Effects of Self-explaining on Learning and Transfer of Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking is considered to be an important competence for students and graduates of higher education. Yet, it is largely unclear which teaching methods are most effective in supporting the acquisition of critical thinking skills, especially regarding one important aspect of critical thinking: avoiding biased reasoning. The present study examined whether creating desirable difficulties in instruction by prompting students to generate explanations of a problem-solution to themselves (i.e., self-expl

Testing After Worked Example Study Does Not Enhance Delayed Problem-Solving Performance Compared to Restudy

Four experiments investigated whether the testing effect also applies to the acquisition of problem-solving skills from worked examples. Experiment 1 (n = 120) showed no beneficial effects of testing consisting of isomorphic problem solving or example recall on final test performance, which consisted of isomorphic problem solving, compared to continued study of isomorphic examples. Experiment 2 (n = 124) showed no beneficial effects of testing consisting of identical problem solving compared to restudying an identical example. Interestingly, participants who took both an immediate and a delayed final test outperformed those taking only a delayed test. This finding suggested that testing might become beneficial for retention but only after a certain level of schema acquisition has taken place through restudying several examples. However, experiment 2 had no control condition restudying examples instead of taking the immediate test. Experiment 3 (n = 129) included such a restudy condition, and there was no evidence that testing after studying four examples was more effective for final delayed test performance than restudying, regardless of whether restudied/tested problems were isomorphic or identical. Experiment 4 (n = 75) used a similar design as experiment 3 (i.e., testing/restudy after four examples), but with examples on a different topic and with a different participant population. Again, no evidence of a testing effect was found. Thus, across four experiments, with different types of initial tests, different problem-solving domains, and different participant populations, we found no evidence that testing enhanced delayed test performance compared to restudy. These findings suggest that the testing effect might not apply to acquiring problem-solving skills from worked examples

Daily activities, participation, satisfaction, and functional mobility of adults with cerebral palsy more than 25 years after selective dorsal rhizotomy: a long-term follow-up during adulthood

CITATION: Berendina E. et al. 2021. Daily activities, participation, satisfaction, and functional mobility of adults with cerebral palsy more than 25 years after selective dorsal rhizotomy: a long-term follow-up during adulthood. Disability and Rehabilitation, 43(15):2191-2199, doi:10.1080/09638288.2019.1695001The original publication is available at http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/idre20/currentPurpose: To determine changes in level of accomplishment and satisfaction in daily activities and social participation, and functional mobility in adults with cerebral palsy (CP) more than 25 years after selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR). Materials and methods: This long-term observational nine-year follow-up study included 26 adults (median age 35 years) with CP and spastic diplegia, and 26 matched typically developing adults. Assessment tools used were the Life-Habits questionnaire and the Functional Mobility Scale. Results: Most of the adults with CP were independent and satisfied with accomplishing life habits and no changes were determined, except for a small change in the Housing accomplishment level. Compared to typically developing adults, the CP cohort was more dependent in accomplishing Mobility and Recreation. However, the level of satisfaction was similar for most life habits except for Mobility. Functional mobility did not change, but correlated with Life-Habits results. Conclusions: Adults with CP showed high and stable levels of accomplishment and satisfaction in daily activities and social participation more than 25 years after SDR. This is in contrast with the literature, where functional decline was shown for individuals with CP as they age. The relation with functional mobility highlights the importance to focus the rehabilitation on maintaining walking ability in order to enable high level of daily activities and social participation in adults with CP. Implications for rehabilitation: Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) is a valuable treatment option for a selective group of children with cerebral palsy (CP) in order to reduce spasticity. The long-term outcomes of SDR on level of accomplishment and satisfaction in daily activities and social participation as well functional mobility in adults with CP are not clear. More than 25 years after SDR adults with CP experienced stable and lasting high levels of functioning regarding daily activities and social participation and were satisfied with the way they accomplished life habits. Functional mobility was correlated to level of accomplishment and satisfaction in daily activities and social participation, which highlights the importance to focus rehabilitation programs on maintaining functional mobility in order to enable daily activities and social participation in adults with CP.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09638288.2019.1695001Publishers versio

National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic

Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = −0.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics.publishedVersio

National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic (vol 13, 517, 2022) : National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic (Nature Communications, (2022), 13, 1, (517), 10.1038/s41467-021-27668-9)

Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022.In this article the author name ‘Agustin Ibanez’ was incorrectly written as ‘Augustin Ibanez’. The original article has been corrected.Peer reviewe

National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic.

Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = -0.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics

Author Correction: National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic

Correction to: Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27668-9, published online 26 January 2022

Does Intuition Cause Cooperation?

<div><p>Recently, researchers claimed that people are intuitively inclined to cooperate with reflection causing them to behave selfishly. Empirical support for this claim came from experiments using a 4-player public goods game with a marginal return of 0.5 showing that people contributed more money to a common project when they had to decide quickly (i.e., a decision based on intuition) than when they were instructed to reflect and decide slowly. This intuitive-cooperation effect is of high scientific and practical importance because it argues against a central assumption of traditional economic and evolutionary models. The first experiment of present study was set up to examine the generality of the intuitive-cooperation effect and to further validate the experimental task producing the effect. In Experiment 1, we investigated Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) workers' contributions to a 4-player public goods game with a marginal return of 0.5 while we manipulated the knowledge about the other players' contribution to the public goods game (contribution known vs. contribution unknown), the identity of the other players (humans vs. computers randomly generating contributions) and the time constraint (time pressure/intuition vs. forced delay/reflection). However, the results of Experiment 1 failed to reveal an intuitive-cooperation effect. Furthermore, four subsequent direct replications attempts with AMT workers (Experiments 2a, 2b, 2c and Experiment 3, which was conducted with naïve/inexperienced participants) also failed to demonstrate intuitive-cooperation effects. Taken together, the results of the present study could not corroborate the idea that people are intuitively cooperative, hence suggesting that the theoretical relationship between intuition and cooperation should be further scrutinized.</p></div