Data mining of IPEDS data is used to develop models that calculate predicted graduation rates for two- and four-year institutions. (Contains 7 tables and 5 figures.)

Academic motivation as a predictor of academic performance for college athletes has been debated in the literature. This study examined the utility of academic and athletic motivation as a key variable in predicting academic performance among 211 college athletes at a Division I institution in the Midwest. After controlling for background…

Children are fascinated with the world of nature. From the tiniest of seeds to the highest of birds, they wonder "Why?" "How?" and "What can I do with it?" This paper provides intriguing nature activities that provide a solid starting point for expanding children's thinking and learning. Through these activities, children will be building skills…

Theory of mind (ToM)--our ability to predict behaviors of others in terms of their underlying intentions--has been thought to be universal and invariant across different cultures. However, several ToM studies conducted outside the Anglo-American cultural or linguistic boundaries have obtained mixed results. To examine the influence of…

Two studies were conducted to investigate the specificity of the relationship between preschoolers' emerging executive functioning skills and false belief understanding. Study 1 (N=44) showed that 3- to 5-year-olds' performance on an executive functioning task that required selective suppression of actions predicted performance on false belief…

After reviewing institutional records for more than 3,000 students, the authors consider how new members of Greek organizations at a Midwestern university performed academically when compared to non-Greeks, in terms of their predicted versus actual grade point averages and whether joining during the first or second semester made a difference in…

The common etiology hypothesis proposes that depression and anxiety commonly co-occur because they share etiological factors. This study examined the specificity of the hopelessness theory in the development of depressive and anxious symptoms in children. Students in Grades 3 through 6 (N = 418, 47% boys) completed measures assessing inferential…

This experiment tested predictions from social identity development theory (SIDT, Nesdale, 1999), that children's tendency to show out-group prejudice depends on the strength of their in-group identification and/or their perception of threat from the out-group. Anglo-Australian children (N = 480) aged 6, 7, or 9 years were assigned to a…

Little work has examined the utility of home safety behaviours in predicting childhood injury. This study examines the relationship between safety behaviours and child injury using a cohort of 1717 families, with 2357 children aged 0-7 years. Safety behaviours, and sociodemographic and family characteristics were measured using a validated…

sequence of heterotypic continuity also emerged. ADHD was predicted by no other disorders, and exclusively predicted ODD. CD was predicted only by ODD. However, ODD was also directly predictive of future anxiety and depression, and anxiety predicted future depression as well. A specific test of the failure model of CD and depression supported that…

Background: There are two accounts of categorization performance in autism: that there is an impairment in prototype formation (Klinger & Dawson, 2001) and that there is an impairment in processing features held in common between stimuli (Plaisted, O'Riordan, & Baron-Cohen, 1998). These accounts, together with central coherence theory (Frith,…

Biblical literalism was assessed among 404 adult Anglicans from a variety of church traditions using a summated rating scale based on 10 items referring to events in the Bible. The literalism scale showed high internal reliability ([alpha] = 0.92) and scores were highest (i.e. most literal) in Evangelical churches, intermediate in Broad churches…

We studied economic choice behavior in capuchin monkeys by offering them to choose between two different foods available in variable amounts. When monkeys selected between familiar foods, their choice patterns were well-described in terms of relative value of the two foods. A leading view in economics and biology is that such behavior results from…

The sequential organization of actions necessary to construct a figure in a dynamic geometry environment (DGE) introduces an explicit order of construction. Such sequential organization produces what is, in effect, a hierarchy of dependences, as elements of the construction depend on something created earlier. This hierarchy of dependences is one…

This study assessed the use of complementary and alternative medicine among college students (N=913), the relationships between health locus of control with use of complementary and alternative medicine, and health local of control with attitudes toward complementary and alternative medicine and what predicts their use. A majority (66%, n-913) of…