The present study is based on a large cross-cultural study, which showed that a systemizing cognition type has a high impact on motivation to learn science, while the impact of gender is only indirect thorough systemizing. The present study uses the same structural equation model as in the cross-cultural study and separately tests it for physics,…

Various studies have been conducted regarding the use of examples in a mathematical proof. This study aims to describe how the students use the example in the proof analyzed by argumentation and proving activity. Qualitative methods are used to explain the phenomena that arise in the use of examples on mathematical proof. The data collected is the…

Accurate self-regulation of performance is important for trainees. Trainees rely on cues to make monitoring judgments to self-regulate their performance. Ideally, cues and monitoring judgements accurately reflect performance, as measured by cue diagnosticity (the ability of a cue to predict performance) and monitoring accuracy (the ability of a…

Much of the philosophical debate regarding technological epistemic enhancement concerns interventions on cognitive capacities that are already performing well in order that they perform even better. However, several decades of research in cognitive science demonstrates that humans harbor systematic cognitive biases that can produce ill-grounded,…

Knowing when students have the prerequisite knowledge to be able to read and understand a mathematical text is a perennial concern for instructors. Using text describing Newton's method and Vinner's notion of concept image, we exemplify how prerequisite knowledge influences understanding. Through clinical interviews with first-semester calculus…

Some cognitive abilities exhibit reliable gender differences, with females outperforming males in specific aspects of verbal ability, and males showing an advantage on certain spatial tasks. Among these cognitive gender differences, differences in mental rotation are the most robust, and appear to be present even in infants. A large body of animal…

This article reports on findings from a research study exploring the potential for democratic learning in a gallery education project which took place in the UK in 2006-7. In doing so, it also explores a pressing issue for education today: the question of young people's democratic education in a time of political crisis in Europe. The focus of the…

Recent studies about learning and instruction use cognitive load measurement to pay attention to the human cognitive resources and to the consumption of these resources during the learning process. In order to validate different measures of cognitive load for different cognitive load factors, the present study compares three different methods of…

In the current society, boredom has a bad reputation. Among others, one reason is that boredom is a negative predictor for cognitive performance due to the detrimental effects on attention and engagement. Recently, however, the negative reputation has been challenged by studies showing that boredom seems to promote creativity. However, those…

A frequent observation in dual-task studies is the backward crosstalk effect (BCE), meaning that aspects of a secondary Task 2 influence Task 1 performance. Up to this point, 2 major types of the BCE were investigated: a BCE based on dimensional overlap between both stimuli and/or responses (the compatibility-based BCE), and a BCE based on whether…

The "Current Insights" feature is intended to highlight diverse perspectives on teaching, learning and cognition from outside life sciences education. In this installment, I feature recent examples of scholarship examining the intersections between culture and equity in science education. The articles in this set build on intuitions we…

Teacher preparation programs aim to provide pedagogical skills for knowledge development and critical thinking. Yet teacher candidates themselves have views and understandings of the very nature of knowledge, or epistemology, which might inhibit or advance their development as teachers. This paper begins with an overview of Kitchener's (1983)…

When discrete localizable stimuli are used during appetitive Pavlovian conditioning, "sign-tracking" and "goal-tracking" responses emerge. Sign-tracking is observed when conditioned responding is directed toward the CS, whereas goal-tracking manifests as responding directed to the site of expected reward delivery. These…

The interpretation of medical images is a primary task for radiologists. Besides two-dimensional (2D) images, current imaging technologies allow for volumetric display of medical images. Whereas current radiology practice increasingly uses volumetric images, the majority of studies on medical image interpretation is conducted on 2D images. The…

This paper presents five emergent categories of learning with mobile applications (apps) and suggests an overarching profile to characterize such apps. The categories are organized into three levels. The micro level focuses on interactions and includes (i) interaction with the device and (ii) interaction with the environment. The intermediate…