The Differential Effects of Direct Address on Parasocial Experience and Identification: Empirical Evidence for Conceptual Difference

Whereas parasocial experience is conceptualized as imagined interaction identification is defined as the merging of one’s identity with a character’s. Thus, having a character face the camera and directly address viewers should increase the sense of parasocial experience but not affect the intensity of identification. An experiment compared the levels of parasocial experience and identification among viewers of clips from the show House of Cards that included or omitted direct address tested this prediction. Results provide support for the previously theorized conceptualdistinction between parasocial experience and identification.     

Experience, experimentation, and the accumulation of knowledge: the evolution of R&D in the semiconductor industry

This paper examines the interaction and impact on performance of two organizational mechanisms supporting generation and retention of knowledge: experience accumulation and experimentation. It provides evidence that generation of knowledge through experimentation and retention of knowledge through experience were significantly correlated with performance, whereas other measures of R&D commitment and organization, including several suggested by prior studies, were not. It argues that experience and experimentation can function as at least partial substitutes for one another, possessing more of one, firms may need less of the other, and provides evidence that they were so in the semiconductor industry. The evolution of practice at one firm—Intel Corporation—is explored at greater length, providing a qualitative perspective on the process by which a shift towards greater experimentation occurred.     

Building new societies: Insights and predictions from the 5th Wiley Society Member Survey

The 5th Wiley Society Member Survey was conducted in May 2019. We received responses from 3,112 members who either consume, produce, utilize, or support scientific research, from more than 20 countries and across 40 disciplines. This year, we intentionally sought more responses from outside the USA and Western Europe than in the past, making the results more reflective of the diversity of the global research community. This made it clear that the research world is more disparate and, in some cases, such as in the Asia‐Pacific region, more contradictory than we have seen. Previously identified observations, such as an increase in respondents' simultaneous membership of multiple societies, have been consolidated, whereas others, such as the demand for support from societies for high standards of publishing ethics, are new to this survey. Central to the survey's findings is the continuing rise in researcher demand for open access and open research as tools for both consumption and production of research. Ultimately, by using these findings, this article suggests some strategies to enable societies to navigate their way through this new and constantly evolving world of academic research.     

Age Differences in Imagery Abilities

Age differences were examined in 4 aspects of visual mental imagery, namely, image generation, maintenance, scanning, and rotation. The results suggested that one or more distinct processes are used to carry out each aspect of imagery, and that this is true for 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds, 14-year-olds, and adults. There was no evidence that younger children have fewer processing components, which become differentiated into more specialized subsystems over age. In addition, the results suggested that younger children are relatively poor at scanning, rotating, and generating objects in images, but are relatively good at maintaining images.     

Examining the Impact of Explicit Language Instruction in Writers Workshop on ELL Student Writing

abstract

In the context of our work as literacy specialists, we taught teachers to use sentence frames to support ELL students’ writing. We then studied the impact of their instruction on students. Our analysis of student writing samples revealed no groupwide developmental trends so we posed deeper questions about their work using the data analysis methods learned through the action research process. We report our findings about the relationship between student writing development and language instruction. We discuss our learning as well as implications for our work supporting teacher instruction.     

Post-secondary educators' professional development: Investigation of an online approach to enhancing teaching and learning

Faculty in post-secondary institutions must continually reassess, refine, and revise their teaching, yet it is a challenge for them to gain this professional development with heavy teaching responsibilities and high demands on their time. Creating Optimum Learning Environments (CREOLE) is a collaborative project between one community college and one university to develop an online training program for post-secondary education faculty on the basic principles of teaching and learning and the development of online courses. Four independent modules were developed and taught in a one semester format for educators throughout the U.S. The goal of this research was to identify the strenghts and challenges of this course; determine the changes in pedagogical practice of the participating faculty members; and to examine the resulting changes in participants' course materials to reflect learning and motivation theories, and appropriate online learning strategies. Methods included pre- and post-surveys of the participants, interviews, document analysis, and instructors' reflections. Results demonstrated high expectations from all participants, difficulty in forming a sustained learning community, continuing challenge in technological aspects, and requirement for intense instructor involvement to maintain morale.     

Validating NSSE Against Student Outcomes: Are They Related?

While there exist many examples of institutional use of the results of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), there is a relative paucity of research explicitly linking student outcomes to responses on the survey. A major Doctoral-Extensive institution in the Southeast recently conducted a large-scale implementation of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). We have linked multiple years of NSSE responses to several student outcomes: freshman retention, GPA, pursuit of graduate education, and employment outcome upon commencement/degree conferral. Our research finds minimal explanatory power in the NSSE benchmarks for these outcomes. A statistically derived model from the individual NSSE items shows greater promise, although there are difficulties in replicating the model for previous student cohorts.

Rituals Improve Children's Ability to Delay Gratification

To be accepted into social groups, individuals must internalize and reproduce appropriate group conventions, such as rituals. The copying of such rigid and socially stipulated behavioral sequences places heavy demands on executive function. Given previous research showing that challenging executive functioning improves it, it was hypothesized that engagement in ritualistic behaviors improves children's executive functioning, in turn improving their ability to delay gratification. A 3‐month circle time games intervention with 210 schoolchildren (M_age = 7.78 years, SD = 1.47) in two contrasting cultural environments (Slovakia and Vanuatu) was conducted. The intervention improved children's executive function and in turn their ability to delay gratification. Moreover, these effects were amplified when the intervention task was imbued with ritual, rather than instrumental, cues.