This study investigates factors affecting the degree of novice physics students application of the naive impetus theory. Six hundred and fourteen first-year university engineering physics students answered the Force Concept Inventory as a pre-test for their calculus-based course. We examined the degree to which students consistently applied the…

Transfer students represent an increasingly important group in four-year schools. To date, only limited information on the research abilities and library needs of this group has been reported. A survey of information needs and skills of incoming transfer students at Western Washington University (WWU) showed that while many reported some…

Two studies investigated the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC), adult age, and the resolution of conflict between familiarity and recollection in short-term recognition tasks. Experiment 1 showed a specific deficit of young adults with low WMC in rejecting intrusion probes (i.e., highly familiar probes) in a modified Sternberg…

In 3 experiments, young and older adults studied lists of unrelated word pairs and were given confidence-rated item and associative recognition tests. Several different models of recognition were fit to the confidence-rating data using techniques described by S. Macho (2002, 2004). Concordant with previous findings, item recognition data were best…

The present study investigated the language familiarity hypothesis formulated by Mackay [(1970). How does language familiarity influence stuttering under delayed auditory feedback? "Perceptual and Motor Skills", 30, 655-669] that bilinguals speak faster and stutter less under delayed auditory feedback (DAF) when speaking their more…

This paper reports on the findings about a mentoring project that failed. It is based on a case study in which the writer participated as a mentor of the staff members of the South African Department of Labour. In 2002, the South African Department of Labour (DoL) published a tender ref: Services/ta/cst/p1/wp3 for Communications Skills Training…

This article reports on a study that investigated the dual characteristics of willingness to communicate (WTC) in a second language (L2): trait-like WTC and situational WTC. By adopting methods of classroom observation, participant interviews and questionnaires, consistency between L2 learners' self-report WTC and their actual WTC behavior in an…

A survey of 220 educational speech-language pathologists investigated their perceived knowledge about traumatic brain injury (TBI) and preparedness to provide services to students with TBI. The majority reported a low level of perceived preparedness due to a lack of knowledge, a contention moderately supported by objective testing. (Author/CR)

Two experiments examined effects of a cognitive interview on 4- and 8-year-olds' correct recall and subsequent reporting of misinformation. Found that a cognitive interview elicited more correct details than a control interview. Eight-year-olds' reports were more complete than 4-year-olds', with more correct person, action, object, and location…

Explored the use of 5 and 11 year olds' artwork to investigate their knowledge of nonverbal communication and social distance. Children's drawings indicated that children recognize that strangers should be kept at a greater distance than friends; and children's age influenced their knowledge of nonverbal communication and social distance. (BB)

Investigates hypothesis that topic familiarity and assessed difficulty of a text correlate positively with performance on reading comprehension tests. A study of 177 advanced students of English for Specific Purposes indicates that students' subjective evaluation of the relative difficulty of a reading text is not always a reliable index of their…

Studied prior knowledge as a mediator of effectiveness of the elaborative interrogation strategy for 50 male and 50 female undergraduates in a learning task. The elaborative interpretation group had significantly greater matching scores on an associative memory test for animal information than the control group only for familiar animals. (SLD)

Investigates familiarity as a determinant of perceptions of group heterogeneity, the objective level of heterogeneity characteristic of the target group, and the tendency for perceivers to see social groups consistently with 182 Chinese and 182 American college students and some teachers. Cultural differences in judgments are explored. (SLD)

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between selected listener variables and musical preference of young students in Singapore. Based on the Leblanc 1982 model, gender, age, race, musical training and familiarity were chosen as independent variables. The data collected showed that musical preference was also influenced by…

While working with music teachers in training at the university level, the author learned how helpful it can be to model a curriculum that mirrors America's changing demographics. As a Native American who grew up on the Stockbridge-Munsee Indian Reservation, in central Wisconsin, she discovered that Native history and culture were absent from…