Single-task and dual-task versions of verbal and spatial serial order memory tasks were administered to 120 students tested for working memory capacity with four previously validated measures. In the dual-task versions, similarity between the memory material and the material of the secondary processing task was varied. With verbal material, three…

As part of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, many states are using confidence intervals to determine a range of scores for evaluating a school system. More specifically, the states are employing confidence intervals to help minimize measurement error in determining a school system's performance. The methodology and techniques employed in…

A possible role of the cerebellum in detecting and recognizing event sequences has been proposed. The present study sought to determine whether patients with cerebellar lesions are impaired in the acquisition and discrimination of sequences of sensory stimuli of different modalities. A group of 26 cerebellar patients and 26 controls matched for…

The impact of a previously successful or unsuccessful experience on the subsequent acquisition of a related task is not well understood. The nature of past experience may have even greater impact in individuals with learning deficits, as their cognitive processes can be easily disrupted. Mice with a targeted disruption of the [alpha] and [delta]…

If we let all students at Ithaca College be our population, then our Office of Institutional Research can provide us with various parameters about this population. For example, we can obtain parameters regarding SAT scores, birth month, and GPA. Each student samples from the population and we compare their results to the parameters. This allows us…

Fifty-four students were tested at specific time intervals over 10 years to determine best native language (NL) predictors of oral and written foreign language (FL) proficiency and FL aptitude. All participants completed two years of Spanish, French, or German. Each was administered measures of NL literacy, oral language, and cognitive ability in…

Prospective expectations for retirement and retrospective accounts of past work experiences are typically used in cross-sectional empirical studies of retirement. Unfortunately, little is known about the accuracy of such accounts. Therefore, in the present longitudinal study, we built on the work of Beehr and Nielson (1995) by examining the…

The calculation of composite indicators and the derivation of respective rankings is a common method used to benchmark countries or regions. However, although the statistical robustness of these rankings is often criticised, they often still spark off heated political debate. Here, we assess the sensitivity of the province ranking published by the…

In meta-analysis, the usual way of assessing whether a set of single studies is homogeneous is by means of the Q test. However, the Q test only informs meta-analysts about the presence versus the absence of heterogeneity, but it does not report on the extent of such heterogeneity. Recently, the I[squared] index has been proposed to quantify the…

Background: Many early intervention teams are shifting their service delivery for children with disabilities from a child-focused model to one that focuses on strengthening the competence and confidence of the child's caregivers (parents, childcare providers, preschool teachers). The use of coaching strategies in a primary coach model of service…

Children in a home-based early childhood education program who received weekly visits did not learn more than children visited every two weeks. Both home instruction programs did improve children's achievement, however, and this study suggests that, if visits occur every two weeks, money can be saved at no cost to learning. (PP)

A generalized Rasch model is presented for measuring attitudes; it is based on the concepts of Thurstone's method of successive intervals. Benefits of the model are illustrated with a study of students' (N=4,035 fifth through ninth graders) interest in physics. (SLD)

Test-item writing efforts typically results in item pools with an undesirable correlational structure between the content attributes of the items and their statistical information. If such pools are used in computerized adaptive testing (CAT), the algorithm may be forced to select items with less than optimal information, that violate the content…

We explored relationships between violent behaviors and perceived life satisfaction among 2,138 middle school students in a southern state using the CDC Middle School Youth Risk Behavior Survey (MSYRBS) and the Brief Multidimensional Student Life Satisfaction Scale (BMSLSS). Logistic regression analyses and multivariate models constructed…

Background: Delay aversion, the motivation to escape or avoid delay, results in preference for small immediate over large delayed rewards. Delay aversion has been proposed as one distinctive psychological process that may underlie the behavioural symptoms and cognitive deficits of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Furthermore, the…