Persistence and Fade-Out of Educational-Intervention Effects: Mechanisms and Potential Solutions

Some environmental influences, including intentional interventions, have shown persistent effects on psychological characteristics and other socially important outcomes years and even decades later. At the same time, it is common to find that the effects of life events or interventions diminish and even disappear completely, a phenomenon known as fade-out. We review the evidence for persistence and fade-out, drawing primarily on evidence from educational interventions. We conclude that (a) fade-out is widespread and often coexists with persistence; (b) fade-out is a substantive phenomenon, not merely a measurement artifact; and (c) persistence depends on the types of skills targeted, the institutional constraints and opportunities within the social context, and complementarities between interventions and subsequent environmental affordances. We discuss the implications of these conclusions for research and policy.

Neuroticism may not reflect emotional variability

Neuroticism is one of the major traits describing human personality, and a predictor of mental and physical disorders with profound public health significance. Individual differences in emotional variability are thought to reflect the core of neuroticism. However, the empirical relation between emotional variability and neuroticism may be partially the result of a measurement artifact reflecting neuroticism’s relation with higher mean levels—rather than greater variability—of negative emotion. When emotional intensity is measured using bounded scales, there is a dependency between variability and mean levels: at low (or high) intensity, it is impossible to demonstrate high variability. As neuroticism is positively associated with mean levels of negative emotion, this may account for the relation between neuroticism and emotional variability. In a metaanalysis of 11 studies (N = 1,205 participants; 83,411 observations), we tested whether the association between neuroticism and negative emotional variability was clouded by a dependency between variability and the mean. We found a medium-sized positive association between neuroticism and negative emotional variability, but, when using a relative variability index to correct for mean negative emotion, this association disappeared. This indicated that neuroticism was associated with experiencing more intense, but not more variable, negative emotions. Our findings call into question theory, measurement scales, and data suggesting that emotional variability is central to neuroticism. In doing so, they provide a revisionary perspective for understanding how this individual difference may predispose to mental and physical disorders.

Race as a Social Determinant of Sleep Health

This chapter focuses on racial/ethnic disparities in sleep, including Black–White differences in sleep health using data from nationally representative data sets. It also examines reasons for racial/ethnic disparities in sleep, including measurement artifact, biological/genetic differences, and the social and economic influences that influence sleep health in racial and ethnic minorities. Some of the factors that may contribute to racial/ethnic differences in sleep health include genetic, biological, physiological, psychological, behavioral, cultural, and environmental differences across these populations The chapter draws upon intersectionality theory, a framework that acknowledges how multiple social categories (e.g., race, ethnicity, employment, socioeconomic status) intersect with macro-level phenomena and reflect multiple interlocking systems of privilege that present real consequences for sleep and health.

Inequality in Reading and Math Skills Forms Mainly before Kindergarten: A Replication, and Partial Correction, of “Are Schools the Great Equalizer?”

When do children become unequal in reading and math skills? Some research claims that inequality grows mainly before school begins. Some research claims that schools cause inequality to grow. And some research—including the 2004 study ‘‘Are Schools the Great Equalizer?’’—claims that inequality grows mainly during summer vacations. Unfortunately, the test scores used in the Great Equalizer study suffered from a measurement artifact that exaggerated estimates of inequality growth. In addition, the Great Equalizer study is dated and its participants are no longer school-aged. In this article, we replicate the Great Equalizer study using better test scores in both the original data and a newer cohort of children. When we use the new test scores, we find that variance is substantial at the start of kindergarten and does not grow but actually shrinks over the next two to three years. This finding, which was not evident in the original Great Equalizer study, implicates the years before kindergarten as the primary source of inequality in elementary reading and math. Total score variance grows during most summers and shrinks during most school years, suggesting that schools reduce inequality overall. Changes in inequality are small after kindergarten and do not replicate consistently across grades, subjects, or cohorts. That said, socioeconomic gaps tend to shrink during the school year and grow during the summer, while the black-white gap tends to follow the opposite pattern.

