Generic pronoun use and perceived speaker credibility

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of various alternatives for generic pronoun usage on judgments of speaker credibility. The effects of pronoun usage were examined in interaction with the sex of speaker, sex of listener, and the sex‐typicality of speech topics. Four dimensions of speaker credibility were investigated: composure, dynamism, sociability, and competence. In terms of generic pronoun usage, the results of this study indicate that using “she” can negatively affect perceptions of social attractiveness for all speakers and, in particular, affect a male speaker's perceived competence. The generic “they,” however, did not hinder perceived credibility in any way and, in fact, for females enhanced listeners’ perceptions of their competence. In general, results of this study suggest that if a communicator wishes to use a nontraditional generic pronoun, especially “they,” to express a commitment to greater equity between the sexes, then their credibility will not be significantly diminished.     

Preparing Students for Middle School Through After-School STEM Activities

Journal of Science Education and Technology - The middle school years are a crucial time for cultivating students’ interest in and preparedness for future STEM careers. However, not all...     

Erratum to: Preparing Students for Middle School Through After-School STEM Activities

Journal of Science Education and Technology -     

Content accessibility of special education organisations' Web sites

Professional organisations play a central role in efforts to make public and private facilities and resources accessible. Hundreds of organisations have formed to support the development and maintenance of services to individuals with disabilities. The World Wide Web (WWW) has become a valuable resource for individuals with disabilities, but on-line barriers create significant limitations in content accessibility. This study evaluated the content accessibility of professional organisation home pages. One hundred and eighty-seven home pages were evaluated for content accessibility. The results indicated that 72% of them had significant accessibility problems that severely affect their usability by people with disabilities. The types of accessibility problems are presented, as well as methods for validating and areas for improving Web sites.     

Ethics of the software vulnerabilities and exploits market

In this article we establish three claims: (1) When the target software is proprietary, in the absence of other overriding ethical considerations, the identification of a vulnerability and the development, sale, and purchase of non-zero-day exploits are ethically justified; (2) when the target software is Free/Libre/Open Source, the buying and selling of vulnerabilities can be ethically justified only in a very narrow situation, while the sale and purchase of non-zero-day exploits is ethically justified absent of any other overriding information; and (3) democratic governments should promote legislation that either incentivizes corporate in-house vulnerability identification and mitigation programs or requires firms to more fully absorb the societal costs of insecure software.     

Family Influences on Adaptive Development in Young Children with Down Syndrome

In this study we investigated the extent to which the family environment predicted differences in trajectories of adaptive development in young children with Down syndrome. The sample was comprised of 54 children with Down syndrome and their families who were studied from infancy through the age of 5 years as part of a longitudinal study of children with disabilities. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to estimate the parameters of hierarchical growth models in domains of adaptive development. Results indicated that growth in communication, daily living skills, and socialization domains were predicted by measures of the family environment (i.e., family cohesion and mother-child interaction) above and beyond that predicted by maternal education. Further, Bayley MDI measures during infancy did not predict changes in adaptive development in any of the domains. The results are discussed in terms of implications for service provision and for expanding theoretical frameworks to include the development of children with disabilities.     

Cerilla,mechero, fuego: claves de recuperación y recuerdo infantil

Resumen

Esta investigarón tiene como objeto averiguar el efecto de claves visuales que representan diversas relaciones específicas entre objetos, en pruebas de memoria aplicadas a 611 niños de siete años de edad, divididos en seis grupos experimentales. Los resultados sugieren un mejor recuerdo de las asociaciones sintagmáticas frente a las asociaciones paradigmáticas. Este hecho puede interpretarse como un dominio de la memoria episódica sobre la semántica en una determinada etapa evolutiva (aunque una interpretación alternativa sugiere que la interacción entre tarea y prueba tiene más peso que la interacción entre tarea y sujeto). Si se acepta el dominio de la memoria episódica en una cierta etapa evolutiva, queda pendiente de averiguar si este dominio se mantiene o no a lo largo de etapas posteriores y, en caso afirmativo, cuáles serían las implicaciones.