The Intellectual Development of Science and Engineering Students. Part 2: Teaching to Promote Growth

As college students experience the challenges of their classes and extracurricular activities, they undergo a developmental progression in which they gradually relinquish their belief in the certainty of knowledge and the omniscience of authorities and take increasing responsibility for their own learning. At the highest developmental level normally seen in college students (which few attain before graduation), they display attitudes and thinking patterns resembling those of expert scientists and engineers, including habitually and skillfully gathering and analyzing evidence to support their judgments. This paper proposes an instructional model designed to provide a suitable balance of challenge and support to advance students to that level. The model components are (1) variety and choice of learning tasks; (2) explicit communication and explanation of expectations; (3) modeling, practice, and constructive feedback on high‐level tasks; (4) a student‐centered instructional environment; and (5) respect for students at all levels of development.     

Some scientist-practitioners do.

Comments on the argument of L. T. Hoshmand and D. E. Polkinghorn (see record 1992-21300-001) that psychological practice should inform science to the same degree that science informs practice. Based on a survey of 121 faculty members in programs accredited by the American Psychological Association, 65% reported practice activity. The authors agree that the problem involves a much more complex integrative task that goes beyond simply recognizing knowledge gained in practice settings as valid. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Edge-to-edge interfaces in Ti?Al modeled with the embedded atom method

The atomistic structure and energies of high-index interphase boundaries are explored using a combination of molecular statics and dynamics simulations with embedded atom potentials. We investigate planar boundaries between the α₂ and γ phases in the Ti−Al system. The class of boundaries considered has a high-index boundary orientation; the orientation relationship between the α₂ and γ phases also is high index, and a set of planes from each phase meet edge to edge at the boundary plane. For the particular case of a boundary that is commensurate in one direction and coincides with a moiré plane given by the so-called “Δg” diffraction condition, the boundary is not structurally singular, but it is energetically stable and does not appear to dissociate into other low-energy configurations. Misfit compensating defects are not observed; misfit in directions other than the commensurate one appears to be distributed uniformly. The boundary energy is evaluated as a function of the orientation of the boundary plane, and the edge-to-edge (moiré) boundary is found to lie in an energy cusp. This article is based on a presentation made in the “Hume-Rothery Symposium on Structure and Diffusional Growth Mechanisms of Irrational Interphase Boundaries,” which occurred during the TMS Winter meeting, March 15–17, 2004, in Charlotte, NC, under the auspices of the TMS Alloy Phases Committee and the co-sponsorship of the TMS-ASM Phase Transformations Committee.     

Healing the psyche through music, myth, and ritual.

According to Carl Jung, a person's symptoms occur as a result of the psyche's creative attempt to self-regulate. These symptoms are viewed as the symbol-making function of the psyche. Music therapy as a therapeutic tool is also viewed as having a symbol-making function in that the physical act of making music involves conceptualizing one's symptoms into sounds. The sound serves as a musical symbol of the symptom. The myth of Orpheus is offered as an example of how early man amplified the creative potential contained in music to heal from life's woes. The Orphic archetype illustrates that music serves as a medium for healing and as an expression of Self. That psyche can be healed by music is a reminder of the connection between music therapy and the myth of Orpheus. In using the therapeutic tool of music one can transcend, through the symbol making process inherent in music therapy, the tension of opposites that are created at the crossroads of disease and wellness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metric-based reasoning about pseudocode design in the partial metrics system

The goal of the PMS project is to produce an environment in which the intelligent online assessment of the design for large-scale ADA programming projects is provided. The focus is on the representation of knowledge about the design process for an individual module. Changes in pseudocode complexity are measured in terms of partial metrics. These metrics can take the designers inferences about the pseudocode program structure into account when assessing module complexity. Next, a model of the stepwise refinement process is given which demonstrates how pseudocode elaboration decisions can be modelled in partial metric terms. Finally, the decisions associated with each refinement step for 17 example refinements taken from the computer science literature are described using partial metrics.     

The human homologue of yeast CRM1 is in a dynamic subcomplex with CAN/Nup214 and a novel nuclear pore component Nup88

The oncogenic nucleoporin CAN/Nup214 is essential in vertebrate cells. Its depletion results in defective nuclear protein import, inhibition of messenger RNA export and cell cycle arrest. We recently found that CAN associates with proteins of 88 and 112 kDa, which we have now cloned and characterized. The 88 kDa protein is a novel nuclear pore complex (NPC) component, which we have named Nup88. Depletion of CAN from the NPC results in concomitant loss of Nup88, indicating that the localization of Nup88 to the NPC is dependent on CAN binding. The 112 kDa protein is the human homologue of yeast CRM1, a protein known to be required for maintenance of correct chromosome structure. This human CRM1 (hCRM1) localized to the NPC as well as to the nucleoplasm. Nuclear overexpression of the FG-repeat region of CAN, containing its hCRM1-interaction domain, resulted in depletion of hCRM1 from the NPC. In CAN-/- mouse embryos lacking CAN, hCRM1 remained in the nuclear envelope, suggesting that this protein can also bind to other repeat-containing nucleoporins. Lastly, hCRM1 shares a domain of significant homology with importin-beta, a cytoplasmic transport factor that interacts with nucleoporin repeat regions. We propose that hCRM1 is a soluble nuclear transport factor that interacts with the NPC.     

The Locus of Redundant-Targets and Nontargets Effects: Evidence From the Psychological Refractory Period Paradigm.

In target detection tasks, responses are faster when displays have 2 targets (redundant-targets effect; RTE) and slower when they have no targets (nontargets effect; NTE) relative to displays with a single target. The psychological refractory period paradigm was used to localize these effects. In Experiment 1, participants classified tones as high or low and then classified letters as targets or nontargets after a short or long stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). The magnitudes of the RTE and NTE did not depend on SOA. In Experiment 2, the order of the tasks was reversed, and at short SOAs the RTE and NTE had similar magnitudes for both tone discrimination and target detection responses. These findings suggest that the RTE and NTE arise during response selection. Interactive effects of tone pitch with the number and type of target features were also observed, and these were tentatively interpreted as synesthetic effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recent Development of Cognitive and Neuropsychological Assessment in Asian Countries.

There is a growing trend of research in neuropsychological assessment in Asia: The mean number of published studies increased from 1.8 in the 1980s to 16.0 in 2 recent years. About 40% of the studies reviewed concerned test development or adaptation, with the latter greatly outnumbering the former. To facilitate the test selection for clinical use, 36 clinical measures were evaluated based on some statistical criteria. The results showed that only 8 neuropsychological tests (5 Chinese. 2 Korean, and 1 Japanese) met the criteria. Given that Asian and Western populations differ on certain cognitive processes, future development of neuropsychological assessment measures in Asia should move from the adaptation of Western tests toward the construction of original tests with better ecological validity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)