Children's sensitivity to their own relative ignorance: handling of possibilities under epistemic and physical uncertainty

Children more frequently specified possibilities correctly when uncertainty resided in the physical world (physical uncertainty) than in their own perspective of ignorance (epistemic uncertainty). In Experiment 1 (N=61), 4- to 6-year-olds marked both doors from which a block might emerge when the outcome was undetermined, but a single door when they knew the block was hidden behind one door. In Experiments 2 (N=30; 5- to 6-year-olds) and 3 (N=80; 5- to 8-year-olds), children placed food in both possible locations when an imaginary pet was yet to occupy one, but in a single location when the pet was already hidden in one. The results have implications for interpretive theory of mind and "curse of knowledge."     

Advance Contracting,Word-of-Mouth,and New-Product Success in Creative Industries: A Quantification for Books

The odds of success in creative industries (e.g., book, music, or movie) are often said to be particularly low. Furthermore, due to the nature of advance contracting between creator and producer, the standard approach to use sales as a success measure can be misleading from the producer's perspective. This article presents a novel approach to empirically identify producer success by incorporating the standard terms of contract between creator and producer into a parsimonious model of information diffusion (word-of-mouth) about new products. The model is applied to weekly sales data for a representative sample of novels. Estimation results indicate a success rate between 10% and 15% for this market.     

Dyslexia policy and practice: cross‐professional and parental perspectives on the Northern Ireland context

This article considers policy and practice in relation to dyslexia provision in Northern Ireland since the 2002 Task Group Report. Using interviews with original and current stakeholders, this research, funded by SCoTENS (Standing Conference on Teacher Education, North and South), examined the extent to which recommendations have been met in the intervening years. Perspectives of interviewees indicated that while pockets of good practice have existed, this has been inconsistent. Despite the Department of Education (Northern Ireland) promoting and funding a significant and replicable model of teacher education and making efforts to monitor its efficacy, concerns remain regarding the optional nature of training, the maintenance of the discrepancy model of dyslexia identification, the need for early multi‐disciplinary identification, whole‐school policy development and post‐primary provision. In addition, stakeholders questioned the sustainability of funding and advocated enhanced transparency for parents, whose voices, it would appear, can still go unheard.     

IMAGE OF THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE DURING THE 1970s: A STUDY OF PERCEPTIONS

This article resulted from a funded research study which secured data from which conclusions could be drawn about the extent to which the image of the public, two‐year college changed during the decade of the 1970s, and about possible reasons for such changes. Six significant groups of educators across the nation were surveyed to secure their perceptions of change in image of the public community college. Survey instruments were sent to 903 persons in those six groups; 55% of the instruments were returned. By more than six to one, respondents indicated a perceived significant change in image. Detailed responses to items in five areas of possible change were submitted by respondents. The areas which were studied included: growth and management; programs offered; faculty; students; and other changes in policies, programs, or procedures.     

Effects of vocabulary instruction on measures of language processing: Comparing two approaches

This study examined effects on kindergartners (n = 131) of two approaches to vocabulary instruction, repetition and interactive, and a control condition, along a progression of language processing, using a within subject design. The repetition condition featured repeated readings of a story and practice with definitions. The interactive condition featured multiple contexts and active processing of the words. Students were assessed with experimenter-designed measures of meaning recognition, comprehension, and production. Repetition and interactive approaches enabled students’ recognition of word meanings and higher-order processing compared to the control. Two measures of higher-order processing showed advantage for interactive instruction relative to repetition instruction.     

Using Dialogic Writing Assessment to Support the Development of Historical Literacy

Though discipline-specific approaches to literacy instruction can support adolescents' academic literacy and identity development, scant attention has been paid to ways of targeting such instruction to address individual student needs. Dialogic writing assessment is an approach to conducting writing conferences that foregrounds students' composing process so that teachers can assess and support that process with instructional feedback. Because such feedback is immediate, teachers can observe how students take it up. While dialogic assessment has shown promise as an approach to revealing and supporting students' writing processes in English Language Arts classrooms, it remains to be explored how this approach can support developing writers in other subject areas. This paper offers an analytic narrative account of how a high school social studies teacher used this method to support the writing process of one student, exploring what the method revealed about the challenges the student faced in writing about history, the gaps and misconceptions in their understanding of history and the intersection between the two. We discuss how certain ‘mediational moves’ the teacher employed enabled the student to compose collaboratively with the teacher, and in this collaborative composing, to capture ideas that she later used in her independent writing.     

Acute effects of static stretching on characteristics of the isokinetic angle – torque relationship,surface electromyography,and mechanomyography

Abstract

The aims of this study were to examine the acute effects of static stretching on peak torque, work, the joint angle at peak torque, acceleration time, isokinetic range of motion, mechanomyographic amplitude, and electromyographic amplitude of the rectus femoris during maximal concentric isokinetic leg extensions at 1.04 and 5.23 rad · s^?1 in men and women. Ten women (mean ± s: age 23.0 ± 2.9 years, stature 1.61 ± 0.12 m, mass 63.3 ± 9.9 kg) and eight men (age 21.4 ± 3.0 years, stature 1.83 ± 0.11 m, mass 83.1 ± 15.2 kg) performed maximal voluntary concentric isokinetic leg extensions at 1.04 and 5.23 rad · s^?1. Following the initial isokinetic tests, the dominant leg extensors were stretched using four static stretching exercises. After the stretching, the isokinetic tests were repeated. Peak torque, acceleration time, and electromyographic amplitude decreased (P≤ 0.05) from pre- to post-stretching at 1.04 and 5.23 rad · s^?1; there were no changes (P > 0.05) in work, joint angle at peak torque, isokinetic range of motion, or mechanomyographic amplitude. These findings indicate no stretching-related changes in the area under the angle – torque curve (work), but a significant decrease in peak torque, which suggests that static stretching may cause a “flattening” of the angle – torque curve that reduces peak strength but allows for greater force production at other joint angles. These findings, in conjunction with the increased limb acceleration rates (decreased acceleration time) observed in the present study, provide tentative support for the hypothesis that static stretching alters the angle – torque relationship and/or sarcomere shortening velocity.