were given a multiple-choice test that assessed students' knowledge of the physical world, mathematics and science, and the social world including psychology, sociology, statistical methods, and ancient cultures. This article gives a brief history of general education assessment, responds to common criticisms of general education assessment, and makes a case for assessing general education as a critical element of faculty members' responsibility.

Instructional metaphors scaffold learning better when accompanied by an elaboration. Applying structure mapping theory, we developed and used an elaborated instructional metaphor (text and illustrations) for introductory chemistry concepts. In two studies (N[subscript 1] = 44, N[subscript 2] = 57), college students with little chemistry background read either the elaborated metaphor, sub-concept metaphor statements (e.g. an atom is like a tile) only or (Study 2) sub-concept labels (e.g. atom) only. When asked to write what they knew about the sub-concept, those in the elaborated metaphor condition wrote more sophisticated domain inferences than those in the other condition(s), p less than 0.05. The elaborated metaphor helped participants construct accurate pre-conceptual mental models that could prepare them for future learning (i.e. acquisition of new knowledge). The results also suggested that acquisition of high-level concepts may require active learner transactions with the analogue, as can be had in interactive instructional game worlds. (Contains 3 tables, 3 figures, and 2 notes.)

This research used a survey and interviews to find out which science subjects 174 Year 10 students wanted to study in Year 11 and why. The results showed that the major reasons students wanted to study a particular science subject were because they were interested in the subject matter and because they felt they would achieve well in that subject. These students' Year 11 enrolment data indicated that far fewer students actually enrolled in each of the science subjects compared with those who said that they wanted to. Questions are raised about possible barriers to science enrolment including school policy relating to published school league tables. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)