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The fusion point of temporal binding: Promises and perils of multisensory accounts

By Klaffehn, Annika L..
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , Performing an action to initiate a consequence in the environment triggers the perceptual illusion of temporal binding. This phenomenon entails that actions and following effects are perceived to occur closer in time than they do outside the action-effect relationship. Here we ask whether temporal binding can be explained in terms of multisensory integration, by assuming either multisensory fusion or partial integration of the two events. We gathered two datasets featuring a wide range of action-effect delays as a key factor influencing integration. We then tested the fit of a computational model for multisensory integration, the statistically optimal cue integration (SOCI) model. Indeed, qualitative aspects of the data on a group-level followed the principles of a multisensory account. By contrast, quantitative evidence from a comprehensive model evaluation indicated that temporal binding cannot be reduced to multisensory integration. Rather, multisensory integration should be seen as one of several component processes underlying temporal binding on an individual level.

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Cognitive complexity explains processing asymmetry in judgments of similarity versus difference

By Ichien, Nicholas.
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , Human judgments of similarity and difference are sometimes asymmetrical, with the former being more sensitive than the latter to relational overlap, but the theoretical basis for this asymmetry remains unclear. We test an explanation based on the type of information used to make these judgments (relations versus features) and the comparison process itself (similarity versus difference). We propose that asymmetries arise from two aspects of cognitive complexity that impact judgments of similarity and difference: processing relations between entities is more cognitively demanding than processing features of individual entities, and comparisons assessing difference are more cognitively complex than those assessing similarity. In Experiment 1 we tested this hypothesis for both verbal comparisons between word pairs, and visual comparisons between sets of geometric shapes. Participants were asked to select one of two options that was either more similar to or more different from a standard. On unambiguous trials, one option was unambiguously more similar to the standard; on ambiguous trials, one option was more featurally similar to the standard, whereas the other was more relationally similar. Given the higher cognitive complexity of processing relations and of assessing difference, we predicted that detecting relational difference would be particularly demanding. We found that participants (1) had more difficulty detecting relational difference than they did relational similarity on unambiguous trials, and (2) tended to emphasize relational information more when judging similarity than when judging difference on ambiguous trials. The latter finding was replicated using more complex story stimuli (Experiment 2). We showed that this pattern can be captured by a computational model of comparison that weights relational information more heavily for similarity than for difference judgments.

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Repeated rock, paper, scissors play reveals limits in adaptive sequential behavior

By Brockbank, Erik.
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , How do people adapt to others in adversarial settings? Prior work has shown that people often violate rational models of adversarial decision-making in repeated interactions. In particular, in mixed strategy equilibrium (MSE) games, where optimal action selection entails choosing moves randomly, people often do not play randomly, but instead try to outwit their opponents. However, little is known about the adaptive reasoning that underlies these deviations from random behavior. Here, we examine strategic decision-making across repeated rounds of rock, paper, scissors, a well-known MSE game. In experiment 1, participants were paired with bot opponents that exhibited distinct stable move patterns, allowing us to identify the bounds of the complexity of opponent behavior that people can detect and adapt to. In experiment 2, bot opponents instead exploited stable patterns in the human participants’ moves, providing a symmetrical bound on the complexity of patterns people can revise in their own behavior. Across both experiments, people exhibited a robust and flexible attention to transition patterns from one move to the next, exploiting these patterns in opponents and modifying them strategically in their own moves. However, their adaptive reasoning showed strong limitations with respect to more sophisticated patterns. Together, results provide a precise and consistent account of the surprisingly limited scope of people’s adaptive decision-making in this setting.

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Optimizing competence in the service of collaboration

By Xinag, Yang.
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , In order to efficiently divide labor with others, it is important to understand what our collaborators can do (i.e., their competence). However, competence is not static—people get better at particular jobs the more often they perform them. This plasticity of competence creates a challenge for collaboration: For example, is it better to assign tasks to whoever is most competent now, or to the person who can be trained most efficiently “on-the-job”? We conducted four experiments () that examine how people make decisions about whom to train (Experiments 1 and 3) and whom to recruit (Experiments 2 and 4) to a collaborative task, based on the simulated collaborators’ starting expertise, the training opportunities available, and the goal of the task. We found that participants’ decisions were best captured by a planning model that attempts to maximize the returns from collaboration while minimizing the costs of hiring and training individual collaborators. This planning model outperformed alternative models that based these decisions on the agents’ current competence, or on how much agents stood to improve in a single training step, without considering whether this training would enable agents to succeed at the task in the long run. Our findings suggest that people do not recruit and train collaborators based solely on their current competence, nor solely on the opportunities for their collaborators to improve. Instead, people use an intuitive theory of competence to balance the costs of hiring and training others against the benefits to the collaboration.

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The structure and development of explore-exploit decision making

By Harms, Madeline B..
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , A critical component of human learning reflects the balance people must achieve between focusing on the utility of what they know versus openness to what they have yet to experience. How individuals decide whether to explore new options versus exploit known options has garnered growing interest in recent years. Yet, the component processes underlying decisions to explore and whether these processes change across development remain poorly understood. By contrasting a variety of tasks that measure exploration in slightly different ways, we found that decisions about whether to explore reflect (a) random exploration that is not explicitly goal-directed and (b) directed exploration to purposefully reduce uncertainty. While these components similarly characterized the decision-making of both youth and adults, younger participants made decisions that were less strategic, but more exploratory and flexible, than those of adults. These findings are discussed in terms of how people adapt to and learn from changing environments over time. Data has been made available in the Open Science Foundation platform

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The perceptual timescape: Perceptual history on the sub-second scale

By White, Peter A..
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , There is a high-capacity store of brief time span (∼1000 ms) which information enters from perceptual processing, often called iconic memory or sensory memory. It is proposed that a main function of this store is to hold recent perceptual information in a temporally segregated representation, named the perceptual timescape. The perceptual timescape is a continually active representation of change and continuity over time that endows the perceived present with a perceived history. This is accomplished primarily by two kinds of time marking information: time distance information, which marks all items of information in the perceptual timescape according to how far in the past they occurred, and ordinal temporal information, which organises items of information in terms of their temporal order. Added to that is information about connectivity of perceptual objects over time. These kinds of information connect individual items over a brief span of time so as to represent change, persistence, and continuity over time. It is argued that there is a one-way street of information flow from perceptual processing either to the perceived present or directly into the perceptual timescape, and thence to working memory. Consistent with that, the information structure of the perceptual timescape supports postdictive reinterpretations of recent perceptual information. Temporal integration on a time scale of hundreds of milliseconds takes place in perceptual processing and does not draw on information in the perceptual timescape, which is concerned with temporal segregation, not integration.

