Chemistry assessments shape not only what students know, but how they interpret what kinds of reasoning are valued. For multilingual learners (MLs), linguistic complexity in assessment items can constrain access to epistemological resources, masking conceptual understanding. This study examines how undergraduates' epistemological framing and resource activation are influenced by linguistic features of stoichiometry items, with attention to language background. We introduce translinguistic framing, an epistemological frame describing how MLs orient to disciplinary tasks by coordinating linguistic and semiotic resources. We conducted semi-structured think-aloud interviews with 40 undergraduates (23 English monolingual, 17 multilingual) in an introductory chemistry course at a research-intensive U.S. university. Participants examined stoichiometry item pairs combining original and linguistically revised versions. Using Hammer and Elby's (2003) epistemological resources framework, we analyzed how students framed each task and what knowledge they drew upon. Findings reveal three interrelated frames—answer-making, sensemaking, and translinguistic framing—flexibly activated depending on item design, time constraints, and linguistic load. MLs faced barriers when chemistry terminology differed from classroom language, often shifting to symbolic or procedural representations. Emotional and strategic stances, including anxiety and time-aware strategizing, further mediated resource activation, limiting conceptual engagement. Translinguistic framing, in contrast, enabled MLs to sustain disciplinary reasoning by integrating first-language terms, English keywords, and symbolic notation. This study expands models of epistemological framing by highlighting an epistemic dimension of science assessment. Implications for equitable assessment design include minimizing unnecessary linguistic complexity, offering multimodal scaffolds, and recognizing translinguistic framing as a legitimate epistemological stance supporting opportunities to demonstrate conceptual understanding.

Apprenticeship learning (AL) aims to induce decision-making policies by observing and imitating expert demonstrations.Existing AL approaches typically rely on online interactions and assume that the demonstrations follow a single reward function.Nevertheless, in real-world human-centric applications, policies are usually learned in an offline setting, with the demonstrations driven by multiple reward functions that evolve over time.To address these challenges, we introduce a novel AL framework: Time-aware Hierarchical EM Energy-based Sub-trajectory (THEMES) clustering.We evaluate the effectiveness of THEMES in two challenging human-centric domains -healthcare and education.Our experimental results across multiple datasets demonstrate that THEMES can accurately induce policies, outperforming competitive baselines and ablations, demonstrating its potential for tackling a broad range of complex, real-world human-centric tasks.

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is the third most common cause of heart failure and the primary reason for heart transplantation; upward of 70% of DCM cases are considered idiopathic. Our in-vitro experiments showed that reduced hybrid/complex N-glycosylation in mouse cardiomyocytes is linked with DCM. Further, we observed direct effects of reduced N-glycosylation on K v gating. However, it is difficult to rigorously determine the effects of glycosylation on K v activity, because there are multiple K v isoforms in cardiomyocytes contributing to the cardiac excitation. Due to complex functions of K v isoforms, only the sum of K + currents (I Ksum ) can be recorded experimentally and decomposed later using exponential fitting to estimate component currents, such as I Kto , I Kslow , and I Kss . However, such estimation cannot adequately describe glycosylation effects and K v mechanisms. Here, we propose a framework of simulation modeling of K v kinetics in mouse ventricular myocytes and model calibration using the in-vitro data under normal and reduced glycosylation conditions through ablation of the Mgat1 gene (i.e., Mgat1KO). Calibrated models facilitate the prediction of K v characteristics at different voltages that are not directly observed in the in-vitro experiments. A model calibration procedure is developed based on the genetic algorithm. Experimental results show that, in the Mgat1KO group, both I Kto and I Kslow densities are shown to be significantly reduced and the rate of I Kslow inactivation is much slower. The proposed approach has strong potential to couple simulation models with experimental data for gaining a better understanding of glycosylation effects on K v kinetics.

Despite increased attempts to express equality in speech, biases often leak out through subtle linguistic cues. For example, the subject–complement statement (SCS, “Girls are as good as boys at math”) is used to advocate for equality but often reinforces gender stereotypes (boys are the standard against which girls are judged). We ask whether stereotypes conveyed by SCS can be counteracted by gesture. Two preregistered studies with 8- to 11-y-old children ( N = 320 total) investigate whether an equal gesture—two palms placed at the same height—mitigates the gender stereotype induced by SCS. Children who saw the equal gesture along with SCS were more likely to express egalitarian beliefs than children who saw no gesture or an unequal gesture. Children can extract meaning from gesture when making stereotypical inferences, suggesting that the equal gesture may prove to be an innovative, and simple, intervention to counteract stereotypes introduced by subtle language.

The gender disparity in STEM fields emerges early in development. This research examined children's explanations for this gap and investigated two approaches to enhance children's structural understanding that this imbalance is caused by societal, systematic barriers. Five- to 8-year-old children (N = 145) observed girls' underrepresentation in a STEM competition; the No Structural Information condition presented no additional information, the Structural: Between-Group Comparison (Between) condition compared boys' greater representation to girls' when boys had more opportunities to practice than girls, and the Structural: Within-Group Comparison (Within) condition compared girls' greater STEM representation when they had opportunities versus not. Children in the No Structural condition largely generated intrinsic explanations; in contrast, children in both structural conditions favored structural explanations for girls' lack of participation (Experiment 1) and achievement (Experiment 2). Importantly, each structural condition also had unique effects: Between raised children's fairness concerns, while Within increased children's selection of girls as teammates in a competitive STEM activity.

