Assessing working memory capacity in a non-native language

The present studies directly test the usefulness of two English-language working memory capacity (WMC) assessments with two samples of students whose native language was not English. Participants completed two widely used complex span tasks, Reading Span (RSpan) and Operation Span (OSpan), in English. To determine whether the well-established relationship between WMC and Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM) would be observed when span tasks were not given in the native language of the participant, span scores were regressed against performance on the RAPM. Results indicated that while OSpan was a reliable and valid predictor of RAPM in non-native-English speakers, RSpan administered in English was not.     

Using DNA From Mothers and Children to Study Parental Investment in Children’s Educational Attainment

This study tested implications of new genetic discoveries for understanding the association between parental investment and children’s educational attainment. A novel design matched genetic data from 860 British mothers and their children with home-visit measures of parenting: the E-Risk Study. Three findings emerged. First, both mothers’ and children’s education-associated genetics, summarized in a genome-wide polygenic score, were associated with parenting—a gene–environment correlation. Second, accounting for genetic influences slightly reduced associations between parenting and children’s attainment—indicating some genetic confounding. Third, mothers’ genetics were associated with children’s attainment over and above children's own genetics, via cognitively stimulating parenting—an environmentally mediated effect. Findings imply that, when interpreting parents’ effects on children, environmentalists must consider genetic transmission, but geneticists must also consider environmental transmission.     

Educating for Ecological Conversion: An Ecstatic Pedagogy for Christian Higher Education amid Climate Crisis

Abstract

Christian universities are obligated by their mission to confront the climate crisis as the pressing existential issue of our time. In his encyclical Laudato Si', Pope Francis calls for the ecological conversion of the church and all of humanity. Ecological conversion entails an existential shift from a relationship with the earth marked by possessive, wasteful consumption to one marked by delight in creation, concern for its suffering, and preservation of this divine gift. Following the work of Bernard Lonergan and Robert Doran on conversion, we propose pedagogical strategies of connectedness and encounter that emphasize the psychic dimension of ecological conversion.     

Examining cyclical phase relations and predictive influences of self-regulated learning processes on mathematics task performance

Metacognition and Learning - The current study used microanalytic interviews and behavioral traces to examine sequential phase relations among forethought, performance, and self-reflection...     

Predicting verbal plan complexity from decision rule orientation among business students and corporate executives

Integrating the verbal planning and decision science literatures, it was reasoned that individuals whose decision rule orientations are complex exhibit greater complexity in their verbal plans than do individuals who are simple in rule orientation. Verbal complexity was based on business student participants' plans for conducting a negative performance appraisal interview; decision rule orientations were assessed by participants' responses to choice‐making scenarios. Linear discriminant analysis substantiated a relationship between college business students' decision rule orientations and their verbal planning complexity. Seventy‐one percent of the business students were classified correctly into decision rule orientation groups based on their complexity scores. This finding was cross‐validated on a sample of executive level managers. Results are considered in terms of several tentative implications for administering of negative performance appraisal interviews and for management training and development generally.     

Students’ perceptions of instructors’ socio‐communicative style and the influence on instructor credibility and situational motivation

This study investigated whether instructors with different socio‐communicative styles differed in their students’ perceptions of their credibility and their students’ Situationen motivation. Students (N = 260) completed a questionnaire on the class/instructor they had immediately before their current class. The questionnaire consisted of measures of assertiveness, responsiveness, credibility, and situational motivation. Instructors with the socio‐communicative style of competent were perceived highest in all three dimensions of credibility (expertise, character, and caring) and in students’ situational motivation. Instructors classified as noncompetent were perceived as lowest in caring and expertise, while instructors classified as aggressive were perceived as lowest in character. Additionally, situational motivation was positively correlated to all three dimensions of credibility. The results support the importance of instructors being able to display assertive and responsive communication behaviors.