COMMUNITY COLLEGE TELEPHONE SURVEY RESEARCH: AN OVERVIEW OF METHODOLOGY AND UTILITY

The rise to prominence of surveys by telephone has been attributed to advances in telephone technology, improvement of telephone research procedures, near complete accessibility of any population via the telephone, expansion of a survey industry that requires quality data generated in an efficient and timely manner for eager clients, and availability of considerable information, based on experiment and experience, on what techniques work or do not work when doing telephone surveys. This article details 10 years of experience with telephone survey methodology utilized at Johnson County Community College (JCCC) to collect data from business and industry, former students, and individuals residing in JCCC's service area. Of particular interest to community college researchers are the results of comparisons between mail survey respondents and nonrespondents who were later telephoned for an interview. These comparisons were conducted on results of annual studies of JCCC's career program completers. Although nonrespondents tended to be younger and more often male than female, there were no notable differences in the level of success and satisfaction reported.     

Do young children think of television images as pictures or real objects?

Three studies investigated whether 3‐ and 4‐year‐olds interpret television images as mere pictorial representations of objects or as real, physically‐present objects. Four‐year‐olds gave clear evidence of making the former interpretation whereas 3‐year‐olds seemed to make the latter one. However, the data suggest that the younger children's errors reflect a failure to differentiate conceptually between television images and their referent objects rather than a conviction that real objects populate television sets.     

莎拉波娃不是WTA的花瓶

上帝公平吗？在苏拉波娃拿到她的第三个大满贯之前,答案是肯定的。至少在很多人心里,老天还是先知先觉的。 可是,当莎拉波娃在墨尔本拿到个人第三个大满贯冠军后,还有人会认为这个世界公平吗？当美貌、天赋、荣耀、金钱、冠军,这所有的一切都被一个人揽于一身时,你所能做的只有一声叹息。     

Is movement variability important for sports biomechanists?

This paper overviews the importance for sports biomechanics of movement variability, which has been studied for some time by cognitive and ecological motor skills specialists but, until quite recently, had somewhat been overlooked by sports biomechanists. The paper considers biomechanics research reporting inter- and intra-individual movement variability in javelin and discus throwing, basketball shooting, and locomotion. The overview does not claim to be comprehensive and we exclude such issues as the theoretical background to movement and coordination variability and their measurement. We overview evidence, both theoretical and empirical, of inter-individual movement variability in seeking to achieve the same task goal, in contrast to the concept of "optimal" movement patterns. Furthermore, even elite athletes cannot reproduce identical movement patterns after many years of training, contradicting the ideas of motor invariance and "representative" trials. We contend that movement variability, far from being solely due to neuromuscular system or measurement "noise"--as sports biomechanists may have previously supposed--is, or could be, functional. Such functionality could allow environmental adaptations, reduce injury risk, and facilitate changes in coordination patterns. We conclude by recommending that sports biomechanists should focus more of their research on movement variability and on important related topics, such as control and coordination of movement, and implications for practice and skill learning.