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The research literature has revealed mixed outcomes on various procedures for increasing vocalizations and echoic responding in persons with disabilities (Miguel, Carr, & Michael "The Analysis of Verbal Behavior," 18, 3-13, 2002; Stock, Schulze, & Mirenda "The Analysis of Verbal Behavior," 24, 123-133, 2008). We examined the efficacy of an assessment procedure for identifying the most effective echoic teaching procedure to six students diagnosed autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental delays. The assessment procedure included a within-participant comparison of vocal imitation training (VIT), stimulus-stimulus pairing (SSP), and a mand-model procedure (MM). A functional analysis of the responses was conducted to determine whether responding was functionally an echoic or a mand. The results indicated that the assessment was effective in identifying a teaching procedure for five out of the six participants and that responding was established under echoic control. These outcomes support the efficacy of this assessment procedure for identifying effective echoic teaching procedures.

We present an empirical investigation of a classroom training fostering vocational students' consideration of source information when deciding about science-based controversies. The training was specifically aimed at raising students' awareness of the division of cognitive labor and the resulting need to take a source's competence into account when deciding whom to trust. Data were collected from a training group and a waiting list control group in a pretest-posttest design. The results show that students benefitted from the training in terms of their inclination to agree with pertinent expert sources rather than low-pertinent experts and to refer to the source of information to justify their judgment. Source memory was not affected by the training.

Scientific texts are a genre in which adherence to specific discourse conventions allows for conclusions on the scientific integrity of the information and thus on its validity. This study examines whether genre-typical features of scientific discourse influence how laypeople handle conflicting science-based knowledge claims. In two experiments with a total of N?=?120 participants we investigated to what extent laypeople take into account such features when judging the "scientificness" and credibility of conflicting knowledge claims about medical issues and issues related to climate change and when determining their personal agreement with conflicting claims. Results showed that laypeople use genre-typical discourse features to evaluate the scientificness and credibility of conflicting science-based information. However, depending on the scientific topic, they appear to distinguish between what they judge to be credible and what they personally believe to be true. Educational implications of the findings are discussed.

Well-educated laypeople tend to rely on their own ability to evaluate scientific claims when they obtain information from texts with high comprehensibility. The present study investigated whether controversial content reduces this facilitating effect of high text comprehensibility on readers' self-reliance and whether the influence of comprehensibility and controversiality is mediated by perceived epistemic topic complexity. Eighty-eight students of non medical subjects read medical texts of varying comprehensibility and controversiality and indicated their willingness to rely on their own judgment. Participants' reliance on their own judgment was indicated by persuasion and confidence in claim agreement. The results showed that recipients' reliance was stronger after reading comprehensible rather than incomprehensible texts, but this difference was larger if texts were uncontroversial rather than controversial. These effects, however, were not mediated by perceived epistemic topic complexity. Implications for the communication of scientific knowledge to the lay public are discussed.

Past research has shown that readers often fail to notice conflicts in text. In our present study we investigated whether accessing information from multiple documents instead of a single document might alleviate this problem by motivating readers to integrate information. We further tested whether this effect would be moderated by source expertise. One hundred undergraduates read the same medical information purportedly written by either medical experts or laypeople, which was presented as one document or spread across four documents. Results revealed partial support for our hypotheses. Readers of multiple documents exhibited superior memory for conflicts and provided a more balanced description of conflicting information in essays they wrote. Variation of author expertise moderated the effect of presentation format in the essay task but not on the memory test. The results extend previous research by showing that multiple documents reading also stimulates the integration of "conflicting" information. (Contains 2 tables and 1 footnote.)

The present research investigated whether laypeople are inclined to rely on their own evaluations of the acceptability of scientific claims despite their knowledge limitations. Specifically, we tested whether laypeople are more prone to discount their actual dependence on expert knowledge when they are presented with simplified science texts. In two experiments, participants read scientific arguments that varied in comprehensibility and type of argument support and therefore in apparent easiness. We assessed participants' inclination to rely on their own evaluation rather than deferring to expert advice when judging argument persuasiveness. The results showed that laypeople were more strongly persuaded by apparently easy arguments than by difficult ones. Furthermore, they were more confident in their own evaluation of the information and less inclined to turn to an expert for decision-making support after reading easy compared to difficult arguments. (Contains 2 tables.)

Previous research has shown that in different languages ironic speech is acoustically modulated compared to literal speech, and these modulations are assumed to aid the listener in the comprehension process by acting as cues that mark utterances as ironic. The present study was conducted to identify paraverbal features of German "ironic criticism" that may possibly act as irony cues by comparing acoustic measures of ironic and literal speech. For this purpose, samples of scripted ironic and literal target utterances produced by 14 female speakers were recorded and acoustically analyzed. Results showed that in contrast to literal remarks, ironic criticism was characterized by a decreased mean fundamental frequency (F[subscript 0]), raised energy levels and increased vowel duration, whereas F[subscript 0]-contours differed only marginally between both speech types. Furthermore, we found ironic speech to be characterized by vowel hyperarticulation, an acoustic feature which has so far not been considered as a possible irony cue. Contrary to our expectations, voice modulations in ironic speech were applied independently from the availability of additional, visual irony cues. The results are discussed in light of previous findings on acoustic features of irony yielded for other languages. (Contains 2 notes, 5 figures, and 3 tables.)

Students in the second-semester organic chemistry laboratory perform a Wittig reaction between butylidenetriphenylphosphorane (an ylide) and benzaldehyde and determine the relative percentages of the cis and trans isomers of the 1-phenyl-1-pentene product. Because of the highly reactive nature of this unstabilized ylide, students are introduced to working under anhydrous and inert atmosphere conditions. Students prepare the ylide by treatment of butyltriphenylphosphonium bromide with THF solutions of the lithium, sodium, or potassium salt of hexamethydisilazide (HMDS), either alone or in the presence of added LiBr, NaBr, or KBr. After reaction with the benzaldehyde, [superscript 1]H NMR spectroscopy and gas chromatography are used to determine the relative percentages of the cis and trans isomers of the product. By combining their results, students observe that in the absence of lithium the percentage of cis isomer is approximately 90%, whereas in the presence of lithium the percentage of cis isomer is much lower (29-59% depending on the conditions). A discussion led by the instructor develops the mechanistic rationale for understanding these unexpected results. (Contains 1 table, 2 figures and 1 scheme.)

A sample of 118 U.S. 6th and 7th graders was used to examine early adolescents' views of whether video games negatively influence themselves, others of the same age, and younger others. Six specific games ranging in rating from E for Everyone to M for Mature were listed for the early adolescents to respond to, with questions asked about both potential influence and whether young people should be allowed to play the games. Results support a third-person perception that grew as the rating of the game became more restrictive and as the "other" group in question became younger. The presence of rules set by parents about video game use was a positive predictor of perceptions of influence on self and others.

Notes that there is little discussion of the goals of participating in a media-literacy program. Outlines some groundwork for the identification and potential assessment of outcomes associated with media literacy. Proposes that media literacy can help foster critical thinking and discussion of media-related issues. (PM)