No description available.

No description available.

Hypothetical bias continues to be a challenge for practitioners of the contingent valuation method (CVM). This study compared the effect of three hypothetical bias mitigation techniques in a CVM survey focused on estimating maximum willingness to pay for a beach conditions monitoring service among U.S. Gulf Coast beachgoers. Beach conditions information is known to affect beach patronage but no valuation study has yet estimated its value. The two techniques tested are: budget and substitutes cheap talk treatments and certainty follow-up. We presented a theoretically consistent model of budget-constrained utility maximization which accounts for the respondents’ subjective probability of a good beach trip with and without the beach conditions information. Interval regression was used to estimate respondents WTP for beach conditions monitoring service. Both mitigation treatments were unable to mitigate HB. The mean WTP was $3.39 and the net benefit for the program was between $188,531,063 and $391,474,452.

Tidigare forskning menar att kommunikation har en väsentlig effekt på medarbetare. Stora delar av kommunikationen består av småprat och därför är det viktigt att ha i åtanke att småpratet är viktigt i organisationer och ledarskap, med tanke på att det ständigt pågår överallt. Det finns inte många studier om hur betydelsefullt småprat mellan chef och medarbetare är för medarbetares motivation. Därmed är avsikten med denna kvalitativa studie att skapa förståelse för hur medarbetare upplever småprat med sin chef och vad småprat har för betydelse för medarbetarnas motivation. Studien har genomförts med hjälp av tio semistrukturerade intervjuer med medarbetare i en liten kommun. Resultatet som framkommit belyser likt tidigare forskning att det finns olika uppfattningar om begreppet småprat. Det framkom en ny definition av småprat som arbetsrelaterat. Det framkommer även att medarbetarna har olika upplevelser gällande småprat med sin chef. Dessutom finns det olika upplevelser huruvida småprat är en motivationsfaktor eller inte. Det framgår tydligt att chefer behöver delta i småprat med sina medarbetare och använda sig av småprat i sitt ledarskap, oavsett om det är en motivationsfaktor eller inte. / Previous research suggests that communication has a significant effect on employees. A large part of communication consists of small talk, and therefore, it is important to consider the significance of small talk in organizations and leadership, given that it is constantly happening everywhere. There are not many studies on how important small talk between managers and employees is for employee motivation. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative study is to gain an understanding of how employees experience small talk with their managers and the significance of small talk for employee motivation. The study has been conducted using ten semistructured interviews with employees in a small municipality. The results that emerged highlight, similar to previous research, that there are different perceptions of the concept of small talk. A new definition of small talk as work-related emerged. It also becomes apparent that there are experiences regarding small talk with one’s employer that differ among employees. Furthermore, there are different experiences as to whether small talk is a motivating factor or not. It is evident that managers need to engage in small talk with their employees and utilizeit in their leadership, regardless of whether it is a motivating factor or not.

Thesis advisor: Eric Dearing / Research has shown that parents’ number talk predicts preschoolers’ concurrent and prospective math skills; yet, there is considerable heterogeneity in parents’ use of number talk (e.g., Ramani et al., 2015). Given this, researchers are developing resources and interventions designed to encourage family numeracy (e.g., Hanner et al., 2019). Interventions, however, are based on a limited understanding of how families engage in numeracy conversations, particularly when parents are working to teach their children. Developmental researchers tend to operationalize parent talk as discrete, decontextualized instances of environmental input. In contrast, scholars using Conversation Analysis (CA) argue that understanding interactional phenomenon requires attention to how it is collaboratively and incrementally constructed through turn-taking sequences and how it allows interlocutors to accomplish social actions across stretches of interaction (e.g., Schegloff, 2007). The current study used CA to examine parent-preschooler conversations about numeracy during a home-based math intervention for which parents and children cooked together. The 30 parents—primarily middle-class, college educated parents of color— and their 3- to 5-year-old children received a cookbook with domain-general learning tips and 15 recipes. Families in the treatment condition received additional numeracy tips, some specific to the recipes provided and some broadly applicable to any recipe. Families were asked to audio record themselves cooking twice a month for three months. Results indicated that exchanges in which numeracy pedagogy was irrelevant (i.e., low-relevance pedagogy) for completing the recipe were qualitatively different from exchanges in which numeracy pedagogy facilitated children’s participation in cooking tasks (i.e., high-relevance pedagogy). While low-relevance pedagogy engaged children in rehearsing their numeracy skills, high-relevance pedagogy invited children to use their numeracy knowledge to plan and implement recipe tasks. Counting occurred primarily within low-relevance pedagogy, meaning parents’ prompts to count were disconnected from cooking. The recipes, ingredients, and cooking tools families selected shaped the affordances for numeracy pedagogy. This dissertation has implications for improving early learning interventions. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

A social media influencer is "shook" when her boyfriend goes viral becoming a feminist icon.

