Print exposure, reading habits, and reading achievement among deaf and hearing college students

This study explored relations of print exposure, academic achievement, and reading habits among 100 deaf and 100 hearing college students. As in earlier studies, recognition tests for book titles and magazine titles were used as measures of print exposure, college entrance test scores were used as measures of academic achievement, and students provided self-reports of reading habits. Deaf students recognized fewer magazine titles and fewer book titles appropriate for reading levels from kindergarten through Grade 12 while reporting more weekly hours of reading. As in previous studies with hearing college students, the title recognition test proved a better predictor of deaf and hearing students' English achievement than how many hours they reported reading. The finding that the recognition tests were relatively more potent predictors of achievement for deaf students than hearing students may reflect the fact that deaf students often obtain less information through incidental learning and classroom presentations.     

Cognitive and environmental predictors of early literacy skills

Not all young children benefit from book exposure in preschool age. It is claimed that the ability to hold information in mind (short-term memory), to ignore distraction (inhibition), and to focus attention and stay focused (sustained attention) may have a moderating effect on children’s reactions to the home literacy environment. In a group of 228 junior kindergarten children with a native Dutch background, with a mean age of 54.29 months (SD = 2.12 months), we explored therefore the relationship between book exposure, cognitive control and early literacy skills. Parents filled in a HLE questionnaire (book sharing frequency and an author recognition checklist as indicator of parental leisure reading habits), and children completed several tests in individual sessions with the researcher (a book-cover recognition test, PPVT, letter knowledge test, the subtests categories and patterns of the SON, and cognitive control measures namely digit span of the KABC, a peg tapping task and sustained attention of the ANT). Main findings were: (1) Children’s storybook knowledge mediated the relationship between home literacy environment and literacy skills. (2) Both vocabulary and letter knowledge were predicted by book exposure. (3) Short-term memory predicted vocabulary over and above book exposure. (4) None of the cognitive control mechanisms moderated the beneficial effects of book exposure.     

评《红楼梦》研究中李希凡蓝翎对俞平伯的批判

俞平伯是继胡适之后“新红学”的权威作家。《红楼梦辨》是他的早期著作,也是他研究《红楼梦》的基本成果。解放后由此书修订而成出版了《红楼梦研究》。这本书最有价值的是对高鄂续书问题的考证和评述,但他在《作者底态度》《红楼梦底风格》等篇中提出的一些观点,却引起了后来人们极大的争议,并在解放初期引发了一场在《红楼梦》研究中对“新红学”派的批判。这场批判的领军人物即李希凡和蓝翎。     

Big books: How to make them and use them

Big — bold — beautiful — they're called big books, and preschool teachers are regularly discovering their exciting educational potential. Traditionally, using books with children is a practice that adults have used since they were first developed in the sixteenth century. Indeed, most preschool classrooms include centers which are called by a variety of names — book nook, book corner, book center, storytime center, reading center, or some other title. It's rare to find a child who does not respond to book reading or storytelling, and teachers of young children routinely plan time each day to read a book to their youngsters. Educationally, their use is acceptable practice for children of all ages. Laverne Warner is a professor of early childhood education at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX. This article draws on material published by the author in Texas Child Care Quarterly,(Summer, 1990), 13:4, 3–8.     

Elementary school-age children's capacity to choose positive diagnostic and negative diagnostic tests

Two experiments involving 72 elementary school-age children (mean age = 10 years, 3 months, range = 9,4-11,8) and 72 adults compared the ability of participants to choose positive and negative diagnostic tests over positive and negative nondiagnostic tests. Both experiments employed novel test materials, which resolved any issues regarding the effects of context on test strategy employment. In Experiment 1, both children and adults were significantly more likely to prefer positive diagnostic tests over positive nondiagnostic tests; however, only adults demonstrated a significant preference for negative diagnostic tests over positive nondiagnostic ones. In Experiment 2, both children and adults were more likely to choose negative diagnostic tests over negative nondiagnostic tests, demonstrating that despite a strong positive test bias, children could reason diagnostically in selecting among negative tests in cases in which only negative test choices were available.     

