Why McNemar's Procedure Needs to be Included in the Business Statistics Curriculum

In business research situations it is often of interest to examine the differences in the responses in repeated measurements of the same subjects or from among matched or paired subjects. A simple and useful procedure for comparing differences between proportions in two related samples was devised by McNemar (1947) nearly 60 years ago. Although the technique has enjoyed widespread usage in both behavioral and medical research, it has unfortunately not received proper attention in marketing, advertising, consumer research, public relations, operations management, or organizational behavior endeavors—disciplines wherein it is particularly desirable to evaluate the significance of changes in attitudes, opinions, or beliefs regarding some campaign or strategy. Perhaps the major reason for this obscurity is simply a general lack of awareness as to its value and practical power. The McNemar test is generally not currently being taught to business statistics students. It is the purpose of this article to demonstrate the usefulness and applicability of the McNemar procedure to these aforementioned disciplines so that it may be more appropriately employed as an important confirmatory data analysis tool within the basic business statistics curriculum.     

Validity Evidence of an Electronic Portfolio for Preservice Teachers

This study applied Messick's unified, multifaceted concept of construct validity to an electronic portfolio system used in a teacher education program. The subjects included 128 preservice teachers who recently completed their final portfolio reviews and student teaching experiences. Four of Messick's six facets of validity were investigated for the portfolio in this study, along with a discussion of the remaining facets examined in two previous studies. The evidence provided support for the substantive and generalizability aspects of validity, and limited support for the content, structural, external, and consequential aspects of validity. It was suggested that the electronic portfolio may be used as one requirement for certification purposes, but may not be valid for the purpose of assessing teacher competencies .     

Studies in Historical Replication in Psychology IV: An Inquiry into the Psychological Research and Life of Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) is well known as an early twentieth century writer, but less well known is her involvement in automatic writing research. Critics of Stein’s literary works suggest that her research had a significant influence on her poetry and fiction, though Stein denied any influence. A partial replication of Stein’s 1896 study was conducted with the goal of addressing three historical questions: (1) What contributed to Stein’s involvement in automatic writing research?; (2) To what extent did Stein believe that she experienced automatic writing?; and (3) To what extent did her automatic writing research influence her later literary works?     

Le passage a l'acte dans la violence parentale

“Acting Out” in the Case of Parental Violence. Two cases of abuse in infants of less than 3 months is discussed in the light of the mother's own past history. One of the mothers was abandoned in infancy and her foster family did not respect her cultural identity. The second mother identified herself to her own mother. The following mechanisms were involved: child considered as an object rather than as a subject, sadomasochistic mechanisms, compulsion to use child abuse as a defence against anxiety and memories. The therapist initially is treated like the mother's parents by the mother (“acted” relationship). This leads to the proposal of a two-step intervention: first a socioeducative support at home followed by psychotherapy when the mother expresses a wish for it.

Résumé

Nous présentons deux cas cliniques de maltraitance infantile, inscrits dans l'histoire de la mére. Toutefois, l'un se réfère à la non reconnaissance de l'identité culturelle par la famille d'accueil de la mère dans sa petite enfance après abandon maternel, l'autre a rapport à l'identification de la mère à sa propre mère. Nous avons souligné les mécanismes en jeu: non reconnaissance de l'autre comme sujet, persistance d'une relation d'objet partiel renvoyant à un mécanisme de perversion sado-masochiste. Compulsion à la répétition où le passage à l'acte apparaît comme un mode de défense contre l'angoisse, et le souvenir. Sur le plan thérapeutique, nous constations dans un premier temps, la répétition avec le thérapeute de la relation de la mère avec ses propres parents sous forme d'agi. Nous proposons donc une prise en charge en deux temps (aide sociale et éducative à domicile favorisant ensuite une demande psychothérapique).     

