Popular Music

Brad Benedict and Linda Barton's Phonographics: Contemporary Album Cover Art and Design (New York: Collier Books/Macmillan Publishing, 1977—$9.95, paper)

George McCue, ed. Music in American Society, 1776-1976: From Puritan Hymn to Synthesizer (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Inc., 1977—$14.95/3.95)

Dean Tudor and Andrew D. Armitage, comps. Popular Music Periodicals Index, 1975 (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976—$15.00)

Derek Jewell, Duke: A Portrait of Duke Ellington (New York: Norton, 1977—$9.95)

Stanley Dance, The World of Earl Hines (New York: Scribner's, 1977—$14.95/7.95     

TV and the iPad: How the Tablet is Redefining the Way We Watch

The tablet computer offers options for streaming TV programming that potentially alters viewing behaviors compared to the traditional television set, yet there is a dearth of research related to this viewing alternative. This study uses a national sample of adult iPad owners to investigate the tablet's role as a TV. The frameworks of continuity-discontinuity, use-diffusion, and attention and absorption to programming are applied to uncover where the tablet fits into the current repertoire of viewing devices, and how individuals are engaging with traditional TV programming through it. Results show that overall, the tablet's functionality as a TV can lead to experiential differences.     

Block Talk: Spatial Language During Block Play

Spatial skills are a central component of intellect and show marked individual differences. There is evidence that variations in the spatial language young children hear, which directs their attention to important aspects of the spatial environment, may be one of the mechanisms that contributes to these differences. To investigate how play affects variations in language, parents and children were assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: free play with blocks, guided play, or play with preassembled structures (Study 1). Parents in the guided play condition produced significantly higher proportions of spatial talk than parents in the other two conditions, and children in the guided play condition produced significantly more spatial talk than those in the free play condition. Study 2 established baselines of spatial language during activities not involving spatial materials. Proportions of spatial words were lower than those in any of the conditions of Experiment 1. In sum, interaction with blocks naturally elicits elevated levels of spatial language, especially in the context of guided play, suggesting simple‐to‐execute educational interventions.     

Psychometric evaluation of the exercise identity scale among Greek adults and cross-cultural validity

The present study reported on translating the Exercise Identity Scale (EIS: Anderson & Cychosz, 1994) into Greek and examining its psychometric properties and cross-cultural validity based on U.S. individuals' EIS responses. Using four samples comprising 33, 103, and 647 Greek individuals, including exercisers and nonexercisers, and a similar sample comprising 800 U.S. individuals, the concurrent validity, factor structure, internal reliability, test-retest reliability, external validity, gender invariance, and cross-cultural validity of the EIS responses were examined using confirmatory factor analytical procedures. The results supported the concurrent validity, an adequate unidimensional factor structure for the translated EIS and the internal reliability and test-retest reliability over a 6-week interval. Further, cross-gender configural, partial metric, partial strong factorial, and partial strict factorial invariance and cross-cultural configural and partial metric invariance supported the cross-cultural equivalence of the EIS versions. Moreover, the external validity of the translated EIS responses was also supported. Overall, the findings supported the validity of the exercise identity construct outside North American boundaries and the EIS items' equivalence, providing initial evidence for its cross-cultural applicability.     

Teacher-Directed Learning Approaches and Science Achievement: Investigating the Importance of Instructional Explanations in Australian Schools

Research in Science Education - This study investigated the relationships of teacher-directed approaches with science achievement in Australian schools. The data for this study were drawn from the...     

Racial Perceptions of Young Children: A Review of Literature Post-1999

It has been argued that intervention strategies designed to reduce racial prejudice in young children have been based on weak theoretical models of racial stereotyping and prejudice with little effect on the reduction of racial bias. This paper examines the social-cognitive and intergroup scholarship post-Bigler (J Soc Issues 55(4), 687–705, 1999), with an emphasis on the development of racial prejudice in young children. The purpose of this paper is not to argue for a particular theoretical approach, but to provide an overview of some of the important pieces of research. Findings indicate that social learning and cognitive development models need to be understood when implementing curriculum designed to reduce racist beliefs and attitudes in young children.