1,715 research outputs found

    Self-efficacy and allocation of effort during reading among older and younger adults

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    Recent research in social cognition suggests one\u27s self-efficacy beliefs regarding one\u27s cognitive abilities can influence the effort expended on cognitive tasks (Bandura, 1989; 1997; Cavanaugh & Greene, 1990; Dunlosky & Hertzog, 1998), which may affect performance. This project was conducted to examine the relationship between age, self-efficacy beliefs, text difficulty, resource allocation to text comprehension processes, and memory for text. 82 younger adults and 74 older adults completed the Metamemory in Adulthood Questionnaire (MIA; Dixon, Hultsch & Hertzog, 1988), Reading Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (RSEQ), and Media Consumption Habits Questionnaire. Using the on-line word-by-word moving window method, participants read 24 two-sentence passages for immediate recall after reading either comparatively easier or more difficult texts. Younger adults reported higher Memory Self-Efficacy (MSE) and higher Reading Self-Efficacy Strength (RSE) than older adults; there were no age differences in RSE Level. Groups were split into high reading self-efficacy (HRSE) and low reading self-efficacy (LRSE) based on RSEQ scores. Analyses of reading times indicated that HRSE individuals allocated more time to processing target texts after reading difficult texts than LRSE individuals, suggesting that SE may influence effort and persistence following difficulty. HRSE individuals recalled more of the text than LRSE individuals overall. A marginal interaction of Self-Efficacy and Age was found; older adults with HRSE recalled more from the text than older adults with LRSE, whereas there were no differences in performance among younger adults. RSE was also more strongly related to recall performance among the old than among the young. HRSE individuals recalled more from target texts following difficult texts than those with LRSE. While HRSE individuals overpredicted recall performance, LRSE individuals were relatively accurate. Regression analyses indicate that working memory span, verbal ability, age, and reading self-efficacy make independent contributions to recall performance. The data also suggest that reading self-efficacy, as measured by the domain-specific RSEQ, may be a better predictor of memory for text than memory self-efficacy, as measured by the domain-general MIA. Collectively, the data support Bandura\u27s (1997) self-efficacy theory in that self-efficacy beliefs influence both effort to reading and performance. Limitations and avenues for future research are discussed

    Alien Registration- Gagne, Marie D. (Portland, Cumberland County)

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    https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/23994/thumbnail.jp

    Spatially-Resolved Spectra of the "Teacup" AGN: Tracing the History of a Dying Quasar

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    The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Galaxy Zoo project has revealed a number of spectacular galaxies possessing Extended Emission-Line Regions (EELRs), the most famous being Hanny's Voorwerp galaxy. We present another EELR object discovered in the SDSS endeavor: the Teacup Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN), nicknamed for its EELR, which has a handle like structure protruding 15 kpc into the northeast quadrant of the galaxy. We analyze physical conditions of this galaxy with long-slit ground based spectroscopy from Lowell, Lick, and KPNO observatories. With the Lowell 1.8m Perkin's telescope we took multiple observations at different offset positions, allowing us to recover spatially resolved spectra across the galaxy. Line diagnostics indicate the ionized gas is photoionized primarily by the AGN. Additionally we are able to derive the hydrogen density from the [S II] 6716/6731 ratio. We generated two-component photoionization models for each spatially resolved Lowell spectrum. These models allow us to calculate the AGN bolometric luminosity seen by the gas at different radii from the nuclear center of the Teacup. Our results show a drop in bolometric luminosity by more than two orders of magnitude from the EELR to the nucleus, suggesting that the AGN has decreased in luminosity by this amount in a continuous fashion over 46,000 years, supporting the case for a dying AGN in this galaxy independent of any IR based evidence. We demonstrate that spatially resolved photoionization modeling could be applied to EELRs to investigate long time scale variability.Comment: 38 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

    Tensor Self Energy in a Vector-Tensor Model

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    The tensor self energy is computed at one loop order in a model in which a vector and tensor interact in a way that eliminates all tensor degrees of freedom. Divergencies arise which cannot be eliminated without introducing a kinetic term for the tensor field which does not appear in the classical action. We comment on a possible resolution of this puzzle.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX, additional analysis and comment

    Hydrogen masers and cesium fountains at NRC

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    The NRC masers H-3 and H-4 have been operating since June 1993 with cavity servo control. These low-flux active H masers are showing stabilities of about 10(exp -15) from 1 hour to several days. Stability results are presented, and the current and planned uses of the masers are discussed. A cesium fountain primary frequency standard project has been started at NRC. Trapping and launching experiments with the goal of 7 m/s launches are beginning. We discuss our plans for a local oscillator and servo that exploit the pulsed aspect of cesium fountain standards, and meet the challenge of 10(exp -14) tau(exp -1/2) stability without requiring masers. At best, we expect to run this frequency standard initially for periods of hours each working day rather than continuously for years, and so frequency transfer to outside laboratories has been carefully considered. We conclude that masers (or other even better secondary clocks) are required to exploit this potential accuracy of the cesium fountain. We present and discuss our conclusion that it is feasible to transfer frequency in this way with a transfer-induced uncertainty of less than 10(exp -15), even in the presence of maser frequency drift and random walk noise
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