(Re)constructing rurality through skilled trades training

ABSTRACT

There is a growing body of research interrogating the discursive construction of ‘rural’ in negative terms – as lacking, in decline or in crisis. This paper contributes to this body of literature by taking as its point of departure skilled trades training in Canada’s most easterly province, Newfoundland and Labrador. To meet the labour demand associated with industrial projects in rural and remote areas, the provincial government has invested in strategies to encourage youth to enrol in certified training programmes in the skilled trades. This paper examines the contradictory and incomplete ways in which individualized labour market subjects are produced through a combination of economic restructuring and government policy initiatives related to training and apprenticeships, and considers what this means for how young people think about and experience the rural. I argue that rural places are largely framed in economic terms, either as in decline and crisis or as industrial sites of resource extraction, and that by discursively linking youth outmigration and skilled labour shortages, the sustainability of rural places and the province is individualized and downloaded onto youth, ignoring the structured inequalities that mediate access to training and employment.     

A study of exploratory behavior as an index of spatial knowledge in hamsters

This experiment investigated the role of exploration in the formation of maps of the environment. The effects of spatial rearrangement of four familiar objects in an open field on subsequent exploratory behavior were studied in hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus). During two exploratory sessions, four groups of subjects were exposed to objects in a particular spatial relation to each other and to a distal pattern. During a testing session, the control group was exposed to the same situation as during the first two sessions, and the three experimental groups were exposed to various object rearrangements. The hamsters in the experimental groups, but not those in the control group, renewed their exploration of the objects during the testing session, as measured by the number of contacts with the objects and the time spent investigating them. Further analyses of the nature of the reinvestigated objects (i.e., displaced or nondisplaced) support the hypothesis that, through exploration, a long-lasting representation of the environment is built up on the basis of the topological relations among the objects, the overall geometric structure provided by the arrangement of the objects, and the relations between the objects and extra-apparatus landmarks.     

Factors that contribute to community members’ support of local nature centers

Nature centers can serve as valuable community institutions if they are seen as providing important services to the community. Through survey research in communities surrounding 16 nature centers in the United States, we examine the attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs that drive hypothetical support for nature centers from local residents. Respondents who recognized centers as institutions that provide opportunities for leisure and connection with nature; contribute to civic engagement; and bolster local economies, community pride, and aesthetics reported the greatest likelihood of donating, volunteering, or responding to threats at local centers. Additional predictors of support included positive evaluations of staff members, perceptions of positive attitudes toward the center held by other community members, familiarity with center activities, pro-environmental attitudes, and past donation or volunteering. The findings highlight the potential returns for centers that expand their activities and operations beyond more traditional roles of providing nature-based outdoor recreation and environmental education experiences.     

Can't Ignore—Distraction by Task-Irrelevant Sounds in Early and Middle Childhood

Attention control abilities are relevant for learning success. Little is known about the development of audio-visual attention in early childhood. Four groups of children between the ages of 4 and 10 years and adults performed an audio-visual distraction paradigm (N = 106). Multilevel analyses revealed increased reaction times in a visual categorization task when task-irrelevant novel sounds were presented, demonstrating involuntary distraction of attention. This distraction effect decreased with age and significantly differed between age groups. In addition, the two youngest age groups responded with a delay in trials following a distractor trial, indicating delayed reallocation of attention to the task at hand. Results indicate a significant maturation of audio-visual attention control within a few years during early childhood that continues throughout middle childhood.     

Linkage within teacher education: cooperative learning of teachers and student teachers

The close linkage between different institutions is widely recognized as a method of improving teacher education. This paper introduces an attempt to link university teacher training programmes with further teacher education thereby showing the benefits of the approach and factors influencing its success. To enable teachers and student teachers to participate, a blended learning course programme was designed. The findings presented in this article are based on a course evaluation comprising data from 19 teachers and 88 student teachers. The findings indicate that teachers and student teachers benefit in many ways through cooperative learning. For example, both groups appreciated having multiple perspectives and the opportunity to exchange their experiences and opinions. Communication and interaction between teachers and student teachers is significant to make cooperative learning successful. Adequate communication and interaction, satisfying for both participant groups, are crucial for the success of this approach.