The similarities between television viewing and fantasy activity (daydreaming, reverie, mind-wandering, internal dialogue) more than warrant the building of a theoretical construct, especially in the context of recent empirical research on television viewing consequences. A construct of the television viewing process, based on cognitive theories…

Investigates retention of material by students who receive traditional classroom instruction, are exposed to instruction that emphasizes concept formation, or comprise a control group which receives no instruction. Finds that the control group had an unusually high retention level. Concludes that a more adequate test of retention must be designed…

Information processing, beliefs, and motivations can be coupled with the principle of causal attributions to provide a framework for assessing the causes to which individuals attribute their own behavior. For example, an elderly man who forgets to buy something at the store presents himself with an identity based on cultural stereotypes--in this…

Describes a study using self-report measures of students' responses to auditory and visual stimuli to measure distractibility in task performance among 224 Canadian undergraduates. Findings show the absence of any link between self-reported distractibility and actual performance. Study shows correlations between personality type and…

Dissertations are an important component of the effort to generate knowledge. Thus, dissertation quality may be seen by accreditation and coordinating-board reviewers as a noteworthy reflection on the quality of doctoral programs themselves. The present study reviews methodological errors within Ph.D. dissertations. The illustrative errors are…