In recent years, converging evidence has suggested that prediction plays a role in language comprehension, as it appears to do in information processing in a range of cognitive domains. Much of the evidence for this comes from the N400, a neural index of the processing of meaningful stimuli which has been argued to index the extent to which a word…

This dissertation measures and describes the factors that impact doctoral student persistence. Using a mixed methods cases study design, I analyzed institutional student record data, survey data on caregiving responsibilities, and data from semi-structured interviews with PhD students at a STEM-focused, public research university in the American…

This study uses secondary data to explore the relationship between the percentage of Latinos enrolled in a postsecondary institution and two educational outcomes: graduating within six years and total amount in student loan debt. Research on the concentration of Latino students in higher education have mostly focused on Hispanic Serving…

This study examines the factors influencing immigrant students' enrollment in advanced mathematics courses during their high school years in the United States. Using data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), this research investigates the association between each of the variables Institutional agent related social capital…

When we read, errors in oculomotor programming can cause the eyes to land and fixate on different words from what the mind intended. Previous work suggests that these "mislocated fixations" form 10-30% of first-pass fixations in reading eye movement data, which presents theoretical and analytic issues for eyetracking-while-reading…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if students' participation in the ALP co-requisite developmental English program relates to the likelihood of passing gateway college-level English. Data was collected to allow for analysis of gateway college-level English passing probability for all students who participated in gateway…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the underrepresentation of twice-exceptional students in gifted programs. The study focused on the underrepresentation of twice-exceptional students in being recommended for gifted testing (Missett et al., 2016). The participants of the study encompassed kindergarten through fifth grade…

Facing the increased demand for accountability, colleges and universities nationwide embarked on various initiatives to increase college attainment. One such effort is the Florida state statute, commonly referred to as excess hour surcharge policy, which was implemented at 12 state universities effective July 2009. The Florida legislature intends…

Data from three reading assessment tools--the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA), Reading Curriculum Based Measurement (R-CBM), and Maze--were compiled from 61 fourth grade and 59 fifth grade students across Fall and Spring administrations in order to determine how proficiency on these measures was associated with proficiency on the New York…

Leveraging a sample of more than 198,000 adult entrepreneurs, both currently involved in the startup of a business or formerly involved in business creation, this study investigates the perceptual, societal impression, economic, and demographic variables that are predictive with an individual's decision to engage in entrepreneurial activity.…

This dissertation deals with the theory of the phonetic component of grammar in a formal probabilistic inference framework: (1) it has been recognized since the beginning of generative phonology that some language-specific phonetic implementation is actually context-dependent, and thus it can be said that there are gradient "phonetic…

This dissertation studies the effects of foreign presence on the performance of domestic institutions and economic agents. We identify three types of foreign presence: international students, inward foreign investment, and exporting activities. The first chapter investigates the impacts of international students on the graduation performance of…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the possible relationships between teacher characteristics and their decisions to recommend placement of African American male students for special education. The teacher characteristics (gender, race, age, years of teaching service, self-efficacy and teacher expectations) were the…

The Baccalaureate Nursing program in San Antonio, Texas experienced a decrease in National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) on the first attempt for students graduating between 2009 and 2014 without a clear explanation for the decline. The purpose of this quantitative non-experimental correlational study was to…

This dissertation is comprised of three essays, all of which focus on various impacts of economic recession. The first two essays utilize county-level data to examine differences between rural and urban response to economic downturn, while the final essay makes use of individual-level data to examine the impact of recession on enrollment in higher…