This paper examines an intervention using experiential learning and simulations in a virtual world that can promote social proximity, tolerance, and cooperation in diverse societies. The participants in the study were 125 Jewish and Arab students living in Israel. A mixed linear model for repeated measures analysis that included time of…

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and the subsequent shutdown of all of the schools in the United States thrust teachers into distance learning environments with little or no preparation. This mixed methods exploratory study of teachers' perceptions of the role of professional learning in reducing transactional distance in a virtual environment…

Reinforcement learning (RL) models of decision-making cannot account for human decisions in the absence of prior reward or punishment. We propose a mechanism for choosing among available options based on goal-option association strengths, where association strengths between objects represent previously experienced object proximity. The proposed…