Comparative functions of preschool learning style and IQ in predicting future academic performance

Early assessment programs frequently rely on intelligence tests for making predictions regarding children's future school performance. Unfortunately, IQ scores provide little information to those who must develop educational interventions tailored to the unique ways in which children respond to learning situations. Alternatively, measures of children's learning style focus on distinct patterns of learning-related behavior manifested in classroom settings. Each dimension of learning style is composed of observable skills that are potentially teachable or alterable through available instructional procedures. In order to examine the relative contributions of learning style dimensions, IQ, and their interactions to the prediction of subsequent performance, 100 kindergarten children were evaluated by teachers using the Study of Children's Learning Styles scale and were administered the Kuhlmann-Anderson Intelligence Test. Fifteen months later the children's first-grade achievement was determined through standardized tests and teacher-assigned grades in reading, language, and mathematics. Relationships between the predictor and criterion variables were studied through patterns of bivariate correlations, canonical variate loadings, and standardized regression weights. Although IQ was found the better predictor, learning styles accounted for appreciable and statistically significant proportions of the variability in later achievement. The learning style dimensions functioned differentially across areas of achievement to enhance overall prediction either by complementing or interacting with the predictions afforded by IQ. The results are examined in the light of earlier research on learning-related behavior.     

Expectancy and halo effects as a result of artificially induced teacher bias

This investigation examined the effects of deviancy labels on teachers' expectations of child behavior and their ability to evaluate child behavior objectively. One hundred elementary school teachers were randomly assigned to one of four label groups. Each group dealt with one label (emotionally disturbed, learning disabled, mentally retarded, normal), and each group participated in two separate treatment phases. During Phase I teachers identified behaviors they expected to be displayed by hypothetical children characteristic of the label condition. They were asked to complete a referral form for either a hypothetical normal, mentally retarded, learning disabled, or emotionally disturbed child. During Phase II, each group saw the same videotape of a normal fourth grade boy and completed a second referral form based on the behaviors displayed during this presentation. Experimental procedures were identical for the four groups, except each group was told the child was a member of a different category.Results indicated that teachers hold negative expectancies toward children categorized with a deviancy label and maintain expectancies even when confronted with normal behavior, behavior inconsistent with the stated label. Maintenance of this bias is sufficient to cause teachers to misinterpret actual child behavior, resulting in a halo effect. Results further indicated that the label of educable mentally retarded generated a greater degree of negative bias than did the labels learning disabled or emotionally disturbed, although all three deviancy labels produced negative expectancies and halo effects significantly different from those found under control conditions.     

大学生身体活动行为预测干预模型的构建：自主动机与TPB扩展模型的结合

摘要：目的：在TPB扩展模型的基础上,引入自主动机,构建SDM-PL-TPB 7因素整合模型,并检验该模型对大学生群体的适用性,为促进大学生身体活动行为提供理论依据。方法：采取心理测验法,选取普通专业大学生620人(男：n = 290人, Mage = （20.75 ± 0.19）岁 ; 女：n = 330人, Mage = （20.15 ± 0.89）岁)为研究参与者参与测试,研究所用材料为《自我决定动机量表》、《态度量表》、《主观规范量表》、《主观控制感量表》、《行为意向量表》和《体育活动等级量表-3》。研究中各变量的关系通过结构公式模型来验证,数据处理使用AMOS17.0软件包。结果：构建的模型各项拟合指标良好;自主动机作为TPB的前因变量显著预测了态度、主观规范和主观控制感;整合模型最终解释了行为意向45%的方差,解释了行为17%的方差,男女大学生亚群体之间有4条预测路径存在差异。结论：SDM-PL-TPB 7因素整合模型是适合大学生的预测干预模型;自主性动机是个体追求某种行为的内部动力,计划能使行为意向更好的转化为身体活动行为;自主性动机对意向的预测、主观控制感对行为的预测及计划对行为的预测,女生强于男生,而意向对行为的预测,男生强于女生。结论和建议：构建的模型丰富了有关促进身体活动行为的心理学理论,并为干预大学生的身体活动行为提供了理论依据。建议干预时考虑个体差异实施干预措施。     

Controversy within a cooperative or competitive context and cognitive perspective-taking

Forty-five undergraduates discussed a moral issue with a confederate who had the same opinion (no controversy) or opposite opinion (controversy). Subjects in the controversy conditions discussed within either a cooperative or a competitive context. Subjects in the controversy conditions indicated more conceptual conflict or uncertainty, engaged in more information seeking behavior, and were more accurate in taking the cognitive perspective of the confederate than were subjects in the no-controversy condition. These results support Piaget's and Kohlberg's views of the role of controversy in perspective-taking and cognitive development and Berlyne's theory of conceptual conflict and epistemic curiosity. Subjects in the competitive-context conditions experienced more uncertainty, engaged in more information-seeking behavior, and were more accurate in cognitive perspective-taking than were subjects in the cooperative-context condition. Subjects in the competitive-context condition also experienced more cognitive dissonance, derogated the confederate and the confederate's position and arguments to a greater extent, and indicated greater closed-mindedness in responding to the confederate and the confederate's arguments than did subjects in the cooperative-context or the no-controversy conditions.