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Infants can use temporary or scant categorical information to individuate objects

By Lin, Yi.
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , In a standard individuation task, infants see two different objects emerge in alternation from behind a screen. If they can assign distinct categorical descriptors to the two objects, they expect to see both objects when the screen is lowered; if not, they have no expectation at all about what they will see (i.e., two objects, one object, or no object). Why is contrastive categorical information critical for success at this task? According to the kind account, infants must decide whether they are facing a single object with changing properties or two different objects with stable properties, and access to permanent, intrinsic, kind information for each object resolves this difficulty. According to the two-system account, however, contrastive categorical descriptors simply provide the object-file system with unique tags for individuating the two objects and for communicating about them with the physical-reasoning system. The two-system account thus predicts that any type of contrastive categorical information, however temporary or scant it may be, should induce success at the task. Two experiments examined this prediction. Experiment 1 tested 14-month-olds (N = 96) in a standard task using two objects that differed only in their featural properties. Infants succeeded at the task when the object-file system had access to contrastive temporary categorical descriptors derived from the objects’ distinct causal roles in preceding support events (e.g., formerly a support, formerly a supportee). Experiment 2 tested 9-month-olds (N = 96) in a standard task using two objects infants this age typically encode as merely featurally distinct. Infants succeeded when the object-file system had access to scant categorical descriptors derived from the objects’ prior inclusion in static arrays of similarly shaped objects (e.g., block-shaped objects, cylinder-shaped objects). These and control results support the two-system account’s claim that in a standard task, contrastive categorical descriptors serve to provide the object-file system with unique tags for the two objects.

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What’s in a sample? Epistemic uncertainty and metacognitive awareness in risk taking

By Olschewski, Sebastian.
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , In a fundamentally uncertain world, sound information processing is a prerequisite for effective behavior. Given that information processing is subject to inevitable cognitive imprecision, decision makers should adapt to this imprecision and to the resulting epistemic uncertainty when taking risks. We tested this metacognitive ability in two experiments in which participants estimated the expected value of different number distributions from sequential samples and then bet on their own estimation accuracy. Results show that estimates were imprecise, and this imprecision increased with higher distributional standard deviations. Importantly, participants adapted their risk-taking behavior to this imprecision and hence deviated from the predictions of Bayesian models of uncertainty that assume perfect integration of information. To explain these results, we developed a computational model that combines Bayesian updating with a metacognitive awareness of cognitive imprecision in the integration of information. Modeling results were robust to the inclusion of an empirical measure of participants’ perceived variability. In sum, we show that cognitive imprecision is crucial to understanding risk taking in decisions from experience. The results further demonstrate the importance of metacognitive awareness as a cognitive building block for adaptive behavior under (partial) uncertainty.

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No position-specific interference from prior lists in cued recognition: A challenge for position coding (and other) theories of serial memory

By Logan, Gordon D..
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , Position-specific intrusions of items from prior lists are rare but important phenomena that distinguish broad classes of theory in serial memory. They are uniquely predicted by position coding theories, which assume items on all lists are associated with the same set of codes representing their positions. Activating a position code activates items associated with it in current and prior lists in proportion to their distance from the activated position. Thus, prior list intrusions are most likely to come from the coded position. Alternative “item dependent” theories based on associations between items and contexts built from items have difficulty accounting for the position specificity of prior list intrusions. We tested the position coding account with a position-cued recognition task designed to produce prior list interference. Cuing a position should activate a position code, which should activate items in nearby positions in the current and prior lists. We presented lures from the prior list to test for position-specific activation in response time and error rate; lures from nearby positions should interfere more. We found no evidence for such interference in 10 experiments, falsifying the position coding prediction. We ran two serial recall experiments with the same materials and found position-specific prior list intrusions. These results challenge all theories of serial memory: Position coding theories can explain the prior list intrusions in serial recall and but not the absence of prior list interference in cued recognition. Item dependent theories can explain the absence of prior list interference in cued recognition but cannot explain the occurrence of prior list intrusions in serial recall.

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Anaphoric distance dependencies in visual narrative structure and processing

By Cohn, Neil.
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , Linguistic syntax has often been claimed as uniquely complex due to features like anaphoric relations and distance dependencies. However, visual narratives of sequential images, like those in comics, have been argued to use sequencing mechanisms analogous to those in language. These narrative structures include “refiner” panels that “zoom in” on the contents of another panel. Similar to anaphora in language, refiners indexically connect inexplicit referential information in one unit (refiner, pronoun) to a more informative “antecedent” elsewhere in the discourse. Also like in language, refiners can follow their antecedents (anaphoric) or precede them (cataphoric), along with having either proximal or distant connections. We here explore the constraints on visual narrative refiners created by modulating these features of order and distance. Experiment 1 examined participants’ preferences for where refiners are placed in a sequence using a force-choice test, which revealed that refiners are preferred to follow their antecedents and have proximal distances from them. Experiment 2 then showed that distance dependencies lead to slower self-paced viewing times. Finally, measurements of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in Experiment 3 revealed that these patterns evoke similar brain responses as referential dependencies in language (i.e., N400, LAN, Nref). Across all three studies, the constraints and (neuro)cognitive responses to refiners parallel those shown to anaphora in language, suggesting domain-general constraints on the sequencing of referential dependencies.

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Dual-process modeling of sequential decision making in the balloon analogue risk task

By Zhou, Ran.
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , People are often faced with repeated risky decisions that involve uncertainty. In sequential risk-taking tasks, like the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), the underlying decision process is not yet fully understood. Dual-process theory proposes that human cognition involves two main families of processes, often referred to as System 1 (fast and automatic) and System 2 (slow and conscious). We cross models of the BART with different architectures of the two systems to yield a pool of computational dual-process models that are evaluated on multiple performance measures (e.g., parameter identifiability, model recovery, and predictive accuracy). Results show that the best-performing model configuration assumes the two systems are competitively connected, an evaluation process based on the Scaled Target Learning model of the BART, and an assessment rate that incorporates sensitivity to the trial number, pumping opportunity, and bias to engage in System 1. Findings also shed light on how modeling choices and response times in a dual-process framework can benefit our understanding of sequential risk-taking behavior.

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A unified account of simple and response-selective inhibition

By Gronau, Quentin F..
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , Response inhibition is a key attribute of human executive control. Standard stop-signal tasks require countermanding a single response; the speed at which that response can be inhibited indexes the efficacy of the inhibitory control networks. However, more complex stopping tasks, where one or more components of a multi-component action are cancelled (i.e., response-selective stopping) cannot be explained by the independent-race model appropriate for the simple task (Logan and Cowan 1984). Healthy human participants (; 10 male; 19–40 years) completed a response-selective stopping task where a ‘go’ stimulus required simultaneous (bimanual) button presses in response to left and right pointing green arrows. On a subset of trials (30%) one, or both, arrows turned red (constituting the stop signal) requiring that only the button-press(es) associated with red arrows be cancelled. Electromyographic recordings from both index fingers (first dorsal interosseous) permitted the assessment of both voluntary motor responses that resulted in overt button presses, and activity that was cancelled prior to an overt response (i.e., partial, or covert, responses). We propose a simultaneously inhibit and start (SIS) model that extends the independent race model and provides a highly accurate account of response-selective stopping data. Together with fine-grained EMG analysis, our model-based analysis offers converging evidence that the selective-stop signal simultaneously triggers a process that stops the bimanual response and triggers a new unimanual response corresponding to the green arrow. Our results require a reconceptualisation of response-selective stopping and offer a tractable framework for assessing such tasks in healthy and patient populations.