洒然的青春忆念——读朱天心的小说《击壤歌》

《击壤歌》是朱天心17岁时所写的作品,它的诞生,缘起于一个"坏的建议":有人建议作者写部类似《接受联考的学生》的书,遭到朱的排斥。后来她写出了纪念高中友情的《击壤歌》。作者用笔记下当时的风日,亲爱友人,当时的每一丝情牵,见证曾有那么一群人是这样匆忙活过的。     

Take home tests: An experimental study

The take home test was compared with the conventional closed and open book tests at the college level. It was found that scores on knowledge items were significantly higher with the take home test, and that additional time spent looking up answers was important. An additional factor was the level of anxiety, perceived by students to be less with the take home test. Rampant cheating does not appear to be a problem with take home tests.     

“地球科学概论”双语教学开卷考试分析

笔者在＂地球科学概论＂双语教学中率先尝试开卷考试,经过5年的实践检验,效果良好。在介绍了考卷特征、考试规则、考试效果及反馈情况之后,笔者对这种考试方式进行了分析,可获得4点认识：一是考试本身也是一个极好的学习过程;二是从根本上杜绝考试作弊;三是改变＂考前背重点＂的片面学习方式,促使学生更全面地掌握课程内容;四是更客观地反映教与学的效果。这种考试方式鼓励学生考出水平,考出尊严,有利于形成良好的学习风气,值得在性质类似的课程中推广。     

《金瓶梅词话》作者为武进作家白悦续考

在笔者系列论文的第一篇《（金瓶梅词话）作者为武进作家白悦》之后,从皇甫济为白悦诗文集《白洛原遗稿》所作的序、徐阶为白悦撰墓志铭及《金瓶梅词话》内证等入手,可以进一步证实《金瓶梅词话》的作者为江苏武进作家白悦,并由此对这部小说的最早传播作出合理的推测。     

Test mode anticipation and performance: A classroom experiment

The study investigated the effect of test mode anticipation on performance in the anticipated and the unanticipated mode in four sections (same instructor) of a first-year college algebra course. To build up anticipation, students in two sections received recall tests, and students in the other two sections received recognition tests over 6 successive weeks. Following this, the test mode was changed without warning for half the students in each section. Results showed that performance suffered when the test mode was changed for students anticipating a recognition test. Students anticipating a recall test did equally well in both test modes.     

书名号与括号的次序

当需要用括号对书名号所标示的文本的性质特点等进行注释说明的时候,书名号的后一半和括号的书写存在着一个先后次序问题。注释书名号所标示的文本的括号,应该放在书名号的后一半的后边,即书名号的外面;注释书名、篇名、报刊名本身或其中的某个词语的括号,应该放在书名号的后一半的前边,即书名号的里面。     

Imagery and Verbal Ability and Recognition Memory for Pictures and Words in Males and Females

Objective and subjective indices of imagery and verbal ability and their relationship to recognition memory for pictures and concrete words were examined in a large correlational study. Objective spatial tests of imagery proved to be better predictors of picture recognition than were self‐assessments, the Flags test excepted. Spatial tests also predicted word memory in males, but not females. Imagery control and imagery vividness bore little relation to recognition; vividness within specific modalities may have some influence, however, particularly in males. Verbal fluency and verbal comprehension were either unrelated or marginally negatively related to performance. In general, a more specialised pattern of ability‐performance correlations emerged for females than for males.     

城市即人民

本文试图借用丘吉尔市长的书名为题,再借用美国俄勒冈州波特兰市(Portland,Oregon)50年发展规划和实施效果,并结合个人在波特兰的亲身体验,将个人心得体会扼要道来,揭示当今中国城市发展当中的一个要害问题。     

Emotion recognition ability in mothers at high and low risk for child physical abuse

OBJECTIVE: The study sought to determine if high-risk, compared to low-risk, mothers make more emotion recognition errors when they attempt to recognize emotions in children and adults. METHOD: Thirty-two demographically matched high-risk (n = 16) and low-risk (n = 16) mothers were asked to identify different emotions expressed by children and adults. Sets of high- and low-intensity, visual and auditory emotions were presented. Mothers also completed measures of stress, depression, and ego-strength. RESULTS: High-risk, compared to low-risk, mothers showed a tendency to make more errors on the visual and auditory emotion recognition tasks, with a trend toward more errors on the low-intensity, visual stimuli. However, the observed trends were not significant. Only a post-hoc test of error rates across all stimuli indicated that high-risk, compared to low-risk, mothers made significantly more emotion recognition errors. Although situational stress differences were not found, high-risk mothers reported significantly higher levels of general parenting stress and depression and lower levels of ego-strength. CONCLUSIONS: Since only trends and a significant post hoc finding of more overall emotion recognition errors in high-risk mothers were observed, additional research is needed to determine if high-risk mothers have emotion recognition deficits that may impact parent-child interactions. As in prior research, the study found that high-risk mothers reported more parenting stress and depression and less ego-strength.     

