Despite representations' central role in conveying chemical phenomena, mastering them is not trivial, given the wide variety of different conventions to interpret and use them. Furthermore, instructional approaches and materials may overlook explicit discussion on how students should reason with representations. To gather evidence that could guide…

The purpose of this study was twofold. First, to explore middle and high school students' intuitively-based (mis)conceptions in probability, particularly availability and representativeness heuristics. Second, to investigate teachers' awareness of these intuitively-based (mis)conceptions and the effectiveness of their instructional practices to…

Although a growing number of studies indicate that simple strategies, intuitions, or cognitive shortcuts called heuristics can persistently interfere with scientific reasoning in physics and chemistry, the persistence of heuristics related to learning biology is less known. In this study, we investigate the persistence of the "moving things…

A large and growing body of work has documented robust illusions of area perception in adults. To date, however, there has been surprisingly little in-depth investigation into children's area perception, despite the importance of this topic to the study of quantity perception more broadly (and to the many studies that have been devoted to studying…

Cognitive biases restrict and even prevent the acceptance of new information, but the introduction of critical thinking may help control bias. The subject is a case study of how educators with adult students use critical thinking to control cognitive bias. The topic of cognitive bias is well researched, with over 150 different types of bias…

It is argued that developing digital abilities is key for today's knowledge society. They facilitate engaging with pervasive information communication technologies and manipulating information. Governments have invested vastly in formal education aimed at developing digital abilities. Policies and directives driving this venture need to be…

Understanding chemical models can be challenging for many university students studying chemistry. This study analysed students' understanding of molecular structures using the Lewis structure as a model, and examined what hinders their understanding. We conducted pre- and post-tests to analyse students' conceptions and changes in them. The…

Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) is a statistical method used to examine group differences on multiple outcomes. This article reports results of a review of MANOVA in gifted education journals between 2011 and 2017 (N = 56). Findings suggest a number of conceptual and procedural misunderstandings about the nature of MANOVA and its…

Critics of null hypothesis significance testing suggest that (a) its basic logic is invalid and (b) it addresses a question that is of no interest. In contrast to (a), I argue that the underlying logic of hypothesis testing is actually extremely straightforward and compelling. To substantiate that, I present examples showing that hypothesis…

Purpose: This paper aims to link findings from laboratory-based decision-making research and decision-making competence (DMC) aspects that may be central for career-related decision-making processes. Past research has identified individual differences in rational responses in decision situations, which the authors refer to as DMC. Although there…

Most current models of sentence comprehension assume that the human parsing mechanism (HPM) algorithmically computes detailed syntactic representations as basis for extracting sentence meaning. These models share the assumption that the representations computed by the HPM accurately reflect the linguistic input. This assumption has been challenged…

We report on five experiments investigating response choices and response times to simple science questions that evoke student "misconceptions," and we construct a simple model to explain the patterns of response choices. Physics students were asked to compare a physical quantity represented by the slope, such as speed, on simple physics…

The identification of conflict and development of common ground, important steps in the interdisciplinary research process, become challenging when applied to solving complex real-world problems that involve opposing interest groups, especially those whose members do not possess academic or interdisciplinary training. This article examines…

Psychoeducational assessment involves collecting, organizing, and interpreting a large amount of data from various sources. Drawing upon psychological and medical literature, we review two main approaches to clinical reasoning (deductive and inductive) and how they synergistically guide diagnostic decision-making. In addition, we discuss how the…

Focusing on the science knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge that teachers need to realize the vision of the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS) in their classrooms, this study presents findings from efforts to (1) adapt existing criteria and design heuristics for educative features of curriculum materials to the needs of…