The usage of data mining has dramatically increased over the past few years and the education sector is leveraging this field in order to analyze and gain intuitive knowledge in terms of the vast accumulated data within its confines. The primary objective of this study is to compare the results of different classification techniques such as Naïve…

Research has shown that unrealistically-optimistic people believe that they will experience fewer negative events and more positive events than other persons. This paper analyzes a scale which was designed to measure the several cognitive dimensions underlying unrealistic optimism about health. For this study, 220 college students completed a…

Rubin and Peplau's Just World Scale is based on the belief that a just world is a unidimensional construct in which individual beliefs are polarized according to immanent justice or ultimate justice. To investigate the effect of personal style on just world view, 109 male and female college students (who previously had completed the Just World…

Environmental psychologists are interested in the cognitive processes involved in mental maps. Multidimensional scaling was used to examine the geographic placement of buildings and their perceived attributes by undergraduate and graduate students, and by faculty and staff of a university (N=30). Nine college buildings were selected. Subjects…

Past research on political socialization has failed to provide clear implications for educational policy or practice. However, reconceptualizing that research using a framework derived from cognitive psychology can reveal relationships between political socialization and education not previously seen. In this reconceptualization, schema or…

This paper identifies five difficulties in teaching the analysis of social problems, and proffers "mind maps," a concept that refers to the ways in which students create a visual representation of their thinking patterns, as a possible solution. In constructing mind maps, especially for a Social Problems course, the following four steps…

A study of first-year college students (n=121) in Taiwan investigated the effects of navigation maps and learner cognitive styles on performance in searches for information, estimation of course scope, and the development of cognitive maps within a hypertext learning course. Students were tested to determine level of perceptual field dependence…