Communication apprehension in the dating partner context

This research project focused upon an inconsistency in the structure of a context specific instrument measuring communication apprehension in dating relationships. A parsimonious, single‐factor, solution for Dating Partner Communication Apprehension (DPCA) emerged from the analysis. Principle component analysis produced a 13‐item solution that maintains high reliability and validity. As hypothesized, validity checks indicated that the DPCA unidimensional model was moderately and significantly correlated with dyadic communication apprehension, interpersonal solidarity, interpersonal communication satisfaction, and a series of relational perceptions in the dating context. A variety of potential applications and explorations of communication apprehension within dating relationships are discussed.     

Real or fake? Resources for teaching college students how to identify fake news

Abstract

Fake news has captured the world’s attention. Educational survey research has highlighted the difficulties students and adults have in determining how to identify valid sources. Psychology can help us to understand why it is difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. The authors describe how to identify fake news from digital sources and ways faculty and librarians can teach information literacy skills using the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework, websites, LibGuides, worksheets, and other resources shared in the extensive appendix.     

PubMed Instruction for Medical Students: Searching for a Better Way

In 2007, Duke University Medical Center Library instituted an interactive, online PubMed tutorial and quiz for medical students to replace an in-person lecture. This article describes the events leading to this educational paradigm shift and how the tutorial was implemented. Important concerns in the switch to an online approach to PubMed training were student satisfaction and the extent to which searching skills would improve. To determine the effectiveness of the online model, two years of student quizzes and evaluations were examined. Results indicate that students benefit from and appreciate the interactive tutorial.     

Assessing Learning Outcomes: Student Employees in Student Affairs

Erin Bentrim, Kim Sousa‐Peoples, Garrett Kachellek, and Wendy Powers report the results of assessing the effect of students' work experiences on their personal and academic development.     

Ventilatory Threshold,Running Economy and Distance Running Performance of Trained Athletes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationships among ventilatory threshold T(vent), running economy and distance running performance in a group (N=9) of trained experienced male runners with comparable maximum oxygen uptake ([Vdot]O₂ max). Maximal oxygen uptake and submaximal steady state oxygen uptake were measured using open circuit spirometry during treadmill exercise. Ventilatory threshold was determined during graded treadmill exercise using non-invasive techniques, while distance running performance was assessed by the best finish time in two 10-kilometer (km) road races. The subjects averaged 33.8 minutes on the 10km runs, 68.6 ml · kg ^-1 · min ^-1 for [Vdot]O₂ max, and 48.1 ml · kg ^-1 · min ^-1 for steady state [Vdot]O₂ running at 243 meters · min ^-1. The T(vent) (first deviation from linearity of [Vdot]_E, [Vdot]CO ₂ ) occurred at an oxygen consumption of 41.9 ml · kg ^-1 · min ^-1. The relationship between running economy and performance was r = .51 (p>0.15) and the relationship between T(vent) and performance was r = .94 (p < 0.001). Applying stepwise multiple linear regression, the multiple R did not increase significantly with the addition of variables to the T(vent); however, the combination of [Vdot]O₂ max, running economy and T(vent) was determined to account for the greatest amount of total variance (89%). These data suggest that among trained and experienced runners with similar [Vdot]O₂ max, T(vent) can account for a large portion of the variance in performance during a 10km race.     

Concurrent Validity of the standard progressive matrices for Hispanic and nonHispanic and seventh-grade students

Correlations between the Standard Progressive Matrices test (SPM) and the California Achievement Test, Reading, Language, and Mathematics Tests were examined for 99 Hispanic and 93 nonHispanic Caucasian seventh-grade students in the Southwest. All correlations were highly significant, indicating concurrent validity of the SPM. Correlations computed separately for Hispanic and nonHispanic students also were compared; those differences were not significant. This evidence supports the continued use of the SPM as a measure of nonverbal intellectual ability for Hispanic and nonHispanic students.     

Immortal Brands? A Temporal Critique of Promotional Culture

This article contributes to the theoretical analysis of branding and promotional culture by exploring how professional practice, legal systems, and applied academic research have championed a notion of the brand that is powerful, durable, and everlasting—in a word, “immortal.” We argue that this immortalized brand challenges emerging critical scholarship through its ignorance of the brand’s weaknesses and limitations, especially as they pertain to time and history. To counter that challenge, we argue for a heightened awareness of the brand’s temporality. In the service of this goal, this article explores several cases of aging brands, retro brands, and abandoned trademarks to showcase how consideration of brands in time reveals their contingent and historical nature.     

Media use among communication apprehensive education majors

Will some teachers avoid using instructional media because they fear communicating? This study compared the past and projected future use of media of beginning education majors who differed in the extent to which they expressed “communication apprehension.” Those who expressed high and moderate amounts of fear for such situations as engaging in classroom discussions with peers and initiating or responding to teacher-oriented discussions reported less past use, and projected less future use, of several types of media than did those having less fear. The media unaffected by apprehension level — overhead projections, slides, and filmstrips — appear to require less teacher responsibility for communication and interpretation. The authors suggest that communication apprehension may be decreased, thereby increasing the possibility that such teachers will use instructional media.     

The adjustment of goldfish to reduction in magnitude of reward in massed trials

For a group of goldfish trained in a runway under conditions of highly massed practice, reduction in magnitude of reward produced a gradual decline in performance to the level of a small-reward control group but no suggestion of negative successive contrast. These results are consistent with the suggestion that reward plays a somewhat different role in the learning of fish and rats. They also serve to extend the range of conditions under which the stimulus aftereffects of reward come to control the instrumental behavior of fish.