Experts and intermediates fundamentally differ in the ways they explain subject matter to novices. Experts provide less details but in a highly coherent format, whereas intermediates provide many additional details but in a format with low coherency. In a recent study, we found that experts’ explanations enabled novices to acquire more transferable and flexible knowledge as opposed to explanati...

Although problem solving is a highly valued skill, the processes involved are rarely taught in our undergraduate biology classes. An essential component skill of monitoring and reflection during problem solving is work checking, a process used by experts while solving problems to determine if their solution is achieving the goal. The results of work checking may reveal errors or inconsistencies...

In this talk, I will argue that the HERA experimental data show that the typical parameter (κ) responsible for the value of the shadowing corrections (SC) in DIS is so large that the BFKL Pomeron is hidden under SC. The SC turn out to be large enough but mostly for the gluon structure function which is not well determined by the available experimental data and by the current theoretical procedu...

Ontologies have been promoted and used for knowledge sharing. Several models for representing ontologies have been developed in the Knowledge Representation field, in particular associated with the Semantic Web. In my talk I will summarise developments so far, and will argue that the currently advocated approaches miss certain basic properties of current distributed information sharing infrastr...

The purpose of this study is to evaluate usability of blog reader software named BlogExpress. Five participants volunteer to participate in this think-aloud, scenario-based usability testing. After completing each scenario and after completing all five scenarios, participants also rate the interface on readability, usefulness, learnability, and visual appeal. The results show that they can comp...

Much of what ConTEXt originally provided originated from our daily needs, at that time dictated by educational consultancy and course development. However, the last couple of years most features find their origin in the demands of publishers, users as well as an occasional ”Let’s see (prove) if TEX can do it (better)”. One of those users is the Dutch Math Society (NAW). Quite a while ago the Du...

Ernest as a person In my talk I will give several examples to illustrate the most endearing characteristics of Ernest’s personality. Here I mention just one particular incidence. There was a meeting of heads of divisions of the Institute of Physiology to discuss some questions of interdepartmental organization of the Institute. This meeting coincided with one convened by the cleaners and mainte...

Three studies were conducted to examine the relation of spatial visualization to solving kinematics problems that involved either predicting the two-dimensional motion of an object, translating from one frame of reference to another, or interpreting kinematics graphs. In Study 1, 60 physics-naíve students were administered kinematics problems and spatial visualization ability tests. In Study 2,...

Using a think-aloud procedure, we observed the behavior of 15 university students in Australia with experience in Italian as they attempted to learn the meanings of new foreign language (Italian) words. The great majority of the procedures they used involved some form of repetition of the new words and their meanings-mostly a simple reading of the dictionary-like entries provided, or repetition...

A summative usability evaluation of a desktop virtual reality (VR) system was developed and a preliminary study then conducted. The purpose of the study was twofold. Firstly, to test whether the traditional evaluation technique, co-operative evaluation, is effective in the evaluation of desktop VR systems. Co-operative evaluation is a variation on a ‘think-aloud’ verbal protocol, whereby, in ad...