Young children’s analogical reasoning across cultures: Similarities and differences

A cross-cultural comparison between U.S. and Hong Kong preschoolers examined factors responsible for young children’s analogical reasoning errors. On a scene analogy task, both groups had adequate prerequisite knowledge of the key relations, were the same age, and showed similar baseline performance, yet Chinese children outperformed U.S. children on more relationally complex problems. Children from both groups were highly susceptible to choosing a perceptual or semantic distractor during reasoning when one was present. Taken together, these similarities and differences suggest that (a) cultural differences can facilitate better knowledge representations by allowing more efficient processing of relationally complex problems and (b) inhibitory control is an important factor in explaining the development of children’s analogical reasoning.     

Interfacial strengthening of β phase in a fully lamellar structure of TiAl alloy containing W

The strengthening of the β phase in two fully lamellar structures with different lamellar spacing of a Ti–48?at.%?Al–2?W?at.% alloy during creep deformation has been investigated. It was found that the β phase precipitates during aging treatments only within regions of α₂ lamellae following their dissolution. The strengthening of the β phase is more effective in the coarser lamellar structure, because the wider β precipitation zones, which replace the prior coarser α₂ lamellae, hinders dislocation motion stronger than the narrower ones.     

Does content matter? The effect of remorseful tone on length of prison sentence

The expression of remorse by offenders has been found to affect jurors' determination of length of prison sentences. This study explores this phenomenon by contrasting the impact of exercising remorse solely in words or through emotional tone. Remorse consists of guilt, shame and sorrow. This study examines the contribution of each of these emotions to judgements about prison sentences, which is an area seldom explored in the literature. It is shown that regardless of the gender of the offender, participants censured a significantly more severe punishment for the offender who expressed a sense of remorse using words rather than tone. In addition, only shame was a significant predictor of the severity of punishment. These findings are consistent with previous studies and further differentiate the influence of displaying remorse at the content and tonal levels.     

THE EFFECT OF PRINT ACCESS ON READING FREQUENCY

Studies on reading motivation have found that access to reading materials has an important influence on the amount students choose to read. There are few studies, however, that have examined print access in a comprehensive way to include home, school, and community resources. In this study, surveys and reading tests were administered to a class of eleventh-grade students (N = 24). Consistent with previous research, convenient access to reading material, regardless of a student's reading ability, was associated with more frequent reading. In addition, more voluntary or "free" reading was associated with higher levels of reading proficiency. Implications for providing students with easier access to reading materials are discussed.