Two experiments explored effects of intervention and test conditions on preschoolers' use of counting to compare two sets. At mean age of 4 years 4 months, children in two intervention groups were more likely to use counting to compare sets than those in control group. Use of counting to compare sets was closely related to counting performance.…

Introduces and draws on other papers in this issue to discuss how task performance is achieved in workplace settings and the extent to which the knowledge needed for task performance is generic. Explores these questions from a variety of theoretical frameworks. (SLD)

Discussion of benchmarking focuses on the use of internal and external benchmarking by special librarians. Highlights include defining types of benchmarking; historical development; benefits, including efficiency, improved performance, increased competitiveness, and better decision making; problems, including inappropriate adaptation; developing a…

Argues that dual-task performance is currently not interpretable because several compatible hypotheses have been offered to account for dual-task interference. Demonstrates inability to discriminate among alternative hypotheses by constructing a model which includes limited resources and response competition and requires running at least eight…

Presents findings of organizational learning literature that could substantiate claims of learning organization proponents. Examines four learning processes and their contribution to performance-based learning management: knowledge acquisition, information distribution, information interpretation, and organizational memory. (SK)

Lessons regarding performance measurement that have been learned since the inception of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) include the following: (1) performance standards drive program behavior; (2) performance standards should clearly reflect policy goals; (3) incentives get results; (4) keep it simple; and (5) performance standards are a…

Describes the Logic Model process, a tool used by program evaluators to tell the performance story of their program. The model describes the logical linkages among program resources, activities, outputs, customers reached, and short, intermediate, and longer-term outcomes. (SLD)

Discusses learning in organizations, competitiveness, and training effectiveness. Describes a study that was conducted to determine if it is possible to link sales production to participation in classroom sales training, and if so, what elements seem to be most useful in enhancing employee performance and sales performance. (Author/LRW)

Summarizes a prototype geographical image retrieval system that demonstrates how to integrate image processing and information analysis techniques to support large-scale content-based image retrieval. Describes an experiment to validate the performance of this image retrieval system against that of human subjects by examining similarity analysis…

The two articles of this theme section consider problems of measurement in relation to games. "How Good was Bobby Fischer in 1992?" (John Michael Linacre) explores a Rasch analysis of the chess performance of Bobby Fischer, while "Objective Analysis of Golf" (Patrick Fisher) considers measurement problems presented by golf.…

Adolescents (n=99) with learning disabilities were administered the Test of Memory and Learning (TOMAL) (C. Reynolds and E. Bigler, 1994), and Cronbach's alpha was calculated based on their responses. Alpha values were also computed for a control group. TOMAL performance of adolescents with learning disabilities tends to be as reliable as…

Provides a theoretical account of children's success on theory of mind (ToM) tasks and the discrepancies found across different ToM tasks, and examines the role of indexical and symbolic referencing. Found that 4- to 6-year-olds succeeded more on tasks with a high ratio of indexical to symbolic references than on tasks with a high ratio of…

Used Dolence's (1989-90) enrollment management effectiveness framework to assess which enrollment management effectiveness factors are most related to institutional enrollment performance. Survey results from higher education enrollment managers indicated that participation/integration is most related to enrollment performance; other key factors…

Assessed delayed-response performance in 120 infants 7, 9, and 11 months old. Correct response was identified as either retrieval of a hidden object or a gaze toward its location. Performance improved with age, was above chance for each age group in each condition, and was more often correct for gaze response, suggesting a significant effect of…

This research reports findings from field observations of debriefing sessions following organizational operations in interactive simulation systems. Focuses on the relationship of different debriefing session techniques to identification of potential organizational learning opportunities to improve performance. (Author/LRW)