We looked at the effects of teaching 7- and 8-year-old children morphological and phonological distinctions. Some of those given morphological training and some of those given phonological training were also taught how to represent these distinctions in writing. All 4 intervention groups did better than the control group in a standardized test of…

This meta-analysis examined whether writing about stressful experiences affects health care utilization (HCU) compared with writing on neutral topics or no-writing control groups. Randomized controlled trials of 30 independent samples representing 2,294 participants were located that contained sufficient information to calculate effect sizes.…

This study investigated the effect of Systematic Desensitisation (SD) therapy on the reduction of test anxiety on some identified test anxious students. In addition, three secondary independent variables were studied along. These were entry test anxiety level, sex, and locus of control. A 2 x 2 x 2 way factorial design was employed. SD was found…

This work examines the association between symbols and their representation in adult developmental dyscalculia and dyslexia. Experiment 1 used comparative judgment of numerals, and it was found that in physical comparisons (e.g., 3-5 vs. 3-5) the dyscalculia group showed a significantly smaller congruity effect than did the dyslexia and the…

This study examined the effectiveness of a commercially available social skills training program plus classroom reinforcement for use with preschoolers with developmental delays. Two groups of 19 participants each received either the combined treatment package or classroom reinforcement of target behaviors only. An additional 20 participants…

The paper discusses two common scenarios in which evaluators must conduct impact evaluations when working under budget, time, or data constraints. Under the first scenario the evaluator is not called in until the project is already well advanced, and there is a tight deadline for completing the evaluation, frequently combined with a limited budget…

The teaching faculty for this course sought to address their own concerns about the quality of student learning in an impersonal large lecture biology class for majors, the difficulties in getting to know each student by name, and difficulties in soliciting answers and reactions from the students during the lecture. Questions addressed by this…

The Portland Neurotoxicity Scale (PNS) is a brief patient-based survey of neurotoxicity complaints commonly encountered with the use of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). The authors present data on the validity of this scale, particularly when used in longitudinal studies. Participants included 55 healthy controls, 23 epilepsy patient controls, and 86…

A storybook intervention for kindergarten children that integrates principles of explicit vocabulary instruction within the shared storybook reading experience is described with findings from an experimental study demonstrating the effects of this intervention on the vocabulary development of kindergarten students at risk of reading difficulty.…

We conducted 2 studies to assess and enhance levels of graduate preparation. In Study 1, 248 undergraduates and 28 graduate students completed a new measure of graduate preparation, the Grad Prep Quiz. Results documented the psychometric utility and the predictive validity of the measure, with graduate students scoring significantly higher on this…

The study investigated whether changes in the educational context of teaching Arabic as a second language in Israeli schools affect students' attitudes towards the language, its speakers and culture, and motivation to study the language. These changes included teaching spoken Arabic rather than Modern Standard Arabic and lowering the starting age…

The authors examined the effects of a simplified English dictionary accommodation on the reading-test performance of Hmong English-language learners (ELLs). Participants included a control group of 69 non-ELL students and an experimental group of 133 Hmong ELLs from 3 urban middle schools in Minnesota. In a randomized counterbalanced design, all…

The processes behind the transition from consistently failing tests of false belief understanding to consistently passing the tests was investigated by tracking changes in children's mental state understanding. Participants were 42 children (aged 3;1 to 4;3). There were two conditions; an experimental condition in which children were tested on a…

It is increasingly argued that the effectiveness of health promotion interventions should be measured to inform policy and practice. The randomized controlled trial (RCT) continues to be regarded as the "gold standard" of health services research but health promotion practitioners have raised concerns about the RCT's appropriateness for evaluating…

Background: The objective of this study was to investigate the tendency for local processing style ("weak central coherence") and executive dysfunction in parents of subjects with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared with parents of individuals with early onset schizophrenia (EOS) and mental retardation (MR). Method: Sixty-two…