Effect of Geospatial Uncertainty Borderization on Users’ Heuristic Reasoning

A set of mental strategies called "heuristics" – logical shortcuts that we use to make decisions under uncertainty – has become the subject of a growing number of studies. However, the process of heuristic reasoning about uncertain geospatial data remains relatively under-researched. With this study, we explored the relation between heuristics-driven decision-making and the visualization of geospatial data in states of uncertainty, with a specific focus on the visualization of borders, here termed "borderization". Therefore, we tested a set of cartographic techniques to visualize the boundaries of two types of natural hazards across a series of maps through a user survey. Respondents were asked to assess the safety and desirability of several housing locations potentially affected by air pollution or avalanches. Maps in the survey varied by "borderization" method, background color and type of information about uncertain data (e.g., extrinsic vs. intrinsic). Survey results, analyzed using a mixed quantitative-qualitative approach, confirmed previous suggestions that heuristics play a significant role in affecting users' map experience, and subsequent decision-making.

Moses or Noah? A case of ‘potato-potahto’ when using a foreign language

Research among bilinguals suggests a foreign language effect for various tasks requiring a more systematic processing style. For instance, bilinguals seem less prone to heuristic reasoning when solving problem statements in their foreign (FL) as opposed to their native (NL) language. The present study aimed to determine whether such an effect might also be observed in the detection of semantic anomalies. Participants were presented NL and FL questions with and without anomalies while their eye movements were recorded. Overall, they failed to detect the anomaly in more than half of the trials. Furthermore, more illusions occurred for questions presented in the FL, indicating an FL disadvantage. Additionally, eye movement analyses suggested that reading patterns for anomalies are predominantly similar across languages. Our results therefore substantiate theories suggesting that FL use induces cognitive load, causing increased susceptibility to illusions due to partial semantic processing.

Electromagnetism: microscopic and macroscopic fields

“Electromagnetism: microscopic and macroscopic fields” discusses how “microscopic” fields (on an atomic or nuclear scale of sizes) relate to the everyday “macroscopic” fields. This is achieved by averaging the fields over an intermediate scale of distances. A fully satisfactory averaging is implemented by “truncating” the Fourier components of the field, but heuristic reasoning is a helpful aid to understanding.

Metaphors and Analogies as Heuristics in Policymaking

Metaphors and analogies are two of the most popular heuristics utilized by decision makers, promoting an unconscious inference into the realm of rationality within the mind. A master of metaphor and analogy, the late leader of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Mao Zedong, offers an illuminating example of such heuristic reasoning. Analyzing the metaphors and analogies most frequently invoked by the PRC leader, this chapter demonstrates that Mao’s conceptual system was highly metaphorical. While historical analogies explain Mao’s heuristic reasoning for China’s revolutionary diplomacy, his use of metaphors reveals how stereotypes influenced his understanding of his enemies, which in turn explained and shaped China’s major foreign policy decisions. Mao’s use/misuse of metaphors and analogies also showcases their fallacies, mainly their tendency to exaggerate similarities and move from the realization that something is like something else to assuming that something is exactly like something else.

Analysis of Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Heuristic Reasoning Processes about Hydrogen Bonding

The purpose of this research was to determine the heuristics used by pre-service science teachers in understanding the details of hydrogen bonding. The reasoning processes demonstrated were evaluated based on ten heuristic models suggested by Talanquer (2014). Phenomenographic assessment of the 30 participants indicated that all ten heuristics were utilized to make interpretations about hydrogen bonding. It was found that most students used short-cut strategies rather than efficient analytical reasoning processes. A total of 12 answer patterns were determined based on the answers of the participants. The percentage of students who gave the correct answer was low. The frequency sequencing of participants' heuristics demonstrated in this study was fluency, associative activation, recognition, one-reason decision making, attribute substitution, overconfidence, surface similarity, generalization, rigidity, and affect.

