One developmental task faced by children is to identify, remember, and learn from epistemic and moral agents around them who are known to be good or virtuous. Here, in 2 studies, we examined U.S children's (N = 138; 55% female, 45% male; predominantly White, middle-class) memory processes for agents varying in moral and epistemic virtue. In Study…

How causation is approached has, for some time now, been a central debate within the archives of educational research. Despite rich discussion in broader literature, the influence of what has been described as the 'methodology wars' has rarely featured within the field(s) of outdoor and environmental education (OEE). This paper explores causation…

Many studies suggest a relationship between education and political participation, but only some address causality. We add to this by re-examining the German case. For identification, we exploit an exogenous increase in compulsory schooling, and use data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). The data enable analyses that do not rely…

We tested whether changes in attribution processes could account for the developmental differences observed in how children's use fluency to guide their memory decisions. Children ranging in age from 4 to 9 years studied a list of familiar or unfamiliar cartoon characters. In Experiment 1 (n = 84), participants completed a recognition test during…

Autistic adolescents experience a secondary wave of social cognitive challenges which impact interpersonal success. We investigated self-conscious emotion (SCE) processing in autistic and neurotypical adolescents. Participants watched videos of peers acting embarrassed and proud and rated inferred and empathic SCEs. We compared intensity ratings…

Does "X" affect "Y"? Answering this question is particularly difficult if reverse causality is looming. Many social scientists turn to panel data to address such questions of causal ordering. Yet even in longitudinal analyses, reverse causality threatens causal inference based on conventional panel models. Whereas the…

Impoverished capacity for social inference is one of several symptoms that are common to both agenesis of the corpus callosum (AgCC) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This research compared the ability of 14 adults with AgCC, 13 high-functioning adults with ASD and 14 neurotypical controls to accurately attribute social meaning to the…

Media articles often communicate the latest scientific findings, and readers must evaluate the evidence and consider its potential implications. Prior work has found that the inclusion of graphs makes messages about scientific data more persuasive (Tal & Wansink, 2016). One explanation for this finding is that such visualizations evoke the…

Fifty-two strongly committed, first-generation Latina women attending a predominantly white institution (PWI) were asked how their first-generation status has had an impact on their college experience and where they see themselves in five years. Written responses to these questions were analyzed from the lens of "attribution theory" and…

Secondary school students' early choices related to staying in the science track define their future decisions to choose chemistry at college. This investigation aims at analyzing the role of gender in students' causal attributions to choose or abandon chemistry when it first becomes optional in the Spanish educational system. Our analyses…

In this mixed-methods experiment, we examined the impacts of an externally provided rationale and teachers' own beliefs on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to student misbehavior. Teachers (N = 120) viewed a video describing three instances of a student's misbehavior, then were randomly assigned to receive one of three explanatory…

Narrative is fundamental to human thought, yet in many classrooms, expository texts are commonly used to support learning in content-based subjects, such as history. Given the importance of narrative, it might be harnessed as a powerful tool to support learning. This research compares the impact of narrative nonfiction (NNF) and expository text…

This study explored the learning experiences of first-year information technology students at the beginning of their studies. Identifying the early experiences is important, as we know they can predict later challenges and persistence in studies. We focus on a novel understanding of relations between learning approaches, self-efficacy and burnout…

"Learning to become employable" is a catch phrase often used to highlight the importance of upskilling in today's knowledge-based labor market. Yet, evidence on the relationship between work-related learning and employability is limited and does not account for potential reciprocity. This is important though: if "employability"…

Attributing negative categories such as 'weak' to pupils is a common practice in Sweden and a known phenomenon worldwide. While there has been a substantial amount of research on different expressions of 'deviance' in the educational arena, the research on how teachers communicate about pupils as 'weak' is scarce. In this study, teachers'…