Number line estimation (NLE) tasks are widely used to investigate numerical cognition, learning, and development, and as an instructional tool. Interpretation of these tasks generally involves an implicit expectation that responses are driven by the overall magnitudes of target numerals, in the sense that the particular digits conveying those magnitudes are unimportant. However, recent evidence shows that numbers with similar magnitudes but different leftmost digits are estimated very differently. For example, 798 is placed systematically much too far to the left of 801 in a 0-1000 NLE task by children aged 7-11 and adults. Here we ask whether this left digit effect generalizes to two-digit numerals in a 0-100 NLE task and whether it emerges in younger children. Children aged 5-8 (Study 1, N = 73), adults (Study 2, N = 44), and children aged 9-11 (Study 3, N = 27) completed a standard 0-100 NLE task on a touchscreen tablet. We observed left digit effects for two-digit numerals in children aged 8-11 and adults, with large effect sizes, demonstrating that these effects generalize to smaller numerical ranges. Left digit effects were not apparent in 5- to 7-year-olds, suggesting that these effects do not emerge at younger ages for smaller, more familiar numerical ranges. We discuss developmental emergence of left digit effects in number line estimation and implications within and beyond the field of cognitive development.

By the preschool age, children exhibit a diversity of prosocial behaviors that include both sharing resources and helping others. Though recent work has theorized that these prosocial behaviors are differentiated by distinct ages of emergence, developmental trajectories and underlying mechanisms, the experimental evidence in support of the last claim remains scant. The current study focuses on one such cognitive mechanism - numerical cognition - seeking to replicate and extend prior work demonstrating the strong link between children's numerical cognition and precise sharing behavior, and further examining its relationship to instrumental helping. In line with theoretical perspectives favoring the differentiation of varieties of prosocial behaviors, we hypothesize that numerical cognition underlies precise sharing, but not precise helping behavior. Eighty-five 3 to 6-year-old children completed two procedurally similar tasks designed to elicit sharing and instrumental helping behavior, in addition to a Give-N task measuring their symbolic counting skills. Despite the procedural similarity, and the implicit norm of providing half (5 out of 10) stickers in both tasks, children's counting proficiency predicted precise sharing, but not precise helping. These results indicate a unique relationship between children's developing numerical cognition and behavioral fairness, providing empirical support for claims that varieties of prosocial behavior are supported by distinct underlying mechanisms.

Staffing classrooms with effective teachers remains a persistent policy challenge in the U.S. Teaching positions requiringSTEM expertise are particularly difficult to fill. Scholars have identified similar trends in other industrialized nations. Yet, limited research examines international comparisons of the causes and consequences of staffing challenges. We use the 2015 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study to track teacher staffing difficulties in 27 countries. We find substantial variation across countries in the proportion of principals reporting difficulties filling STEM positions, with U.S. schools mirroring international averages. We also find consistent relationships between lower math and science achievement and attending a hard-to-staff school.

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are important techniques because they synthesize results from multiple primary studies on a similar topic. To influence policy, practice, and research, however, synthesis researchers must translate the results for various audiences. Ideally, the translation drives future research agendas, informs policymaking, or assists in practical decision-making. An Evidence Gap Map (EGM), a graphical or tabular visualization of systematic review and meta-analysis results, is one ideal translation technique because it provides a structured framework to assess contexts for which primary evidence is available or to determine whether the effectiveness of an intervention or a program differs across populations, conditions, and settings. To bolster the field and promote the use of EGMs, we provide an overview of what constitutes an informative EGM, detail multiple examples of EGMs using extant meta-analytic results, and present a free R Shiny application we created to easily generate EGMs from typical meta-analytic datasets. We conclude by reviewing education-based systematic reviews that included an EGM to describe the current state of the field. [This paper will be published in "Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness."]

We study the effects of peer gender composition in STEM doctoral programs on persistence and degree completion. Leveraging unique new data and quasi-random variation in gender composition across cohorts within programs, we show that women entering cohorts with no female peers are 11.7 percentage points less likely to graduate within 6 years than their male counterparts. A 1 standard deviation increase in the percentage of female students differentially increases women’s probability of on-time graduation by 4.4 percentage points. These gender peer effects function primarily through changes in the probability of dropping out in a PhD program’s first year. © 2022 The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.