Constraints on organic chemistry students’ reasoning during IR and 1H NMR spectral interpretation

Promoting students’ ability to engage in discipline-specific practices is a central goal of chemistry education. Yet if instruction is to meaningfully foster such ability, we must first understand students’ reasoning during these practices. By characterizing constraints on chemistry students’ reasoning, we can design instruction that targets this constrained reasoning and ultimately promotes more sophisticated ways of thinking. For this study, we investigated reasoning used by 18 organic chemistry students at a large university in the United States as they evaluated the success of chemical syntheses through IR and 1H NMR spectral interpretation, a common task of practicing chemists. Students completed a series of interpretation tasks while having their eye movements tracked and then participated in semi-structured, cued retrospective think-aloud (RTA) interviews about their reasoning during spectral interpretation. RTA interviews were analyzed qualitatively to characterize invalid chemical assumptions and heuristic reasoning strategies used by participants, both of which science education literature identifies as fundamental constraints to learning. The most problematic assumptions and heuristics, i.e., those used more frequently by unsuccessful participants, were then identified through statistical analysis. Findings suggest that the most problematic constraints on students’ reasoning during spectral interpretation constitute a combination of particular invalid chemical assumptions and heuristic reasoning strategies.

الاستقلال الفلسفي والتجديد عند طه عبد الرحمن

يتناول البحث أزمة الفكر في عالمنا العربي المعاصر، وبشكل محدد مشروع الاستقلال الفلسفي العربي، وإشكالية التراث والحداثة في الخطاب الفلسفي العربي الراهن، من خلال عرض ومناقشة مشروع المفكر المغربي طه عبد الرحمن. ويتساءل عن إمكانية إنتاج خطاب فلسفي عربي جديد لارتياد آفاق فلسفة عربية إسلامية مبدعة متميِّزة. وقد خَلُص البحث إلى أن هاجس التجديد الفكري كان مطلباً وشعاراً استحوذ على أذهان العديد من المفكرين والمثقفين العرب، وأن عوامل عدَّة أفضت إلى هذا الهاجس؛ منها ما هو تاريخي يحرص على وصل الماضي بالحاضر، ومنها ما هو قومي سياسي يتصل بالوعي والشعور بالهوية والقومية، ومنها ما هو حضاري يقترن بعمق الهوَّة وتزايدها بين الأنا والآخر. وقد كشف البحث عن الترابط المنهجي والتماسك الداخلي والاستدلال الحجاجي في هذا المشروع مما أبرز قيمة المشروع في عدد من المناحي. This paper deals with the thought crisis in our contemporary Arab world, specifically with the independent Arab philosophical project and the problem of heritage and modernity in the current Arab philosophical discourse, It presents and discusses the thought project of the Moroccan scholar Taha AbdurRahman. It also wonders whether it is possible to produce a new Arab philosophical discourse for the prospects of a distinctive and creative Arab Islamic philosophy. The paper concludes that the concern with intellectual renewal has been a demand and aim that captured the minds of many Arab intellectuals. Several factors led to this concern; some of them are historical, trying to connect the past to the present, some are of a political nature related to consciousness and the sense of identity and nationalism, other factors have a civilizational nature associated with the growing deep gap between the self and the other. The paper reveals that this project has a systematic interrelationship, an internal cohesion and a heuristic reasoning. These qualities highlight the value of the project in a number of areas.

The Positive Side of Imposture in Twelfth Night

We are taught from childhood that lies have negative consequences, but Shakespeare has them often result in happy endings. We want to know why, in Shakespearean comedy, lying can be good. In reading Twelfth Night, we wanted to understand why leading characters tell lies, and why those lies so often end favourably. What is Shakespeare really saying by having lies not necessarily be a bad thing? To achieve our goal, we employed primary textual analysis, a review of published critical analyses, and heuristic reasoning. We continue to be interested in what motivates a leading character in a comedy to want to lie, and what are the consequences for her doing so.