Journals based on applications: An attempt to improve students' learning about composite materials

In a course on composite materials for fourth-year students at Chalmers University of Technology, students are required to write journals as a complement to the more traditional teaching approach. The journals comprise a series of reports relating the theory currently being treated to an application object, and are sent to the teacher by e-mail for comments. These give the students the opportunity to make use of the theoretical knowledge they meet in each section of the course by reflecting on how it is applicable to a real application. The goal is for better, more integrated understanding, in that, on the one hand, the students should understand the importance of each part of the course and, on the other hand, they should be able to relate the parts to one another, and to practical application. In this paper, we describe the goals and strategies of the change to teaching, we analyse the ways that students approach the journal writing task and we discuss ways in which the journals can improve the quality of student learning.     

The Impact of Child Care on Gender Role Development and Gender Stereotypes

Research has shown that gender role development is socially constructed and learned from birth. In this study, the impact of child care and the interactions that take place there are examined, with a focus on gender behavior and stereotypes. Observation data and analysis are presented. Themes representing gender stereotypes and the breaking of gender barriers are examined, and the role that caregivers can play in the fostering of gender-fair behaviors is discussed.     

‘Unless you are collaborating with a big name successful professor,you are unlikely to receive funding’

Women consistently remain underrepresented in senior academic roles within the academy worldwide. Academics increasingly require research funding to conduct research, leading to publications, both of which can then be used for promotion applications. This article explores fourteen academic women's experiences of the research funding process in New Zealand, to provide insights into one aspect of why this inequity continues. The findings identify institutional, personal, and funding issues that impact on women's application behaviour. Addressing these may assist in developing women's careers as academics and provides us with a more in-depth understanding of the issues than have previously been gleamed from large quantitative studies.     

Extending the Cognitive Mediation Model: Examining Factors Associated With Perceived Familiarity and Factual Knowledge of Nanotechnology

This research—a pilot study on the cognitive mediation model (CMM) in Singapore—seeks to revisit and test the applicability of an extended CMM in the context of nanotechnology by examining perceived familiarity as a separate outcome variable in addition to factual knowledge. A cross-sectional survey was administered to a nationally representative sample of 719 adult Singaporeans. Results demonstrated partial support for the hypothesized CMM. First, elaboration was positively associated with both factual knowledge and perceived familiarity, whereas interpersonal discussions about science was associated only with familiarity. Results also showed differential relationships between attention to media platforms (traditional vs. new media) and reflective integration (composed of elaborative processing and interpersonal discussion); whereas attention to science reporting in newspapers and science television programs were associated with elaboration, media attention across all platforms were associated with interpersonal discussions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Validating simulated interaction for retrieval evaluation

A searcher’s interaction with a retrieval system consists of actions such as query formulation, search result list interaction and document interaction. The simulation of searcher interaction has recently gained momentum in the analysis and evaluation of interactive information retrieval (IIR). However, a key issue that has not yet been adequately addressed is the validity of such IIR simulations and whether they reliably predict the performance obtained by a searcher across the session. The aim of this paper is to determine the validity of the common interaction model (CIM) typically used for simulating multi-query sessions. We focus on search result interactions, i.e., inspecting snippets, examining documents and deciding when to stop examining the results of a single query, or when to stop the whole session. To this end, we run a series of simulations grounded by real world behavioral data to show how accurate and responsive the model is to various experimental conditions under which the data were produced. We then validate on a second real world data set derived under similar experimental conditions. We seek to predict cumulated gain across the session. We find that the interaction model with a query-level stopping strategy based on consecutive non-relevant snippets leads to the highest prediction accuracy, and lowest deviation from ground truth, around 9 to 15% depending on the experimental conditions. To our knowledge, the present study is the first validation effort of the CIM that shows that the model’s acceptance and use is justified within IIR evaluations. We also identify and discuss ways to further improve the CIM and its behavioral parameters for more accurate simulations.     

Case Diagnostics for Factor Analysis of Ordered Categorical Data With Applications to Person-Fit Measurement

Mahalanobis distance (M-distance) case diagnostics are a useful tool for assessing response pattern inconsistency in factor analysis; however, the derivations of these statistics assume continuous variables, which limits their utility in ordinal self- or rater-report data. This research generalizes M-distance diagnostics to categorical factor analysis. We prove that the residual-based M-distance d_r is equivalent to the person-fit index lco, which motivates the use of the new categorical M-distance d_r* as a person-fit index. d_r* is compared and contrasted with z_h, a commonly used item response theory person-fit index. A simulation study is used to show that a simple transformation of d_r* satisfies established criteria for person-fit measures. A sample of responses to the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale is used to determine parameters for a simulation study, and real data are analyzed to contrast the use of d_r and d_r* as indexes of person-fit in continuous and categorical factor analysis.     

On two effects of signaling the consequences for remembering

Five pigeons were trained to perform a delayed matching-to-sample task in which red- and green-colored keys were presented as sample and choice stimuli, and the duration of a delay interval varied across trials. Experiment 1 investigated the effects on delayed-matching accuracy of signaling different durations of food access for the two correct responses (the differential-outcomes effect), and of signaling nondifferential but larger durations for both responses (the signaled-magnitudes effect). In Condition 1, a vertical bar on either sample signaled different rewards (or different outcomes, DOs) for correct red and correct green responses (0.5 and 3.5 sec, respectively), and a horizontal bar signaled equal durations of food access (or same outcomes, SOs) for these responses (1.5 sec). In Condition 2, the horizontal bar signaled equally large rewards for the two correct responses (3.5 sec), and the vertical bar signaled equally small rewards (0.5 sec). Delayed-matching accuracies were higher on DO trials than on SO trials, and they were higher on large-reward trials than on small-reward trials. However, analyses of discriminability estimates as a function of delay-interval duration revealed differences between the forgetting functions reflecting these two effects. Signaling DOs increased the initial level of the function and reduced its slope relative to signaling SOs, whereas signaling larger rewards increased the initial level of the function but did not affect its slope relative to signaling smaller rewards. Experiment 2 investigated whether the difference between the initial levels of DO and SO functions in Condition 1 resulted from overall longer food access on the former trials. However, varying the food-access times on SO trials across three conditions (0.5, 3.5, and 1.5 sec) failed to produce systematic effects consistent with this hypothesis. The results are discussed with respect to the mechanisms that could be responsible for the two effects.