Response inhibition is a hallmark of cognitive control. An executive system inhibits responses by activating a stop goal when a stop signal is presented. The authors asked whether the stop goal could be primed by task-irrelevant information in stop-signal and go/no-go paradigms. In Experiment 1, the task-irrelevant primes "GO," ###, or "STOP" were…

The acquisition of volitional control depends, in part, on developing the ability to countermand a planned action. Many tasks have been used to tap the efficiency of this process, but few studies have investigated how it may be modulated by participants' motivation. Multiple mechanisms may be involved in the deliberate exercise of caution when…

Concepts in probability can be more readily understood if students are first exposed to probability via experiment. Performing probability experiments encourages students to develop understandings of probability grounded in real events, as opposed to merely computing answers based on formulae.

Analysis and interpretation of behavior-environment relations are increasingly being conducted with data that have been derived descriptively. This paper provides an overview of the logic that underlies a sequential analytic approach to the analysis of descriptive data. Several methods for quantifying sequential relations are reviewed along with…

The binomial distribution is used to predict the winner of the 49th International Shooting Sport Federation World Championship in double trap shooting held in 2006 in Zagreb, Croatia. The outcome of the competition was definitely unexpected.

In this article, the classic problem of finding three ways to determine the probability that the pieces of a stick randomly broken in two places will form a triangle is analyzed anew. To be useful in the classroom, an application must be incorporated into an often-crowded curriculum. What is nice about this triangle problem is that it fits in…

The childhood behavior problem as assessed by teachers of over 11,000 boys and girls who were born in 1958 and were part of the British National Child Development Study is reviewed to determine a link between these behaviors and mortality by the age of 46. It is found that childhood behavior problem is linked to long-term mortality beyond…

This article examines some of the various judgmental errors and rationales that high school students make when attempting to solve basic probability exercises. Many of these errors allow the students to arrive at a correct answer and, thus, need to be examined more closely. (Contains 4 tables.)

Reinforcement learning theories postulate that actions are chosen to maximize a long-term sum of positive outcomes based on value functions, which are subjective estimates of future rewards. In simple reinforcement learning algorithms, value functions are updated only by trial-and-error, whereas they are updated according to the decision-maker's…

In probabilistic categorization, also known as multiple cue probability learning (MCPL), people learn to predict a discrete outcome on the basis of imperfectly valid cues. In MCPL, normatively irrelevant cues are usually ignored, which stands in apparent conflict with recent research in deterministic categorization that has shown that people…

The present study investigated the process of producing subject-predicate agreement for conceptually driven distinctions which are morphologically specified, such as natural gender and number, and arbitrary morphological specification of gender and number. The study was conducted in Hebrew, in which agreement rules are very prevalent and include…

This mixed-methodological study explored the factors that predict a student's likelihood to complete an undergraduate program in a STEM discipline at one campus reliant upon that mission. Offered in response to a national imperative for the U.S. to compete globally, researchers contend educators must better prepare a STEM foundation and inspire…

On the basis of official statistics, poverty has halved in Ghana over the period from 1991 to 2005. Our objective in this paper is to assess how far this fall was linked to the creation of better paying jobs and the increase in education. We find that earnings rose rapidly in the period from 1998 to 2005, by 64% for men and by 55% for women. While…

A nonparametric (or distribution-free) statistical quality control chart is used to monitor the cumulative grade point averages (GPAs) of students over time. The chart is designed to detect any statistically significant positive or negative shifts in student GPAs from a desired target level. This nonparametric control chart is based on the…

2009 was the final year of parallel implementation for Mathematical Methods Units 3 and 4 and Mathematical Methods (CAS) Units 3 and 4. From 2006-2009 there was a common technology-free short answer examination that covered the same function, algebra, calculus and probability content for both studies with corresponding expectations for key…