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RESEARCH PAPER
A Comparison of Probabilistic Reasoning in Psychology Undergraduates in Italy and Spain: Seeking Cross-national Evidence
1
Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy - Faculty of Humanistic Studies, University of Cagliari, ITALY
2
Department of Social and Quantitative Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, SPAIN
3
Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences, University of Pavia, ITALY
Online publication date: 2019-04-23
Publication date: 2019-04-23
Corresponding author
Mirian Agus
University of Cagliari - Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy - Faculty of Humanistic Studies
University of Cagliari - Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy - Faculty of Humanistic Studies
EURASIA J. Math., Sci Tech. Ed 2019;15(10):em1752
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
University/College EducationCognitive, Affective, and Social Aspects of Teaching and LearningEvaluation and AssessmentMethodologies for Educational Research
ABSTRACT
A cross-national comparison between Italy and Spain was conducted on probabilistic reasoning performance presented in verbal-numerical and graphical-pictorial formats. This study investigated the similarities and differences in Psychology undergraduates in these two countries (Italy n=290; Spain n=130) and attempted to identify aspects that might enhance the probability of a student belonging to one country. The findings underscored that Spanish students had higher levels of visuospatial abilities, more positive attitudes toward statistics, lower statistical anxiety, and higher confidence in the correctness of their responses. Additionally, they gave a higher number of correct responses to problems presented in a verbal-numerical format. These data suggest interesting insights and highlight the interactions among multiple layers of variables at the collective, contextual, and individual levels.
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