The slope of the z-transformed receiver-operating characteristic (zROC) in recognition memory experiments is usually less than 1, which has long been interpreted to mean that the variance of the target distribution is greater than the variance of the lure distribution. The greater variance of the target distribution could arise because the…

Coburn and Turner (this issue) present an intriguing framework for understanding how data has come to be used in the current high accountability environments in education. In this framework, they connect various processes of data use within organizational and political contexts. Data use is presented using an ecological perspective that deepens…

Five prototypic issues derived from a dialectical perspective are proposed: relationism, evolving reciprocity, probabilism, timing, and the nonequivalent temporal metric. It is argued that these issues, while not changing the scientific method, have implications for specific procedures. (Author)

Discusses the need in designing educational studies to give more attention to recognizing the universe of generalization and to incorporate into the design a variable that represents the universe. Data analytic techniques should treat the levels of this variable as randomly selected from the universe. (Author/JEG)

This poem, with stanzas in limerick form, refers humorously to the many threats to validity posed by problems in research design, including problems of sample selection, data collection, and data analysis. (SLD)

The authors (Ingham et al.) of the original report respond to criticisms by Kalinowski et al. that they misinterpreted their data in a study of the effects of frequency-altered feedback on stuttering in four single-subject design investigations. They also address larger issues concerning altered auditory feedback procedures. (DB)

Describes elements to look for when reading four identifiable sections of a research report: background and literature review, methodology and procedures, analysis, findings or summary. Literature review as prologue to author's argument, choices in design of a study, research participants, choices involved in analysis, and implications of findings…

Discusses the purposes and benefits of data synthesis, explaining the major techniques of extracting information from related studies and using it to explain conflicting outcomes. Stresses the importance of the analyst's attention to detailed features of each study and describes the steps of a systematic approach to synthesis. (SK)

Discusses two approaches to data analysis in pretest-posttest research designs in which researcher has not formed groups based on pretest or used pretest information in assigning participants to groups, thus ruling out two-way analysis of variance. Describes use of repeated-measures analysis of variance and two-group analysis of covariance in…

Discusses contemporary theories of adolescence, stressing developmental systems models that integrate individual and contextual levels of analysis. Maintains that adolescence should be studied with multivariate-longitudinal designs, change-sensitive measures, and data analytic strategies capitalizing on triangulation across quantitative and…

Three issues must be addressed when discussing the standards needed to judge the methodological rigor of naturalistic approaches to administrative research. The first issue involves defining naturalistic inquiry. In contrast to the scientific paradigm, naturalistic inquiry emphasizes, first, the inseparability of variables or events from their…

Methodological adequacy in naturalistic inquiry is enhanced by understanding the differences between the naturalistic and rationalistic paradigms; by using simultaneous data collection and analysis, with prolonged field research, an audit trail, multiple sources, and referential materials; and by employing "thick description" extensively…

Discusses methodological issues concerning qualitative research and describes research practices that qualitative researchers use to address these methodological issues. Topics discussed include the researcher as interpreter, the emergent nature of qualitative research, understanding the experience of others, trustworthiness in qualitative…

R. T. Ogawa and B. Malen's article does not meet its own recommended standards for rigorous testing and presentation of its own conclusions. Use of the exploratory case study to analyze multivocal literatures is not supported, and the claim of grounded theory to analyze multivocal literatures may be stronger. (SLD)

Research with older persons suffering from physical illness presents numerous challenges to gerontologists. Issues of conceptualization pertaining to the definition of illness, its location in the research paradigm, and the context in which illness occurs must be addressed prior to dealing with methodological problems. Access to physically ill…