People often rely on the covariation between events to infer causality. However, covariation between cues and outcomes may change over time. In the associative learning literature, extinction provides a model to study updating of causal beliefs when a previously established relationship no longer holds. Prediction error theories can explain both…

Although cross-sectional studies depict (negative) emotions as both antecedents and consequences of trait procrastination, longitudinal studies examining reciprocal relationships between procrastination and emotions are scant. Yet, investigating reciprocal relationships between procrastination and emotions within long-term frameworks can shed…

Considering the increasing severity of environmental disasters and the scarcity of studies centered on children's perspectives, this article explores context-based learning to create spaces of hope. Constructing explanations fosters meaning creation and knowledge integration. Fourth graders' self-explanations about contamination in a degraded…

Causal attributions constitute one of the most universal forms of analyzing reality, since they fulfill basic functions in motivation for action. As a theory of causal explanations for success and failure, attribution research has found a natural context in the academic domain. Despite this, it appears that teacher attribution, in particular…

Analogies for teaching about causation abound. Rick Rogers is alert, however, to the risks inherent in drawing on everyday ideas to explain historical processes. What most often gets lost is the importance of the chronological dimension; both the length of time during which some contributory causes may have been present, and the ways in which they…

This paper reports a study that sought to investigate Moroccan university learners' perceptions of failure. 333 subjects studying English at university ranked their perceptions of failure in a Causal Attribution Scale of University Failure (CASUF). The results show that Moroccan learners attribute their failure to teachers' attitude, effort,…

Little is known about the influence of language background in problem-based learning (PBL) tutorial groups on group processes and students' academic achievement. This study investigated the relationship between language background, secondary school score, tutorial group processes, and students' academic achievement in PBL. A validated tutorial…

There is a well known large and persistent association between education and health. This relationship has been observed in many countries and time periods, and for a wide variety of health measures. The differences between the more and the less educated are significant: in 1999, the age-adjusted mortality rate of high school dropouts ages 25 to…

Studied the construct validity of the dimensions of the Multidimensional-Multiattributional Causality Scale based on B. Wiener's attribution model (1979) in achievement and affiliation goal domains. Results for 172 New Zealand college students provide evidence that the measure is better used as a goal specific measure than a general measure. (SLD)

Explores causal attributions of success and failure as functions of religious orientations among a sample of Polish university students. Participants assessed secular and religious attributions on three dimensions: controllability, stability, and locus. Finds that religious and non-religious participants attributed both success and failure to…

Investigates relationships among attributional style, life events, and depression in 143 Japanese undergraduates. Results indicate that negative experiences and depressogenic attributional styles increase the likelihood of depression, while positive experiences and enhancing attributional styles decrease the likelihood of depression. Suggests…

A central theme of research on human development and psychopathology is whether a therapeutic intervention or a turning-point event, such as a family break-up, alters the trajectory of the behavior under study. This paper lays out and applies a method for using observational longitudinal data to make more confident causal inferences about the…

The frequency of judgment effect is a special case of Response Mode effect in human covariation and causal learning. Judgment adjustment -to [Delta]P-, depends on the trial type preceding that judgment, but that effect is restricted to situations in which participants are asked to make their judgments with a high frequency. Two experiments further…

The longitudinal changes in the causal attributions, academic self-concept, and learning approaches of 549 university students in Hong Kong were studied. Students were enrolled in two different disciplines: language/health studies (n=272) and construction/engineering (n=277). Measurements of causal dimensions, academic self-concept, learning…

This paper analyzes the results of three studies about teacher causal explanation of failure in the Brazilian public elementary schools. Confronted with very high incidence of school dropout and retention, the investigators asked public school teachers to choose the main determinants of dropout and failure in their schools. Two studies were…