Learning Resources LSP0339-UK 5-in-1 Outdoor Measure-Mate

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I remember using a measuring wheel at school (I feel old now) and they are one of those things that are handy for a number of learning and teaching situations and they are also fun to use and explore maths, geography and science with. Previous work with the MATE also supports the idea that evolution acceptance should be treated two-dimensionally. Despite the fact that the MATE has mostly been used as a unidimensional instrument, an analysis by Wagler and Wagler ( 2013) suggests that the MATE behaves multidimensionally, and that it can be difficult to predict which items load on which dimensions as participants and contexts change. Romine et al. ( 2017), on the other hand, suggest that the behavior of the MATE is quite predictable in undergraduate students, and put forth a two-dimensional parametrization for the MATE that is similar to that discovered independently in this study. The only item result that was not replicated is Item 5 on the MATE (Cred5). In our previous work, this was the only positively-worded item which loaded more strongly onto the acceptance of credibility than the acceptance of facts dimension. In this study, it loaded onto the acceptance of truth dimension, which is more in line with what we would expect given that it is a positively-worded item. Vandenberg, R. J., & Lance, C. E. (2000). A review and synthesis of the measurement invariance literature: Suggestions, practices, and recommendations for organizational research. Organizational Research Methods, 3(1), 4–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/109442810031002. The Inventory of Student Evolution Acceptance (I-SEA) and the Evolution Attitudes and Literacy Survey (EALS) are also constructed multidimensionally, meaning that multiple quantitative measures are used to account for students’ observed responses (Kline 2014). The I-SEA (Nadelson and Southerland 2012) was designed to improve on the MATE by disentangling microevolution, macroevolution, and human evolution contexts. This is an important contribution given that microevolutionary events may be easier for students to accept than those related to macro- and human evolution (Alters and Alters 2001; Scott 2005). Given these goals, the I-SEA consists of 24 total items, 9 of which are negatively worded, with 8 items assigned to one of three subscales for constructs defining acceptance of microevolution, macroevolution, and human evolution, respectively. The authors hypothesized that the items related to acceptance of microevolution would be easier than the items measuring acceptance of macroevolution and human evolution, and their analysis bears this out (Nadelson and Southerland 2012). Here, it may be useful to draw a distinction between Nadelson and Southerland’s ( 2012) decision to use 3 dimensions to explain the differences in items, including their difficulty, versus letting the items take a difficulty hierarchy along a single dimension as is often done in Rasch studies (Boone et al. 2013). Nadelson and Southerland show that the 3-dimensional model explains students’ responses adequately; however, the efficacy of the comparatively parsimonious approach of defining the items hierarchically along a single unidimensional Rasch scale remains unexplored.

Buss, D. M., & Schmitt, D. P. (1993). Sexual strategies theory: An evolutionary perspective on human mating. Psychological Review, 100(2), 204–232. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.100.2.204. Bentler PM, Bonnet DC. Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychol Bull. 1980;88(3):588–606. Steiger JH. Understanding the limitations of global fit assessment in structural equation modeling. Person Individ Differ. 2007;42(5):893–8.

Upon undertaking this research, we did not know what type of solution to expect, which is why we started with an exploratory factor approach. Would the items be unidimensional? Would sub-constructs be delineated by type of evolution as in the I-SEA? Would positive or negative wording play a role? We expected that it might be a combination of these things. The clean two-dimensional factor structure delineated solely by item valence came as a surprise to us. Since this pattern has also come up in previous work on college students taking general education science courses (Romine et al. 2017), and to a lesser degree in more advanced students (Metzger et al. 2018), we feel it is no coincidence and deserves further exploration and discussion. Scott EC. Evolution vs creationism: an introduction. Berkeley: University of California Press; 2005. Ferguson, C. J., & Heene, M. (2012). A vast graveyard of undead theories: publication bias and psychological science’s aversion to the null. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(6), 555–561. doi: 10.1177/1745691612459059. Schmitt, D. P., & Buss, D. M. (2001). Human mate poaching: Tactics and temptations for infiltrating existing mateships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(6), 894–917. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.80.6.894. Buss, D. M., Goetz, C., Duntley, J. D., Asao, K., & Conroy-Beam, D. (2017). The mate switching hypothesis. Personality and Individual Differences, 104, 143–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.07.022.

Smith MU, Snyder SW, Devereaux RS. The GAENE—generalized acceptance of evolution evaluation: development of a new measure of evolution acceptance. J Res Sci Teach. 2016;53(9):1289–315. Rusbult, C. E., & Buunk, B. P. (1993). Commitment processes in close relationships: An interdependence analysis. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 10(2), 175–204. https://doi.org/10.1177/026540759301000202.Brown, T. A. (2003). Confirmatory factor analysis of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire: Multiple factors or method effects? Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41(12), 1411–1426. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(03)00059-7. We attempt to replicate the core findings of a study, which found support for sex differences in long-term mate preferences (Sprecher et al. 1994). Our study investigates willingness to marry depending on physical appearance, age, earning potential, previous marriage, religion, already having children, and ethnicity. Steiger, J. H. (1990). Structural model evaluation and modification: An interval estimation approach. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 25(2), 173–180. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr2502_4.