International Communication

THE VOICE OF AMERICA: PROPAGANDA AND DEMOCRACY, 1941-1945 by Holly Cowan Shulman (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990—$37.50/12.95, ISBN 0-299-12620-X hard, 0-299-12624-2 paper, 282 pp.)

BERLIN CALLING: AMERICAN BROADCASTERS IN SERVICE TO THE THIRD REICH by John Carver Edwards (New York: Praeger, 1991—$21.95, ISBN 0-275-93905-7, 238 pp.)

BROADCAST DIVERSITY IN EASTERN EUROPE: CHALLENGES FOR THE 1990s (Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1800 K St. NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20006—$48.00, paper, no ISBN given, 321 pp.—postage is extra: $3 in US and Canada, $10 to Europe and $13 to USSR and Asia; Latin America and African postage rates not listed!)

LEGAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS edited by Sylvie Schaff (Amsterdam: North-Holland, available in USA from Elsevier Science Publishers in New York, 1990—$128.25, ISBN 0-444-88387-8, 775 pp)

SATELLITE TELEVISION IN WESTERN EUROPE by Richard Collins (London: John Libbey, 1990—$29.00, ISBN 0-86196-203-6, 121 pp.)

TRANSNATIONALIZATION OF TELEVISION IN WESTERN EUROPE by Preben Sepstrup (London: John Libbey, 1990—$35.00, ISBN 0-86196-280-X, 132 pp.)

1991 WORLD SATELLITE ANNUAL edited by Mark Long (MLE Inc. PO Box 159, Winter Beach, FL 32971—$49.95, paper, plus varied shipping charges: $7 in US or Canada; $20 to Latin America and $25 to Far East (no charges listed for Europe or Africa!)

THE INVISIBLE WEAPON: TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS 1851-1945 by Daniel R. Headrick (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991—$32.50, ISBN 0-19-506273-6, 289 pp.)

DOPAA MEAJA HANABOOK, 1990 EDITION (Paris: Unesco/available in U.S. from Unipub, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Landham, MD 20706-4391—$38.00, paper, order No. DPI/1021, 300 pp.)

TRANSNATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS: WIRING THE THIRD WORLD edited by Gerald Sussman and John A. Lent (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1991—$39.95/18.95, ISBN 0-8039-3765-2 hard, 0-8039-3766-0 paper, 327 pp.)

SUPERTECH: HOW AMERICA CAN WIN THE TECHNOLOGY RACE by Thomas G. Donlan (Homestead, IL: Business One Irwin, 1991—$24.95, ISBN 1-55623-371-X, 342 pp.)

MASS MEDIA AND AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY: INSIDER PERSPECTIVES ON GLOBAL JOURNALISM AND THE FOREIGN POLICY PROCESS by Patrick O'Heffernan (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1991—$45.00/24.50, ISBN 0-89391- 728-1 hard, 0-89391-729-X paper, 276 pp.)

NEW STRUCTURES AND STRATEGIES FOR UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING by Kim Andrew Elliott (Medford, MA: Murrow Center of Public Diplomacy, Tufts University, 1991—$6.00, paper, no ISSN given, 40 pp.)

FACTS AT A GLANCE: INTERNATIONAL CABLE (National Cable Television Association, 1724 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036—free on request, paper, no ISSN given, 27 pp.)

TRAVELER'S GUIDE TO WORLD RADIO 1991 EDITION (New York: Billboard Books/Watson-Guptill, 1990—$9.95, paper, ISBN 0-8230- 7766-7, 178 pp.)

WORLD RADIO-TV HANDBOOK edited by Andrew G. Sennitt (New York: Billboard Books/Watson-Guptill, 1990—$19.95, paper, ISSN or ISBN not given, but this is Vol 45 of the annual, 575 pp.)

WORLD MEDIA, Gannett Center Journal (Fall 1990, Vol 4, No. 4—$5.00, paper, ISSN 0893-8342, 149 pp.)

