Critical behavior of the long-range Ising chain from the largest-cluster probability distribution

Monte Carlo simulations of the 1D Ising model with ferromagnetic interactions decaying with distance $r$ as $1/r^{1+\sigma}$ are performed by applying the Swendsen-Wang cluster algorithm with cumulative probabilities. The critical behavior in the non-classical critical regime corresponding to $0.5 <\sigma < 1$ is derived from the finite-size scaling analysis of the largest cluster.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, in RevTeX, to appear in Phys. Rev. E (Feb 2001

Effectiveness of student response systems in terms of learning environment, attitudes and achievement

In order to investigate the effectiveness of using Student Response Systems (SRS) among grade 7 and 8 science students in New York, the How Do You Feel About This Class? (HDYFATC) questionnaire was administered to 1097 students (532 students did use SRS and 565 students who did not use SRS). Data analyses attested to the sound factorial validity and internal consistency reliability of the HDYFATC, as well as its ability to differentiate between the perceptions of students in different classrooms. Very large differences between users and non-users of SRS, ranging from 1.17 to 2.45 standard deviations for various learning environment scales, attitudes and achievement, supported the efficacy of using SRS

From Exploration to Instruction: Children Learn From Exploration and Tailor Their Demonstrations to Observers’ Goals and Competence

This study investigated whether children learn from exploration and act as effective informants by providing informative demonstrations tailored to observers’ goals and competence. Children (4.0–6.9 years, N = 98) explored a causally ambiguous toy to discover its causal structure and then demonstrated the toy to a naive observer. Children provided more costly and informative evidence when the observer wanted to learn about the toy than observe its effects (Experiment 1) and when the observer was ordinary than exceptionally intelligent (Experiment 2). Relative to the evidence they generated during exploration, children produced fewer, less costly actions when the observer wanted or needed less evidence. Children understand the difference between acting‐to‐learn and acting‐to‐inform; after learning from exploration, they consider others’ goals and competence to provide “uninstructed instruction”.National Science Foundation (Grant CCF‐1231216

Decision-making, risk and gender: Are managers different?

This paper explores differences in the nature of decisions taken by males and females. Women are playing an increasingly important role in business management and managers are ultimately tested and evaluated in terms of their success in making decisions. Consequently any difference in the character and quality of decisions taken by male and female managers will have important implications for organizations. This paper reviews the literature, and reports two pieces of empirical work which investigate the connections between gender and decision making. The decision-making characteristics of males and females in a 'non-managerial' population in which the majority of individuals have not undergone formal management education are contrasted with a 'managerial' population of potential and actual managers who have undertaken such education. It is argued that women are often excluded from managerial positions of authority and leadership due to stereotypes, which have been constructed by observing 'non-managerial' populations at large. The paper concludes, however, that these stereotypes may not apply to managers as in the 'managerial' sub-population males and females display similar risk propensity and make decisions of equal quality