Women's underrepresentation in academic fields and professions emphasizing high intellectual talents persists as a prominent societal issue. To explore early antecedents of this gender imbalance, the present study investigated the developmental changes in children's social preference of boys and girls who pursue brilliance-required (vs. effort-required) activities. Importantly, we took an intersectional perspective to explore whether children consider target race in their social preference. Five- to 9-year-old U.S. children (N = 207; M-age = 7.53; 104 girls and 103 boys; 48% White) were presented with pairs of Asian, Black, and White characters matched in gender. One character was depicted as enjoying a game requiring high intellectual talents and the other enjoyed a game requiring effort. Participants were then asked to choose the character that they liked more, as an indicator of their social preference. With age, children became increasingly likely to prefer White boys and girls of color (i.e., Black and Asian girls) pursuing activities requiring brilliance (vs. activities requiring effort). In contrast, children did not develop increasing social preference for White girls or boys of color who opt in for brilliance-required activities. Our data suggest that, as early as elementary school years, children's social preference in contexts valuing sheer brilliance becomes both gendered and racialized. These findings highlight the importance of using an intersectional approach to identify the specific developmental processes that contribute to social disparities in brilliance-required contexts.

Across three pre-registered studies (n = 221 4-9-year olds, 51% female; 218 parents, 80% female; working- and middle-class backgrounds; data collected during 2019-2021) conducted in the United States (Studies 1-2; 74% White) and China (Study 3; 100% Asian), we document the emergence of a preference for strivers. Beginning at age 7, strivers (who work really hard) were favored over naturals (who are really smart) in both cultures (R2 ranging .03-.11). We explored several lay beliefs surrounding this preference. Beliefs about outcomes and the controllability of effort predicted the striver preference: Children who expected strivers to be more successful than naturals and believed effort was more controllable than talent preferred strivers more. Implications of the striver preference in education and beyond are discussed.

Recent work suggests that the stereotype associating brilliance with men may underpin women's underrepresentation in prestigious careers, yet little is known about its development and consequences in non-Western contexts. The present research examined the onset of this stereotype and its relation to children's motivation in 5- to 7-year-old Korean children (N = 272, 50% girls, tested 2021 to 2022). At age 7, children attributed brilliance to men when evaluating Asians and Whites, and girls became less interested in participating in intellectually challenging tasks than boys. Notably, this gender difference in interest was mediated by children's endorsement of the stereotype. The generalizable early emergence of the gender brilliance stereotype and its detrimental implications press the need to tackle gender imbalance in early childhood. © 2023 The Authors. Child Development © 2023 Society for Research in Child Development.

Wealth-based disparities in health care wherein the poor receive undertreatment in painful conditions are a prominent issue that requires immediate attention. Research with adults suggests that these disparities are partly rooted in stereotypes associating poor individuals with pain insensitivity. However, whether and how children consider a sufferer's wealth status in their pain perceptions remains unknown. The present work addressed this question by testing 4- to 9-year-olds from the US and China. In Study 1 (N = 108, 56 girls, 79% White), US participants saw rich and poor White children experiencing identical injuries and indicated who they thought felt more pain. Although 4- to 6-year-olds responded at chance, children aged seven and above attributed more pain to the poor than to the rich. Study 2 with a new sample of US children (N = 111, 56 girls, 69% White) extended this effect to judgments of White adults' pain. Pain judgments also informed children's prosocial behaviors, leading them to provide medical resources to the poor. Studies 3 (N = 118, 59 girls, 100% Asian) and 4 (N = 80, 40 girls, 100% Asian) found that, when evaluating White and Asian people's suffering, Chinese children began to attribute more pain to the poor than to the rich earlier than US children. Thus, unlike US adults, US children and Chinese children recognize the poor's pain from early on. These findings add to our knowledge of group-based beliefs about pain sensitivity and have broad implications on ways to promote equitable health care.Research HighlightsFour studies examined whether 4- to 9-year-old children's pain perceptions were influenced by sufferers' wealth status.US children attributed more pain to White individuals of low wealth status than those of high wealth status by age seven.Chinese children demonstrated an earlier tendency to attribute more pain to the poor (versus the rich) compared to US children.Children's wealth-based pain judgments underlied their tendency to provide healthcare resources to people of low wealth status.

Leadership is inextricably embedded in human groups. One central obligation of leaders is to embody the identity of their group by acting in line with group norms. Yet little is known about how leadership and conformity are initially associated in people’s minds, how this association develops in childhood, and how cultural values shape this association. The present research tested 4- to 11-year-olds in the United States and China to address these questions by comparing children’s evaluations of a leader’s versus an ordinary group member’s nonconformity. In Experiments 1 and 3 (N = 114 and 116, respectively), children saw two novel groups engage in distinct behaviors (e.g., listening to different kinds of music). A leader or a nonleader acted against their respective group norms. Next, children provided evaluations of the nonconformity. In both populations, whereas younger children (4- to 7-year-olds) evaluated the leader’s nonconformity more positively relative to the nonleader’s, older children (10- to 11-year-olds) evaluated the leader’s nonconformity more negatively. Notably, children in China developed more negative attitudes toward a leader’s nonconformity than children in the United States. Experiment 2 (N =66) ruled out the possibility that younger children’s favorable evaluations of the leader’s nonconformity stemmed from their general positivity toward leaders. Taken together, children in the two countries gradually conceptualize leaders as central group members and expect them to follow group norms. These findings contribute to theories on early leadership cognition and highlight the importance of taking a cross-cultural approach to understand its development. © 2023 American Psychological Association