People's willingness to postpone receiving an immediate reward in order to gain additional benefits in the future, that is, a tendency to shallow delay discounting, is closely related to one's health, wealth, and happiness. We conducted two experiments investigating how the prospect concept can induce a future-oriented mindset and induce people to behave accordingly. We found that engaging in prospective imagery led the participants to focus on delayed utility over immediate utility in financial decisions (Experiment 1). Participants who received the prospect prime via a scrambled-sentence task decreased their desire to pursue hedonic activities for instant gratification (Experiment 2). Moreover, a state of future orientation mediated the effect of the prospect prime on measures of delayed gratification (Experiments 1 and 2). Thus, reminders of prospect may activate a mindset for future orientation by which delayed gratification is strengthened.

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This revelatory case study examines a 5th-grade teacher's orchestration of discourse and interaction to create opportunities for English language learners to participate in the repair of mathematical errors during a unit on finding the area of geometric shapes. The analysis of discourse takes on a binocular perspective of considering gesture and speech as a unity (McNeill, 1992). The teacher's pointing, representational, and writing gestures were studied in relation to her questioning and revoicing. This research was guided by a social learning theory that characterizes learning as active and interactive participation in communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). The findings detail how the teacher used gestures in grounding her questioning, revoicing students' strategies, and narrating the meaning of geometric features.

This study investigated the effects of exposure to pseudoscientific television (TV) programs upon Taiwanese citizens' pseudoscientific beliefs. The beliefs and practices of pseudoscience portrayed in the media may misguide the citizens in making life choices that may lead to negative consequences. Participants of this study included 2,024 individuals who were selected using probability proportional to size sampling method. Interviews were conducted and survey data were quantitatively analyzed by means of stepwise multiple regressions and reported with the use of cross tables. Results revealed exposure to pseudoscientific TV programs as a strong predictor of Taiwanese citizens' pseudoscientific beliefs and that younger citizens demonstrate more pseudoscientific beliefs and practices than older citizens. Researchers of this study proposed the need for making better use of mass media as a way to educate citizens about science and reduce pseudoscientific beliefs.

This study takes on a relational and situated perspective to understand the relationship between scientific knowledge and fortune-telling. Measures included socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of scientific facts and methods, and fortune-telling beliefs and practices. A sample of 1863 adults was drawn from a population of Taiwanese citizens using the method of probability proportional to size. The findings showed that knowledge of scientific methods was negatively associated with fortune-telling beliefs. However, knowledge of scientific facts was, by and large, positively associated with engagement in fortune-telling practices, a phenomenon known as cognitive polyphasia. This study does not imply that science communication or education have no effect on promoting scientific knowledge; rather, it hopes to encourage researchers and practitioners to use a culturally sensitive lens to rethink the role of science in society and its relationship with other forms of knowledge and belief.

We used modeling advantage, a concept developed by Chiou and Yang (2006), to examine the likelihood that students will identify with a particular teaching model over other competing models. In this research we examined the effects of 2 kinds of teaching styles on students' learning styles during the collaborative teaching of technical courses. Undergraduates in a 1-semester course (229 women, 264 men; M age = 20.8 years, SD = 1.5) were given pretests and posttests to investigate how their learning styles related to their teachers' learning styles. The findings showed that the learning styles of students were associated with their role models, which reinforced Chiou and Yang's previous work with undergraduates in different subject areas. After a semester, the learning styles of students became congruent with those of their role models. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.

This study uses an art-and-science comparative lens to understand the science culture, particularly the public engagement with science museums. A representational Taiwanese sample of 1863 subjects was categorized into "four cultures," who visit science only, art only, neither, or both museums, resulting in six multivariate logistic regression models. Knowledge of science, interests in scientific and social issues, and socio-demographic variables were considered in the models. Adults with children and males prefer science museums, females prefer art museums, and the young and urban intellects show no strong preference, appearing to be open to both science and art museums. The findings show the complex decisions the public make in visiting museums. It is no longer a strictly science or art decision, as framed by Snow's "The Two Cultures" argument; rather, the possibility of visiting both museums has emerged, a phenomenon we describe as cognitive polyphasia.

In this paper, we use dimensions of the construct “science identity” as an analytic lens to tap into the motivation and learning of science center visits. This exploratory empirical study was based on a large international dataset drawn from 10 science centers in countries across Europe, Asia, and North America, to investigate the self‐selecting, moderating, and self‐reinforcing roles that scientific identity plays in science center visits and effects. We used path analysis to investigate the relationships among three aspects: (a) science identity, (b) science center visit, and (c) effects in knowledge, interest, and participation, while controlling the social categories of age, gender, educational level, and income. The findings showed that visiting a science center correlated with positive effects in adults’ knowledge, participation and interest in science and technology. Dimensions of science identity appeared to play a self‐reinforcing role in visitors’ self‐reports of effects at all 10 science centers and played a moderating role in visit‐effect relationships for 2 out of the 10 science centers. There was no evidence that dimensions of science identity played a significant self‐selecting role in determining who does or does not visit a science center.