The effects of self‐explaining when learning with text or diagrams

Self‐explaining is an effective metacognitive strategy that can help learners develop deeper understanding of the material they study. This experiment explored if the format of material (i.e., text or diagrams) influences the self‐explanation effect. Twenty subjects were presented with information about the human circulatory system and prompted to self‐explain; 10 received this information in text and 10 in diagrams. Results showed that students given diagrams performed significantly better on post‐tests than students given text. Diagrams students also generated significantly more self‐explanations that text students. Furthermore, the benefits of self‐explaining were much greater in the diagrams condition. To discover why diagrams can promote the self‐explanation effect, results are interpreted with reference to the multiple differences in the semantic, cognitive and affective properties of the texts and diagrams studied.     

Cosmic inflation and the past hypothesis

The past hypothesis is that the entropy of the universe was very low in the distant past. It is put forward to explain the entropic arrow of time but it has been suggested (e.g. [Penrose, R. (1989a). The emperor’s new mind. London:Vintage Books; Penrose, R. (1989b). Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 571, 249–264; Price, H. (1995). In S. F. Savitt (Ed.), Times’s arrows today. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Price, H. (1996). Time’s arrow and Archimedes’ point. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Price, H. (2004). In C. Hitchcock (Ed.), Contemporary debates in philosophy of science. Oxford: Blackwell]) that it is itself in need of explanation. It has also been suggested that cosmic inflation could provide the explanation, but Price (2004) raises a serious objection to this suggestion, which has otherwise received very little attention in the philosophical literature. Price points out that the standard inflationary explanation involves a double standard: although the evolution of the universe described by the inflationary model seems natural from the standard temporal perspective it looks highly unnatural from the reversed temporal perspective. The main purpose of this paper is to propose a novel form of the inflationary explanation that avoids this objection. It is argued that the inflationary model would not involve a double standard (but would still explain the past hypothesis) if we construct the model with a global “boundary” condition instead of a conventional boundary condition: if we assume that the universe is as generic as possible overall, rather than as generic as possible at some given point (e.g. the Big Bang) as is assumed in the standard inflationary model. This novel form of the inflationary explanation is then compared with Price’s 1996 preferred explanation, a version of the so-called “Weyl hypothesis”.     

A New Way of Assessing Ways of Knowing: The Attitudes Toward Thinking and Learning Survey (ATTLS)

In four studies, college students (both male andfemale, predominantly white) filled out a 50-item surveyconsisting of statements illustrating“separate” (critical, detached) and“connected” (empathic) ways of knowing (Belenky, Clinchy, G oldberger,& Tarule, 1986). The instrument showed acceptableinternal reliability. Scores on the two scales wereuncorrelated, supporting the view that the twoepistemological positions are independent. Females consistentlyrated connected knowing (CK) statements higher thanseparate knowing (SK) statements, while males showed aslight, but non-significant difference favoring SK statements. When participants were dividedinto groups using a joint median split of the two ratingscores, females were disproportionately likely to beplaced in the High CK-Low SK group. CK and SK scores were unrelated to performance on avariety of cognitive tasks, but were related to somemeasures of preference, suggesting that ways of knowingmay function more as approaches or styles rather than basic abilities.     

Body mass index and environmental supports for physical activity among active and inactive residents of a U. S. southeastern county.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the associations between body mass index (BMI) and environmental supports for physical activity in active and inactive adults based on national recommendations for physical activity and walking. Residents of a southeastern community (N = 1,111; ages 18-75 years) were contacted using a random-digit-dial method and were asked about neighborhood and community social and environmental supports for physical activity. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Physical activity was measured using the 2001 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) physical activity module. RESULTS: There was a positive association between higher physical activity and walking levels and lower BMI levels. Trusting neighborhoods, having recreational facilities present, and using trails were each associated with twice the odds of being overweight versus obese among those not meeting the national physical activity recommendations. Using trails was also associated with 2.7 times the odds of being overweight as opposed to obese among participants who were not regular walkers. CONCLUSION: Improving environmental supports for access and use of trails and recreational facilities may be important for future environmental interventions aimed at reducing obesity among inactive individuals.     

Problems with subliminal perception

The current revival of interest in subliminal perception offers some applications of subliminal stimuli which are, predictably, new. Evidence for the effectiveness of the use of subliminal stimuli for business purposes, however, seems to be no better now than it was more than thirty years ago. This article is concerned with some of the questions which should be considered before a commitment to any use of subliminal stimulation is made.Some of the ideas for this paper were suggested by D. D. Walker, an undergraduate student at Indiana University Southeast.     

Eliciting Empathy for Adults in Chronic Pain through Autobiographical Memory Sharing

Two studies (N = 80; N = 91) investigated whether sharing an autobiographical memory increases empathy for a person experiencing chronic pain. Across studies, empathy was assessed after reading a pain‐related narrative of either a 25‐ or 85‐year‐old target and again after assignment to one of two recall conditions. Conditions involved recalling a pain‐related autobiographical memory (Studies 1 and 2), or as comparisons, recalling the target's pain narrative (Study 1) or recalling a character in pain from a movie (Study 2). Looking across both studies, empathy levels appear to increase after sharing an autobiographical memory but not in the comparison conditions. Increases in empathy were related to trait‐level agreeableness. When target‐age differences emerged (Study 2), participants felt greater empathy for the older person. Findings are discussed in terms of the function of autobiographical memory in eliciting pro‐social emotions such as empathy and implications for training empathic responding. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.