Tattoos are common in the United States; however, tattooed persons may be perceived as having more negative character and as more deviant than people without tattoos. College students (Study 1) and community members (Study 2) viewed images of men and women with tattoos or the same images with the tattoos digitally removed and rated the targets' characteristics. Half of the participants viewed a target with a tattoo, and half viewed that target without it, allowing for both within- (participants all rated one male and one female target with a tattoo and another without) and between-participants (participants rated either the tattooed or non-tattooed version of a single target) comparisons. Tattooed targets, especially women, were rated as stronger and more independent, but were rated more negatively on other character attributes than the same target images with the tattoos removed. The stigma associated with tattoos appears to still exist, despite the prevalence of tattoos in modern culture.
In 2 experiments, we sought to investigate the effects of using inquiry-based instruction to enhance retention of higher-level learning of psychology content. In both experiments, psychology students were taught psychological content via Zachry's (1985) 5-step inquiry-based instruction or via direct instruction. In Experiment 1, students who received inquiry-based instruction had significantly greater lower-and higher-level learning performance than those students taught using direct instruction on an immediate and a 4-week delayed recognition task. A second experiment was conducted to replicate and improve on Experiment 1 to control for prior knowledge and to minimize some threats to internal validity that occurred in Experiment 1. Consistent with Experiment 1, the results of Experiment 2 suggest that inquiry-based instruction promoted superior performance in both lower-and higher-level learning than direct instruction on immediate and delayed recognition and recall tasks. Results of both experiments suggest that inquiry-based instruction is an effective form of instruction to promote both lower-and higher-level learning of psychology content.
During the past decades, little research has investigated the effects of immersion scheduling on the psychology classroom. Therefore, we sought to compare academic performance of students in 2-week immersion psychology courses to that of students in traditional 16-week courses. In Study 1, students who received instruction in a 2-week immersion course significantly outperformed their cohorts in a traditional 16-week course. In order to address potential limitations in the first study, in Study 2, we controlled for individual differences variables (e.g., cumulative grade point average), and results indicated significantly higher academic performance for students in the 2-week immersion course. In both studies, students in the immersion courses consistently evaluated the courses and their instructors significantly higher than those students in the 16-week courses. In light of our results and in contrast to critics, immersion courses may be useful and effective when teaching psychology.
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