Interactive tasks designed to elicit real-life problem-solving behavior are rapidly becoming more widely used in educational assessment. Incorrect responses to such tasks can occur for a variety of different reasons such as low proficiency levels, low metacognitive strategies, or motivational issues. We demonstrate how behavioral patterns…

Asynchronous discussions have been widely used in education to support learning. Exploring the reasons why threads in asynchronous discussion forums die may help us improve our understanding of asynchronous discussions and lead to a more effective learning process. This study explored why threads in asynchronous discussion forums shut down. Two…

Tested the hypothesis that distressed spouses are more reactive to immediate events than nondistressed couples. Couples recorded positive, negative and neutral events and satisfaction levels. Distressed couples reported lower rates of positive behavior and that marital satisfaction depended more on frequency of recent positive or negative events.…

Verbal behavior in transcripts of psychotherapy was coded according to Stile's taxonomy of verbal response modes. Therapists of different theoretical persuasions used different mixtures of verbal techniques. Common elements that make verbal interaction psychologically therapeutic lie in client behavior. (Author)

Research supported by a National Institute of Mental Health predoctoral research fellowship (1-F1-MH-36960-01).

The reactions of observers (N=168 college students) to an actor's embarrassment were examined by manipulating the perceived link between actor and observer (cooperative, competitive, or independent) and the observational set of the observer (empathic or nonempathic). The observers' self-ratings of embarrassment and measures of their skin potential…

Previous research indicates that social beliefs can act in a self-fulfilling manner, affecting responses to individuals and thereby constraining these individuals to behave in ways that spuriously confirm attitudes about them. The possible role of self-perception, i.e., whether targets of such self-fulfilling prophecies not only alter their…

Undergradautes responded to role-played scenarios involving heterosocial interactions. Later they were surreptitiously observed while they interacted with an opposite-sex student, an experimental confederate. Videotapes were rated for component responses. Role-play behavior was moderately correlated with behavior in naturalistic situations for…

A brief overview and synthesis of current knowledge on the development of nonverbal communication in young children is presented, and implications for teacher-child interactions during the early school years are suggested. (JD)

Direct observation of a child's motor performance by a parent was hypothesized to exert an effect on motor behavior. The presence of a parent observer during practice was hypothesized to exert a depressing effect on learning and a facilitating effect on performance when parent observer was introduced later in practice. Male and female children age…

Few, if any, studies exist in which the helpfulness of particular responses in context have been evaluated by the involved clients or counselors due to the lack of an adequate method for obtaining evaluations of the impact of individual counselor responses. The development of Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) provides a research tool which allows…