PUBLIC OPINION AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE SOVIET UNION

This article examines the relationship between public opinionand the transformation of the Soviet Union. Results of an August1990 survey showed that the majority of adults supported democraticreform, but lacked confidence in the Soviet regime. Young andmiddle-aged people, urban residents, and those with higher educationtended to be more supportive of democratic reform and more alienatedfrom the regime. The nationalities differed widely in supportfor democratic reform and confidence in the regime. In the partlydemocratized political system, Boris Yeltsin acquired a broadfollowing by appealing to the electorate and advocating radicalchange. A February 1991 poll showed that his support was greatestamong Russians who backed the Russian parliament and stronglyendorsed democratic reform and private enterprise. With suchbacking, Yeltsin won the June 1991 Russian presidential electionand then mobilized popular opposition to the August coup attempt.The coup's failure dealt a fatal blow to Communist rule, Gorbachev'sleadership, and the Soviet Union itself.     

Semantic trees for natural language representation

This paper presents a formalism for the representation of complex semantic relations among concepts of natural language. We define a semantic algebra as a set of atomic concepts together with an ordered set of semantic relations. Semantic trees are a graphical representation of a semantic algebra (comparable to Kantorovic trees for boolean or arithmetical expressions). A semantic tree is an ordered tree with nodes labeled with relation and concept names. We generate semantic trees from natural language texts in such a way that they represent the semantic relations which hold among the concepts occurring within that text. This generation process is carried out by a transformational grammar which transforms directly natural language sentences into semantic trees. We present an example for concepts and relations within the domain of computer science where we have generated semantic trees from definition texts by means of a metalanguage for transformational grammars (a sort of metacompiler for transformational grammars). The semantic trees generated so far serve for thesaurus entries in an information retrieval system.     

L'image des enseignants dans les moyens de communication de masse

An analysis of the image of teachers found in the mass media reveals two conflicting stereotypes. One represents an idealised view of teaching, emphasising teachers’ interaction with individual pupils, the other singles out only the problems faced by the profession, such as personal conflicts, inadequate resources, or the atmosphere of tension and violence in the schools. These two images appear to follow successively in the self‐image teachers hold of their profession. During the course of their careers, they move further away from the idealistic view and adopt a more troubled outlook as they face up to the widening gap between their ideals and the realities of their employment.     

Variable inspection time as an indicator of cognitive reading behaviors

Previous attempts to relate inspection speed to text relevance have produced ambiguous results. Two experiments were conducted to demonstrate that the inconsistencies previously observed were probably due to the experimental manipulations employed to establish relevant and irrelevant text material. While specific goals or questions were shown to produce variable inspection speeds, a general purpose in reading did not. In both cases, text information related to the reading goals was more likely to be retained. Results are explained in terms of the storage demands imposed by each category of reading goal.     

Formula Scoring of Multiple-Choice Tests (Correction for Guessing)

Formula scoring is a procedure designed to reduce multiple-choice test score irregularities due to guessing. Typically, a formula score is obtained by subtracting a proportion of the number of wrong responses from the number correct. Examinees are instructed to omit items when their answers would be sheer guesses among all choices but otherwise to guess when unsure of an answer. Thus, formula scoring is not intended to discourage guessing when an examinee can rule out one or more of the options within a multiple-choice item. Examinees who, contrary to the instructions, do guess blindly among all choices are not penalized by formula scoring on the average; depending on luck, they may obtain better or worse scores than if they had refrained from this guessing. In contrast, examinees with partial information who refrain from answering tend to obtain lower formula scores than if they had guessed among the remaining choices. (Examinees with misinformation may be exceptions.) Formula scoring is viewed as inappropriate for most classroom testing but may be desirable for speeded tests and for difficult tests with low passing scores. Formula scores do not approximate scores from comparable fill-in-the-blank tests, nor can formula scoring preclude unrealistically high scores for examinees who are very lucky.