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Retrieving effectively from source memory: Evidence for differentiation and local matching processes

By Aytac, Sinem.
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , The ability to distinguish between different explanations of human memory abilities continues to be the subject of many ongoing theoretical debates. These debates attempt to account for a growing corpus of empirical phenomena in item-memory judgments, which include the list strength effect, the strength-based mirror effect, and output interference. One of the main theoretical contenders is the Retrieving Effectively from Memory (REM) model. We show that REM, in its current form, has difficulties in accounting for source-memory judgments – a situation that calls for its revision. We propose an extended REM model that assumes a local-matching process for source judgments alongside source differentiation. We report a first evaluation of this model’s predictions using three experiments in which we manipulated the relative source-memory strength of different lists of items. Analogous to item-memory judgments, we observed a null list strength effect and a strength-based mirror effect in the case of source memory. In a second evaluation, which relied on a novel experiment alongside two previously published datasets, we evaluated the model’s predictions regarding the manifestation of output interference in item and lack of it in source memory judgments. Our results showed output interference severely affecting the accuracy of item-memory judgments but having a null or negligible impact when it comes to source-memory judgments. Altogether, these results support REM’s core notion of differentiation (for both item and source information) as well as the concept of local matching proposed by the present extension.

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Modelling orthographic similarity effects in recognition memory reveals support for open bigram representations of letter coding

By Zhang, Lyulei.
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , A variety of letter string representations has been proposed in the reading literature to account for empirically established orthographic similarity effects from masked priming studies. However, these similarity effects have not been explored in episodic memory paradigms and very few memory models have employed orthographic representation of words. In the current work, through two recognition memory experiments employing word and pseudoword stimuli respectively, we empirically established a set of key orthographic similarity effects for the first time in recognition memory – namely the substitution effect, transposition effect and reverse effect in recognition memory of words and pseudowords, and a start-letter importance in recognition memory of words. Subsequently, we compared orthographic representations from the reading literature including slot coding, closed-bigram, open-bigram and the overlap model. Each of these representations was situated in a global matching model and fitted to recognition performance via Luce’s choice rule in a hierarchical Bayesian framework. Model selection results showed support for the open-bigram representation in both experiments.

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The impact of cognitive resource constraints on goal prioritizatio

By Alister, Manikya.
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , Many decisions we face daily entail deliberation about how to coordinate resources shared between multiple, competing goals. When time permits, people appear to approach these goal prioritization problems by analytically considering all goal-relevant information to arrive at a prioritization decision. However, it is not yet clear if this normative strategy extends to situations characterized by resource constraints such as when deliberation time is scarce or cognitive load is high. We evaluated the questions of how limited deliberation time and cognitive load affect goal prioritization decisions across a series of experiments using a gamified experimental task, which required participants to make a series of interdependent goal prioritization decisions. We fit several candidate models to experimental data to identify decision strategy adaptations at the individual subject-level. Results indicated that participants tended to opt for a simple heuristic strategy when cognitive resources were constrained rather than making a general tradeoff between speed and accuracy (e.g., the type of tradeoff that would be predicted by evidence accumulation models). The most common heuristic strategy involved disproportionately weighing information about goal deadlines compared to other goal-relevant information such as the goal’s difficulty and the goal’s subjective value.

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Interactive structure building in sentence production

By Fukumura, Kumiko.
Amherst Elsevier 2024 , How speakers sequence words and phrases remains a central question in cognitive psychology. Here we focused on understanding the representations and processes that underlie structural priming, the speaker’s tendency to repeat sentence structures encountered earlier. Verb repetition from the prime to the target led to a stronger tendency to produce locative variants of the spray-load alternation following locative primes (e.g., load the boxes into the van) than following with primes (e.g., load the van with the boxes). These structural variants had the same constituent structure, ruling out abstract syntactic structure as the source of the verb boost effect. Furthermore, using cleft constructions (e.g., What the assistant loaded into the lift was the equipment), we found that the thematic role order (thematic role-position mappings) of the prime can persist separately from its argument structure (thematic role-syntactic function mappings). Moreover, both priming effects were enhanced by verb repetition and interacted with each other when the construction of the prime was also repeated in the target. These findings are incompatible with the traditional staged model of grammatical encoding, which postulates the independence of abstract syntax from thematic role information. We propose the interactive structure-building account, according to which speakers build a sentence structure by choosing a thematic role order and argument structure interactively based on their prior co-occurrence together with other structurally relevant information such as verbs and constructions.

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The effect of element interactivity and mental rehearsal on working memory resource depletion and the spacing effect

By Chen, Ouhao.
United States Elsevier 2024 , The spacing effect occurs when learning with rest periods is superior to learning without rest periods. Cognitive load theory has explained this superiority by working memory resource depletion, under which resources are depleted during cognitive activity but restored with rest. In a series of four experiments involving 341 participants, we explored the relationships between the spacing effect, depletion of working memory resources, and mental rehearsal, particularly focusing on how these dynamics are influenced by task complexity as defined by element interactivity. Experiment 1 showed that materials with higher element interactivity had a greater impact on working memory resource depletion. In Experiment 2, using materials low in element interactivity, a spacing effect was obtained with no evidence of working memory resource depletion. Instead, results suggested that the effect might be due to mental rehearsal occurring during rest periods. Experiment 3, using more complex information, obtained both the spacing and working memory resource depletion effects for less knowledgeable learners for whom the information was high in element interactivity. In Experiment 4, testing more knowledgeable learners for whom the same information was lower in element interactivity, both effects disappeared. The results indicated that working memory resource depletion and recovery may be more sensitive to materials high in element interactivity and suggest that it is only one of multiple causes of the spacing effect

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Undergraduate student perceptions of instructor mindset and academic performance: A motivational climate theory perspective

By Kim, Matthew H..
United States Elsevier 2024 , Academic achievement depends not only on learners’ skill but also the psychological factors that arise during learning, such as the belief that intelligence improves with effort—a growth mindset. In addition to being guided by their own beliefs, students might use information present in their learning environments to imagine what their instructors believe about students’ abilities, and alter their engagement accordingly. The present study applies motivational climate theory to examine the association between individual and shared student perceptions of instructors’ ability mindset on their academic performance. Data from 5,057 undergraduate students and 94 instructors in a public research university in the United States, across academic disciplines and instructional modalities, revealed that students’ individual and aggregated perceptions of their instructors’ mindset, but not their own mindset or instructors’ self-reported mindset, were associated with final grades. Additionally, a moderation analysis revealed that the association between aggregated perceptions of students’ perceptions of their instructors’ fixed mindset and course performance was significant in STEM courses but not in non-STEM courses, possibly reflecting meaningful differences in disciplinary norms and traditions that could shape ability mindset. Shifting instructors’ framing about ability, classroom practices, and students’ understanding and interpretation of these environmental signals, could improve achievement outcomes.

