Congruence,locus of control,and readings of English college students — An application of John Holland's theory of vocational choice

One hundred and five English undergraduate college students at two colleges in the United Kingdom completed the Holland VPI, the Barron Ego Strength Scale, the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal Control Scale, and the Occupational Values Q Sort. Congruent students were identified by matching their reading (major) with their scores on the six Holland type indicators. A Multi-variate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) revealed that congruent subjects exhibited a higher level of internality, greater ego strength, and less affiliation than incongruent subjects. Results are discussed with respect to Holland's theory. The practicability of applying American measurement techniques to an undergraduate English college population is also explored.     

Family Environmental Correlates of Students’ Affective Characteristics: a South African study

This study examined the relationships between family environmental contexts, sibling structure, immediate family settings and students’ affective characteristics. Data were collected from 460 (234 female and 226 male) South African senior high school students. Using partial least-squares path modelling the findings suggest that environmental contexts and family immediate settings combine to have modest to large concurrent validities in relation to differing measures of students’ affective characteristics, immediate family settings are related more strongly to measures of student affect than are indicators of family environment contexts and there are gender-related differences in how social-status indicators form environmental context constructs and in the nature of the relationships between students’ family environments and their affective characteristics.     

PEER AND TEACHER PREFERENCE,STUDENT–TEACHER RELATIONSHIPS,STUDENT ETHNICITY,AND PEER VICTIMIZATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

This research was supported, in part, by a grant from the National Institute for Mental Health (5R44MH07071‐03) awarded to Dr. Melissa E. DeRosier. Additional support comes from an Institute of Education Sciences post‐doctoral fellowship training award to the University of Florida (R324B1200002). The research was conducted at 3‐C Institute. The authors thank the staff and students of the Wake County Public School System in North Carolina for their cooperation and support in the implementation of this research project. In addition, the authors thank Drs. Janey McMillen, Natalie O'Brian, and Melanie Wilson for their invaluable efforts as project coordinators, as well as the many interns of the 3‐C Institute for their assistance in successfully completing this research project.     

Sexual reconviction rates in the United Kingdom and actuarial risk estimates

OBJECTIVE: Assessing the risk of further offending behavior by adult sexual perpetrators of children is highly relevant and important to professionals involved in child protection. Recent progress in assessing risk in sexual offenders has established the validity of actuarial measures, although there continues to be some debate about the application of these instruments. This paper summarizes the debate between clinical and actuarial approaches and reviews the "base rate" for United Kingdom sexual offense reconviction. METHOD: A review of the literature revealed 16 UK sexual reconviction studies, 8 using incarcerated samples (N=5,915) and 8 using non-incarcerated samples (N=1,274). UK estimates of sexual reconviction rates are compared with European and North American studies. RESULTS: The mean sexual reconviction rates for the incarcerated sample at 2 years (6.0%), 4 years (7.8%) and 6 years or more (19.5%) were higher than that of the comparative non-incarcerated sample at 2 years (5.7%), up to 4 years (5.9%), and 6 years or more (15.5%). The overall sexual reconviction rate for both samples combined was 5.8% at 2 years, and 17.5% at 6 years or more. CONCLUSIONS: The sexual reconviction rate for incarcerated sexual offenders is higher than that of non-incarcerated sexual offenders. The UK sexual reconviction rates were comparable with European and North American studies.     

Conservation without Conversation Revisited: a replication and elaboration of the Wheldall‐Poborca findings on the nonverbal assessment of conservation of liquid quantity 1

A series of experiments by Wheldall and Poborca (1980) have demonstrated that more young children can conserve liquid volume when tested using a novel, nonverbal paradigm than when tested by conventional verbal assessment procedures. The present experiment attempted to replicate their findings and simultaneously assess the effects of two modifications to their original procedure. The results showed that the two modifications to the Wheldall and Poborca procedure—(i) inviting subjects to transform the liquid quantities themselves, instead of merely observing the experimenter do so and (ii) using an extended elaborated form of response training—did not significantly increase the number of children able to conserve liquid volume. However, the original Wheldall and Poborca findings were replicated, showing that some children are likely to be falsely classified as non‐conservers if assessed using traditional verbal assessment methods.

     

Enhancement of Anatomical Education Using Augmented Reality: An Empirical Study of Body Painting

Students in undergraduate premedical anatomy courses may experience suboptimal and superficial learning experiences due to large class sizes, passive lecture styles, and difficult-to-master concepts. This study introduces an innovative, hands-on activity for human musculoskeletal system education with the aim of improving students’ level of engagement and knowledge retention. In this study, a collaborative learning intervention using the REFLECT (augmented reality for learning clinical anatomy) system is presented. The system uses the augmented reality magic mirror paradigm to superimpose anatomical visualizations over the user’s body in a large display, creating the impression that she sees the relevant anatomic illustrations inside her own body. The efficacy of this proposed system was evaluated in a large-scale controlled study, using a team-based muscle painting activity among undergraduate premedical students (n = 288) at the Johns Hopkins University. The baseline knowledge and post-intervention knowledge of the students were measured before and after the painting activity according to their assigned groups in the study. The results from knowledge tests and additional collected data demonstrate that the proposed interactive system enhanced learning of the musculoskeletal system with improved knowledge retention (F_(10,133) = 3.14, P < 0.001), increased time on task (F_(1,275) = 5.70, P < 0.01), and a high level of engagement (F_(9,273) = 8.28, P < 0.0001). The proposed REFLECT system will be of benefit as a complementary anatomy learning tool for students.     

False-performance feedback does not affect punching forces and pacing of elite boxers

Prior research indicates that providing participants with positive augmented feedback tends to enhance motor learning and performance, whereas the opposite occurs with negative feedback. However, the majority of studies were conducted with untrained participants performing unfamiliar motor tasks and so it remains unclear if elite athletes completing familiar tasks respond in a similar fashion. Thus, this study investigated the effects of three different versions of false-performance feedback on punching force (N), pacing (force over time) and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) in 15 elite amateur male boxers. Athletes completed a simulated boxing bout consisting of three rounds with 84 maximal effort punches delivered to a punching integrator on four separate days. Day one was a familiarisation session in which no feedback was provided. In the following three days athletes randomly received false-positive, false-negative and false-neutral feedback on their punching performance between each round. No statistical or meaningful differences were observed in punching forces, pacing or RPE between conditions (P > 0.05; ≤ 2%). These null results could stem from the elite status of the athletes involved, the focus on performance rather than learning, or they may indicate that false feedback has a less potent effect on performance than previously thought.