Gliding text: a new aid to improve the reading performance of poor readers by subconscious gaze control

In support of efforts at reducing the number of dyslexics and illiterates in industrialized countries it is proposed, for the first time, to use gliding text ‐ as known in television subtitles ‐ as a method of text display to help those learning to read. Beginners, having the difficult task of precisely directing their gaze letter by letter along the line of text, experience with gliding text automatic gaze guidance as in so‐called ‘optokinetic nystagmus’. This subconscious gaze control allows beginners to pay more attention to contextual processing. First training courses have shown that exercises with gliding text are very efficient. Reading difficulties were eliminated for 21 second‐grade elementary school children in only 24 training sessions, each of 15 min duration. The mean reading speed increased from ten to 24 words per minute (WPM).     

Individual differences in achievement goals: A longitudinal study of cognitive, emotional, and achievement outcomes

Within achievement goal theory debate remains regarding the adaptiveness of certain combinations of goals. Assuming a multiple-goals perspective, we used cluster analysis to classify 1002 undergraduate students according to their mastery and performance-approach goals. Four clusters emerged, representing different goal combinations: high mastery/performance (i.e., multiple goals), dominant mastery, dominant performance, and low mastery/performance (i.e., low motivation). In a longitudinal analysis over one academic year, the clusters were compared on cognitive appraisals (expected achievement, perceived success), achievement-related emotions (enjoyment, boredom, anxiety), and objective measures of academic achievement (final grade in Introductory Psychology, GPA). The low-motivation cluster demonstrated the least adaptive profile across all outcomes. The multiple-goals, mastery, and performance clusters showed equivalent levels of achievement; however, students in the performance cluster were more psychologically and emotionally vulnerable than the multiple-goals and mastery clusters. Our discussion focuses on the immediate and potentially long-term implications of specific goal combinations for students and educators, with particular attention to understanding the cognitive and emotional vulnerabilities of students in the performance cluster which appear despite satisfactory achievement levels.     

Behavioral and neurophysiological effects of morphological awareness training on spelling and reading

Behavioral and neurophysiological effects of a computer-aided morphological training protocol were examined in German-speaking children from Grades 3 to 9. Study 1 compared morphological awareness, reading, and spelling skills of 34 trained children with an untrained control group of 34 children matched for age, sex, and intelligence. All participants in the training group showed increases in morphological awareness, but only students from secondary school improved significantly in reading and spelling competences. In Study 2, a subsample of 8 trained children with poor spelling and reading abilities and 10 untrained children with higher language competencies underwent an electroencephalography testing involving three different language tasks. The training resulted in decreased theta-activity and increased activity in lower (7–10 Hz) and upper alpha (10–13 Hz). These findings reflect more effortful and attention-demanding processing after the training and suggest that children with poor spelling and reading abilities use the acquired morphological knowledge in terms of a compensatory strategy.     

以机构质量保障代替项目评估?

为了迎接来自内部和外部新的挑战,高等教育机构已经形成和实施了一系列质量评估方案,但是现有的高校质量评估方法单一,不够全面和完善。鉴于目前缺少系统和持续的质量保障体系,作者对源于技术和工业的“质量”概念从内涵和外延做了明确定义;机构质量保障和项目评估应该相互补充,把独立的绩效监控手段和不同的评估方法结合,以此作为核心的质量保障工具,并加入一套体系化和连贯的管理系统之中。同时,高校质量评估应以效果为导向,充分考虑高校顾客之需要。     

The Bricklayer Effect: How Accounting for Method Bias Affects First-Order Cultivation Relationships

Although the issue of method bias is a well-known threat to the validity of self-reports, it has seldom been addressed in empirical media effects studies. This may be problematic because independent and dependent variables are often measured using similar methods. Thus, reported correlations may not only reflect common variance between the constructs of interest but also indicate common variance between the measurement methods. In this article, we present two cultivation studies investigating to what extent first-order cultivation relationships are influenced by common method variance. In both studies, controlling for a theoretically unrelated marker variable (Study 1: the estimated prevalence of bakers; Study 2: the estimated prevalence of bricklayers) diminished correlations between television-viewing frequency and prevalence estimates. This finding, referred to as the bricklayer effect, suggests a more thorough discussion on common method variance in cultivation research is needed.     

The Legacy of the Studiengruppe Für Systemforschung

The Studiengruppe für Systemforschung was dissolved in 1974. Several members of the group moved to the Research Centre Karlsruhe. There, despite their new institutional surroundings, they remained faithful to the Studiengruppe’s conceptual foundations, and developed a new Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis. This has since become the leading technology assessment group in Germany.     

The use of technological forecasts in government planning

In this paper technological forecasting techniques, their limitations, and problems of application are briefly out-lined. The interdependent of planning and forecasting is revealed and the distinction between “normative” and “exploratory” forecasting is critically discussed. The following types of forecasting techniques are dealt with: extrapolation techniques, analogies, simulation models, and expert surveys.     

高新技术中小企业的战略优势与劣势-战略发展分析

工业国家的中小型高科技企业有很大的创新潜力,同时对所在地区的经济发展起到了积极的作用.由于公司规模大小不一,所以很难有时间从众多的案例中找到具体的管理技巧.本文主要对创新公司的战略等问题的具体内容和方法进行调查研究.     

THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN: A COMMON EUROPEAN CONCERN

The true emancipation of women should become a common European concern and a common European goal. Emancipation means that no socio‐cultural or biological constraint should prevent women from obtaining the same chances and opportunities as men. True emancipation, which is still a distant objective in most of the European countries, implies that access to professional life should not have to be paid for by an exhausting cumulation of domestic and professional roles. A recent research programme on the student population of the University of Geneva provides data which are relevant in this respect. Female students are less likely to have internalized norms of behaviour which facilitate adaptation to a competitive environment in which women have to compete with men. Being subject to cross pressures and torn between two sets of behavioural norms, young women are often ambivalent in their attitudes. The conclusions of the Geneva research are consistent with other research results in other countries. The major explanatory factor is early socialization. True emancipation of women requires a long‐range education policy aiming at gradually reducing the differences in the socialization patterns of boys and girls.