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PhD students’ motivation profiles: A self-determination theory perspective

By Litalien, David.
United States Elsevier 2024 , Previous research has underscored the importance of understanding the mechanisms that underpin the academic motivation of PhD students. This understanding is crucial for enhancing their educational experience and program completion rates. Based on self-determination theory, this person-centered study first investigated PhD students’ motivation profiles defined on their types of academic motivations. Second, we explored associations between these profiles and various predictors (need satisfaction and support) and educational outcomes (persistence, satisfaction, future intentions, and performance). Third, we systematically tested the similarity of these profiles and their associations with predictors and outcomes across subgroups of students based on sex, field of study, citizenship, and program progression. Using a sample of 1060 Canadian PhD students, four distinct profiles emerged from the latent profile analyses: Low self-determined, Introjected, Identified, and High self-determined. Profile membership was predicted by need satisfaction and perceived support from faculty members. The most desirable outcome levels were associated with the High self-determination profile, followed by the Identified, Introjected and Low self-determined profiles. These profiles and their associations with predictors and outcomes were highly similar across the different subgroups. From a practical perspective, our results allowed us to identify students with less optimal motivation configurations and to propose intervention strategies, particularly focused on students’ need for autonomy, to support more desirable motivational profiles.

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Does the Jigsaw method improve motivation and self-regulation in vocational high schools?

By Riant, Mathilde.
United States Elsevier 2024 , Although much has been written about the beneficial effects of the Jigsaw method, little is known about how it affects students' motivation and self-regulation processes. In this study, we tested its effects on students' trajectories of autonomous mathematics motivation and academic self-regulation. We also examined whether these effects could be moderated by the students’ cooperative attitudes and initial mathematics achievement level. 4,698 students from French vocational high schools participated in the study over two years. They were divided into three groups: 1,641 were assigned to a cooperative learning condition with the Jigsaw method, 1,602 to a weakly structured cooperative learning condition, and 1,455 to a business-as-usual learning condition. Self-reported mathematics motivation, academic self-regulation, and cooperative attitudes were collected three times during the study. Overall, the multilevel growth model results indicate a general decline in students’ motivation and self-regulation, and student-reported cooperative attitudes did not moderate these effects. However, the trajectories of motivation and self-regulation differed by condition for low-achieving students. While these trajectories decreased over time amongst low-achieving students in the Jigsaw method condition and in the weakly structured cooperation condition, they were stable in the business-as-usual learning condition. These results provide a new perspective since they seem to question the implementation conditions of the Jigsaw method for low-achieving students.

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“My drawing is quite different!” Drawbacks of comparing generative drawings to instructional visuals

By Fiorella, Logan.
United States Elsevier 2024 , This study tested how prompting learners to compare their drawings to instructional visuals affects their perceived and actual performance. Undergraduates (n = 116) created two drawings while studying a text on the human circulatory system. Then they made a series of retrospective and prospective judgments of their drawing performance and prospective judgments of their comprehension. In a subsequent restudy phase, students were randomly assigned to either compare their drawings to instructional visuals (compare group; n = 56) or to restudy the text and review their drawings without receiving instructional visuals (control group; n = 60), followed by a series of new judgments of drawing and comprehension. All students then completed drawing and comprehension post-tests. Results indicated that comparing one’s drawings to instructional visuals caused students to become underconfident in the quality of their drawings (lower retrospective accuracy) and overconfident in their future drawing performance (lower prospective accuracy). Exploratory analyses indicated that the compare group tended to make surface-level (rather than conceptual) comparisons when processing the provided visuals, such as attending to the aesthetic style or conventions used in the instructional visuals. Furthermore, despite a strong link between drawing and comprehension performance, comparing drawings to instructional visuals did not significantly affect students’ judgments of comprehension. These findings highlight potential drawbacks of comparing generative drawings to instructional visuals in learning by drawing.

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The relationship between teachers’ stress and buoyancy from day to day: Two daily diary studies

By Wal, Joost Jansen in de.
United States Elsevier 2024 , Despite the pertinence of teachers’ buoyancy to ‘everyday work’, existing studies do not investigate buoyancy in close proximity to everyday experiences. Nor does existing research longitudinally investigate teachers’ buoyancy and how it relates to stress. This paper describes two quantitative daily diary studies on this relationship. Study 1 includes a relatively large sample of teachers (N = 151), compared to the number of days that they were followed (T = 15). Study 2 includes relatively few teachers (N = 10), but follows them for an extended period of time (T = 61). Both studies tested hypotheses regarding the extent to which teachers’ stress and buoyancy beliefs vary − and carry over − from day to day and the extent to which teachers’ buoyancy beliefs and stress experiences co-occur and predict each other from day to day and from teacher to teacher. Results showed that both teachers’ buoyancy beliefs and stress experiences varied and carried over significantly from day to day, although carryover effects were small. The relationship between buoyancy beliefs and stress was negative from teacher to teacher and concurrently from day to day. However, cross-lagged effects between both constructs from day to day were not significant. These results imply that both teachers’ buoyancy beliefs and stress are malleable, state-like constructs to a considerable extent, but their dynamics likely occur on a timescale that is smaller than daily.

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The Multidimensional Student Well-being (MSW) instrument: Conceptualisation, measurement, and differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous primary and secondary students

By Craven, Rhonda G..
United States Elsevier 2024 , Enabling children’s and youth’s well-being is widely valued by families and communities worldwide. However, there is no general agreement about the structure and measurement of well-being in schooling contexts, nor in particular for Indigenous students who comprise some of the most educationally disadvantaged populations in the world. We theorised a multidimensional student well-being model and the Multidimensional Student Well-being (MSW) instrument, grounded on recent research. We investigated its structure, measurement, and relation to correlates of well-being for a matched sample of 1,405 Australian students (Indigenous, N = 764; non-Indigenous, N = 641) at three time-points, 10–12 months apart. Analyses supported an a priori multidimensional model of 6 higher-order domains of well-being, represented by 15 first-order factors. This structure was invariant across Indigenous and non-Indigenous, male and female, and primary and secondary schooling levels. Correlates provided support for convergent and discriminant validity. There was a downward trend in well-being over time, which calls for attention to multidimensional domains of students’ well-being to promote healthy development throughout school life and beyond. The results support a multidimensional model of student well-being appropriate for primary and secondary schooling and both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.

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How trait and state positive Emotions, negative Emotions, and self-regulation relate to adolescents' perceived daily learning progress

By Zhu, Gaoxia.
United States Elsevier 2024 , Previous research is replete with evidence that emotions and self-regulation work together to influence learning performance, but distinct trait and state features of emotions and self-regulation are rarely considered. With an analytic sample comprising 9,501 daily diaries from 280 adolescents participating in a self-driven learning program, this study used multilevel modeling to examine how trait and state positive and negative emotions and self-regulation interact to predict adolescents' perceived daily learning progress. Results suggested that daily perceived learning progress was associated with trait and state positive emotions and self-regulation, as well as trait negative emotions. Furthermore, there was a significant positive interaction between state positive emotions and state self-regulation on perceived daily learning progress, such that when adolescents' state self-regulation was higher than usual, their perceived daily learning progress was more sensitive to state positive emotion. Results underscore the importance of enhancing adolescents' self-regulation and positive emotion, and the feasibility of facilitating adolescents' learning even if they are in a state of greater negative emotion.

