Mark A. Casteel

Goodbye Lecture: A Student-Led Seminar Approach for Teaching Upper Division Courses.

This article describes a seminar approach for teaching small classes of advanced undergraduates modeled on graduate seminar-style courses. Students act as daily discussion leaders for assigned readings, first in small teams and later individually, and the instructor acts as facilitator. Students received evaluations based on both their active discussion and written assignments. Student survey responses revealed high levels of satisfaction for the courses and with the instructors, as well as the perceived amount of new information learned. Students also commented positively on the discussions and the seminar format. The technique is applicable to teaching any advanced undergraduate topic, appeals to students, and emphasizes the active role of student learners.

Contextual Support and Predictive Inferences: What do Readers Generate and Keep Available for Use?

This study investigates whether readers can generate predictive inferences that remain available to guide comprehension after a number of intervening sentences. The nature of the inference (detailed versus general) was also examined. In four experiments, participants read stories that suggested an inference. Reading time was measured to target sentences that later mentioned the inference. In Experiment 1, reading times were equivalent among inference and explicit versions. In Experiment 2, however, reading times to inference versions were slower than either explicit or general versions, suggesting that the participants only generated general state change outcomes. Experiment 3 supports this conclusion because changing the target sentences to include mention of general outcomes did not change the data pattern. Experiment 4 weakened the causal support for the inferences and found that generation of the outcome was disrupted. The results suggest that readers do not routinely generate predictive inferences that remain available very long.

How Individuals Process NWS Weather Warning Messages on Their Cell Phones

AbstractU.S. government officials are focusing their attention on how to deliver timely and effective warning information to the public, especially given the devastating weather-related events that have occurred in recent years. With the increase of cell phones (and in particular, web-capable smartphones), weather warnings sent through various cellular technologies represent one way for officials to quickly notify an increasingly mobile public. Cellular technology innovations also make it possible for officials to broadcast information-rich media like graphics to cell phones. Whether warning messages must include such “rich” media to be effective remains an open question. The current study investigates the effectiveness of National Weather Service (NWS) warning messages sent either in plain text or in text that includes a radar image of the storm. The research protocol was modeled after the interactive National Weather Service (iNWS) messaging service currently available to NWS core partners. In the study...

Communicating Increased Risk: An Empirical Investigation of the National Weather Service’s Impact-Based Warnings

AbstractIn 2014, following a Central Region pilot assessment, the National Weather Service implemented large-scale use of an experimental product of enhanced severe weather warnings known as impact-based warnings (IBWs). The overarching goal of these IBWs is to improve the threat warning process and motivate appropriate responses by using event tags and additional text that provides more specificity about the magnitude of the storm and its potential consequences. These IBWs are designed to be used by individuals in the field to make more effective decisions. Although qualitative research has shown overall satisfaction with IBWs (Harrison et al. 2014; Losego et al. 2013), little published experimental research has been conducted on these new enhanced warnings. The research reported here therefore empirically investigates the effectiveness of the new IBW experimental product. In three experiments, participants adopted the role of a plant manager and read both IBWs and non-IBWs. At three different decision p...

Severe Weather Warning Communication: Factors Impacting Audience Attention and Retention of Information during Tornado Warnings

AbstractWeather hazards in the United States inflict both personal and economic tolls on the public. Communicating warnings about weather hazards is an important duty of TV weathercasters. Televised weather warnings are typically conveyed through live radar, live coverage, and warning scrolls. However, these traditional approaches may not be entirely effective given the limited attention some members of the public pay to these warnings. A study comparing individual responses to a traditional warning, an animated warning, and an audio warning was undertaken to evaluate the impact of delivery methods on viewer attention, retention, and preferences during viewing of severe weather warnings. A Tobii T60 eye tracker was used to document visual interactions with on-screen warnings and surveys were used to collect evidence of warning retention and preference. Demographic variables were also collected to describe the study population. Results indicate that viewers of the animated warning retained more pertinent i...

The influence of motor simulations on language comprehension.

This study investigates the influence of activating specific motor codes on the comprehension of passages that describe the use of an object requiring similar motor manipulations. In three experiments, participants either imagined or pantomimed performing an action involving a common object. Participants then held the action in memory while reading a brief story, which described another object that required similar or different motor behaviors. Reading times were collected on the complementary actions. Finally, participants acted out the original action. In Exp. 1 and 2, reading slowed to the verbs. Exp. 2 revealed the slowing to be true interference, which disappeared in Exp. 3 when the action did not need to be recalled. The results suggest that readers activate motor codes when reading story actions, which supports an embodied view. The results also indicate that activated codes bound to an action will, at least briefly, impair reading about a complementary action requiring the same codes, consistent with Hommels (2009) theory of event coding.