For supporting older people's judgments of relative extent, risk information is best presented using vertical bars with a scale; the format systematic ovals with a scale are among the next most easily processed.

We studied contrast and assimilation in three tasks: an exemplar-production task, a categorization task, and a combined categorization-then-production task. On each trial of the first task, subjects produced a circle when prompted with a category label. In the second task, they classified lines that differed in length into one of four categories. On each trial of the combined task, they classified two lines and then produced a line when prompted by a category label. All three tasks converged on the same conclusion: subjects' representation of the categories (measured in pixels in the production tasks and by the direction of errors in classification) shifted systematically from trial to trial. When successive stimuli were from the same category, the representation of that category was pulled toward the exemplar from the previous trial. When successive stimuli were from different categories, the representations of the neighbouring categories were pushed from the category of the initial stimulus. We conclude that accounts of categorization and identification must accommodate both assimilation and contrast as a function of trial-to-trial shifts in representation.

The purpose of the study is to assess the impact of case studies on the effectiveness of the educational process, namely, on academic performance and the entrepreneurial success of students of economic universities. The study involved 143 fifth-year economics students studying at Moscow universities. The study participants were divided into two groups: the focus group of 73 students actively using case studies, and the comparison group of 70 participants that did not apply the method. The study period was 12 months long. The total percentage of employed students (both groups) turned out to be rather high: more than 70% of graduates started official labor activities. The use of business cases contributes to a greater demand for graduates in the labor market. The results indicate a significant correlation between the methodology under study and entrepreneurial success that manifests itself in starting one's own business demonstrating high values of χ2 = 9.970 and 8.715 (Yates' correction), p <0.05. The use of case studies in economic universities in Russia has proved a complete success in the career development of graduates in an entrepreneurial environment. The broader introduction of the method is justified and will contribute to the quality of entrepreneurship education.

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The intensity of globalization and internationalization stimulates activity of population in the world. As a consequence, the number of Russian citizens living and getting education beyond the boundaries of the Russian Federation increases. Special load in this case is on the municipal structures rendering educational services in the Russian language. Quality improvement of teaching Russian and status of educational services in the Russian language are the social priorities and assume serious rearrangement of additional training of Russian language teachers. In this regard, it would be relevant to evaluate professional competences of Russian language teachers in schools abroad; to detect competence lacunas of additional professional education; to correct the detected professional deficits by additional educational programs of various specializations and degrees of complexity. This work is aimed at detection of development strategies of the Center as a tool of distance support for Russian schools abroad. The research methods in this work are theoretical analysis of psychologic and pedagogical, sociological, economic publications devoted to the considered problem; analysis of practices of distance support courses in Russia and abroad; surveying, testing users of existing courses; analysis of expert opinions and quality appraisals of online training; analysis of statistic data. The activity of such Center would promote implementation of the Russian Schools Abroad concept, providing opportunity of annual systematic diagnostics of state of educational and methodological resources of foreign schools, supplying Russianists with modern methodological tools, allowing foreign schools to systematically raise the level of professional competences of teaching staff.