The notions cognitive space and cognitive/mental maps were proposed in the late 1940s, and have been extensively studied since the 1970s within behavioral geography, as well as within tangent disciplines, notably environmental psychology and architecture. Viewing these notions from the perspective of the 2000s, one can state that the hidden…

Virtual environments, such as online games and web-based chat rooms, increasingly allow us to alter our digital self-representations dramatically and easily. But as we change our self-representations, do our self-representations change our behavior in turn? In 2 experimental studies, we explore the hypothesis that an individual's behavior conforms…

Any professional act will lead to a significant change. How can one make students understand "managing change" as a consequence or as an intended objective? "DECISION IN CASCADE" -- is a Management Computational Game for the Education of University Master Students and Junior Executive -- simulates five economic functions: research and…

A biologically detailed computational model is described of how categorization judgments become automatic in tasks that depend on procedural learning. The model assumes 2 neural pathways from sensory association cortex to the premotor area that mediates response selection. A longer and slower path projects to the premotor area via the striatum,…

Mixture modeling is a widely applied data analysis technique used to identify unobserved heterogeneity in a population. Despite mixture models' usefulness in practice, one unresolved issue in the application of mixture models is that there is not one commonly accepted statistical indicator for deciding on the number of classes in a study…

An eighth grade algebra class used graphing calculators to simulate ecosystems. One simulation introduced mathematical chaos. The activities exposed the students to nonlinear patterns and modeling. The rate-of-change investigations related the ideas of intercept and slope to the changing equilibrium. The chaotic model intrigued them and was useful…

Most students assume that a thriving society runs smoothly because people abide by the laws. But there are various informal, as well as formal, means of social control such as gossip, ridicule, and shame that function even in complex societies to achieve social control, or conformity to group norms. Good teaching ideas have the potential to lead…

Because evolution in natural systems happens so slowly, it is difficult to design inquiry-based labs where students can experiment and observe evolution in the way they can when studying other phenomena. New research in evolutionary computation and artificial life provides a solution to this problem. This paper describes a new A-Life software…

Probability is an essential tool for understanding heredity and modern genetics, yet many students have difficulty with this topic due to the abstract and quantitative nature of the subject. To facilitate student learning of probability in genetics, we have developed a set of hands-on, cooperative activities that allow students to determine…

This study used an experimental paradigm to investigate the role of secondary cognitive appraisals in women's sexual assault resistance and whether these appraisals mediated influences of alcohol and prior victimization. After consuming a beverage (control, placebo, moderate, or high dose), 351 women projected themselves into a simulated…

Automatic test generating system in distributed computing context is one of the most important links in on-line evaluation system. Although the issue has been argued long since, there is not a perfect solution to it so far. This paper proposed an innovative approach to successfully addressing such issue by the seamless integration of genetic…

Purpose: To construct a table for upper and lower limits of the 95% critical range for changes in word recognition scores obtained with monosyllabic word lists (of lengths 10, 25, 50, and 100 words) using newly available methods. Although such a table has been available for nearly 30 years (A. R. Thornton & M. J. M. Raffin, 1978), the earlier…

The dynamics model, which is based on L. Talmy's (1988) theory of force dynamics, characterizes causation as a pattern of forces and a position vector. In contrast to counterfactual and probabilistic models, the dynamics model naturally distinguishes between different cause-related concepts and explains the induction of causal relationships from…

This study analyzes welfare returns for families who leave welfare for a "sit-out" period of 12 months in response to a temporary time limit requirement in Nevada. Findings reveal that relatively few families return for cash assistance after sitting out and that the majority who do return soon after their sit-out period is complete.…

Lower body negative pressure (LBNP) is an established and important technique used to physiologically stress the human body, particularly the cardiovascular system. LBNP is most often used to simulate gravitational stress, but it has also been used to simulate hemorrhage, alter preload, and manipulate baroreceptors. During experimentation, the…