This case study describes how our research team conducted an individual differences research project in a middle school science classroom. The main goal of our work was to investigate whether individual differences in cognitive abilities predict individual differences in scientific reasoning in middle school students. In order to address our…

We evaluate the extent to which ePortfolios can be used to assess applied and collaborative learning and academic identity among community college students from underrepresented minority groups who participated in a summer research program. Thirty-eight students were evaluated by their research sponsor and two or three naïve faculty evaluators.…

The philosophical basis for the federal human subject protection policy is congruent with the values of the social work profession. The pragmatics are more complicated. The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes toward, knowledge about, and practices of institutional review boards (IRBs) across colleges and universities as reported by…

The relationship between learning ability and intelligence has continually been a focus of theory and research. It is argued in this paper that the inconclusive results of studies relating individual differences variables such as intellectual abilities to learning are due to a too pragmatic, theoretical orientation. Theoretical models explicating…

In order to discover the effects of success and failure on subsequent aggressiveness, 26 male and 55 female college students were randomly assigned to success, failure, and neutral conditions. Those in the success condition were led to feel they were superior to other college students on a task, those in the failure condition were led to feel they…

A mailed survey was conducted of the drinking practices of students at the University of Minnesota. Responses were received from 402 of the 496 individuals in a random sample of students at the Twin Cities campus. Key findings include: (1) the majority of students, 56 percent of the men and 61 percent of the women, were classed as moderate…

This speech reports an experiment on memory and verbal ability. The study notes that in previous research, verbal ability has been found to correlate with sensitivity to order, an important component of intelligence. This relationship may be due largely to the greater word store of high verbal scorers. The author's experimental hypothesis is that…

The present investigation looked at selective attention in impulsive and reflective children using a central/incidental task similar to that used by Hagen, 1967. In order to examine developmental change in selective attention, children at kindergarten, second, and fifth grades were tested. The central recall task involved presenting the child with…

A survey of one Australian university's faculty found that research activity is highly variable and influenced by a number of factors including personal characteristics; differences in research style, methods, and strategies within and between disciplines; and funding. Individual autonomy in topic selection was important. (Author/MSE)

This study examines behavioral mediators which might possibly be associated with risk taking. Specifically, it is concerned with answering the question of whether there are attributes of a risk taking situation which make it more conducive for males to take greater risks than for females. The situation used in this experiment, a regulation…

The present study was designed to investigate the role of expectations in self-concept and level of aspiration (LOA) behavior. Specifically, the focus was to investigate self-concept and LOA as covariates and to describe the nature of the relationship if, in fact, one existed. A sample of 80 third and fourth grade students was selected from three…

This study examined possible relationships between the analytic/global dimension of cognitive style, as defined by Davis and Klausmeier (1970) and measured by the Children's Embedded Figures Test (CEFT), and two modes of instruction varying in the level of guidance provided the learner. Sixty Anglo subjects (eight and nine years old), identified…

This study was designed to ascertain characteristics of three groups of secondary school students: absentees, check-outs, and nonenrollees. An effort was made to determine the magnitude of the problem, the whereabouts of the nonattenders, and the reasons for their nonattendance. Two sources of data were utilized: (1) personal interviews with…

Clinicians with highly deviant recommendation rates also exhibited extreme differences in their use of the normal and sociopathic categories. It was concluded that biases in the definition and assignment of labels might be reduced by means of a combined clinical-statistical approach to gathering and utilizing diagnostic information. (Author)

Two contingency systems, individual and group, were evaluated for their effects on children's behavior during small group meetings. A group of 48 children, ages 8-14, attended a seven-week residential camp program operated on a token economy system. Ratings of the campers' behavior were made by the counselors on a five-point rating scale at the…