Table 7.

Individual item means and SDs for URSSA Personal/Professional Gains scale^a

	Novice students		Experienced students		All students
Item. How much did you gain in the following areas as a result of your most recent research experience?b	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Confidence in my ability to do research	2.82	1.1	3.38	0.68	3.26	0.81
Confidence in my ability to contribute to science	2.75	1.0	3.32	0.78	3.19	0.87
Comfort in discussing scientific concepts with my research mentor	3.18	0.60	3.40	0.82	3.33	0.76
Comfort in discussing scientific concepts with other research students	2.85	0.84	3.45	0.69	3.31	0.76
Comfort in working collaboratively with others	3.09	0.70	3.64	0.57	3.47	0.65
Confidence in my ability to do well in future science courses	2.98	0.94	3.26	0.79	3.19	0.83

^aNovice students: n = 29; experienced students: n = 44. Overall scale mean = 3.23; overall SD = 0.72.

^b1 = no gain; 2 = a little gain; 3 = good gain; 4 = great gain.