While fast plant movements are spectacular but rare, almost all plants exhibit relatively slow, growth-mediated tropic movements that are key to their survival in the natural world. In this brief review, we discuss recent insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying phototropism, gravitropism, hydrotropism, and autostraightening. Careful molecular genetic and physiological studies have helped confirm the importance of lateral auxin gradients in gravitropic and phototropic responses. However, auxin signaling does not explain all tropisms: recent work has shown that abscisic acid signaling mediates root hydrotropism and has implicated mechanosensing in autostraightening, the organ straightening process recently modeled as a proprioceptive response. The interactions between distinct tropic signaling pathways and other internal and external sensory processes are also now being untangled.

A great deal of research has compared monolingual and bilinguals on conflict resolution tasks, with inconsistent findings: Some studies reveal a bilingual advantage on global RTs, some reveal a bilingual advantage on interference cost, and some show no advantage. We report a meta-analysis of 73 comparisons (N = 5538), with estimates of global RTs and interference cost for each study. Results revealed a moderately significant effect size that was not moderated by type of cost (global RT or interference cost) or task. Age interacted with type of cost, showing a pattern difficult to reconcile with theories of bilingualism and executive control. Additionally there was a significant main effect of lab, which might be due to sociolinguistic differences in samples, data treatment and methodology, or Hawthorne effects.

Dyslexic individuals exhibit slow reaction times (RTs) in Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) tasks. Using hierarchical Bayesian meta-analysis, we asked whether slower processing in dyslexia extends beyond RAN to include RT-based motor-skills and nonverbal tasks (simple, choice, interference control). Following a systematic review, we identified studies comparing dyslexic and age-matched neurotypical groups on RT-based tasks. For RAN, we restricted study selection to letter-naming tasks (30 studies [k], 37 effects [m]), and found a large slowing effect in dyslexia (

Coral reefs increasingly are undergoing transitions from coral to macroalgal dominance. Although the functional roles of reef herbivores in controlling algae are becoming better understood, identifying possible tipping points in the herbivory-macroalgae relationships has remained a challenge. Assessment of where any coral reef ecosystem lies in relation to the coral-to-macroalgae tipping point is fundamental to understanding resilience properties, forecasting state shifts, and developing effective management practices. We conducted a multi-year field experiment in Moorea, French Polynesia to estimate these properties. While we found a sharp herbivory threshold where macroalgae escape control, ambient levels of herbivory by reef fishes were well above that needed to prevent proliferation of macroalgae. These findings are consistent with previously observed high resilience of the fore reef in Moorea. Our approach can identify vulnerable coral reef systems in urgent need of management action to both forestall shifts to macroalgae and preserve properties essential for resilience.

Variation in second language acquisition is evident from earliest stages. This study examined effects of learning tasks (retrieval practice, comprehension, verbal repetition) on comprehension of Turkish as a new language. Undergraduates (N = 156) engaged with Turkish spoken dialogues in a computer-assisted language learning session via Zoom, with learning tasks manipulated between-subjects. Participants completed pre/posttests assessing comprehension of Turkish number and case marking, a vocabulary test, and open-response questions gauging explicit awareness. The retrieval-practice group showed highest performance overall, after controlling for significant effects of nonverbal ability and pretest. For comprehension of number/case marking, the comprehension group performed comparably to the retrieval-practice group. For vocabulary comprehension, the verbal-repetition group performed comparably to the retrieval-practice group. Differential performance associated with learning tasks indicates benefits of testing and production and aligns with transfer-appropriate processing. As predicted by the noticing hypothesis, explicit awareness of number and case marking correlated with comprehension accuracy.