Adolescent risk-taking can be illuminated through an understanding of the development of the brain, of dual-processing theories, and of social norms and meanings. When adolescents take unjustified risks, it is often because of the weakness of their analytic systems, which provide an inadequate check on impulsive or ill-considered decisions. Social…

This paper examines the influence of farmer knowledge upon decision making processes. Drawing upon the sociological debates around the ideas of reflexive modernity and biotechnology as well as from classic adoption and diffusion studies, I explore the influences upon farmers' use of "Bacillus thuringiensis" (Bt) corn. Utilizing survey data…

B. B. Murdock (2006; see record 2006-08257-009) has interpreted remember-know data within a decision space defined by item and associative information, the fundamental variables in his general recognition memory model TODAM (B. B. Murdock, 1982). He has related parameters of this extended model to stimulus characteristics for several classic…

Argues that, given a document and a query, users first judge the document against the individual concepts in the query and then use some inferencing process to derive a compound judgment for the entire query. The research examines the relative effectiveness of probabilistic and fuzzy models at predicting users' compound judgments. (23 references)…

Explores, from a feminist perspective, the discourses of choice regarding how women make their choices as consumers in the education marketplace. It argues that mothers as parents are not free to choose but act within a range of constraints, i.e., their choices are limited by structural and moral possibilities in a patriarchal and racist society.…

Data from interviews with elementary school principals are examined for insights into the impact of administrative style on evaluation utilization. Characteristics of 23 principals' administrative styles are classified as being either "compliance" (CO) or "non-compliance" (NCO) oriented. CO principals are characterized by the following: (1)…

This paper argues that a typical use of regression models to target student recruitment efforts is theoretically unsound and may therefore be operationally inefficient. It presents results from a study using a predictive model to identify the prospective students on whom recruitment efforts have the greatest impact. The model uses four kinds of…

A study examined social and personal factors affecting the decision process of Australian secondary school students choosing university study and the effects of student background factors in higher education participation generally. The complex patterns of factors operating differentially in the high school years are interpreted through…

This epilogue discusses potentials in future clinical decision-making using the emerging functional neuroimaging technology, including identification of the mechanisms underlying cognitive functions and prediction of spared/impaired cognitive functions, those related to recovery of function and prediction of treatment candidacy; and those related…

After outlining the 1984 activities and results of the Center for the Study of Evaluation's (CSE's) Evaluation Productivity Project, this monograph presents three reports. The first, "The Administrator's Role in Evaluation Use," by James Burry, Marvin C. Alkin, and Joan A. Ruskus, describes the factors influencing an evaluation's use…

This study examined institutional researchers' perceptions regarding their effectiveness in influencing institutional policy changes, the factors that make institutional researchers effective in the policy arena, and researchers perspectives regarding job-related rewards; challenges encountered in seeking to establish influential roles in decision…

This essay discusses the prospect of utilizing well-confirmed knowledge to enhance the chances for the schooling success of every student in today's elementary schools through secondary schools. The paper begins with a brief discussion of the state of practice. The balance of the paper illustrates an efficient way to apply research and practical…