Investigation of a potential HCHO measurement artifact from ISOPOOH

Recent laboratory experiments have shown that a first generation isoprene oxidation product, ISOPOOH, can decompose to methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) and methacrolein (MACR) on instrument surfaces, leading to overestimates of MVK and MACR concentrations. Formaldehyde (HCHO) was suggested as a decomposition co-product, raising concern that in situ HCHO measurements may also be affected by an ISOPOOH interference. The HCHO measurement artifact from ISOPOOH for the NASA In Situ Airborne Formaldehyde instrument (ISAF) was investigated for the two major ISOPOOH isomers, (1,2)-ISOPOOH and (4,3)-ISOPOOH, under dry and humid conditions. The dry conversion of ISOPOOH to HCHO was 3 ± 2 % and 6 ± 4 % for (1,2)-ISOPOOH and (4,3)-ISOPOOH, respectively. Under humid (relative humidity of 40–60 %) conditions, conversion to HCHO was 6 ± 4 % for (1,2)-ISOPOOH and 10 ± 5 % for (4,3)-ISOPOOH. The measurement artifact caused by conversion of ISOPOOH to HCHO in the ISAF instrument was estimated for data obtained on the 6 September 2013 flight of the Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) campaign. Prompt ISOPOOH conversion to HCHO was the source of < 4 % of the observed HCHO, including in the high-isoprene boundary layer. Time-delayed conversion, where previous exposure to ISOPOOH affects measured HCHO later in the flight, was conservatively estimated to be < 10 % of observed HCHO, and is significant only when high ISOPOOH sampling periods immediately precede periods of low HCHO.

Zero Thermal Noise in Resistors at Zero Temperature

The bandwidth of transistors in logic devices approaches the quantum limit, where Johnson noise and associated error rates are supposed to be strongly enhanced. However, the related theory — asserting a temperature-independent quantum zero-point (ZP) contribution to Johnson noise, which dominates the quantum regime — is controversial and resolution of the controversy is essential to determine the real error rate and fundamental energy dissipation limits of logic gates in the quantum limit. The Callen–Welton formula (fluctuation–dissipation theorem) of voltage and current noise for a resistance is the sum of Nyquist’s classical Johnson noise equation and a quantum ZP term with a power density spectrum proportional to frequency and independent of temperature. The classical Johnson–Nyquist formula vanishes at the approach of zero temperature, but the quantum ZP term still predicts non-zero noise voltage and current. Here, we show that this noise cannot be reconciled with the Fermi–Dirac distribution, which defines the thermodynamics of electrons according to quantum-statistical physics. Consequently, Johnson noise must be nil at zero temperature, and non-zero noise found for certain experimental arrangements may be a measurement artifact, such as the one mentioned in Kleen’s uncertainty relation argument.

Investigation of a potential HCHO measurement artifact from ISOPOOH

Recent laboratory experiments have shown that a first generation isoprene oxidation product, ISOPOOH, can decompose to methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) and methacrolein (MACR) on instrument surfaces, leading to overestimates of MVK and MACR concentrations. Formaldehyde (HCHO) was suggested as a decomposition co-product, raising concern that in situ HCHO measurements may also be affected by an ISOPOOH interference. The HCHO measurement artifact from ISOPOOH for the NASA In Situ Airborne Formaldehyde instrument (ISAF) was investigated for the two major ISOPOOH isomers, (1,2)-ISOPOOH and (4,3)-ISOPOOH, under dry and humid conditions. The dry conversion of ISOPOOH to HCHO was 3 ± 2 % and 6 ± 4 % for (1,2)-ISOPOOH and (4,3)-ISOPOOH, respectively. Under humid (RH = 40–60 %) conditions, conversion to HCHO was 6 ± 4 % for (1,2)-ISOPOOH and 10 ± 5 % for (4,3)-ISOPOOH. The measurement artifact caused by conversion of ISOPOOH to HCHO in the ISAF instrument was estimated for data obtained on the 2013 September 6 flight of the Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) campaign. Prompt ISOPOOH conversion to HCHO was the source for