The Suasory Force of Sticky Messages: An Application to the Application of Sunscreen

Stickiness refers to the set of persuasive message properties: simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and stories (SUCCES). Heath and Heath (2007) argue that a sticky message is expected to be more memorable and hence more persuasive than a non-sticky message. A 2 (sticky v. non-sticky message) x 3 (pretest v. posttest v. delayed test) longitudinal experiment is employed to examine the persuasiveness of sticky messages on applying sunscreen. Results of a mixed model analysis of variance show that the sticky message produces attitudes and behaviors more favorable to the message recommendation than the non-sticky message. Specifically, a time × message induction non-additive effect was found, which sustained only in the sticky message condition across time. Despite this interesting effect, its explanation remains elusive.     

Miami, Florida-new city in the new world

The land of Florida was one of the first areas explored in the New World during the Age of Discovery; Miami is one of the newest major cities to develop in our present age. Members of the Medical Library Association are invited to come to the 1967 Annual Convention on Miami Beach and to enjoy both the past and the present in Miami and in Florida.     

Social Loafing in a Co-operative Classroom Task

Social loafing refers to the tendency for individuals to reduce their own personal input when performing as part of group. This phenomenon may be problematic if it exists in educational contexts, given a current emphasis on group collaborative classroom activities. The present study investigated whether social loafing existed in a collaborative educational task, employing groups of three and eight participants. The results indicated that individuals working within the smaller groups were more productive than those working in larger groups, consistent with the social loafing hypothesis. Future research should determine whether the detrimental effects on students' collaborative performance attributable to social loafing are justifiable in terms of gains accrued in other (e.g. interpersonal) domains.     

Pre-kindergarten teachers’ use of transition practices and children's adjustment to kindergarten

This study describes pre-kindergarten teachers’ use of kindergarten transition practices and examined the extent to which these practices were associated with kindergarten teachers’ judgments of children's social, self-regulatory, and academic skills upon their entry into kindergarten. Participants were 722 children from 214 pre-kindergarten classrooms participating in the National Center for Early Development and Learning's (NCEDL) Multi-State Pre-kindergarten Study. Of nine transition practices intended to promote children's adaptation to kindergarten, pre-kindergarten teachers reported implementing, on average, six transition practices, with notable variation across pre-kindergarten classrooms. Children were judged by their kindergarten teachers to have more positive social competencies and fewer problem behaviors when they attended pre-kindergarten classrooms in which more transition activities were implemented and, specifically, in which teachers discussed curricula or specific children with kindergarten teachers. In addition, positive associations between kindergarten teachers’ perceptions of children's social competence and pre-kindergarten transition activities (total number of activities and activities that children experience directly) were stronger for children who experienced social and economic risks. Implications of these findings related to alignment across the pre-kindergarten to kindergarten settings to improve children's school readiness are discussed.     

The Tech Trajectory: Examining the Role of College Environments in Shaping Students’ Interest in Computing Careers

Research in Higher Education - Computing career opportunities are increasing across all sectors of the U.S. economy, yet there remains a serious shortage of college graduates to fill these jobs....     

Specific intellectual deficits in children with early onset diabetes mellitus

27 children with early onset (less than 4 years) diabetes (EOD), 24 with late onset (greater than 4.0 years) diabetes (LOD), and 30 sibling controls were compared in their performance on tests of intellectual functioning and school achievement. The results indicated that children with EOD, particularly girls, scored lower than the other groups of diabetic children and siblings on tests of visuospatial but not verbal ability. Many of the children with EOD were also having difficulty at school, and a number were currently receiving special education. Diabetic children with earlier onset had more hypoglycemic convulsions than those with later onset. Regression analyses revealed that duration of illness, age of onset, and hypoglycemic convulsions significantly predicted spatial ability.     

Knowledge, Connections, and Communities: A Special Reference to Indian University Libraries

Most of the Indian University Libraries are accessible not only to the academic and research communities but also to the general public. In this paper, an attempt is made to describe the effects of ICT developments on Indian University Libraries, how much they have been able to catch up with more developed institutions and what the future agenda for connecting knowledge and communities will be. This paper gives an idea about ICT developments in India, ICT applications in Indian University Libraries, and the role of INFLIBNET and future programs.     

The Impact of an Obstacle Course Sport Education Season on Students' Aerobic Fitness Levels

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if factor patterns of selected sports skills were similar for two samples, a skilled sample and one consisting of a wide range of skills. Comparisons were also made with kinesiological evidence regarding the patterning of basic sports skills. Data consisting of performance scores on various sports skills were available for 166 high school girls. Out of this sample, a smaller sample was drawn consisting of 69 girls who were above average in skill. Two factor models, alpha and incomplete image analysis, were used in the analysis of this data. The factor pattern of selected sports skills performed by subjects above average in skill was similar in many respects to that of a sample which included a wide range of skill. The primary difference lay in the clustering of overarm skills which appeared in the above-average factor pattern. The overarm and push patterns of the above-average sample resembled the patterns of skill obtained through kinesiological analysis. The structure of kicking, underarm, and sidearm skills remained obscure, based on the results of factor analytic techniques.     

Confirmatory factor analysis of word recognition and process measures in the Colorado Reading Project

Measures of word recognition (REC) and two component skills, phonological coding (PHON) and orthographic coding (ORTH), were subjected to multivariate behavioral genetic analysis. Data were obtained from a sample of identical and fraternal twin pairs wherein at least one member of each pair was reading disabled (RD), and from a sample of twins wherein both members of each pair read in the normal range. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to fit the genetic, common environmental, and specific environmental covariance components for REC, PHON, and ORTH within the RD and normal simples. The resulting heritability estimates for REC, PHON, and ORTH were 0.59, 0.41, and 0.05 in the RD sample, and 0.35, 0.52, and 0.20 in the normal sample. After dropping the nonsignificant common environment parameters from the models, the genetic correlations between REC and PHON and between REC and ORTH were respectively 0.81 and 0.45 in the RD sample, and 0.68 and 0.45 in the normal sample. Differences between the genetic correlations were significant in the RD sample (p<0.005), marginally significant in the normal sample (p<0.10), and highly significant in the combined sample (p<0.001), indicating that genetic influences on individual differences in REC are more strongly related to genetic variance in PHON than in ORTH. These results are consistent with previous demonstrations of substantial genetic covariance between the disabled group's deficits in REC and PHON, but not between REC and ORTH (Olson et al., 1989; Olson and Rack, 1990).