Writing a faulty literature review is one of many ways to derail a dissertation. This article summarizes some pivotal information on how to write a high-quality dissertation literature review. It begins with a discussion of the purposes of a review, presents taxonomy of literature reviews, and then discusses the steps in conducting a quantitative…

Since 2006, the details of bodies making up our solar system have been revised. This was largely as a result of new discoveries of a number of planet-like objects beyond the orbit of Pluto. The International Astronomical Union redefined what constituted a planet and established two new classifications--dwarf planets and plutoids. As a result, the…

In 2007 a South African study examined new concept formation from early childhood to adulthood (N = 60, 3 to 76 years old) using the Vygotsky/Sakharov Blocks procedure (also known as the functional method of double stimulation for the study of concept formation) to establish whether contemporary adults and children produced the same or similar…

Interest in modeling the structure of latent variables is gaining momentum, and many simulation studies suggest that taxometric analysis can validly assess the relative fit of categorical and dimensional models. The generation and parallel analysis of categorical and dimensional comparison data sets reduces the subjectivity required to interpret…

Every aspect of higher education today is pressed to become more accountable and more transparent. The field of continuing education (CE) is no different. CE professionals, responsible for the operations of university-based CE units, are constantly challenged to use data and "evidence" to make and justify decisions. Indeed, one measure of the…

Recent research on the learning process has shown that students tend to learn in different ways and that they prefer to use different teaching resources as well. Many researchers agree on the fact that learning materials shouldn't just reflect of the teacher's style, but should be designed for all kinds of students and all kind of learning styles.…

There are many different models or approaches to doing program evaluation. Fitzpatrick, Sanders, and Worthen classify them into five general approaches: (a) objectives oriented, (b) management oriented, (c) consumer oriented, (d) expertise oriented, and (e) participant oriented. Within each of these general categories, of course, reside many…

Naive observers typically perceive some groupings for a set of stimuli as more intuitive than others. The problem of predicting category intuitiveness has been historically considered the remit of models of unsupervised categorization. In contrast, this article develops a measure of category intuitiveness from one of the most widely supported…

Mintz (2003 ) described a distributional environment called a frame, defined as the co-occurrence of two context words with one intervening target word. Analyses of English child-directed speech showed that words that fell within any frequently occurring frame consistently belonged to the same grammatical category (e.g. noun, verb, adjective,…

In this paper I argue for a property-driven approach to phonological typology. Rather than seeking to classify or label languages, the central goal of phonological typology is to determine how different languages systematize the phonetic substance available to all languages. The paper focuses on a very murky area in phonological typology,…

In this paper, I review evidence from two theories in psychology relevant to diagnosis and diagnostic errors. "Dual Process" theories of thinking, frequently mentioned with respect to diagnostic error, propose that categorization decisions can be made with either a fast, unconscious, contextual process called System 1 or a slow, analytical,…

Responding adequately to parental priorities for child care is important for shaping children's early experiences and development, and for facilitating parenting at the nexus of work and caregiving roles. Although much research on child care choice has relied on variable-centered approaches that treat parental priorities as distinct and isolated,…

The paper by Drs. Rupp and Templin provides a much needed step toward the general application of diagnostic classification modeling (DCMs). The authors have provided a summary of many of the concepts that one must consider to properly apply a DCM (which ranges from model selection and estimation, to assessing the appropriateness of the model using…

As a basis for a systematic approach to investigating the effects of written corrective feedback, this article presents a typology of the different types available to teachers and researchers. The typology distinguishes two sets of options relating to (1) strategies for providing feedback (for example, direct, indirect, or metalinguistic feedback)…

Exemplar sequencing effects in incidental and intentional unsupervised category learning were investigated to illuminate how people form categories without an external teacher. Stimuli were perfectly separable into 2 categories based on 1 of 2 dimensions of variation. Sequencing of the first 20 training stimuli was manipulated. In the blocked…