Young children's references to temporal attributes of allegedly experienced events in the course of forensic interviews

Developmental differences in references to temporal attributes of allegedly experienced events were examined in 250 forensic interviews of 4- to 10-year-old alleged victims of sexual abuse. Children's ages, the specific temporal attributes referenced, and the types of memory tapped by the interviewers' questions significantly affected the quantity and quality of temporal references produced. The findings documented age-related increases in 4- to 10-year-olds' references to temporal attributes, using the appropriate relational terminology, both spontaneously and in response to temporal requests. More references to temporal attributes were elicited from recall than from recognition memory, highlighting spontaneous reporting capabilities. Implications for theories concerning the developing understanding of temporal concepts and for the design of effective, age-appropriate, forensic interview techniques are discussed.     

Spatial abilities of high-school students in the perception of geologic structures

The specific spatial abilities required for the study of basic structural geology were characterized by quantitative and qualitative data analysis. A geologic spatial ability test (GeoSAT) was developed and administered to 115 comprehensive high-school students. Six of these students were interviewed. An analysis of students' incorrect answers revealed two types of answers: (a) nonpenetrative answers, which were based on external exposures of the structure; and (b) penetrative answers, which indicated attempts at representing internal properties of the structure. Students who tended to give penetrative incorrect answers performed significantly higher than students who tended to give nonpenetrative incorrect answers. The reasoning of students for these types of answers, as determined by interviews, supported the initial assumption that these answers were given by students with different levels of ability mentally to penetrate the image of a structure, which was named visual penetration ability (VPA). The interview findings indicated that the VPA is one of two complementary factors needed to solve the problems of GeoSAT; the other factor is the ability to perceive the spatial configuration of the structure. It is concluded that the teaching and learning process should provide students with assistance in both of these areas. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

High school students’ difficulties in understanding osmosis

Preconceptions and misconceptions of 500 secondary students in years 9‐12 regarding osmosis were studied through the use of five different kinds of instruments: prior learning inventory, self‐report knowledge inventory, true/false test, definitions and clinical interviews. Some of the major findings were: (1) The most frequent explanation offered to osmosis is ‘a desire or drive towards equalizing concentrations’. (2) Hardly any student uses the concept ‘water concentration’. (3) Most students fail to realize that in dynamic equilibrium water molecules keep moving. (4) Students have special difficulty in understanding osmotic relations in plants. (5) Many students have difficulty in grasping solute‐solvent and concentration‐quantity relations. (6) Students often perform laboratory experiments without really understanding the underlying principles. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

The impact of athletic performance on alumni giving: An analysis of microdata

An ongoing controversy in the literature on the economics of higher education centers on whether the success of a school’s athletic program affects alumni donations. This paper uses a unique data set to investigate this issue. The data contain detailed information about donations made by alumni of a selective research university as well as a variety of their economic and demographic characteristics. One important question is how to characterize the success of an athletic program. We focus not only on the performance of the most visible teams, football and basketball, but also on the success of the team on which he or she played as an undergraduate.     

I-centric Communications

Zusammenfassung.   Kommunikationsumgebungen und die damit verbundenen Datenverarbeitungsprozesse werden von Tag zu Tag komplexer. Nur der hochqualifizierte Systemtechniker durchschaut noch die Prozesse, die sich hinter heutigen Kommunikationssystemen verstecken. Der Anwender bleibt zunehmend auf der Strecke. Um diesem Prozess entgegenzuwirken, wurde am Lehrstuhl für Offene Kommunikationssysteme der TU Berlin eine Plattform entwickelt, die „I-centric Communications” unterstützt. Die Plattform stellt bei der Bearbeitung von Aufgaben nicht die Technik sondern Dienstpr?ferenzen der Benutzer in den Mittelpunkt. In diesem Papier werden die Idee „I-centric Communications” und die entwickelte I-centric-Plattform vorgestellt. Auf Basis der entwickelten Plattform realisierte Anwendungen und Dienste schlie?en das Papier ab. Eingegangen am 30. Januar 2001 / Angenommen am 3. Juli 2001     

Prosodic reading,reading comprehension and morphological skills in Hebrew‐speaking fourth graders

Employing prosody skilfully, one of the cornerstones of fluent reading, is an indicator of text comprehension. Morphological knowledge has been shown to underlie lexical acquisition and to be related to reading development. The relationship between reading comprehension, prosodic reading and morphological knowledge was investigated in 51 Hebrew‐speaking fourth‐grade students aged 9–10. Participants were tested on comprehension of two stories and on appropriate prosodic reading of one of them. Their prosodic reading was compared with an agreed prosodic map compiled from experts' reading. Participants were also administered a battery of morphological tasks. All three domains, including almost all of their component parts, were strongly correlated. The multiple regression in steps showed that morphology and reading comprehension each contribute to prosodic reading, while morphology and prosody each contribute to reading comprehension. The connection between reading comprehension and prosodic reading is however moderated by good morphological skills.