This dissertation explores the hypothesis that language processing proceeds in "windows" that correspond to representational units, where sensory signals are integrated according to time-scales that correspond to the rate of the input. To investigate universal mechanisms, a comparison of signed and spoken languages is necessary. Underlying the…

How students understand, feel about and respond to assessment might contribute significantly to learning behaviour and academic achievement. This paper reviews studies that have used a relatively new self-reported survey questionnaire ("Students' Conceptions of Assessment"--SCoA) about student perceptions and understandings of…

This article provides researchers with a guide to properly construe and conduct analyses of conditional indirect effects, commonly known as moderated mediation effects. We disentangle conflicting definitions of moderated mediation and describe approaches for estimating and testing a variety of hypotheses involving conditional indirect effects. We…

Technological advances have revolutionised methods of both teaching and testing in languages, and practitioners have eagerly embraced the opportunity to provide more innovative ways of doing this. The unique features offered by technology make it increasingly possible to test for a wide range of language skills required for a specific purpose.…

The Gifted Rating Scales-School Form (GRS-S) has been validated in several countries; however, no study has examined the rater invariance of this measure. The present study built on previous validity studies and examined configural and metric invariance between parent and teacher raters using the Chinese version of the GRS-S Teacher and Parent…

In daily life (e.g., in the work environment) people are often distracted by stimuli that are clearly irrelevant to the current task and should be ignored. In contrast, much applied distraction research has focused on task interruptions by information that requires a response and therefore cannot be ignored. Moreover, the most commonly used…

This article discusses issues associated with statistical testing conducted with data from clustered school samples. Empirical researchers often conduct tests of statistical inference on sample data to ascertain the extent to which differences exist within groups in the population. Typically, much school-related data are collected from students.…

Evidence of group matching frequently takes the form of a nonsignificant test of statistical difference. Theoretical hypotheses of no difference are also tested in this way. These practices are flawed in that null hypothesis statistical testing provides evidence against the null hypothesis and failing to reject H[subscript 0] is not evidence…

This investigation focuses on text recall in eight- and nine-year old children. The main focus was on whether two different sets of instructions had a differential influence: one set instructed students to focus on an orally presented text verbatim, and the other instructed students to focus on its content. A differential influence on verbatim and…

Progress testing provides data on the growth of students' knowledge over the course of the curriculum obtained from the results of all students in the curriculum on periodical similar tests pitched at end-of-curriculum level. Since 2001, three medical schools have jointly constructed and administered four progress tests annually. All students in…

There is anecdotal evidence that a significant number of students studying computing related courses at degree level have difficulty with sub-GCE mathematics. Testing of students' skills is often performed using diagnostic tests and a number of computer-based diagnostic tests exist, which work, essentially, by testing one specific diagnostic skill…

Null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) is the most widely accepted and frequently used approach to statistical inference in quantitative communication research. NHST, however, is highly controversial, and several serious problems with the approach have been identified. This paper reviews NHST and the controversy surrounding it. Commonly…

School-Based Assessment (SBA) can help achieve a holistic, child-centred and qualitative account of a pupil's performance. The same method has been criticised for being subjective, informal and open to teacher bias hence the reluctance by the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) to embrace it for certification and selection into further…

The current "Education Revolution" in Australia has witnessed the shift to greater accountability in outcomes, transparency in practice, and comparable data at a national level. The National Assessment Program as endorsed by MYCEEDYA and implemented by ACARA, has come to encompass NAPLAN testing, which was quick to become a household…

Storytelling may be a powerful instructional approach for engaging learners and facilitating e-learning. However, relatively little is known about how to apply story within the context of systematic instructional design processes and claims for the effectiveness of storytelling in training and education have been primarily anecdotal and…