Phonological processing and emergent literacy in younger and older preschool children

Phonological awareness, phonological memory, and phonological access to lexical storage play important roles in acquiring literacy. We examined the convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of these phonological processing abilities (PPA) in 389 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the validity of each PPA as separate from general cognitive ability and separate from each other. Multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) with mean structure demonstrated that older preschoolers have better developed latent PPA than younger preschoolers but that the structure of PPA is equivalent. RAN was found uniquely associated with letter knowledge and text discrimination in younger preschoolers, and PA was found uniquely associated with word reading skills in older preschoolers. Finally, general cognitive ability was only indirectly associated with emergent literacy via PPA. These results highlight the importance of PPA in the early literacy development of English-speaking preschool children.     

非形式逻辑及其早期历史发展

"非形式逻辑"作为逻辑的子领域,最初出现于1970至1980年代的美国和加拿大,本文意在回顾非形式逻辑发展的早期历史进程.本文假定,当我们从历史的角度来考察时,非形式逻辑的本质能够得以阐明.因此,我将以观念史领域的评论作为出发点.之所以不从理论的要素谈起并把历史留给历史学家,其中一个理由在于"非形式逻辑"这个词并不指示一个理论.非形式逻辑部分地可看作是某个思潮,部分地可当作一种论证研究进路,部分地涉及到对逻辑之本质的看法,这些都可以通过考察非形式逻辑的发展史来加以理解.本文的第一部分追溯了非形式逻辑的兴起,概括了其思想史和社会史,并评述了其早期发展中的主要人物、教科书,以及主要的论旨及其社会化.第二部分简要描述了<逻辑的自我辩护>这本教科书中的一些革新.第三部分简要涉及非形式逻辑与其它领域的早期互动.     

Consistently inconsistent: An examination of the variability in the identification of emotional disturbance

The federal definition of emotional disturbance (ED) has been heavily criticized as vaguely defined and poorly operationalized yet there has not been a formal analysis of the reliability of the ED criteria. This study examined the reliability of the federal criteria for a special education designation of ED. A total of 179 school psychologists reviewed a mock special education report, made an eligibility determination, and provided information about their eligibility decision. In all, 56 participants found the student met ED eligibility criteria using 16 different combinations of the five criteria. Krippendorff’s α, a statistic preferred for content analysis, was calculated as a measure of criterion reliability. Results indicated extremely poor reliability (α = 0.2011). These findings demonstrate the importance of redefining the existing criteria.     

Tracking club sport participation from childhood to early adulthood

This study examined the strength of tracking sport participation from childhood to early adulthood among the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study cohort. Participation in sport, dance, or gymnastics as part of a club or group (outside of school) was assessed at ages 7, 9, 15, 18, and 21 years. In addition to the traditionally used correlation coefficients, summary statistics (intraclass correlations; ICC) from random effect models and stability coefficients from generalized estimating equations (GEE) were calculated using all the longitudinal data and controlling for the influence of covariates on tracking strength. Correlation coefficients revealed statistically significant tracking of club sport participation (7-21 years) at low levels (r = .07-0.28). The ICC summary statistic (0.23) was consistent with this, while the GEE suggested moderate tracking (0.59). The results of this study suggest that encouraging sport participation during childhood and adolescence may result in a modest increase in the likelihood of participation later in life. However, the substantial movement into and out of sport participation observed here and in other studies cautions against relying solely on sport promotion among youth as a strategy to promote lifelong participation.     

The effects of extrinsic reinforcement on intrinsic motivation

In this paper, the role of extrinsic reinforcement in intrinsic motivation is discussed in terms of Deci's cognitive attribution theory. The competing response hypothesis and the frustration hypothesis are presented as alternative modes of analysis. “Undermining” is the phenomenon proposed by the cognitive attribution theorists that accounts for reported decrements in intrinsically motivated behaviors following external rewards. The literature regarding undermining in token economy research is critically evaluated. The author concludes that: (a) Cognitive attribution theory lacks parsimony, in that extant reinforcement analysis can account for undermining with equal facility. (b) Undermining is of little significance as a concept, due to its elusive and transient impact on operant behavior.     

Empowerment: In Search of a Viable Paradigm

The word “empowerment” is associated with several different and fundamentally inadequate paradigms. This paper presents an alternative, empowering view of empowerment. The essence of empowerment is increasing the behavior potential of persons, individually and in groups and organizations. Behavior potential is not some abstract concept of “what a person might do if” Instead, it is the totality of behaviors that are actually available to a given person in a given environment. These behaviors do not occur in a vacuum; behavior potential is the intersection of the person's behavioral productions with the organization's expectations and permissions. An individual is empowered to the extent that he or she possesses a rich repertoire of behaviors and is expected and permitted to make full use of this repertoire by the organization.