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1. Teacher interrupted: How mathematics graduate teaching assistants (don’t) learn about teaching

   Beisiegel, M. (July 2019, Proceedings of the 43rd Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education)

   Despite their impact on undergraduate learners, few studies have investigated mathematics graduate teaching assistants’ (MGTAs) needs for professional development as they learn about teaching. In this study, we surveyed and interviewed MGTAs longitudinally as they progressed through their graduate programs. With surveys and interviews, we aimed to capture changes in MGTAs’ views of mathematics and teaching, whether they felt that they received adequate support, and what other support they feel they needed to grow as teachers. Using two phases of thematic analysis, we found several issues that interrupted MGTAs’ progress as teachers. 

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2. Teacher interrupted: How mathematics graduate teaching assistants (don’t) learn about teaching

   Beisiegel, M. (July 2019, Proceedings of the 43rd Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education)

   Despite their impact on undergraduate learners, few studies have investigated mathematics graduate teaching assistants’ (MGTAs) needs for professional development as they learn about teaching. In this study, we surveyed and interviewed MGTAs longitudinally as they progressed through their graduate programs. With surveys and interviews, we aimed to capture changes in MGTAs’ views of mathematics and teaching, whether they felt that they received adequate support, and what other support they feel they needed to grow as teachers. Using two phases of thematic analysis, we found several issues that interrupted MGTAs’ progress as teachers. 

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3. Reference frequency: what do speakers tend to talk about?

   Arnold, J. E.; Strangmann, I.; Hwang, H.; Zerkle, S (January 2018, UNC Language Processing Lab Technical Reports)

   he pronoun “they” can refer to an individual who identifies as nonbinary, but it also is commonly used as a plural pronoun. How do listeners identify whether “they” is being used in a singular or plural sense? Arnold, Mayo, & Dong (in press) report three experiments in that test the role of explicitly introducing gender identity via pronouns, e.g. “This is Alex, and they use they/them pronouns.” Participants read short stories like “Alex went running with Liz and they fell down.” Answers to “Who fell down” indicated whether participants interpreted they as Alex or Alex-and-Liz. Singular interpretations of they were more likely when participants hear an explicit statement that Alex uses they/them pronouns, and in supporting discourse contexts. This paper is a companion to the main article, and reports analyses of individual difference measures. Participants self-reported familiarity with individuals who identify as nonbinary, which was expected to increase singular interpretations, but mostly it did not. In experiment 2 we also measured print exposure, but we found that it did not affect interpretation of singular they. In short, we saw virtually no effects of individual difference predictors. 

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4. Individual differences (or the lack of them) in comprehension of singular they.

   Arnold, J. E.; Mayo, H.; Dong, L. (January 2020, UNC Language Processing Lab Technical Report #3)

   Arnold, J. E., Mayo, H., & Dong, L. (2020). Individual differences (or the lack of them) in comprehension of singular they. Technical Report #3. UNC Language Processing Lab, Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The pronoun “they” can refer to an individual who identifies as nonbinary, but it also is commonly used as a plural pronoun. How do listeners identify whether “they” is being used in a singular or plural sense? Arnold, Mayo, & Dong (in press) report three experiments in that test the role of explicitly introducing gender identity via pronouns, e.g. “This is Alex, and they use they/them pronouns.” Participants read short stories like “Alex went running with Liz and they fell down.” Answers to “Who fell down” indicated whether participants interpreted they as Alex or Alex-and-Liz. Singular interpretations of they were more likely when participants hear an explicit statement that Alex uses they/them pronouns, and in supporting discourse contexts. This paper is a companion to the main article, and reports analyses of individual difference measures. Participants self-reported familiarity with individuals who identify as nonbinary, which was expected to increase singular interpretations, but mostly it did not. In experiment 2 we also measured print exposure, but we found that it did not affect interpretation of singular they. In short, we saw virtually no effects of individual difference predictors. 

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5. How Experts Detect Phishing Scam Emails

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3415231  

   Wash, Rick (October 2020, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction)

   Phishing scam emails are emails that pretend to be something they are not in order to get the recipient of the email to undertake some action they normally would not. While technical protections against phishing reduce the number of phishing emails received, they are not perfect and phishing remains one of the largest sources of security risk in technology and communication systems. To better understand the cognitive process that end users can use to identify phishing messages, I interviewed 21 IT experts about instances where they successfully identified emails as phishing in their own inboxes. IT experts naturally follow a three-stage process for identifying phishing emails. In the first stage, the email recipient tries to make sense of the email, and understand how it relates to other things in their life. As they do this, they notice discrepancies: little things that are off'' about the email. As the recipient notices more discrepancies, they feel a need for an alternative explanation for the email. At some point, some feature of the email --- usually, the presence of a link requesting an action --- triggers them to recognize that phishing is a possible alternative explanation. At this point, they become suspicious (stage two) and investigate the email by looking for technical details that can conclusively identify the email as phishing. Once they find such information, then they move to stage three and deal with the email by deleting it or reporting it. I discuss ways this process can fail, and implications for improving training of end users about phishing. 

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