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Test anxiety fluctuations during low-stakes secondary school assessments: The role of the needs for autonomy and competence over and above the number of tests

By Jonge, Stefanie De.
United States Elsevier 2024 , Test anxiety poses a fundamental educational challenge as it is associated with lower academic performance and well-being. Grounded in the Self-Determination Theory, this study will focus on test anxiety fluctuations in relation to low-stakes assessments and investigates whether fluctuations in students’ experiences of autonomy and competence satisfaction and frustration relate to their test anxiety. For this purpose, 253 secondary school students completed a survey at three different times throughout the second semester. Students' feelings of autonomy and competence in the classroom were administered as well as their test anxiety. Each student completed the same two test anxiety scales at each measurement occasion, with one scale consistently administered to all students and the other two scales randomly assigned between classes. Multilevel analyses revealed that students showed higher test anxiety in weeks in which their need for competence was more frustrated and when they had to take more low-stakes tests. This association was robust across the three test anxiety instruments and after considering important test anxiety covariates (e.g., gender and prior achievement). These findings imply that competence frustration is an important underlying mechanism of test anxiety that should be taken into account when designing anxiety-reducing interventions.

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Teachers' perceptions of the epistemic aims and evaluation criteria of multiple text integration

By Primor, Liron.
United States Elsevier 2024 , The importance of intertextual integration in current information societies has led to extensive research on how to foster students' integration competence. Although teachers have a central role in promoting integration skills, research into their perceptions of intertextual integration tasks is still scarce. Hence, the purpose of this study was to explore language arts teachers' views on the epistemic aims and evaluation criteria of intertextual integration. Fifty-four language arts teachers were asked to evaluate three integrated essays, supposedly written by students, that reflected typical violations of key integration quality criteria. In addition, they responded to open-ended questions about intertextual integration aims and evaluation criteria. Teachers successfully identified only about a third of the integration quality criteria violations that were embedded in the essays. Nonetheless, they collectively raised diverse evaluation criteria that addressed content selection and understanding, argumentation quality, source use and intertextuality, structure and organization, and language sophistication. Teachers' most prevalent aims were related to information processing and to the development of learners’ reading and writing skills. However, teachers also referred to knowledge-building goals. Quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed interrelations between teachers' perceptions of evaluation criteria and their integration aims. Overall, these findings demonstrate that language arts teachers have rich multiple-text integration task models. At the same time, they suggest that many teachers might not perceive intertextual integration as an opportunity for knowledge building and for developing learners’ critical thinking. The results of this study can inform professional development efforts to support instruction of intertextual integration.

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Effects of media multitasking on the processing and comprehension of multiple documents: Does main idea summarization make a difference?

By Haverkamp, Ymkje E..
United States Elsevier 2024 , Media multitasking refers to simultaneous engagement in two activities, or the act of switching between multiple activities, of which at least one is a media activity. Based on this definition, we had 134 Norwegian undergraduates read four partly conflicting documents on sun exposure and health on a computer in order to write a report on the issue, with half of the participants (randomly assigned) receiving and reading short, authentic social media messages on a smartphone while reading the documents, and the other half reading the documents without being sent any such messages. Further, we manipulated what participants did after reading each document paragraph, with half of the participants (randomly assigned) briefly summarizing the main idea of each paragraph in writing, and the other half just rereading each paragraph. Participants’ integrative processing (i.e., cross-text elaboration strategies) were assessed with a task-specific self-report measure immediately after reading all four documents, and their comprehension of the documents was assessed by analyzing their written reports in terms of their ability to elaborate and integrate information within and across the perspectives discussed in the documents. Results indicated that social media multitasking on a smartphone disturbed both the integrative processing and the integrated understanding of the documents, with main idea summarization mitigating or counteracting these negative effects of multitasking. However, when controlling for working memory, reading comprehension skills, and prior knowledge, integrative processing was not found to mediate the effect of multitasking on integrated understanding of the documents. Limitations of the present study and directions for future research are discussed.

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The contributions of executive functioning to handwritten and keyboarded compositions in Year 2 children

By Valcan, Debora Similieana.
United States Elsevier 2024 , Writing is a multifaceted skill, recruiting varied cognitive processes that involve working memory, attention shifting and inhibition, also known as executive functioning (EF). Despite emerging research examining associations between EF and handwritten composition, the mediating role of transcription skills on the relation between EF and text composition remains underexplored. Even less is understood about the nature of these potential mediation mechanisms in keyboard-based text composing, a writing modality that is becoming pervasive during the first years of schooling. This study investigated whether the automaticity of inscription skills (handwriting and keyboarding) and spelling mediate the relation between children’s EF and text composition across two modes (paper and keyboard-based text composing) on a sample of 544 Year 2 Australian children. Assessments of EF, inscription skills, spelling, and text composition were measured concurrently. Indirect pathways were tested via structural equation modelling. Findings indicated that across text composition modes, handwriting automaticity, keyboarding automaticity and spelling mediated the relationship between children’s EF and writing composition (i.e., compositional fluency and quality). The findings of this study extend current understanding of associations between cognitive processes and text composition in the junior years by examining keyboard-based text composing.

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Revising teacher candidates’ beliefs and knowledge of the learning styles neuromyth

By Hattan, Courtney.
United States Elsevier 2024 , The belief that students learn best when instruction matches students’ preferred modality-specific learning style (i.e., visual, auditory, or kinesthetic) is not supported by empirical research. Yet, the learning styles neuromyth remains pervasive, including within teacher education programs. The purpose of the current study was to explore the extent to which various text-related scaffolds (i.e., purpose for reading, during reading prompts, and refutation text structure) shifted 221 undergraduate teacher candidates’ beliefs and knowledge about the learning styles neuromyth from before reading to after reading, and to investigate the durability of these shifts at a delayed posttest. Across all intervention conditions, teacher candidates demonstrated beliefs change and a shift in pedagogical knowledge immediately after the intervention, with a slight overall shift back to supporting learning styles two months later. Individuals given the purpose of reading to change their beliefs had lower beliefs in learning styles at posttest and greater pedagogical knowledge at delayed posttest, especially when reading a text with more refutational elements. Summarizing during reading had a positive impact on beliefs at posttest. Contrary to previous studies, there were no main effects of refutation text, and no effect of any scaffolds on text comprehension. Findings have implications for the knowledge revision literature, including understanding nuances between teacher candidates’ beliefs and pedagogical knowledge.

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Teachers as creative agents: How self-beliefs and self-regulation drive teachers’ creative activity

By Zielinska, Aleksandra.
United States Elsevier 2024 , Across two studies, we explore how teachers’ creative self-beliefs and self-regulation drive their creativity when faced with complex projects. In Study 1, 173 teachers reported on the most creative project they carried out last year and provided data on their creative self-beliefs (confidence and centrality of creativity) and self-regulation when pursuing projects. Creative self-beliefs were positively associated with the likelihood of obtaining more creative outcomes, both directly and indirectly, by strengthening teachers’ self-regulation. Moreover, highly innovative projects were unlikely if teachers’ beliefs and self-regulation were low. A latent profile analysis demonstrated three different approaches to carrying out and managing creative projects, resulting in varying levels of creativity in the final projects. These findings were extended and elaborated in a mixed-method Study 2, involving 16 teachers who participated in an intensive 10-week, microlongitudinal diary study and in-depth interviews. This study demonstrated that creative self-regulation allowed the teachers to plan and monitor their actions more effectively, resulting in more creative products. We discuss the role of self-beliefs and self-regulation in teachers’ creative agency and recommend future studies and practical interventions.

