The effect of leads on cognitive load and learning in a conceptually rich hypertext environment

The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether leads affect cognitive load and learning from conceptually rich hypertext. Measures of cognitive load included self-report of mental effort, reading time, and event-related desynchronization percentage of alpha, beta, and theta brain wave rhythms. Conceptual and structural knowledge tests, as well as a recall measure were used to determine learning performance. Measures of learners\u27 reading ability, prior knowledge, and metacognitive awareness were employed to establish the effect of individual differences on cognitive load and learning from traditional and lead-augmented hypertext. Results demonstrated that while leads appeared to reduce brain wave activity associated with split attention, processing of redundant information contained in hypertext nodes may have increased extraneous cognitive load, and decreased germane load that is required for learning to take place. Whereas the benefits of leads relative to cognitive load and learning may have been mediated by the redundancy effect, learners with better developed metacognitive skills tended to use leads as a tool to review information in the linked nodes while revisiting content in the primary text passage. Limitations of the currently available cognitive load measures are discussed as applied to direct assessment of this theoretical construct

Polarization of the nuclear surface in deformed nuclei

The density profiles of around 750 nuclei are analyzed using the Skyrme energy density functional theory. Among them, more than 350 nuclei are found to be deformed. In addition to rather standard properties of the density, we report a non-trivial behavior of the nuclear diffuseness as the system becomes more and more deformed. Besides the geometric effects expected in rigid body, the diffuseness acquires a rather complex behavior leading to a reduction of the diffuseness along the main axis of deformation simultaneously with an increase of the diffuseness along the other axis. The possible isospin dependence of this polarization is studied. This effect, that is systematically seen in medium- and heavy-nuclei, can affect the nuclear dynamical properties. A quantitative example is given with the fusion barrier in the $^{40}$Ca+ $^{238}$U reaction.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figure

Non-Markovian dynamics with fermions

Employing the quadratic fermionic Hamiltonians for the collective and internal subsystems with a linear coupling, we studied the role of fermionic statistics on the dynamics of the collective motion. The transport coefficients are discussed as well as the associated fluctuation-dissipation relation. Due to different nature of the particles, the path to equilibrium is slightly affected. However, in the weak coupling regime, the time-scale for approaching equilibrium is found to be globally unchanged. The Pauli-blocking effect can modify the usual picture in open quantum system. In some limits, contrary to boson, this effect can strongly hinder the influence of the bath by blocking the interacting channels.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to PR

Exploring Incoming Honors Students’ Beliefs about Online Courses

This essay highlights the findings of a 2018 longitudinal mixedmethod explanatory sequential design study conducted at a large research institution with this purpose in mind. The study explored incoming honors students’ beliefs about online courses and how beliefs changed after the first semester of college coursework. Beliefs about online courses were deconstructed using the Community of Inquiry framework (Garrison, Anderson, and Archer 88), a questionnaire aligned with this theory (Arbaugh, Cleveland-Innes, Diaz, Garrison, Ice, Richardson, and Swan 135), and semi-structured interviews. The findings, highlighted in this essay, provide valuable insight into design and instructional strategies that support online learning and engagement for honors students

Neutron pair transfer in sub-barrier capture process

The sub-barrier capture reactions following the neutron pair transfer are proposed to be used for the indirect study of neutron-neutron correlation in the surface region of nucleus. The strong effect of the dineutron-like clusters transfer stemming from the surface of magic and non-magic nuclei $^{18}$O, $^{48}$Ca, $^{64}$Ni, $^{94,96}$Mo, $^{100,102,104}$Ru, $^{104,106,108}$Pd, and $^{112,114,116,118,120,124,132}$Sn is demonstrated. The dominance of two-neutron transfer channel at the vicinity of the Coulomb barrier is further supported by time-dependent mean-field approaches.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, accepted in PR

Critical behavior of frustrated systems: Monte Carlo simulations versus Renormalization Group

We study the critical behavior of frustrated systems by means of Pade-Borel resummed three-loop renormalization-group expansions and numerical Monte Carlo simulations. Amazingly, for six-component spins where the transition is second order, both approaches disagree. This unusual situation is analyzed both from the point of view of the convergence of the resummed series and from the possible relevance of non perturbative effects.Comment: RevTex, 10 pages, 3 Postscript figure

Critical exponents for 3D O(n)-symmetric model with n > 3

Critical exponents for the 3D O(n)-symmetric model with n > 3 are estimated on the base of six-loop renormalization-group (RG) expansions. A simple Pade-Borel technique is used for the resummation of the RG series and the Pade approximants [L/1] are shown to give rather good numerical results for all calculated quantities. For large n, the fixed point location g_c and the critical exponents are also determined directly from six-loop expansions without addressing the resummation procedure. An analysis of the numbers obtained shows that resummation becomes unnecessary when n exceeds 28 provided an accuracy of about 0.01 is adopted as satisfactory for g_c and critical exponents. Further, results of the calculations performed are used to estimate the numerical accuracy of the 1/n-expansion. The same value n = 28 is shown to play the role of the lower boundary of the domain where this approximation provides high-precision estimates for the critical exponents.Comment: 10 pages, TeX, no figure

Critical behavior of three-dimensional magnets with complicated ordering from three-loop renormalization-group expansions

The critical behavior of a model describing phase transitions in 3D antiferromagnets with 2N-component real order parameters is studied within the renormalization-group (RG) approach. The RG functions are calculated in the three-loop order and resummed by the generalized Pade-Borel procedure preserving the specific symmetry properties of the model. An anisotropic stable fixed point is found to exist in the RG flow diagram for N > 1 and lies near the Bose fixed point; corresponding critical exponents are close to those of the XY model. The accuracy of the results obtained is discussed and estimated.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, revised version published in Phys. Rev.

The View of Russian Students on Whether Psychology is a Science

The Psychology as Science Scale (Friedrich, 1996) was administered to 525 psychology students from nine Russian universities to assess their beliefs about the nature of the discipline. About half of students (49.6%) generally agreed that psychology may be called a scientific discipline. Specifically, 71. 5% of the students agreed that psychology is a natural science, similar to biology, chemistry, and physics, 39. 9% of students agreed that psychological research is important and training in psychological methodology is necessary, and 43.1% of students agreed that human behavior is highly predictable. Students who took three methodology courses shared significantly stronger beliefs in the need for psychological research and the importance of training in methodology compared to students who did not take any methodology courses. Furthermore, students with a specialist degree had significantly stronger beliefs that psychology is a science compared to students who have just finished school. In terms of the effect of students’ career aspirations, students who wanted to be academic psychologists and clinicians had significantly stronger beliefs that psychology is a science compared to students who did not have clarity about their future careers. Regardless of the study limitations, these findings have potential implications for Russian psychology instructors