A developmental investigation of word length effects in reading using a new on-line word identification paradigm

Third and fifth grade children (average age 8.6and 10.6 years) and adult participants weretested with printed words of varying length ina new on-line identification task (theluminance increment paradigm, LIP) and aspeeded naming task. Effects of general length(length in letters, phonemes and syllables)were shown to decrease systematically with agein both tasks. Third grade children showedsubstantial effects of word length while theeffect practically disappeared in adults. Ingeneral, this developmental pattern was alsofound when separately examining effects ofphonological length (with length in lettersheld constant) and small unit length (withnumber of syllables held constant), althoughsome differences were observed in performancein the identification and the naming task. Thetwo tasks also showed different developmentalpatterns, with the greatest gain in performancearising between 3rd and 5th grade inthe naming task, and the largest improvementoccurring between 5th grade and adults inthe identification task. The results suggestthat the new luminance increment paradigm canbe usefully applied as an on-line measure ofprinted word perception in beginning readers.     

Color characterization of roofing slates from the Iberian Peninsula for restoration purposes

Substitution of slate roofing tiles is a conventional operation during building restoration, since tiles are very difficult to restore or clean because of the high degree of alteration they suffer. Criteria for replacement of historical building stones must be based on geological, geotechnical and esthetic parameters, among which color is of great importance. In this sense, this paper constitutes a comprehensive and useful colorimetric study of roofing slates from the Iberian Peninsula, for the purposes of restoration. The color of 50 commercial varieties of roofing slate mined in quarries from the 12 mining districts in the Iberian Peninsula was analyzed with a spectrophotometer device, by considering the CIELAB color space. The results of the study were used to develop a protocol for characterizing the color of roofing slate and to define the color range of roofing slate from the Iberian Peninsula. In addition, the similarities and differences in the color and microstructure of the different commercial varieties of Iberian roofing slate were established and the limit of acceptability of replacement of one type of slate by another was determined. Parameter h_ab was found to be the most important CIELAB color coordinate as regards the formation of homogeneous color groups, and the specular component excluded (SCE) mode was most sensitive as regards detecting color differences between two samples.     

Science education — I: The spirit of science

In these two essays we explore the questions: what are the essential features of a workable context for science education? What are the givens, the “of courses,” the “fundamental dispositions” toward science and toward education necessary — or at least sufficient — to provide a fertile ground upon which a functional approach to science education can be established? In the present essay it is argued first that science education must reflect that science is a way of thinking — in fact, more comprehensively, a way of being; and second, and that the fundamentally antiauthoritarian spirit of science must be reconciled with education, with its built-in tendency to be authoritarian.     

STUDENTS’ AND INSTRUCTORS’ BELIEFS ABOUT EXCELLENT LECTURERS AND DISCUSSION LEADERS

To what extent do students and teachers hold similar beliefs about excellent teaching? Do differences in beliefs have practical implications (e.g., how students rate their teachers on end-of-semester evaluation forms)? In Study 1, undergraduate students (N=414) and faculty members (N=128) responded to questionnaires assessing their perceptions of an excellent discussion leader, lecturer, or instructor. Participants judged items that contributed to a Structure composite as more characteristic of excellent lecturers than excellent discussion leaders and items that contributed to a Process composite as more characteristic of excellent discussion leaders than excellent lecturers. Results for students and teachers showed several systematic differences. In Study 2,278 students and their course teachers rated the characteristics of a hypothetical excellent lecturer. In addition, students rated the effectiveness of their individual teachers. Students’ ratings of their teachers were higher when students and teachers agreed on their perceptions of characteristics of excellent lecturers.