Item response theory (IRT) is currently the dominant methodological paradigm in educational and psychological measurement. IRT models are based on assumptions about the relationship between latent traits and observed responses, so the accuracy of the methodology depends heavily on the reasonableness of these assumptions. This dissertation consists…

Social scientists have long agreed that satisficing behavior increases error and reduces the validity of survey data. There have been numerous reviews on detecting satisficing behavior, but preventing this behavior has received less attention. The current narrative review provides empirically supported guidance on preventing satisficing by…

With many children and adults affected by Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, researchers strive to understand the underpinnings of ADHD and associated factors on both a basic and applied level. The goal of this volume is to explore some of the broad array of research in the field of ADHD. The 12 chapters cover a variety of topics as varied…

Speech-related reaction time measures and fluency-related measures of 24 adult stutterers and a like number of nonstutterers were assessed to determine their diagnostic discriminative power. Findings suggested that both fluency failures and the duration of laryngeal adjustment time are useful diagnostic measures for discriminating stutterers from…

An ABAB withdrawal design was used to investigate the effects of explicit timing on accurate oral reading rate of sight word phrases of four elementary students demonstrating difficulty with reading. During baseline the students were exposed to flash cards with sight word phrases and asked to read them out loud and were not made aware that they…

The effect of a relevant analogy and of subject visualization on the amount of cognitive capacity needed to process unfamiliar information about science was investigated. The dependent measure was reaction time on a secondary task while listening to six tape recorded passages about chemistry and physics in a 2 x 2 x 6 mixed design. The analogy…

Discusses the importance of the response time of an online public catalog and its capacity to support multiple users without system degradation; outlines general requirements of an online catalog; explains the difference between menu and command systems; defines response time; and suggests ways of testing an online system accurately. (EM)

Results supported the hypothesis that alcohol-related performance decrements would be observed in the vigilance and motor activity task performance of four year olds, even after adjusting for the effects of nicotine, in children whose mothers were generally not alcoholics but only social drinkers of varying amounts. (Author/AS)

Described is an in-class demonstration of mass reaction time which measures the speed of nerve impulses and the duration of various cognitive processes. A simpler version of the experiment for at-home use is described. (Author/DB)

This study examined effectiveness of a constant time delay (CTD) procedure in teaching social studies and health facts to five adolescents with learning or behavioral disorders. Students were given praise with and without additional information. Results indicated CTD procedures were reliable and effective, and students acquired nontargeted as well…

This book focuses on questioning techniques and strategies teachers may employ to make the difference between active and passive learning in the classroom. There are nine chapters: (1) Why Questions? (Ambrose A. Clegg, Jr.); (2) Review of Research on Questioning Techniques (Meredith D. Gall and Tom Rhody); (3) The Multidisciplinary World of…

The study, with four mildly retarded primary-age students, found that constant time delay was an effective instructional strategy when students were taught to read sight words and that incidental learning also occurred as each student acquired some nontargeted spelling information. (Author/DB)

To determine whether children's knowledge of arithmetic facts becomes increasingly "automatic" with age, 7-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and adults were given a number-matching task for which mental arithmetic should have been irrelevant. Specifically, students were required to verify the presence of a probe number in a previously presented pair (e.g.,…

This study attempted to evaluate the efficacy of time delay in increasing the academic response accuracy of moderately retarded adolescents. The time delay technique provided a means by which "cognitive organizers" could be taught to the students to mediate their behavior and improve academic performance. A modified multiple baseline…

Explores how the body's biological clock affects the way musicians practice and perform. Delineates questions concerning this phenomenon. Discusses the implications for music teaching and focuses on areas for collaborative research between neurology researchers and music educators. (NL)