Important announcement

Important announcement     

Spelling errors in Spanish

The main purpose of this paper was to see whether dual-route models of spelling, developed within the context of opaque languages and supported mainly by the spelling patterns of acquired dysgraphics, could account for the misspellings of Spanish children of different educational levels. Sixty children (20 second, 20 fourth and 20 eighth graders) were dictated 216 verbal stimuli. Half of these stimuli were words and the other half were matched nonwords. The dependent variable was the number of errors made. Words were controlled for frequency, length and regularity. Results show that second graders rely heavily on phonological mediation with:

Legitimacy,stratification, and internationalization in global higher education: the case of the International Association of Universities

Tertiary Education and Management - The International Association of Universities (IAU) is the only inclusive global university association, its membership barriers are low, yet few universities...     

The determinants of research output and impact: A study of Mexican researchers

This paper uses a unique data set of Mexican researchers to explore the determinants of research output and impact. Our findings confirm a quadratic relationship between age and the number of published papers. However, publishing peaks when researchers are approximately 53 years old, 5 or 10 years later than what prior studies have shown. Overall, the results suggest that age does not have a substantial influence on research output and impact. We also find that reputation matters for the number of citations but not publications. Results also show important heterogeneity across areas of knowledge. Interpretations of other aspects, such as gender, country of PhD, and cohort effect, among others, are also discussed.     

Images of Science Linked to Labwork: A Survey of Secondary School and University Students

This paper presents findings about the images of science drawn upon in laboratory work, by upper secondary and university students, in academic streams with a science focus. Data were collected through four written questions, administered to a total of 368 students. The questions all required students to comment on laboratory investigations carried out by research scientists or by science students. We show that students' reasoning has an epistemological and an ontological dimension, and that it often differs significantly from accepted perspectives on the nature of science. The issue for teaching appears to be showing students what counts (and what does not count) as appropriate reasoning in actual situations. In other words, explicit teaching about the various relationships that can exist between theory and data would transform labwork towards a more critical process that involves making and justifying decisions.     

Data Science Support at the Academic Library

Data science is a rapidly growing field with applications across all scientific domains. The demand for support in data science literacy is outpacing available resources at college campuses. The academic library is uniquely positioned to provide training and guidance in a number of areas relevant to data science. The University of Arizona Libraries has built a successful data science support program, focusing on computational literacy, geographic information systems, and reproducible science. Success of the program has largely been due to the strength of library personnel and strategic partnerships with units outside of the library. Academic libraries can support campus data science needs through professional development of current staff and recruitment of new personnel with expertise in data-intensive domains.     

Effect of Internet Literacy in Understanding Older Adults’ Social Capital and Expected Internet Support

This article investigates whether knowledge of Internet usage among older adults is related to social capital as well as their expectations to obtain social support online. A U.S. national survey of adults aged 60 and older (n = 1,101) found that Internet literacy is significantly associated with their expected Internet support and bridging and bonding social capital even after controlling for age, Internet use, and other factors.     

More but not less uncertainty makes adult humans’ tool selections more similar to those reported with crows

In this study, we examined whether adult humans?? tool selections in a stick-and-tube problem might resemble previously published results of crows?? selections if people had more experience solving the problem or were presented with a more ambiguous problem. In Experiments 1a and 1b, when given multiple opportunities to select a stick from a set of 10 to retrieve a candy located either 8 or 16?cm from the opening of a tube, the participants always selected a stick that was long enough to retrieve the candy; however, they did not generally select either the stick whose length matched the object??s distance or the longest stick in the set??two outcomes reported in studies with crows. In Experiment 2, participants who were allowed only a brief period of time to study the problem selected a longer stick than did participants allowed unlimited time to do the same. However, only when the candy??s distance was 16?cm did these people reliably select the longest stick in the set. It seems that increasing, but not decreasing, people??s uncertainty about a problem can make humans?? tool selections more similar to those reported with crows.     

Reversal from blocking in humans as a result of posttraining extinction of the blocking stimulus

In a blocking procedure, conditioned stimulus (CS) A is paired with the unconditioned stimulus (US) in Phase 1, and a compound of CSs A and X is then paired with the US in Phase 2. The usual result of such a treatment is that X elicits less conditioned responding than if the A-US pairings of Phase 1 had not occurred. Obtaining blocking with human participants has proven difficult, especially if a behavioral task is used or if the control group experiences reinforcement of a CS different from the blocking CS in Phase 1. In the present series, in which human participants and a behavioral measure of learning were used, we provide evidence of blocking, using the above described control condition. Most important, we demonstrate that extinction of the blocking CS (A) following blocking treatment reverses the blocking deficit (i.e., increases responding to X). These results are at odds with traditional associative theories of learning, but they support current associative theories that predict that posttraining manipulations of the competing stimulus can result in a reversal of stimulus competition phenomena.