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The relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension among early grade Chinese children with reading difficulties: A path analysis

By Pang, Dongshan.
United States Elsevier 2024 , Substantial evidence revealed that morphological awareness could contribute to reading achievement in different alphabetic languages among children with and without reading difficulties. However, as the most spoken non-alphabetic language, there is a paucity of available research on Chinese reading development and impairment. This research focused on evaluating two potential intervening variables through the relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension. Compounding awareness, homophone awareness, homograph awareness, in addition to reading ability including character recognition, vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension were assessed in this research. Controls of phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming (RAN) were also included in the model. Participants were 200 second-grade students with reading difficulties in Chinese mainland . Path analysis revealed that morphological awareness made a direct contribution to reading comprehension beyond all other variables and this relationship was mediated by character recognition and vocabulary knowledge. Furthermore, two indirect pathways showed a significant difference in this study. The distinctive role of morphological awareness in reading comprehension for Chinese children with reading difficulties and the potential reasons for the significant effect difference between the two indirect pathways were discussed at the end of the study.

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Coherence building while reading multiple complementary documents

By McCrudden, Matthew T..
United States Elsevier 2024 , Readers build a mental representation of text during reading. The coherence building processes readers use to build a mental representation during reading is key to comprehension. We examined the effects of self-explanation on coherence building processes as undergraduates (n = 51) read five complementary texts about natural selection and completed a post-reading measure of topic knowledge. Participants generated constructed responses (verbal protocols) while reading. We varied the use of constructed response prompt (self-explain vs. think-aloud) and constructed response format (typed vs. oral) to examine their impact on the quality of readers’ constructed responses and their coherence building processes (i.e., cohesion). Participants who received self-explanation instructions had higher quality constructed responses than participants who received think-aloud instructions, regardless of whether responses were typed or spoken aloud. Natural Language Processing (NLP) analyses indicated that participants who were prompted to self-explain generated more cohesive responses than those who were prompted to think-aloud. Participants who received self-explanation instructions had more coherent mental models during reading and typing was related to more cohesive responses when participants were asked to self-explain. Participants whose constructed responses were more lexically cohesive during reading had better performance on the post-reading test.

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Homework for learning and fun: Quality of mothers’ homework involvement and longitudinal implications for children’s academic and emotional functioning

By shi, Zeyi.
United States Elsevier 2024 , Parents involve in children’s homework in qualitatively different ways. However, these qualitative aspects are usually understood in separate manners. This longitudinal study identified a unifying framework of constructive versus unconstructive involvement to grasp different qualitative aspects of parents’ homework involvement holistically. We also examined the implications of parents’ constructive versus unconstructive involvement for children’s academic and emotional functioning over time, with attention to parental involvement in two contrasting homework contexts where children showed helplessness or mastery. Chinese mothers (N = 370; Mage = 40.50 years, SD = 3.17) and their fourth graders (N = 370; 54.9 % girls; Mage = 9.90, SD = 0.33) participated in a two-wave longitudinal study spanning nine months. Confirmatory Factor Analyses identified a unifying framework of mothers’ constructive (featuring positive emotions, autonomy support, and mastery-oriented teaching) versus unconstructive involvement (featuring negative emotions, control, and performance-oriented teaching). Mothers involved more unconstructively and less constructively when children showed helplessness (vs. mastery). Mothers’ constructive involvement predicted children’s enhanced academic and emotional functioning over time, while mothers’ unconstructive involvement predicted children’s dampened academic functioning over time, with the associations mainly being significant in children’s helpless homework context. These findings highlight optimizing parents’ homework involvement quality, particularly when children face learning challenges.

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The joint operations of teacher-student and peer relationships on classroom engagement among low-achieving elementary students: A longitudinal multilevel study

By Li, Tianyu.
United States Elsevier 2024 , Although both teacher-student relationship (TSR) and peer relationship (PR) have been found important for the development of students’ classroom engagement, little research has been done regarding the joint operations of these two factors. Guided by a developmental systems framework, this study examined longitudinal between-person and within-person associations between TSR/ PR and classroom engagement in a sample of 784 low-achieving students in the first three years of elementary school. A multidimensional approach was used to distinguish positive and negative dimensions of TSR, as well as peer liking and disliking. At the between-person level, results showed that students’ classroom engagement was positively predicted by positive TSR and PR liking and was negatively predicted by negative TSR and PR disliking. Both positive and negative TSR interacted with PR disliking at the between-person level, such that the associations between positive/negative TSR and classroom engagement were stronger for students with lower levels of PR disliking. At the within-person level, changes in classroom engagement were associated with contemporaneous year-to-year changes in positive/negative TSR and PR disliking. No within-person level interaction effects were found. Cross-level interaction showed that the effects of within-person negative TSR on classroom engagement were stronger for students with lower overall levels of PR disliking. Findings highlighted the importance of using a multilevel multidimensional approach to understand the joint operations of TSR and PR in the development of classroom engagement in low-achieving students in early elementary school.

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Motivational profiles in mathematics – stability and links with educational and emotional outcomes

By Widlund, Anna.
United States Elsevier 2024 , Grounding on the situated expectancy-value theory, this study investigated stability and change in adolescent students' (N = 508) motivational profiles in mathematics (self-concept, values, costs) during the last year of comprehensive education, and how these changes relate to relevant educational outcomes (mathematics performance and aspirations) and students’ emotional distress (study-related exhaustion and depressive symptoms). Latent profile and latent transition analyses revealed four motivational profiles among students: Positively ambitious (high competence and value beliefs, low costs, T1: 34 %/T2: 32 %), Struggling ambitious (high competence and value beliefs, high costs, T1: 25 %/T2: 25 %), Indifferent (low competence and value beliefs, low costs, T1: 22 %/T2: 21 %), and Maladaptive (low competence and value beliefs, high costs, 19 %/22 %). Although some fluctuations were detected in profile memberships within the school year, most of the students (80 %) displayed stable mathematics motivation across ninth grade. Students who remained Positively ambitious also performed well, aspired for an education that required high mathematical skills, and experienced the least emotional distress, whereas students in the most negative motivational profile (Maladaptive) showed the opposite patterns. However, students who experienced high math-related costs, despite having positive value beliefs, performance, and aspirations (i.e., Struggling ambitious), also experienced one of the highest levels of study-related exhaustion and depressive symptoms. Elevated levels of exhaustion and depressive symptoms were systematically associated with negative motivational transitions in general (i.e., moving from Positively ambitious to Struggling ambitious, or from Indifferent to Maladaptive), highlighting the importance of reducing perceived study-related costs in schools and supporting students' well-being.

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Achievement at what cost? An intersectional approach to assessing race and gender differences in adolescent math motivation and achievement

By McKellar, Sarah E..
United States Elsevier 2024 , Given math-related fields are still highly racialized and gendered (NCSES, 2021), this study assessed: 1) whether there were racial differences in adolescents’ perceived math cost alongside expectancies and values and 2) the extent to which perceived math cost alongside expectancies and values explained yearly changes in achievement differences by race and gender. This study assessed 2,338 Black (39.4 %) and White (60.6 %) adolescents, roughly half girls (47.8 %), in the 6th to 12th grades (M = 14.71 years old, SD = 1.93, 61.7 % qualifying for free or reduced priced lunch). The results indicated that Black adolescents perceived higher costs to learning math than their White peers but value math in similar ways. Perceived math cost was the only motivational belief to explain achievement differences between Black and White girls but not boys after adjusting for socioeconomic status and grade level. In contrast, perceptions of ability beliefs explained achievement differences between Black boys and girls. These findings point to the importance of employing intersectional approaches to understand the relationship between math motivation and achievement.