《海录》与中国近代法律的启蒙

820年刊行的《海录》,是中国现存最早介绍世界各国概况的著作。作者谢清高在其书中第一次向我们展示了海外近代法律的一些概况,并引介了中国近代第一批法律新词。     

浅议答辩辞

答辩辞包含课题的选取、论文的主要内容、实验、调查、参考文献、我的研究工作(创新点)和有待于进一步解决的问题、对将来工作的影响,致谢等部分。     

The overall effects of end-of-course assessment on student performance: A comparison between multiple choice testing, peer assessment, case-based assessment and portfolio assessment

This study investigates the effect of method of assessment on student performance. Five research conditions go together with one of four assessment modes, namely: portfolio, case-based, peer assessment, and multiple choice evaluation. Data collection is done by means of a pre-test/ post-test-design with the help of two standardised tests (N=816). Results show that assessment method does make a difference: assessments do not produce overall effects on student performance. Moreover, student-activating instruction efforts do not automatically result in more extensive learning gains. Finally, test results show, when compared to other assessments, a statistically significant positive effect of the multiple choice test on students' test scores. However, students' preparation level and the closed book format of the tests might serve explanatory purposes.     

CLOZE MEASURES AS INDICES OF ACHIEVEMENT COMPREHENSION WHEN LEARNING FROM EXTENDED PROSE

The hypothesis that cloze measures are a function of content achievement among adult learners and, consequently, should be sensitive to instructional treatments was tested in two experimental studies. College juniors and seniors took tests immediately before (pre), immediately after (post) and four weeks after (delay) studying a prose passage. The types of tests administered in each session were: (I) a 20-item multiple-choice test, (2) a reproduction passage cloze test, (3) a recognition passage cloze test, (4) a reproduction summary cloze test, and (5) a recognition summary cloze test. All tests show significant differences between pre- and posteonditions, and between recognition and reproduction modes. The reproduction summary cloze test was found to be the most sensitive to the instructional treatment, as indicated by an oJ 2 statistic on pre-post measures. The summary cloze tests were resistant to forgetting while the cloze passage and multiple-choice tests show significant decreases in performance over the four week delay interval.     

Memory for pictures: a life-span study of the role of visual detail

This experiment assessed the effect of the amount of physical detail in pictures on picture recognition memory for 7-year-olds, 9-year-olds, young adults, and older adults over 68. Subjects were presented simple and complex line drawings, factorially combined in a "same-different" recognition test with simple or complex forms of each. For each age group, recognition accuracy was significantly higher for pictures presented in the simple than in the complex form. This effect was due to differences between simple and complex pictures in the correct rejection rate but not the hit rate; subjects were less accurate detecting deletions from changed complex pictures than additions to changed simple pictures. The older adults were no better than chance at correctly rejecting changed complex pictures. Although increasing the presentation duration from 5 sec to 15 sec increased overall accuracy, it did not increase subjects' ability to correctly reject changed complex pictures. Results are interpreted in terms of schematic encoding and storage of pictures. Accordingly, visual information that communicates the central schema of each picture is more likely to be encoded and retained in memory than information that does not communicate this schema.     

THE INFLUENCE OF TEST TITLE ON TEST RESPONSE

This study was designed to determine the extent to which responses to test items of the type frequently found in personality inventories would be influenced by the title associated with the test. The basic hypothesis was that subjects respond to the test title by developing a particular response set which will be reflected in the individual responses. An instrument was constructed and administered to eight treatment groups. Each administration differed primarily in the title each group's tests bore. The dependent variables were measures of the tendency to lie, respond defensively, answer carefully, and complete questions. Subjects tended to lie and respond more defensively to titled tests than to a test having no title and administered under nonthreatening conditions. All other comparisons were not statistically significant.