Different rules for changing step sizes (e.g., logarithmic, linear) are alternately used in adaptive threshold-seeking procedures, with no clear justification. We hypothesized that the linear rule may yield more accurate thresholds for poor performers because the step sizes are predetermined and fixed across listeners and thus can be small, in…

The decline in doctoral program completion has become one of the main challenges in doctoral education worldwide. As concern about this issue grows, the number of studies examining the topic has also increased. Many of these studies, which aim to identify the factors that contribute to high attrition rates, rely on cross-sectional data and often…

Feasible and accurate assessment tools developed for non-specialists are needed to scale community-based models of autism evaluation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate use of the Screening Tool for Autism in Toddlers and Young Children (STAT) when used by primary care practitioners (n = 10) across a statewide system of early diagnosis set…

Task design features have different effects on second language (L2) production and can be adopted for different pedagogical purposes. However, the synergistic effects of task features were left unexplored in the extant task-based literature. The present study investigated the synergistic effects of two task design features, namely, prior knowledge…

Previous studies suggested that social anxiety is associated with interpretation bias, theory of mind deficit, and eye gaze avoidance when identifying facial emotions. We tested the hypothesis that socially anxious individuals would be more affected by mask use during facial emotion recognition. 88 healthy undergraduates with various levels of…

In this article, recent developments in the assessment of writing, especially informational writing, are connected with research-based instruction that is likely to have an impact on students with disabilities and the wide range of student writing development in Grades 3 to 8. The objectives are for educators to assess, interpret, and set goals…

One of the critiques of proficiency as defined by scales, such as that of ACTFL, is its lack of grounding in linguistic realities. Measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency provide a route in which proficiency can be quantitatively measured by identifying linguistic correlates (see Brown et al., 2017; Long et al., 2012). This project aimed to…

One feature of Spanish that presents some difficulties to second language (L2) learners whose first language (L1) is English concerns lexical stress. This study explores one aspect of the obstacle these learners face, weak phonological processing routines concerning stress inherited from their native language. Participants were L1 English L2…

Purpose: This study explored clear speech (CS) and noise-adapted speech (NAS) intelligibility benefits for native and nonnative English listeners. It also examined how the two speaking style adaptations interact with maskers that vary from purely energetic to largely informational at different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Method: Materials…

Advancements in mobile technologies have accelerated mobile Augmented Reality (AR), and many applications have been developed and presented in online stores. This study aims to evaluate the accuracy of the AR model of the Solar System simulated in mobile AR applications located in the Google Play Store. The applications were examined in the store…

The development of technology-enhanced innovative items calls for practical models that can describe polytomous testlet items. In this study, we evaluate four measurement models that can characterize polytomous items administered in testlets: (a) generalized partial credit model (GPCM), (b) testlet-as-a-polytomous-item model (TPIM), (c)…

This article introduces Xiao-Shih, the first intelligent question answering bot on Chinese-based massive open online courses (MOOCs). Question answering is critical for solving individual problems. However, instructors on MOOCs must respond to many questions, and learners must wait a long time for answers. To address this issue, Xiao-Shih…

The present study investigated the canonical position of instrumental and locative adverbial phrases in both Japanese sentences and noun phrases to determine whether the canonical positions are parallel. A series of sentence/phrase decision tasks were used to compare sentences with different word-orders, including sentences with SA"dv"OV…

The aim was to establish which postural and physical activity outcomes are comparable across different accelerometer brands worn on the thigh when processed using open-source methods. Twenty participants wore four accelerometers (Axivity, ActiGraph, activPAL, GENEActiv) for three free-living days. Postural and physical activity outputs (average…

Peer assessment has an important role in teaching and learning nowadays. However, the existing techniques tend to be limited due to a lack of a suitable means to evaluate the accuracy of peer assessment activities and supervise peer assessment performances in an online environment. Hence, it is very necessary to develop new solutions encourage…