The moderating role of cultural background in temporal framing: focusing on climate change awareness advertising

Applying the framework of Construal Level Theory (CLT), this study tested the effects of an environmental ad describing the distant-future (i.e. end of the twenty-first century) vs. near-future (i.e. next summer) consequences of climate change using a sample of college students in the U.S. and South Korea. Consistent with the proposed empirical model in this study, lower perceived temporal distance of climate change generally led to higher perceived relevance of the event and more positive attitude and greater intention toward the sustainable consumption suggested in the ad (i.e. using Energy Star® qualified bulbs). However, the effects of temporal framing on the variables were moderated by the culture-specific ways in which the participants represented time and interpreted temporal information. In response to the distant-future frame, South Korean participants tended to report significantly shorter perceived temporal distance, thus presenting higher levels perceived relevance, stronger pro-environmental attitudes, and stronger behavioral intention than their U.S. counterparts. Overall, the findings of this study have meaningful implications for the external validity of CLT and for the development of effective climate change awareness campaigns targeting different audiences around the world.     

Interplay of content type and product type in the consumer response to native advertising on social media

With the growth of consumer skepticism toward advertising, marketers have begun implementing native advertising. Drawing on the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM), this study examines how content type interacts with product type to influence consumer responses toward native advertising (persuasion knowledge, brand attitude, and intention to click ‘like’) on Facebook. A 2(content type: informative versus entertaining)×2(product type: utilitarian versus hedonic) between-subjects experimental study was conducted with a total of 155 college-attending Facebook users in South Korea. The results show that, for utilitarian products, informative content elicits more favorable consumer responses than entertaining content does. However, consumer responses are similar between informative and entertaining content for hedonic products. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that consumer persuasion knowledge mediates the interaction effects of content type and product type on consumer responses. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.     

中韩惯用语对比研究

惯用语是一种很有特色的语言形式,在各民族语言中占有很重要的地位,是语言研究的一个重要课题.中韩惯用语在结构形式、表意特点、来源等方面,既有共同之处,又有不同的地方.在学习过程中,如何区别它们的异同,是一个难点.本文旨在通过中韩两国惯用语的对比研究,找出它们各自的特点及其体现的两国文化和思维方式的异同,以加深人们对中韩惯用语的认识.     

College Adjustment Difficulties and the Overt and Covert Forms of Narcissism

Overt narcissism correlated negatively with emotional distress and interpersonal difficulties among female, but not male, students. After controlling for self‐esteem, overt narcissism correlated positively with depression among female students and with emotional distress and interpersonal difficulties among male students. Covert narcissism correlated positively with emotional distress and interpersonal and academic difficulties among both male and female students. Associations between covert narcissism and emotional distress and interpersonal difficulties remained after controlling for self‐esteem.     

The estimation of the IRT reliability coefficient and its lower and upper bounds, with comparisons to CTT reliability statistics

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the mathematical characteristics of the test reliability coefficient ρ _XX′ as a function of item response theory (IRT) parameters and present the lower and upper bounds of the coefficient. Another purpose is to examine relative performances of the IRT reliability statistics and two classical test theory (CTT) reliability statistics (Cronbach’s alpha and Feldt–Gilmer congeneric coefficients) under various testing conditions that result from manipulating large-scale real data. For the first purpose, two alternative ways of exactly quantifying ρ _XX′ are compared in terms of computational efficiency and statistical usefulness. In addition, the lower and upper bounds for ρ _XX′ are presented in line with the assumptions of essential tau-equivalence and congeneric similarity, respectively. Empirical studies conducted for the second purpose showed across all testing conditions that (1) the IRT reliability coefficient was higher than the CTT reliability statistics; (2) the IRT reliability coefficient was closer to the Feldt–Gilmer coefficient than to the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient; and (3) the alpha coefficient was close to the lower bound of IRT reliability. Some advantages of the IRT approach to estimating test-score reliability over the CTT approaches are discussed in the end.     

Socio-political influences on EFL motivation and attitudes: comparative surveys of Korean high school students

This paper investigates Korean high school students’ English learning motivation and attitudes. In this regard, the results of a 2002 study were compared with those of a 2006 study. Questionnaire data were obtained from a total of 1,037 high school students in a major city in South Korea, and the data were compared with those on the students’ English proficiency. Statistical analyses verified two distinctive Korean-specific constructs: competitive motivation and attitudes toward Americans among the participants. The results suggest that negative washback effects of the College Scholastic Ability Test in Korea and influences of peer group cohesion, mass media, and the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure play a crucial role in EFL motivation and attitudes among Korean high school students.     

Random-Groups Equating with Samples of 50 to 400 Test Takers

Five methods for equating in a random groups design were investigated in a series of resampling studies with samples of 400, 200, 100, and 50 test takers. Six operational test forms, each taken by 9,000 or more test takers, were used as item pools to construct pairs of forms to be equated. The criterion equating was the direct equipercentile equating in the group of all test takers. Equating accuracy was indicated by the root-mean-squared deviation, over 1,000 replications, of the sample equatings from the criterion equating. The methods investigated were equipercentile equating of smoothed distributions, linear equating, mean equating, symmetric circle-arc equating, and simplified circle-arc equating. The circle-arc methods produced the most accurate results for all sample sizes investigated, particularly in the upper half of the score distribution. The difference in equating accuracy between the two circle-arc methods was negligible.     

Transnational academic mobility,knowledge, and identity capital

This article begins with the contemporary context of transnational academic mobility, and sketches a typology of mobile academics according to their self-identification. UK examples are offered as the main case study here. The article will then explore the relations of mobile academics and their embodied and encultured knowledge. It employs a concept of ‘transnational identity capital’ to discuss the position of transnational mobile academic intellectuals as a ‘stranger’ as inspired by Simmel's sociology of space.     

History of Science as an Instructional Context: Student Learning in Genetics and Nature of Science

This study (1) explores the effectiveness of the contextualized history of science on student learning of nature of science (NOS) and genetics content knowledge (GCK), especially interrelationships among various genetics concepts, in high school biology classrooms; (2) provides an exemplar for teachers on how to utilize history of science in genetics instruction; and (3) suggests a modified concept mapping assessment tool for both NOS and GCK. A quasi-experimental control group research design was utilized with pretests, posttests, and delayed posttests, combining qualitative data and quantitative data. The experimental group was taught with historical curricular lessons, while the control group was taught with non-historical curricular lessons. The results indicated that students in the experimental group developed better understanding in targeted aspects of NOS immediately after the intervention and retained their learning 2 months after the intervention. Both groups developed similar genetics knowledge in the posttest, and revealed a slight decay in their understanding in the delayed posttest.