The neutron-neutron (n-n) scattering length is a fundamental parameter in nuclear physics; however, measurements are plagued with large uncertainties caused by neutron detector cross talk. Many experimentalists also rely upon computer code to calibrate their neutron detectors. Experiments give one of two different numbers but there is still no adequate explanation for this discrepancy. We have developed a new neutron detector expressly for the purpose of improving the n-n scattering length measurement. It offers two important advantages: 1) minimal cross talk and 2) high counting efficiency. We calibrated the detector from 1 MeV to 6 MeV at 1 MeV increments. We have shown that the computer code, MCNP, does not always give the correct detector efficiency, and that reliance upon this code for calibration could be a large factor for error in previous experiments. Preliminary tests show no cross talk between two like detectors and suggest that these detectors in a n-n scattering length measurement.

<p>This study examines several emerging topics in strategic communication and information design. The first chapter studies the role of verification in persuasion and its interaction with commitment in a Bayesian persuasion framework in which the sender is not fully bound by the committed plan. Both theoretically and experimentally, we demonstrate that making verification easier can significantly improve information transmission when commitment is low, but its effect is limited when commitment is high. However, empirically receivers do not respond as strongly as predicted by theory, which is consistent with base-rate neglect and conservatism. On the other hand, senders generally anticipate receivers' actions and best respond to the empirical behavior of receivers. We provide empirical implications for cases where verification is instrumental in improving information transmission and where it is not. </p> <p><br></p> <p>The second and third chapters are based on joint work with Dr. Collin Raymond. In the second chapter, we investigate how increasing the complexity of the message space in the presence of limited memory can reduce misrepresentation in strategic communication. We enrich a standard cheap talk game so that senders must communicate not just a payoff-relevant state, but also payoff-irrelevant attributes correlated with the state.  We show that increasing the set of attributes that may need to be reported (i.e., the complexity of the game) improves the amount of information transmitted in equilibrium. Our findings demonstrate that the reporting of redundant information may induce equilibria that feature improved outcomes compared to simpler, more direct reporting systems, and point out the importance of complexity when trying to induce truthful information revelation.</p> <p><br></p> <p>In the third chapter, we analyze some extensions on the effect of complexity. We present experimental evidence which shows that  too much of an increase in complexity leads to a reversal of those gains. Limited memory on the part of players, as well as the relative complexity faced by senders and receivers, drives these changes, and individuals experience cognitive costs when dealing with complex environments that they are willing to pay to avoid. </p> <p><br></p>

This qualitative study documents the establishment of new social and sociomathematical norms in a second grade classroom. The teacher allowed students to speak directly to one another without having to raise their hands first during whole group mathematics instruction. Reform efforts in mathematics and the standards for mathematical practice contained in the Common Core State Standards call for students to discuss their reasoning with each other. Data were collected through interviews with the teacher and students, field notes, and video-recorded lessons over the course of 23 days. An online survey tool was utilized to share selected video of the teacher's instruction. Initial professional development topics were chosen from research in mathematics education related to the social construction of understanding. Ongoing professional development was responsive to what occurred during instruction. The literature suggests that teachers often utilize traditional teaching methods and struggle to deviate from established patterns regardless of their desire to implement change. The teacher in this study learned that allowing students to talk openly provided him with insight into their mathematical conceptions and misconceptions. The students initially viewed mathematics as a set of rules to follow and exhibited the role of passive recipients of information. This changed as students were provided opportunities to participate in discussions and in doing so developed a new understanding of their role during mathematics lessons. Mathematical errors became a catalyst for communication and were viewed by students as opportunities for assisting their peers.

<p>  </p> <p>Early math skills, including numeracy and mathematical language (e.g., “less” and “a few”), are essential for later academic achievement. Children’s mathematical language knowledge is one of the strongest predictors of numeracy skills before kindergarten, suggesting that early exposure to math language is necessary. However, little work is focused on understanding how children are exposed to mathematical language within their early learning environments (e.g., while interacting with parents). The objective of this study was to investigate different constructs of parents’ talk (i.e., general talk, number talk, mathematical language) during math-related activity engagement with young children and examine how parents’ talk relates to children’s general vocabulary, numeracy skills, and mathematical language knowledge. Findings indicate that parents’ talk was best represented by a general talk, number talk, and mathematical language factor. Parents’ talk factors were not significantly related to their respective child outcomes (i.e., general vocabulary, numeracy skills, and mathematical language knowledge). However, parents used more general language when their children had higher numeracy skills but used more mathematical language when they had lower numeracy skills. This study provides initial evidence that parents’ number talk and mathematical language use are distinct constructs of parents’ talk that may expose children to different aspects of mathematical understanding.</p>