The purpose of this study was to identify determinants of transfer. Accounting for variables in several domains (background, academic, social, environmental), this research was particularly interested in the effect of environment on transfer. Data employed in this study was derived from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:…

The purpose of these modules is to provide an introduction to the world of probability and statistics to accelerated mathematics students at the high school level. The materials are centered on the fictional town of Happy Shores, a coastal community which is at risk for hurricanes. Actuaries at an insurance company figure out the risks and…

This paper presents and tests a general model to predict emergent exchange patterns and power differences in reciprocal exchange networks when individual actors follow the norm of reciprocity. With an interesting qualification, the experimental results reported here support the power-dependence approach (Emerson 1972a, b): those who acquire the…

Few researchers have gone beyond case studies to examine characteristics of teachers who engage in research activities. Results from the authors' logistic regression models provide evidence that teaching in private schools, teaching in a midsize or large city, participating in professional development programs, and receiving support from the…

Radical behaviorism considers private events to be a part of ongoing observable behavior and to share the properties of public events. Although private events cannot be measured directly, their roles in overt action can be inferred from mathematical models that relate private responses to external stimuli and reinforcers according to the same…

Several probabilistic models for subset choice have been proposed in the literature, for example, to explain approval voting data. We show that Marley et al.'s latent scale model is subsumed by Falmagne and Regenwetter's size-independent model, in the sense that every choice probability distribution generated by the former can also be explained by…

For over a decade, research studies of mathematics education in high-performing countries have pointed to the conclusion that the mathematics curriculum in the United States must become substantially more focused and coherent in order to improve mathematics achievement in this country. To deliver on the promise of common standards, the standards…

Three potential models for the 2 X 2 contingency table are discussed: (1) the hypergeometric Independence Trial; (2) the double-binomial Comparative Trial; and (3) the multinomial Double Dichotomy Trial. Subsequently, the critical regions of seven statistical tests are evaluated within each of these models. (TJH)

Computerized adaptive testing is subject to security problems, as the item bank content remains operative over long periods and administration time is flexible for examinees. Spreading the content of a part of the item bank could lead to an overestimation of the examinees' trait level. The most common way of reducing this risk is to impose a…

The author explored whether 3 workplace conditions were related to teacher mobility decisions. The modeling strategy incorporated a series of binomial and multinomial logistic models to estimate the effects of administrative support, classroom control, and behavioral climate on teachers' decisions to quit teaching or switch schools. The results…

The defining property of an admissible scoring system is that any individual perceives himself as maximizing his expected score by reporting his true subjective distribution. The use of admissible scoring systems as a measure of probabilistic forecasts is becoming increasingly well-known in those cases where the forecast is a discrete distribution…

Describes a mathematical model used in statistical prediction. Model is derived from known independent continuously variable quantities having the same distribution. (RS)

In the early 1990s, the National Science Foundation funded many research projects for improving statistical education. Many of these stressed the need for classroom activities that illustrate important issues of designing experiments, generating quality data, fitting models, and performing statistical tests. Our paper describes such an activity on…

A probabilistic model for interactive retrieval is presented. Bayesian statistical decision theory principles are applied: use of prior and sample information about the relationship of document descriptions to query relevance; maximization of expected value of a utility function, to the problem of optimally restructuring search strategies in an…

Earlier Analyses are shown to involve special cases of the equations developed here; also that a general four-state chain has the same parameter space as an all-or-none model if and only if its representation with an observable absorbing state is lumpable into a Markov chain with three states. (Author/GS)