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Teacher expectation effects on the development of elementary school students’ mathematics-related competence beliefs and intrinsic task values

By Siems-Muntoni, Francesca.
United States Elsevier 2024 , While teacher expectations are known to influence students’ academic achievement, they may also exert significant influences on student motivation, which is a precursor to a student’s achievement as well. A number of previous studies have demonstrated that motivation affects a student’s achievement. There is, however, a dearth of longitudinal research examining the relation between teacher expectations and students’ motivational variables. In this article, we examine the relations between teacher expectations of students’ mathematics ability, students’ mathematics-related competence beliefs, and students’ mathematics-related intrinsic task-values. Our sample consisted of 796 second-grade students and their 50 teachers; the data collection was conducted at three points within a school year. Longitudinal latent change score analyses yielded three main results: First, teacher expectations of students’ mathematics ability and both students’ mathematics-related competence beliefs and intrinsic task values decreased significantly in the second half of the school year. Second, regarding correlated changes, students who experienced larger increases in teacher expectations also demonstrated higher increases in competence beliefs and intrinsic task values in mathematics. Third, after controlling for students’ initial mathematics achievement, effects of teacher expectations of students’ mathematics ability at the beginning of the school year on subsequent changes in students’ mathematics-related competence beliefs and intrinsic task values were revealed. Our study highlights the important role of teacher expectations in shaping students’ motivational variables, which underscores the need for teacher training programs and policy interventions aimed at increasing teachers’ awareness of their expectations and how they can foster a positive learning environment for their students.

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Beyond self-report surveys: A comparison of methods for directly observing motivationally supportive teaching practices

By Robinson, Kristy A..
United States Elsevier 2024 , Observational measures of teaching are scarce in the motivation literature, but are needed for furthering theoretical knowledge and recommendations for how teachers can support motivation. To inform the development of effective observational tools, particularly for STEM settings, and based on a synthesis of current practices for observing motivational teaching, video lecture recordings from three undergraduate chemistry classes were observed for evidence of instructors’ supports for students’ motivation, including autonomy support, relevance support, and enthusiasm. Four different coding procedures selected from prior research were compared using interrater reliability estimates and descriptive comparisons of observer scores with student perceptions obtained from surveys. Results indicated that even with minimal coder training, observational measures of relevance support (i.e., connections to real life, support for meaningfulness, relevance statements) and enthusiasm achieved acceptable reliability in capturing motivational teaching that also appeared to align with student perceptions. For other observational measures, results indicated a need for further development including clearer operational definitions, limiting the number of processes observers are expected to simultaneously observe, and perhaps more extensive training for coders. To increase replicability and validity, we call for and contribute to greater transparency in reporting the development and implementation of observational methods for capturing contextual supports for students’ optimal psychological functioning in school.

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Uncovering the reciprocal relationship between domain-specific and domain-general skills: Combined numerical and working memory training improves children’s mathematical knowledge

By DePascale, Mary.
United States Elsevier 2024 , The acquisition of domain-specific number knowledge and domain-general cognitive processes, including working memory, have shown to contribute to math learning and achievement. Correlational work has emphasized a reciprocal relationship between these processes; however, little is known about their relative and causal contributions to math learning. Here, we test the individual and additive benefits of playing tablet-based games targeting domain-specific and domain-general skills to improve mathematical knowledge and working memory in a diverse population of kindergarten children (N = 235, 50 % female, 45 % Hispanic/Latino, 35 % African American/Black, 21 % White, 6 % biracial/mixed race, 51 % annual household income less than

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The role of feedback on students’ diagramming: Effects on monitoring accuracy and text comprehension

By Braumann, Sophia.
United States Elsevier 2024 , Accurate self-monitoring of text comprehension is critical for effective self-regulated learning from texts. Unfortunately, it has been repeatedly shown that students’ monitoring of their text comprehension is often inaccurate, which can subsequently lead to inaccurate regulation and ineffective restudy decisions. Previous research provided evidence that completing causal diagrams at a delay after text reading (i.e., diagramming) can help to improve students’ monitoring of text comprehension. However, even after diagramming, there is still substantial room for improvement. The current studies therefore aimed to test whether providing feedback in the form of a correctly completed diagram (i.e., performance standard) would further increase students’ monitoring accuracy. In Study 1, 79 participants (aged 18–23) made judgements of learning under four conditions: I. No-Diagram (control), II. Standard-Only, III. Diagramming-Only, or IV. Diagramming + Standard. In each condition, students studied a text, made a judgement of learning before and after the experimental tasks, and completed a comprehension test at the end of each of the (overall six) trials. Results showed that only Diagramming + Standard improved monitoring accuracy and text comprehension. In Study 2, 20 undergraduate students (aged 18–23) completed the Diagramming + Standard condition while their eye movements were tracked and subsequently replayed for cued retrospective verbal reporting. The findings suggest that students used the standards to identify mistakes and improve their monitoring and text comprehension.

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Summarizing versus rereading multiple documents

By McNamara, Danielle S..
United States Elsevier 2024 , Writing an integrated essay based on multiple-documents requires students to both comprehend the documents and integrate the documents into a coherent essay. In the current study, we examined the effects of summarization as a potential reading strategy to enhance participants’ multiple-document comprehension and integrated essay writing. Participants (n = 295) were randomly assigned to either summarize or reread five texts on sun exposure and radiation. They produced an integrated essay based on the texts that they read, which were scored by expert raters. Finally, the participants completed three knowledge assessments (topic, domain, general). Readers who summarized texts had lower essay scores than readers who reread the texts. However, within the summary group, summary quality was positively correlated with essay score. These findings are discussed within the context of multiple-document comprehension and writing skill.

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Teachers' Structuring of Culturally Responsive Social Relations and Secondary Students’ Experience of Warm Demand

By Franco,Meredith P..
United States Elsevier 2024 , Students who experience teacher warm demand (i.e., caring and high expectations) are typically more engaged and successful at school. Yet, relative to White students, students of color tend to report more distant relationships with their White teachers. Leveraging data from 179 6th–9th grade Measures of Effective Teaching project classroom videos, we tested whether teachers’ facilitation of culturally responsive social relations was associated with higher warm demand, and whether these social relations moderated associations between race and warm demand. Results showed that teachers’ promotion of culturally responsive social relations was associated with warm demand, and that this was magnified for White teachers in relation to their discipline practices. Findings suggest that taking a culturally responsive approach to facilitating classroom social relations is critical for teachers seeking to improve students’ experiences of warm demand.

