Restorative Rhetoric and Social Media: An Examination of the Boston Marathon Bombing

This study analyzes Boston Mayor Thomas Menino’s rhetoric via Twitter following the Boston Marathon Bombing, exploring how a leader engaged in crisis communication using social media. Guided by restorative rhetoric, we examine how Menino included strategic communication (alleviate risk and restore public safety) and humanistic communication (focusing on the more substantive issues of crisis leadership) in his tweets. Our analysis is grounded in the five tenets of restorative rhetoric as a theoretical lens: initial reaction; assessment of the crisis; issues of blame; healing and forgiveness; and corrective action and rebuilding through a rhetorical vision. The findings demonstrate the utility of social media in aiding leaders as they provide critical information and guidance amid high uncertainty while also initiating the healing process, including fostering resilience.     

Family Reading Behavior and Early Literacy Skills in Preschool Children From Low-Income Backgrounds

This study investigated the family reading behavior of 233 preschool children from low-income backgrounds who were attending Head Start. Parents completed a survey of their family reading behavior, including Child Reading, Parent Reading Interest, and Parent-Child Reading Interaction, and provided demographic data on their educational level, parent and child age, and family size. Children's receptive vocabulary, story and print concepts, letter knowledge, and general emergent literacy skills were assessed in the fall of their preschool year. Analyses focused on the variation in family reading behavior, the relationship between different dimensions of family reading behavior, and the contribution of family reading behavior to early literacy skills. Results indicated that Parent-Child Reading Interaction and Child Reading Interest were significantly related to children's early literacy skills. In addition, multiple regression analyses indicated that Parent-Child Reading Interaction was a small yet significant predictor of children's receptive vocabulary, story and print concepts, and general emergent literacy skills, above and beyond the influence of demographic variables. Child Reading Interest was a significant, albeit small, predictor of letter knowledge above and beyond these demographic controls. Implications of these results for the early literacy education of children of low-income families are discussed.     

The effects of informational complexity and working memory on problem-solving efficiency

This study investigated the influence of informational complexity and working memory capacity on problem-solving efficiency. We examined two predictions of thesituational efficiency hypothesis, which states that the efficiency of problem solving varies as a function of situational constraints. One prediction is that informational complexity affects problem-solving efficiency. A second prediction is that working memory capacity affects problem-solving efficiency. Students completed a working memory task and solved abstract and concrete syllogisms. Participants solved abstract syllogisms more accurately than concrete syllogisms and spent more time solving abstract syllogisms. Thus participants demonstrated greater problem-solving efficiency when solving concrete syllogisms. Results indicate that there is a trade-off between problem-solving accuracy and problem-solving time when information differs with respect to informational complexity, a phenomenon we refer to as theefficiency paradox. Working memory capacity did not affect accuracy or efficiency. The results support the conclusion that problem-solving efficiency is situational and a function of the complexity of information. Educational implications and directions for future research are suggested.     

The influence of reading unit size on the development of Stroop interference in early word decoding

The purpose of the experiments was to determine the automatic use of large or small word reading units in young readers in the absence of word decoding strategies. Picture-word Stroop interference was examined from four types of conflicting labels: (a) words containing both highly predictable grapheme–phoneme correspondence (GPC) units and highly consistent rime units (henceforth, Hi-GPC + Hi-Rime); (b) words with highly predictable GPC units and less consistent rime units (Hi-GPC + Lo-Rime); (c) words with low predictability GPC units and highly consistent rime units (Low GPC + High Rime); (d) nonwords that contained both highly predictable GPC and highly consistent rime units. Naming time for pictures containing these labels was compared against that for pictures with random letter strings or no labels. In Experiment 1, Stroop interference was examined in first, second, and third grade children to determine whether there was developmental change in the presence of rime or GPC interference. In Experiment 2, Stroop interference was examined as a function of relative reading skill in first grade children. In Experiment 3, Stroop interference in adults was compared to the use of rime or GPC pronunciation strategies for nonword reading. In all experiments, Stroop interference in picture naming was longer for pictures with highly predictable GPC unit labels than less predictable GPC unit labels. However, in Experiment 3, even though adults showed interference from predictable GPC units in the Stroop task, they always preferred rime pronunciation for ambiguous nonwords in the nonword reading task. It is argued that the current experiments provide evidence for a flexible units model. The results of this study were presented at the Cognitive Development Society meeting, November 2001, Virginia Beach, VA, and the American Educational Research Association meeting, April 2004, San Diego, California.     

