Pictures as Feedback in Single Word Learning

A number of recent studies have indicated that familiarity with pictures can interfere with single word learning, if the pictures are presented with their written equivalents. Research has also suggested that focusing children's attention on written words while responding to the paired stimuli is not sufficient to overcome this interference. Two experiments were carried out to investigate the possibility of eliminating the adverse effects of pictures by encouraging children to elicit naming‐responses in the absence of the pictures and then using pictures as response feedback. The results indicated that this feedback cueing technique can avoid the adverse effect of pictures and achieve a learning rate equivalent to that obtained when words were presented alone. It was concluded that pictures could be used in a way which did not hinder learning, but there is no evidence to suggest that they can be used in a way to enhance learning.     

Identifying determinants of risk of sexual victimization of youth: a multivariate approach

The present study argues that a greater understanding of the factors which contribute to a youth's sexual victimization is likely to not only be based on what we know about the youths who are victimized but also on comparative information on youths who are not. Selected social background variables from a sample of young victims (n = 20) and nonvictims (n = 21) representing a population of youths with histories of antisocial behavior were compared. Using stepwise discriminant analysis several factors relating to youths' home environment significantly discriminated victims from nonvictims. The results suggest that the probability of being sexually victimized is increased when the home environment is unstable and lacks adequate control over youths' activities. The need for improved research methodologies to achieve better identification of determinants of risk is discussed. Multivariate assessment of social, situational, and personal factors of victims and nonvictims is recommended as a potentially promising approach for improving current rape prevention efforts.     

Immigrant Chinese Mothers’ Socialization of Achievement in Children: A Strategic Adaptation to the Host Society

Academic socialization by low‐income immigrant mothers from Mainland China was investigated in two studies. Immigrant Chinese mothers of first graders (n = 52; M_age = 38.69) in the United States (Study 1) and kindergartners (n = 86; M_age = 36.81) in Hong Kong (Study 2) tell stories that emphasized achieving the best grade through effort more than did African American (n = 39; M_age = 31.44) and native Hong Kong (n = 76; M_age = 36.64) mothers, respectively. The emphasis on achievement was associated with mothers' heightened discussion on discrimination (Study 1) and beliefs that education promotes upward mobility (Study 2), as well as children's expectations that a story protagonist would receive maternal criticism for being nonpersistent in learning (Study 2).     

弗兰克·德雷恩

Frank Delany had lived on his own ever since his wife had died. He was the oldest of four siblings1, and all four were still alive when Frank was eighty-eight years old.     

Measuring attitudes to science: Unidimensionality and internal consistency revisited

Summated ratings attitude scales commonly consist of numerous items whose scores are summed to yield a total score. An assumption underlying this technique is that the items in the scale reflect a common construct. If this is not met, the procedure produces uninterpretable data. Although this psychometric principle has been known for a long time, numerous studies in the literature demonstrate a neglect of it. Some make no attempt to conceptualise the construct to be measured; others conceptualise the construct but then ignore the possibility that it may be multidimensional; still others contain evidence indicating that the construct is multidimensional and then proceed to ignore that evidence. A possible contributor to the confusion is the misunderstanding of the related yet distinct concepts of internal consistency and unidimensionality. This paper presents examples of poor and good instrument design, in the hope that clarification of the issues might make a difference in the future.     

Additional Influences on Response Certitude and Feedback Requests

This study was designed to build on the previous work of R. W. Kulhavy and associates by investigating additional influences on the relationship between feedback and response certitude during the learning process. The results of the study showed that in addition to response certitude and correctness (as predicted by Kulhavy & Stock, 1989), other factors, including the goal subjects were attempting to attain and their commitment to that goal, also influenced the frequency in which they requested feedback. In addition, requesting feedback as a strategy to learn the material and the subjects′ confidence in reaching their goal influenced performance on the test over the information in a learning task.