What motivates faculty teaching gateway courses to consider adopting an evidence-based classroom intervention? In this nationally representative study of biology faculty members in the United States (N = 422), we used expectancy-value-cost theory to understand three convergent motivational processes the faculty members' underlying intentions to adopt an exemplar evidence-based classroom intervention: the utility value intervention (UVI). Although the faculty members perceived the intervention as valuable, self-reported intentions to implement it were degraded by concerns about costs and lower expectancies for successful implementation. Structural equation modeling revealed that the faculty members reporting lower intentions to adopt it tended to be White and to identify as male and had many years of teaching or were from a more research-focused university. These personal, departmental, and institutional factors mapped onto value, expectancies, and cost perceptions uniquely, showing that each process was a necessary but insufficient way to inspire intentions to adopt the UVI. Our findings suggest multifaceted, context-responsive appeals to support faculty member motivation to scale up adoption of evidence-based classroom interventions.

The brain’s modular functional organization facilitates adaptability. Modularity has been linked with a wide range of cognitive abilities such as intelligence, memory, and learning. However, much of this work has (1) considered modularity while a participant is at rest rather than during tasks conditions and/or (2) relied primarily on lab-based cognitive assessments. Thus, the extent to which modularity can provide information about real-word behavior remains largely unknown. Here, we investigated whether functional modularity during resting-state and task-based fMRI was associated with academic learning (measured by GPA) and ability (measured by PSAT) in a large sample of high school students. Additional questions concerned the extent to which modularity differs between rest and task conditions, and across spatial scales. Results indicated that whole-brain modularity during task conditions was significantly associated with academic learning. In contrast to prior work, no such associations were observed for resting-state modularity. We further showed that differences in modularity between task conditions and resting-state varied across spatial scales. Taken together, the present findings inform how functional brain network modularity – during task conditions and while at rest – relate to a range of cognitive abilities.

In the summer of 2020, due to COVID-19, institutions either canceled or remotely hosted their research experience for undergraduates (REU) programs. We carried out a 16-week longitudinal study examining the impact of these fully remote research experiences on mentees' psychosocial gains (e.g., identity). We studied the phenomenon of a remote research experience from the standpoint of the mentees (N = 10) and their mentors (N = 8), who were each interviewed seven and three times, respectively (94 total interviews). All mentees reported that this experience was highly beneficial through different factors such as other recognition and self-recognition, which led to their development of a sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and identity despite working remotely. Then, we synthesize these results with prior literature and develop a framework showing how different experiences and constructs affect the physics and researcher identity development. Gaining a greater understanding regarding factors leading to the growth of psychosocial gains may help REU coordinators and REU mentors to redesign their undergraduate research program and provide the support that their mentees' need to have a positive undergraduate research experience.

Self-efficacy has emerged as one of the most important noncognitive variables explaining academic behavior. It has been shown to influence students' academic and career decisions as well as their academic performance. Multiple studies have reported differences in self-efficacy between men and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics classes. A student's personality, characterized by the five-factor model, is also related to academic performance; some personality facets are substantially different for men and women. This work examines the relations among the five-factor model of personality (agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness), self-efficacy toward physics and mathematics, and course outcomes in university physics and mathematics classes. Women reported significantly higher neuroticism in all classes, a medium to large effect size, and significantly higher conscientiousness in Calculus 1 and Physics 1, small effects. Men reported higher self-efficacy in two-semester Calculus 1, one-semester Calculus 1, Physics 1, and Physics 2, small effects. Conscientiousness and neuroticism had competing mediational effects on the relation of gender to self-efficacy. The path through neuroticism accounted for 25%-47% of the total effect of gender on self-efficacy (increasing self-efficacy for men) and the path through conscientiousness accounted for 12%-23% of the total effect (increasing self-efficacy for women). Self-efficacy mediated the relation of conscientiousness to course grade in all classes, accounting for 30%-45% of the total effect.