Integrating agent-based models (ABMs) has been a popular approach for teaching emergent science concepts. However, students continue to find it difficult to explain the emergent process of natural selection. This study adopted an ontological framework--the Pattern, Agents, Interactions, Relations, and Causality (PAIR-C)--to guide the design of…

Research regarding dysgraphia, an impairment in writing, is attaining more attention in recent times. The existing studies on dysgraphia draw insights from cognitive, behavioural, neurological, and genetic fields of knowledge. However, these multiple studies on dysgraphia fail to illustrate how these cognitive, behavioural, neurological, and…

Autism spectrum disorders and Williams syndrome exhibit quite opposite features in the social domain, but also share some common underlying behavioral and cognitive deficits. It is not clear, however, which genes account for the attested differences (and similarities) in the socio-cognitive domain. In this article, we adopted a comparative…

Despite widespread misunderstandings, B.F. Skinner did not ignore creativity. The present article first integrates Skinner's writings with some current research in creativity that focuses on the role of near associations in creative innovations. Next, Skinner's writings are integrated with the role of the unconscious in creativity, including some…

Executive functions (EFs) and intelligence (IQ) are phenotypically correlated. In twin studies, latent variables for EFs and IQ display moderate to high heritability estimates; however, they show variable genetic correlations in twin studies spanning childhood to middle age. We analyzed data from over 11,000 children (9- to 10-year-olds, including…

Students often have no exposure to the incredible amount of genomic and proteomic data that is freely and easily accessible online. Becoming familiar with these resources, and seeing how they could be applied to a specific research question, is a prerequisite for students to apply them to their own scientific development. Many students have to…

This short paper presents an educational approach to teaching three popular methods for encoding DNA sequences: one-hot encoding, binary encoding, and integer encoding. Aimed at bioinformatics and computational biology students, our learning intervention focuses on developing practical skills in implementing these essential techniques for…

Molecular biology can be challenging for undergraduate students because it requires visual literacy skills to interpret abstract representations of submicroscopic concepts, structures, and processes. The Conceptual-Reasoning-Mode framework suggests that visual literacy relies on applying conceptual knowledge to appropriately reason with the…

Purpose: Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a single-gene disorder characterized by moderate to severe cognitive impairment and a high association with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Atypical visual attention is a feature of FXS, ASD, and ADHD. Thus, studying early attentional patterns in young…

Visual inference involves using prior knowledge and contextual cues to make educated guesses about incomplete or ambiguous information. This study explores the role of visual inference as a function of expertise in the context of fingerprint examination, where professional examiners need to determine whether two fingerprints were left by the same…

Background: Autistic people without intellectual disabilities have increased perceptual capacity: they can process more information at any given time compared to non-autistic people. We examined whether increased perceptual capacity is evident across the autistic spectrum (i.e. for autistic people with intellectual disabilities) and whether it is…

Since it became available free to the public in November of 2022, ChatGPT and other large-language model AIs have impacted the higher education classroom. Some fear that this is the end of essay-based assignments, as these are easily generated by ChatGPT. Principles of Genetics, an entry level genetics class, has previously incorporated a creative…

Visual representations in molecular biology tend to follow a set of shared conventions for using certain shapes and symbols to convey information about the size and structure of nucleotides, genes, and chromosomes. Understanding how and why biologists use these conventions to represent DNA is a key part of visual literacy in molecular biology.…

In recent years, genetic and genomic autism research has come under increasing scrutiny, moving to the center of debates about ableism, neurodiversity, autism acceptance, and the future of research and care. At the same time, both autism research and genetics and genomics research have, as fields, begun to reckon with the significance of the…

This study assesses adaptive and maladaptive behaviour in a sample of 68 adults. The Spanish version of the Adaptive Behaviour Scale: Residence and Community (ABS-RC:2) was applied to 30 subjects with Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) and 38 subjects with Down Syndrome (DS) aged between 25 and 57. The results show that adults with FXS score higher than do…