Reviews current literature about personal, demographic, situational, and cognitive attributes that affect computer-aided decision making. The effectiveness of computer-aided decision making is explored in relation to decision quality, effectiveness, and confidence. Studies of the effects of age, anxiety, cognitive type, attitude, gender, and prior…

Reviews school-based approaches to prevention of adolescent alcohol use and abuse undertaken in the 1950s through the 1970s and discusses problems associated with such studies, remedies to these problems, and current school-based approaches. Also discusses the Alcohol Misuse Prevention Study, a longitudinal intervention undertaken in the 1980s to…

Two studies of adults between the ages of 18 and 87 were conducted to determine the relations among age, motor speed, perceptual speed and 3 measures of cognitive performance: study time, decision time, and decision accuracy. Results indicated that increased age was associated with lower accuracy as well as with longer study and decision time.…

During college and after one year of teaching, elementary educators completed surveys regarding their expected computer use in teaching, noting personal variables that might predict computer use. Though 97% predicted computer use, only 61% actually used computers. Self-competence and perceived relevance predicted computer use initially, though not…

Describes an instrument designed to assess the suicide potential of youth (ages 14-18) who are at risk for suicidal behaviors. Two samples were used to examine psychometric properties of the Measure of Adolescent Potential for Suicide (MAPS). Results revealed strong validity (content, criterion, construct) and reliability (internal consistency)…

Examines conditions for improving children's predictions about their own academic performance. First-grade children were paired and assigned to one of four groups created by varying whether the pair was asked to collaborate on a performance prediction and was rewarded for the accuracy of that prediction. Neither of the two treatments, nor…

Examined the relationship of parental attitudes and parental warmth to child academic skills and self-perceptions of competence. Suggests that although parental warmth was not significantly correlated with parental attitudes about early academics, and neither academic attitudes nor warmth predicted child achievement on an Academic Skills…

Describes a study of variables associated with student intentions to attend community colleges or other higher education institutions, based on responses to the student profile section of the American College Testing Assessment Program. Indicates that community college students were generally lower achievers than others but had taken more advanced…

Studied is the validity of a theoretical model of achievement behaviors of 746 eighth grade students. Hypothesized effects of value of mathematics and expectations for success were not apparent. Direct influences on achievement for male were prior achievement and value, but for females, influences of difficulty, male domain stereotyping, and…

Assessed correlations between 415 first graders' scores on the Metropolitan Readiness Test (MRT), and their scores on standardized achievement tests in mathematics and reading in grades 3, 6, 9, and 10. Concluded that the MRT has potential for contributing to readiness decisions in early grades. (MM)

Israeli researchers investigated the relationship between dimensions of teachers' self-concept and burnout and between teachers' perceptions of how significant others viewed them and burnout. Surveys indicated teachers needed job satisfaction to avoid burnout. Teachers believed their job was complicated by others failing to understand the…

Describes a study of preservice teachers that examined the statistical relationships of computer anxiety, computer literacy, equipment familiarity, age, learning style, gender, and teaching area to a teacher's anticipated use of multimedia. Implications for the instructional design of multimedia technology training for preservice teachers are…

Discusses an empirical study that examined the relative efficiency of individual differences variables and user-based situational variables as predictors of the actual information/knowledge needed by users to accomplish word processing tasks. Information seeking versus information use is discussed, and results of canonical correlation analyses are…

Secondary students (88 with learning disabilities and 103 without) completed a substance abuse screening inventory. Of the 30 students who were classified as chemically dependent, 70% were students with learning disabilities. The presence or absence of a learning disability was a better predictor of chemical dependency than gender, ethnicity, age,…

A study found that, among 181 dental students, belief in the right to refuse treatment to human-immunovirus (HIV)-positive patients was best predicted by nonprofessional attitudes, low optimism, low level of comfort with homosexuality, and gender. Knowledge of HIV, year in dental school, and fear of contagion were not reliable predictors.…