Three experiments examined limitations in 5-year-olds' understanding of mental and linguistic representations. Findings indicated relatively poor performance on task involving two labels for one object, requiring children to treat another's knowledge as representing only some feature of its real referent: dice but not eraser. There were parallel…

A total of 45 3-month-olds were observed for stability in forming visual expectations. Findings indicate that infant performance in the Visual Expectation Paradigm is reliable as early as 3 months. Individual differences exist in infants' tendency to form visual expectations. (RH)

Proposes a multiple contingencies theory that simultaneously examines task and dependence effects on unit design and efficiency. The model is tested, using data from 529 work units in 60 employment security offices. Units facing conflicting contingencies are more prone to design misfit and lower performance. Includes 40 references. (MLH)

A literature review examined what aspects of performance should be assessed, what methods are appropriate, whether competency-based assessments should be graded, whether assessments should be done in the workplace or training institutions, and whose responsibility they are. Competence should be very broadly defined as both technical skills and as…

Identifies essential elements for a useful needs assessment audit as a performance improvement tool. Pertinent terms are defined; a needs assessment audit checklist is provided; rating the needs assessment process is discussed; and other approaches to needs assessment are described. (Contains five references.) (LRW)

Proposes a new lock primitive called ordered sharing that allows increased concurrency in database systems. Reliability and performance issues of the proposed protocol are addressed, a simulation study that demonstrates that ordered sharing results in improved performance in database systems is described; and use in several representative database…

Results of three experiments support the conclusion that tasks involving the localization of objects or events from mirror images are not direct indices of self-recognition among children between 14 and 22 months of age. Rather, they indicate the skill of infants in using the mirror as a perceptual tool. (RH)

Discussion of performance improvement focuses on work processes. Highlights include a definition of process; types of process steps, including operational and nonoperational; desired process characteristics, including high reliability and low variability; a comparison of two different processes; and suggestions for process improvement, including…

To examine the basis of familiar associations with poor language achievement, 62 twin pairs and 3 triplet sets were studied in which at least one member presented poor oral-language status in the absence of other impairments. The language status of monozygotic pairs was highly similar. (Author/CR)

Analyzes the three major inferences involved in interpretation of performance assessments: (1) scoring of the observed performances; (2) generalization to a domain of assessment performances like those included in the assessment; and (3) extrapolation to the large performance domain of interest. Suggests ways to improve the validity of performance…

Discusses the role of managers as coaches in organizations that aspire to become learning organizations and reports the results of a qualitative critical incident study that investigated the triggers for coaching and the outcomes of coaching interventions for the individual employee, manager, and organization in terms of performance. (Author/LRW)

Evaluates the relative merits of approaches to measuring corporate and competitive performance: financial, stakeholder, admiration, reputation, and corporate logic models. Promotes a holistic framework for selecting appropriate measures that considers strategic success in terms of values, environment, and resources. (SK)

Describes the technology involved in codecs (compression/decompression products) that are used by CD-ROM producers to compress video to CD-ROM data transfer rates for multimedia materials. The performance of codecs is evaluated both for quality and for ease of use, and recommendations are offered. (LRW)

Cognitive and decision-making capabilities and motor responses were assessed for 24 older adults using 15 videotaped driving scenarios. Older drivers performed better on the simulation than the written test. Men performed better, drove more miles per year, and did more highway driving, differences attributed to handgrip strength or sex-role…

Three experiments examined factors influencing whether young children consider function, as opposed to appearance or shape, when extending names of novel artifacts. Findings indicated that 4-year-olds extend names based on demonstrated function more often when that function provides a plausible causal account of perceptible object structure, when…