THE AGE OF BEHEMOTHS: THE GLOBALIZATION OF MASS MEDIA FIRMS by Anthony Smith (New York: Priority Press, with distribution by the Brookings Institution, Washington, DC—price not given, paper, ISBN 0-87078-325-4, 83 pp.)     

Using Tutors to Improve Educational Games: A Cognitive Game for Policy Argument

How might we balance assistance and penalties to intelligent tutors and educational games that increase learning and interest? We created two versions of an educational game for learning policy argumentation called Policy World. The game (only) version provided minimal feedback and penalized students for errors whereas the game+tutor version provided additional step-level teaching feedback and immediate error correction. A total of 105 university students played either the game or game+tutor version of Policy World in a randomized, controlled, two-group, between-subjects experiment, during which we measured students’ problem-solving abilities, interest in the game, self-reported competence, and pre- and posttest performance. The game+tutor version increased learning of policy analysis skills and self-reported competence. A path analysis supported the claim that greater assistance helped students to learn analysis better, which increased their feelings of competence, which increased their interest in the game. Log data of student behavior showed that debate performance improved only for students who had sufficiently mastered analysis. This study shows that we can design interesting and effective games to teach policy argumentation and how increasing tutoring and reducing penalties in educational games can increase learning without sacrificing interest.     

Neurocognitive function and joint attention ability in young children with autism spectrum disorder versus developmental delay

Studies have shown that young children with autism are not impaired on prefrontal tasks relative to what would be expected for their mental age, raising questions about the executive dysfunction hypothesis of autism. These studies did not include ventromedial prefrontal tasks, however. The present study examined whether young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are impaired on ventromedial prefrontal tasks, and whether performance on such tasks is correlated with a core autism symptom, joint attention ability. Seventy-two 3- to 4-year-old children with ASD, 34 3- to 4-year-old developmentally delayed children, and 39 12- to 46-month-old typically developing children, matched on mental age, were administered ventromedial and dorsolateral prefrontal tasks and joint attention tasks. Children with ASD performed similarly to comparison groups on all executive function tasks, indicating that at this early age, there is no autism-specific pattern of executive dysfunction. Ventromedial, but not dorsolateral, prefrontal task performance was strongly correlated with joint attention ability, however. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is hypothesized to play a role in the development of joint attention and possibly some aspects of the autistic syndrome.     

Predicting reading level in grades 1 to 6 from listening level and decoding level: Testing theory relevant to the simple view of reading

The relationships among pronunciation level (decoding), verbal level (listening), and accuracy level (reading) were investigated in grades 1 to 6, and for students who are in the advanced phase of decoding. The data collected were used to investigate the validity of the simple view of reading and the causal model of reading achievement which holds that pronunciation level (P_L) and verbal level (V_L) are the proximal causes of accuracy level (A_L). A total of 135 students in grades 1-6 were given measures of nonword decoding, real word decoding, listening, and reading. All of the reliable variation in an indicant of the level of reading ability, A_L, could be predicted from an indicant of the level of ability to decode real words, P_L, and an indicant of listening level, V_L. Furthermore, the strong relationship between pronunciation level, P_L, and accuracy level, A_L, did not evaporate for the students who had mastered basic decoding skills, as measured by nonword decoding tests. The correlations between pronunciation level, P_L, and accuracy level, A_L, were high even for students in grades 5 and 6, most of whom probably had progressed beyond the alphabetic phase (phonological recoding). Correlational support was found for the simple view of reading and the causal model which holds that A_L is equal to the square root of the product of V_L and P_L. The above theory and supporting data were interpreted as suggesting that the level of reading accuracy, A_L, of students can be improved the most throughout grades 1 to 6 by emphasizing instruction that will improve pronunciation level, or decoding, even for children who have progressed beyond the beginning to read phase which involves learning the alphabetic principal, or phonological recoding.