Media effectiveness, essentiality, and amount of study: a mathematical model

An in‐depth investigation of the relationship between media effectiveness, essentiality, and amount of study was presented. Overall, effectiveness explains 48% of the variation in the amount of study. Students who found the media more effective studied the media more. Those media that were more effective were studied more. The relationship between effectiveness and amount of study is different for each medium. This is because media differ in their degree of ‘essentiality‐versus‐optionality’. Thus, the amount of study depends on a combination of effectiveness and essentiality. The relationship between effectiveness, essentiality, and amount of study is different for each student. This is because students differ in their ‘sensitivities’—their sensitivity to effectiveness and to essentiality. The final equation used effectiveness, essentiality, and sensitivity to explain 74% of the variation in the amount of study. The analysis was informed by a mathematical model.     

Resurrecting Old–Fashioned Foundationalism

Book reviewed in this article:
M DePaul (ed), Resurrecting Old–Fashioned Foundationalism     

Thunder from the left

Editor's note: In view of the controversies surrounding the subject of ethnicity, IQ, and educational policy, the editors feel that the mission of the journal would be best served by opening them to extended debate. Consequently, in an upcoming issueAcademic Questions will feature a broad exchange of views on these questions.     

Personality: A Predictor of Theoretical Orientation of Students Enrolled in a Counseling Theories Course

Selecting a single psychotherapeutic orientation can be a challenge for counselor education students. The authors examined the relationship between counseling theory selection and personality variables of students enrolled in a counseling theories course. A discriminant function analysis was used to identify the personality traits that would determine theoretical orientation choice. No statistically significant results were found. Results indicated that students showed no personality‐based preference of theory. Additionally, no significant differences were found on selected subscales of the Myers—Briggs Type Indicator (I. B. Myers, M. H. McCaulley, N. L. Quenk, & A. L. Hammer, 1998) and the Self‐Directed Search (J. L. Holland, B. A. Fritzsche, & A. B. Powell, 1996; J. L. Holland, A. B. Powell, & B. A. Fritzsche, 1994).     

The adult part-time learner in colleges and universities: A clientele analysis

Using the 1975 National Center for Educational Statistics/Bureau of Census Participation in Adult Education survey data, this paper presents an analysis of part-time students at colleges and universities—who participates and who persists. Separate analyses of public two-year colleges and noncredit activities are also presented. The analysis is followed with a discussion of the implications. A general conclusion is that adult education at colleges and universities may rest on a precariously narrow base.     

Tonic immobility in chickens: Is a stimulus that signals shock more aversive than the receipt of shock?

Three experiments were conducted on the effect of shock and aversive conditioning on tonic immobility. In the first study, increasing the intensity of preinduction shock was shown to produce reliable increases in the duration of immobility. Using classical conditioning procedures in the second experiment, a significant effect of UCS intensity was obtained. In the third experiment, brief confrontation with a conditioned fear stimulus was found more effective than shock for enhancing immobility duration. The data were discussed in terms of the fear hypothesis of animal hypnosis and as supporting a more general notion that the anticipation of shock may be more aversive than the receipt of shock.