For those of us used to hearing with our ears, it is difficult to imagine how the fish or amphibian perceives its environment on the basis of information from the lateral line sensory system. The lateral line system detects vibrations in the water, a process that has been termed ‘svenning’ — after Sven Dijkgraaf (1908–1995), a founder figure in lateral line research — and is neatly summarised i...

Task analytic theories of graph comprehension account for the perceptual and conceptual processes required to extract specific information from graphs. Comparatively, the processes underlying information integration have received less attention. We propose a new framework for information integration that highlights visual integration and cognitive integration. During visual integration, pattern...

The widespread practice of forwarding is a distinct aspect of the electronic mail ecosystem with implications for security, knowledge management, and the design of email interfaces. Forwarded email messages have increased or decreased credibility or significance depending on the sender’s reputation. They provide information about an individual’s social network, and function as a personal news c...

At one time or another, every one of us has engaged in “wishful thinking,” or “let our hearts influence our heads.” That is, every one of us has felt the effects of our motivations on our thought processes. Given this common everyday experience, it is not surprising that an essential part of early psychological research was the idea that drives, needs, desires, motives, and goals can profoundly...

This paper explores an important type of biological explanation called ‘homology thinking.’ Homology thinking explains the properties of a homologue by citing the history of a homologue. Homology thinking is significant in several ways. First, it offers more detailed explanations of biological phenomena than corresponding analogy explanations. Second, it provides an important explanation of cha...

Evaluation is one of many fields where "systems thinking" is popular and is said to hold great promise. However, there is disagreement about what constitutes systems thinking. Its meaning is ambiguous, and systems scholars have made diverse and divergent attempts to describe it. Alternative origins include: von Bertalanffy, Aristotle, Lao Tsu or multiple aperiodic "waves." Some scholars describ...

From its creation to its disposal, there are environmental and health problems associated with polyvinyl chloride (vinyl), the major component of vinyl flooring. The production of vinyl creates toxic waste that must be dumped or incinerated. Because very little vinyl is recycled, the waste material must also be landfilled or burned. Furthermore, the heavy chlorine content of these materials res...

Students enter educational settings with complex and well-established intuitive conceptual understandings of the world, which have important educational consequences. In biology, intuitive thinking can be characterized in terms of cognitive construals (anthropocentric, teleological, and essentialist thinking, Coley & Tanner, 2015). We examined relations between intuitive thinking and biological...

It is increasingly recognised that population thinking is a basic characteristic of evolutionary economics. This paper demonstrates that there are several forms of population thinking. The most basic form is intra-population thinking for single populations, and this thinking easily extends to structured populations, where selection takes place at several levels. But there is also a need of appl...

Background: Problem-based clinical education is an effective strategy for enhancing creativity, group work, leadership and problem-solving skills in nursing students. It seems PBL can improve nursing students’ critical thinking skills. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of problem-based clinical education on nursing students’ critical thinking. Methods: This randomized control...