Importance of information processing skills on the comprehension of scientific texts AbstractThe aim was to show that some obstacles in the comprehension of scientific theories are not caused by students' alternative conceptions, but by poor students' reading comprehension and comprehension awareness. We measured these levels and also controlled students' alternative ideas in two samples of 10th grade students. Students read an instructional text about Evolutionary theories, and then answered a set of questions -consulting the text when necessary. We predicted clear differences in subjects' answers caused by the subjects' levels of reading comprehension and comprehension awareness, but not by their Lamarckian ideas. The results confirmed our predictions.

Early retirement is a kind of occupational withdrawal that affects a heterogeneous group of workers. In order to identify types of retirees with similarities in their way of exiting from working life, satisfaction with post-working life and socio-demographic characteristics, we administered an adaption of the Retirement Satisfaction Inventory (Floyd et al., 1992) to a sample of 638 Spanish early retirees. Data using cluster analysis showed two major groups of retirees: workers who desired to accept the offer of early retirement and non-volunteers. Regarding the first group, the results show that pursuing personal interests during post-working life motivates their organizational exit. They reported less pressure from their employers during the exit process, and experienced high levels of freedom and control of their lives after leaving work. However, non-volunteer retirees stated that pressure from their employers was the reason for their early retirement. Within this group, two subgroups can be identified as a function of their educational level and professional status. The description of the experience of transition to retirement and satisfaction with post-working life is an approach aimed to understand a complex and heterogeneous experience.

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