Management perceptions of government incentives to technological innovation in england, Trance, West Germany and Japan

This paper reports on four studies (in France, Germany (FRG), Japan, and United Kingdom) exploring reactions of industrial managers to government incentives (GIs), laws, policies, regulations, and other interventions intended to stimulate technological innovation. Propositions supported by the results are: (1) there are significant differences among industrial managers in different countries in their attitudes toward government actions relevant to the RD/I process; (2) Government actions to stimulate innovation are not perceived as salient to industrial RD/I (R&D/Innovation) decision making; and (3) Government actions in general are perceived to delay introduction of innovations into the market.German and Japanese firms seemed most aware of, and favorably disposed toward, GIs. Low technology firms in the UK were more supportive of GIs than high technology firms. The opposite was the case in Japan and France, while little overall difference existed among firms in Germany. One must exercise care, however, in drawing inferences from such international comparisons; countries differ in the nature, scope, and administration of programs, as well as the effect of cultural characteristics. Managers in all countries were unanimous that general government policies (economic and otherwise) and general market and competitive conditions have a more significant impact on firm RD/I decision making than the specific incentive programs. Incentive programs were, with some exceptions, considered orders of magnitude too small to be of significance. The burden of administering procedurally complex and inflexible incentive programs and dealing with cumbersome government bureaucracy were considered significant detriments. General infrastructural elements such as the educational system, social recognition and support, and government standards-setting were considered more important than direct incentives.     

Testing Leader–Member Exchange Theory as a Lens to Understand Students’ Classroom Justice Perceptions and Antisocial Communication

The purpose of this study was to test whether leader–member exchange theory (LMX) offers an explanatory lens for the program of classroom justice research. To that end, relationships among justice, LMX, and antisocial communication were explored. Findings indicated that perceptions of justice and LMX were positively related. Likewise, perceptions of interactional and procedural justice negatively predicted indirect interpersonal aggression, hostility, and revenge. Similarly, LMX perceptions were negatively related to students’ hostility and revenge and mediated the relationships between students’ perceptions of distributive justice and these outcomes. LMX also moderated the relationships between students’ perceptions of classroom justice and indirect interpersonal aggression and deception. Implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.     

A Second-Order Conditionally Linear Mixed Effects Model With Observed and Latent Variable Covariates

A conditionally linear mixed effects model is an appropriate framework for investigating nonlinear change in a continuous latent variable that is repeatedly measured over time. The efficacy of the model is that it allows parameters that enter the specified nonlinear time-response function to be stochastic, whereas those parameters that enter in a nonlinear manner are common to all subjects. In this article we describe how a variant of the Michaelis-Menten (M-M) function can be fit within this modeling framework using Mplus 6.0. We demonstrate how observed and latent covariates can be incorporated to help explain individual differences in growth characteristics. Features of the model including an explication of key analytic decision points are illustrated using longitudinal reading data. To aid in making this class of models accessible, annotated Mplus code is provided.     

The relationship between high school students' perceptions of teaching as a career and selected background characteristics: Implications for attracting students of color to teaching

This study sought to determine: What influence do background characteristics of high school students have on their perceptions of teaching as a career choice? The independent variables, or background characteristics, were ethnicity, gender, the work status of parents, and grade level. Of particular interest was the extent to which African Americans were receptive to teaching as a career choice. The dependent variable of the study was students' perceptions of teaching as a career. Students perceptions were ascertained from their responses to an instrument administered to over 800 high school students. The inventory sought students' attitudes regarding: (a) the extent to which they valued teaching as a career; (b) the importance they assigned to teaching relative to other professions; (c) the influence of significant others in encouraging them to go into teaching; and (d) their desire to meet the prerequisites to becoming a teacher. Although the findings were in general those to be expected, some surprising ones were also observed.     

Enhancement and reduction of associative retroactive cue interference by training in multiple contexts

Retroactive cue interference refers to situations in which a target cue X is paired with an outcome in phase 1 and a nontarget cue Z is paired with the same outcome in phase 2, with less subsequent responding to X being seen as a result of the phase 2 training. Two conditioned suppression experiments with rats were conducted to determine whether retroactive cue interference is similarly modulated by a manipulation that influences retroactive outcome interference (e.g., extinction). Both experiments used an ABC renewal-like design in which phase 1 training, phase 2 training, and testing each occurred in different contexts. Experiment 1 found that training the target association in multiple contexts without altering the number of training trials during phase 1 decreased retroactive cue interference (i.e., increased responding consistent with the target association). Experiment 2 found that training the interfering association in multiple contexts without altering the number of interference trials during phase 2 increased retroactive cue interference (i.e., decreased responding consistent with the target association). The possibility of similar mechanisms underlying cue interference and outcome interference is discussed.     

Sequential Associations Between Caregiver Talk and Child Play in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typical Development

This study examined sequential associations between child play and caregiver talk in 98 caregiver–child dyads (M_{mental age} = 14 months). Fifty dyads included a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Analyses revealed sequential associations between child play and caregiver follow‐in (FI) utterances (utterances related to the child's attentional focus) were stronger in the ASD as compared to the typically developing (TD) group. FI utterances were more likely to elicit functional play than caregiver‐focused utterances, and more so in the ASD group. Across groups, FI directives were more likely to elicit functional play than FI comments. These findings have important implications for research involving caregiver–child play as an early intervention context for children with ASD.     

Changes in the retrievability of associations to elements of the compound CS determine the expression of overshadowing

In two experiments, rats were presented with a taste conditioned stimulus (CS) alone, an odor CS alone, or an odor-taste compound followed by lithium chloride injection. When tested 1 day following conditioning, there was evidence that the odor cue overshadowed conditioning to the taste; however, there was no indication of overshadowing following a longer (21-day) retention interval, despite undiminished strength of the aversion in animals conditioned with only the single element (taste). The overshadowing observed at the 1-day retention interval was not reciprocal. Rats conditioned with the odor CS alone or with the compound CS expressed odor aversions of comparable strength—that is, no overshadowing. However, in contrast to the taste aversion, overshadowing of conditioning to the odor by taste was evident following a 21-day retention interval. Rather than reflecting a failure of the overshadowed stimulus to acquire associative strength, these data suggest that overshadowing may be expressed, or not expressed, as a result of changes in the relative retrievability of learned associations over time.     

Cultural support workers and long day care services

In Australia, eligible long day care services may apply for support at the state level to assist with the transition of children from culturally or linguistically diverse backgrounds into childcare settings. For staff in childcare services, this support comes in the form of a cultural support worker (CSW). The primary role of a CSW is to build capacity in childcare staff to support children and families as they enter the childcare program. This paper draws on interview data and documentation from multiple sources to report the perspectives of key stakeholders affiliated with a cultural support program in an Australian childcare setting. It concludes that a more flexible approach to policy that directs the work of CSWs is needed, as well as further research into ways to build capacity for cultural competence for both CSWs and childcare staff who work collaboratively to support young children as they transition to childcare.