Mathematical anxiety is linked to reduced cognitive reflection: A potential road from discomfort in the mathematics classroom to susceptibility to biases

Background
When asked to solve mathematical problems, some people experience anxiety and threat, which can lead to impaired mathematical performance (Curr Dir Psychol Sci 11:181–185, 2002). The present studies investigated the link between mathematical anxiety and performance on the cognitive reflection test (CRT; J Econ Perspect 19:25–42, 2005). The CRT is a measure of a person’s ability to resist intuitive response tendencies, and it correlates strongly with important real-life outcomes, such as time preferences, risk-taking, and rational thinking.

Methods
In Experiments 1 and 2 the relationships between maths anxiety, mathematical knowledge/mathematical achievement, test anxiety and cognitive reflection were analysed using mediation analyses. Experiment 3 included a manipulation of working memory load. The effects of anxiety and working memory load were analysed using ANOVAs.

Results
Our experiments with university students (Experiments 1 and 3) and secondary school students (Experiment 2) demonstrated that mathematical anxiety was a significant predictor of cognitive reflection, even after controlling for the effects of general mathematical knowledge (in Experiment 1), school mathematical achievement (in Experiment 2) and test anxiety (in Experiments 1–3). Furthermore, Experiment 3 showed that mathematical anxiety and burdening working memory resources with a secondary task had similar effects on cognitive reflection.

Conclusions
Given earlier findings that showed a close link between cognitive reflection, unbiased decisions and rationality, our results suggest that mathematical anxiety might be negatively related to individuals’ ability to make advantageous choices and good decisions.

Group Design-Build-Test Projects as the Core of an Integrated Curriculum in Product Design and Development

The School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast introduced a new degree programme in Product Design and Development (PDD) in 2004. As well as setting out to meet all UK-SPEC requirements, the entirely new curriculum was developed in line with the syllabus and standards defined by the CDIO Initiative, an international collaboration of universities aiming to improve the education of engineering students. The CDIO ethos is that students are taught in the context of conceiving, designing, implementing and operating a product or system. Fundamental to this is an integrated curriculum with multiple Design-Build-Test (DBT) experiences at the core. Unlike most traditional engineering courses the PDD degree features group DBT projects in all years of the programme. The projects increase in complexity and challenge in a staged manner, with learning outcomes guided by Bloom’s taxonomy of learning domains. The integrated course structure enables the immediate application of disciplinary knowledge, gained from other modules, as well as development of professional skills and attributes in the context of the DBT activity. This has a positive impact on student engagement and the embedding of these relevant skills, identified from a stakeholder survey, has also been shown to better prepare students for professional practice. This paper will detail the methodology used in the development of the curriculum, refinements that have been made during the first five years of operation and discuss the resource and staffing issues raised in facilitating such a learning environment.

Late industrialization and the increased merit selection hypothesis - Ireland as a test case

The Irish case provides a particularly appropriate test of the increasing merit selection hypothesis deriving from the liberal theory of industrialization. This is so not only because the lateness and speed of economic change allows us to capture such change through a set of national surveys conducted in the past three decades, but also because such change was based on a sustained policy of increased openness to international competitive forces. The functional requirements of the economy and a rapid increase in the supply of those with higher educational qualifications provided an ideal context in which to observe the movement from ascription to achievement predicted by the liberal theory. However, while changes in the class structure and a rapid expansion of educational opportunity had significant consequences in terms of absolute mobility, there was no evidence of a significant shift towards meritocratic principles. At the same time as the service class increased their advantage over other classes in the pursuit of educational qualifications, the impact of educational qualifications on class destination diminished. Controlling for education, we find that the impact of class origin effects is substantial and shows little sign of diminishing over time. In our conclusion we discuss the implications of our findings in the context of the recent debate on meritocracy.

Validation of Next Generation Sequencing Technologies in Comparison to Current Diagnostic Gold Standards for BRAF, EGFR and KRAS Mutational Analysis

Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) has the potential of becoming an important tool in clinical diagnosis and therapeutic decision-making in oncology owing to its enhanced sensitivity in DNA mutation detection, fast-turnaround of samples in comparison to current gold standard methods and the potential to sequence a large number of cancer-driving genes at the one time. We aim to test the diagnostic accuracy of current NGS technology in the analysis of mutations that represent current standard-of-care, and its reliability to generate concomitant information on other key genes in human oncogenesis. Thirteen clinical samples (8 lung adenocarcinomas, 3 colon carcinomas and 2 malignant melanomas) already genotyped for EGFR, KRAS and BRAF mutations by current standard-of-care methods (Sanger Sequencing and q-PCR), were analysed for detection of mutations in the same three genes using two NGS platforms and an additional 43 genes with one of these platforms. The results were analysed using closed platform-specific proprietary bioinformatics software as well as open third party applications. Our results indicate that the existing format of the NGS technology performed well in detecting the clinically relevant mutations stated above but may not be reliable for a broader unsupervised analysis of the wider genome in its current design. Our study represents a diagnostically lead validation of the major strengths and weaknesses of this technology before consideration for diagnostic use.

Human resource management practices in the multinational company: A test of system, societal, and dominance effects

Does the use of HRM practices by multinational companies (MNCs) reflect their national origins or are practices similar regardless of context? To the extent that practices are similar, is there any evidence of global best standards? The authors use the system, societal, and dominance framework to address these questions through analysis of 1,100 MNC subsidiaries in Canada, Ireland, Spain, and the United Kingdom. They argue that this framework offers a richer account than alternatives such as varieties of capitalism. The study moves beyond previous research by differentiating between system effects at the global level and dominance effects arising from the diffusion of practices from a dominant economy. It shows that both effects are present, as are some differences at the societal level. Results suggest that MNCs configure their HRM practices in response to all three forces rather than to some uniform global best practices or to their national institutional contexts.

A durability performance-index for concrete: developments in a novel test method

Implementation of both design for durability and performance-based standards and specifications are limited by the lack of rapid, simple, science based test methods for characterising the transport properties and deterioration resistance of concrete. This paper presents developments in the application of electrical property measurements as a testing methodology to evaluate the relative performance of a range of concrete mixes. The technique lends itself to in-situ monitoring thereby allowing measurements to be obtained on the as-placed concrete. Conductivity measurements are presented for concretes with and without supplementary cementitious materials (SCM’s) from demoulding up to 350 days. It is shown that electrical conductivity measurements display a continual decrease over the entire test period and attributed to pore structure refinement due to hydration and pozzolanic reaction. The term formation factor is introduced to rank concrete performance in terms of is resistance to chloride penetration.