Describes a preliminary survey of the views held by second-year sixth form students (n=421) on a range of subjects at A level and degree level, with a particular focus on mathematics and physics. (ZWH)

Children (ages 6-7 and ages 8-9) and adults participated in real-word and nonword lexical decision tasks and an auditory-vocal reaction time task. Response times on all tasks decreased with age. However, age-related differences on the real-word lexical decision task disappeared when differences in auditory-vocal reaction times were taken into…

This study investigated 117 preschoolers' perceptions of authority in sexual and benign situations and how these might influence acquisition of sexual abuse prevention concepts. Results indicate that preschool children are able to recognize limits to adult requests to engage in sexual behavior, and their sophistication about these limits increases…

Surveyed 636 school psychologists. Found no significant differences between male and female psychologists in time spent in various roles or time desired to be spent in various roles. Males worked longer contract lengths and made more money than females. When monthly salaries were compared, significant salary differences between males and females…

Evidence from 5 experiments with over 150 newborns suggests that infants are born with some information about the structure of faces. This information, termed CONSPEC, is contrasted with CONLERN, a device for learning visual characteristics of conspecifics. Distinction between these mechanisms allows for reconciling conflicting data about face…

This study, involving 15 nonparental female clients, found that the perceived anxiety and arousal elicited by infant crying were significantly diminished after stress management training. Anxiety measures were strongly correlated with both perceived arousal and the clients' evaluation of infant crying. (Author/JDD)

Although college administrators at every level experience some role conflict or ambiguity while acclimating to new jobs, if the dissonance is unresolved, it can lead to lower job satisfaction and self-confidence, higher tension and psychological strain, and greater feelings of futility and anxiety. Strategies for resolution are individual but have…

Tested models of intergenerational relationships using interview and questionnaire data from 124 couples in their early/mid-60s. Results indicated role context rather than role strain or role enhancement characterized competing-loyalties model. Family size had little effect on findings. Variables from size-constraint and familistic models…

Summarizes a study examining 322 Nebraska student teachers' perceptions concerning administration as a career, their aspirations to become administrators, and the encouragement received to become administrators. Most respondents considered administration to be a managerial, rather than a leadership, role and aspired to become administrators at…

Responses from 134 superintendents, 134 principals, 134 vocational teachers, and 153 vocational directors (78%) revealed the perception that directors were primarily involved in administration, instruction, promotion, and personnel. Teachers, superintendents, and principals would like them to be substantially more involved in promotion and…

The Open University course on roles and relationships enables people engaged in helping others to strengthen theoretical understanding of what they do and why and to reflect on ways to improve practice. (SK)

Summarizes several creative strategies to increase students' awareness of, and commitment to, constructive values in a classroom setting. These simple exercises include brainstorming and reverse brainstorming, imagining consequences, analogical thinking, empathy, questioning and discussion, and problem-solving approaches. (MLH)

Fourteen five- and nine-month-old infants were presented with illuminated toys to reach for in total darkness. In half the trials, a luminescent marker was attached to the reaching hand. The nine-month olds reached just as accurately with or without the hand marker, whereas five-month olds were generally inaccurate and unaffected by the marker.…

Exploration of the role of listening comprehension in facilitating second-language learning includes discussion of the auditory perception of language, listening disadvantages for second-language learners, the need to concentrate on lexical knowledge rather than ear training, minimum word knowledge requirements, and lexical ignorance as a major…

This study found that 1,414 college students' descriptions of their personal punitive childhood experiences and experiences of siblings were similar, but subjects more often labeled their siblings' experience as abuse than their own experience. The evaluation of severely punitive events as abusive was a function of whether the punishment was…