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Text-belief consistency effect in L2 students’ integrated written representations based on multiple conflicting sources: Comparisons across summary vs. argumentation task instructions

By Karimi, Mohammad N..
United States Elsevier 2024 , Previous research indicates that readers’ prior beliefs bias comprehension of conflicting sources and the ensuing representations developed. Against this background, this study investigated how participants’ pre-existing beliefs affect their written representations based on conflicting texts about a well-established controversy. More specifically, adopting a 2 × 2 mixed GLM design and using a series of statistical procedures, the study investigated the propositional content and perspectives that L2 reader-writers adopted in their written representations based on controversial sources across summary vs. argumentation task instruction conditions. The study further investigated the participants’ emotional reactions to the conflicting texts. Results showed that perspectives that participants adopted in their written representations and the propositional content therein were biased towards their prior beliefs. Additionally, the results showed an interaction effect for task instruction and propositional content in the representations. More specifically, the argumentation task showed less of a balance in positively-biased and negatively-biased propositional content than the summary task, although attenuated by the absence of significant cross-condition differences. Furthermore, significant differences were found in the participants’ emotional reactions to the conflicting texts. Moderating effects were also found for curiosity and confusion experienced in relation to the pro-stance texts and the propositional content of the integrated representations.

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How to help students in their transition to middle school? Effectiveness of a school-based group mentoring program promoting students’ engagement, self-regulation, and goal setting

By Martins, Juliana.
United States Elsevier 2024 , School transitions are labeled as challenging events in students’ academic paths likely to affect students’ development and engagement in school negatively. Grounded on extant research advocating the need to act preventively, school-based mentoring programs emerge as responses suited to provide students with developmental and instructional support during school transitions. Using a multivariate mixed-effects model for repeated measures quasi-experimental design, the present study assessed the effectiveness of a 12-session group mentoring program designed to promote fifth-grade students’ self-regulation, school engagement, and goal setting during their first school transition. Participants were 330 fifth graders in four schools randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Students’ self-reported measures were collected in four moments. Data were analyzed using a multivariate mixed-effects model for repeated measures analyses with two covariates (age and gender) and considering the students’ level of prior mathematics knowledge. Results indicated that participating in the group mentoring program led to improvements in all dependent variables. The effect size found was large considering all dependent variables simultaneously. However, when considered individually, the effect sizes were medium, small, or null, depending on the dependent variable. Lastly, and contrary to expectations, the effectiveness of our program was not influenced by students’ level of prior mathematics knowledge. The relevance of group mentoring programs in addressing students’ engagement and self-regulation needs is discussed. Future research and educational implications for designing mentoring programs are provided.

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A longitudinal examination of the relations between motivation, math achievement, and STEM career aspirations among Black students

By Adler, Rebecca M..
United States Elsevier 2024 , The current study explored individual and gendered differences in Black students’ motivation for learning mathematics using three key Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (SEVT) constructs (expectancies of success, interest, and importance). It also evaluated whether math motivational profiles in 6th grade or 10th grade predicted math achievement and STEM career aspirations in 10th grade among Black students while controlling for prior math achievement. Black students (n = 408, 55% female) attending schools in a metropolitan area of Tennessee, USA and mostly from families surviving economic marginalization completed surveys and math achievement assessments across middle and high school. Latent Profile Analysis identified three profiles of math motivation in 6th grade, including a profile of high motivation across constructs, and Black girls were less likely to be in the high motivational profile than Black boys. Profile membership in 6th grade predicted 10th grade math achievement. In contrast, math motivation profiles in 6th grade did not predict STEM career aspirations in 10th grade. Parallel analyses for concurrent relations in 10th grade were similar, except that there were no gender differences in profile prevalence. Overall, findings suggest that SEVT is useful for understanding motivation and academic performance among Black students when a person-centered analytic approach is used, but more work is needed to expand the theory to understand the development of Black students’ STEM career aspirations.

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Lack of educational access, women's empowerment and spatial education inequality for the Eastern and Western Africa regions

By Frola, Alessia.
United States:Elsevier,2024 , Space, beyond standard urban/rural divisions, plays a leading role in the diffusion of educational access. In this paper, using geo-localisation and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) we analyse spatial inequality in educational access (primary, lower secondary and upper secondary levels) for 13,000 communities from 22 countries in the Eastern and Western African regions. We find that: (i) space matters for educational access after accounting for communities’ contextual backgrounds in spatial econometric models, (ii) the extent of spatial inequality in educational access is higher in countries with lower levels of women’s empowerment, and (iii) spatial educational inequality operate more powerfully in marginalised communities. Educational policies aimed at boosting educational access should consider space-based interventions, looking beyond the traditional rural-urban or regional boundaries.

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A radical proposal: Evidence-based SDG 4 discussions

By Rappleye, Jeremy et al..
United States:Elsevier,2024 , The overarching assumption of SDG 4, that progress towards ‘quality education’ will lead to greater sustainability, is not rooted in evidence but instead in ideology. From the outset, a wider set of sustainability indicators (such as ecological footprint) were excluded, and even today, after a decade of work, there exists no indicator to capture ‘sustainability’. Instead SDG 4 discussions remain a mixed bag of routine monitoring of outcomes, advocacy for more funding, and banal policy recommendations. The development ‘specialists’ leading all of this have turned a blind eye to this obvious fact, and shown strikingly little willingness to think differently – a position that is intellectually irresponsible, politically unaccountable, and deeply unethical in the context of an accelerating climate crisis. The next 7 years should be refocused on highlighting alternatives and developing evidence for the post-2030 agenda.

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Learning as ecosystems: Shifting paradigms for more holistic programming in education and displacement

By Shah, Ritesh.
United States:Elsevier,2024 , Meeting the educational needs and aspirations of learners affected by conflict and crisis, and particularly those who have been displaced within and across national borders is a wicked and vexing problem impeding progress on SDG4. We argue a radically different approach is required. Based on insights from complexity science and regenerative development, we present an ecosystem approach based on three dimensions: 1) connectedness and nestedness, 2) reflective learning and 3) working from potential rather than problems. We provide an example of where such work is already being explored, and the possibilities it offers for shifting paradigms informing programming and design of education for learners in displacement.

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Why SDG 4 and the other SDGs are failing and what needs to be done

By Klees, Steven J..
United States:Elsevier,2024 , SDG4, and all the SDGs, are already failures. A direct cause is the failure of the international community and national governments to finance them. Despite good intentions by many, we have not made a serious effort. Achieving all 17 SDGs would require a relatively modest amount, 1–4% of global GDP, but this is not forthcoming. GDP growth and reliance on the private sector will not help. Any sober assessment of SDG progress must recognize that we will never achieve these goals without drastic changes in how we live and organize ourselves on this planet, as I discuss here.

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Assessing progress in tracking progress towards the education Sustainable Development Goal: Global citizenship education and teachers missing in action?

By Rose, Pauline.
United States:Elsevier,2024 , In this commentary, we reflect on progress made in tracking progress towards two targets associated with the education Sustainable Development Goal, namely on global citizenship education (4.7), and on teachers (4c). We highlight that both these targets suffer from problems in their final design, with the global citizenship target becoming a ‘residual target’, and 4c becoming narrowly focused on the supply of teachers. In both cases, the core intention of the targets has become lost in translation into indicators, with a focus on inputs rather than outcomes. Notably, attention to equity, which is at the heart of the goal overall, and key to quality learning, has become missing in this translation. In going forward, we argue for a need for meaningful participation beyond technical experts in the articulation of both targets and indicators simultaneously, and importantly shifting the focus from institutions in the global North.

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