Latent Variable Modeling and Adaptive Testing for Experimental Cognitive Psychopathology Research

The adaptation of experimental cognitive tasks into measures that can be used to quantify neurocognitive outcomes in translational studies and clinical trials has become a key component of the strategy to address psychiatric and neurological disorders. Unfortunately, while most experimental cognitive tests have strong theoretical bases, they can have poor psychometric properties, leaving them vulnerable to measurement challenges that undermine their use in applied settings. Item response theory–based computerized adaptive testing has been proposed as a solution but has been limited in experimental and translational research due to its large sample requirements. We present a generalized latent variable model that, when combined with strong parametric assumptions based on mathematical cognitive models, permits the use of adaptive testing without large samples or the need to precalibrate item parameters. The approach is demonstrated using data from a common measure of working memory—the N-back task—collected across a diverse sample of participants. After evaluating dimensionality and model fit, we conducted a simulation study to compare adaptive versus nonadaptive testing. Computerized adaptive testing either made the task 36% more efficient or score estimates 23% more precise, when compared to nonadaptive testing. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates that latent variable modeling and adaptive testing can be used in experimental cognitive testing even with relatively small samples. Adaptive testing has the potential to improve the impact and replicability of findings from translational studies and clinical trials that use experimental cognitive tasks as outcome measures.     

Using Natural Language Processing to Predict Item Response Times and Improve Test Construction

In this article, it is shown how item text can be represented by (a) 113 features quantifying the text's linguistic characteristics, (b) 16 measures of the extent to which an information‐retrieval‐based automatic question‐answering system finds an item challenging, and (c) through dense word representations (word embeddings). Using a random forests algorithm, these data then are used to train a prediction model for item response times and predicted response times then are used to assemble test forms. Using empirical data from the United States Medical Licensing Examination, we show that timing demands are more consistent across these specially assembled forms than across forms comprising randomly‐selected items. Because an exam's timing conditions affect examinee performance, this result has implications for exam fairness whenever examinees are compared with each other or against a common standard.     

But Does It Work?: The Influence of Presumed Goal Attainment Effectiveness on Willingness to Use Legalistic and Restorative Responses to Offensive Behavior

Although victim-offender conferences (VOCs) ostensibly enable victims to pursue justice goals not achieved through conventional trials, not all victims wish to participate in them. The purpose of this study was to examine how victims’ presumptions regarding the effectiveness of VOCs and trials in accomplishing justice goals influence their willingness to participate in a VOC and their preference for a case to be managed solely by the courts. Study results indicated that participants believed VOCs and trials to be effective at accomplishing different goals and that such influenced how they wanted cases to be managed. This influence was moderated by desires for particular justice goals. These findings have implications for restorative justice researchers and practitioners interested in victims’ motivations to participate in a VOC.     

Developing planning and budgeting strategies for internal recycling of funds

Higher education worldwide is beset by rigid budgetary constraints. Increases in governmental and student support have been insufficient to offset the severe inflationary spiral of recent years, and many institutions have been confronted by yearly gaps between estimated revenues and projected expenditures. Following 6 years of across-the-board internal budget reallocations amounting to $11.1 million, Penn State initiated a rolling 5-year planning and budget process in 1977. The new process, resulting in an additional $16.6 million in internal reductions and reallocations through 1982–83, was designed to provide for more selective budgetary decisions based on careful analysis of university priorities. As the process has evolved, it has reoriented budget decisions toward university planning issues and qualitative concerns.