A standard mattress can be positioned on a bed frame in any of four orientations. Suppose that four times a year the mattress is rotated into one of the three possible new orientations, chosen at random. According to an article in The American Scientist, a computer simulation suggests the rather surprising result that over a period of 10 years,…

A recent fear-potentiated startle study in rodents suggested that extinction was not context dependent when extinction was conducted after a short delay following acquisition, suggesting that extinction can lead to erasure of fear learning in some circumstances. The main objective of this study was to attempt to replicate these findings in humans…

Fit of the model to the data is important if the benefits of item response theory (IRT) are to be obtained. In this study, the authors compared model selection results using the likelihood ratio test, two information-based criteria, and two Bayesian methods. An example illustrated the potential for inconsistency in model selection depending on…

Chinese readers' eye movements were simulated in the context of the E-Z Reader model, which was developed to account for the eye movements of readers of English. Despite obvious differences between English and Chinese, the model did a fairly good job of simulating the eye movements of Chinese readers. The successful simulation suggests that the…

Estimating standard errors of estimated variance components has long been a challenging task in generalizability theory. Researchers have speculated about the potential applicability of the bootstrap for obtaining such estimates, but they have identified problems (especially bias) in using the bootstrap. Using Brennan's bias-correcting procedures…

Many statistics used in the assessment of differential item functioning (DIF) in polytomous items yield a single item-level index of measurement invariance that collapses information across all response options of the polytomous item. Utilizing a single item-level index of DIF can, however, be misleading if the magnitude or direction of the DIF…

One of the most serious difficulties in the estimation of omega[subscript hierarchical] ([omega][subscript h]) has not been previously studied. Although it is true that one can impose a set of identifying constraints on one's solution to derive an estimate of [omega][subscript h] in the two-group factor case, there is the potential for introducing…

Recently, J. J. Starns and J. L. Hicks (2005) have argued that source dimensions are retrieved independently from memory. In their innovative experiment, manipulating the retrievability of 1 source feature did not affect memory for a 2nd feature. Following C. S. Dodson and A. P. Shimamura (2000), the authors argue that the source memory measure…

Factor mixture models are designed for the analysis of multivariate data obtained from a population consisting of distinct latent classes. A common factor model is assumed to hold within each of the latent classes. Factor mixture modeling involves obtaining estimates of the model parameters, and may also be used to assign subjects to their most…

This submission contains the Proceedings of the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group (CMESG), held at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. The CMESG is a group of mathematicians and mathematics educators who meet annually to discuss mathematics education issues at all levels of learning. The aims of the…

These proceedings contain the papers and posters of the International Conference on e-Learning (EL) 2019, which was organised by the International Association for Development of the Information Society and co-organised by the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, in Porto, Portugal, July 17-19, 2019. The EL 2019 conference aims to address the…

The visual effects (VFX) industry continues to evolve on an almost daily basis. While new technologies and techniques help to make VFX work easier, the growth of the industry makes teaching and learning digital visual effects (DVE) increasingly challenging. Despite the availability of DVE education today, there is a constant shortage of qualified…

In this paper, an interactive teaching approach to introduce the concept of sampling distributions using the statistical software program, R, is shown. One advantage of this approach is that the program R is freely available via the internet. Instructors can easily demonstrate concepts in class, outfit entire computer labs, and/or assign the…

This article elaborates on how the technical capabilities of virtual reality support the constructivist learning principles. It introduces VRID, a model for instructional design and development that offers explicit guidance on how to produce an educational virtual environment. The define phase of VRID consists of three main tasks: forming a…

The experience of "virtual reality" can consist of head-tracked and stereoscopic virtual worlds, spatialized sound, haptic feedback, and to a lesser extent olfactory cues. Although virtual reality systems have been proposed for numerous applications, the field of education is one particular application that seems well-suited for virtual…