Government agencies administer exams to appraise educators' effectiveness. However, most teachers and administrators are unfamiliar with how such large-scale tests are put together or polished. A profession's adequacy is being judged on the basis of tools that the profession's members don't understand. As such, educators need to have a dose of…

Three studies examined the effects of context on decisions about the reality status of novel entities. In Experiment 1 (144, 3- to 5-year-olds), participants less often claimed that novel entities were real when they were introduced in a fantastical than in a scientific context. Experiment 2 (61, 4- to 5-year-olds) revealed that defining novel…

The subjective likelihood model [SLiM; McClelland, J. L., & Chappell, M. (1998). Familiarity breeds differentiation: a subjective-likelihood approach to the effects of experience in recognition memory. "Psychological Review," 105(4), 734-760.] and the retrieving effectively from memory model [REM; Shiffrin, R. M., & Steyvers, M. (1997). A model…

Two studies of 5-month-old infants explored whether a phenomenon reported by K. Wynn (1992) reflects a familiarity preference instead of a mathematical competence. Experiment 1 was a conceptual replication of Wynn's study. When data were analyzed with the relatively liberal statistical approach used by Wynn, the original phenomenon was replicated.…

By creating a sense of familiarity with tobacco, cigarette advertising and bold packaging displays in stores where children often visit may help to pre-dispose them to smoking. A total of 605 ninth-grade students were randomly allocated to view a photograph of a typical convenience store point-of-sale which had been digitally manipulated to show…

E. J. Wisniewski and G. L. Murphy (see record EJ689195) suggested that the apparent effects of relation frequency in C. L. Gagne and E. J. Shoben's (1997) conceptual combination experiments could be explained by differences between the familiarity and plausibility of their stimuli (noun-noun phrases). However, C. L. Gagne and T. L. Spalding argued…

The intent of this study is to learn about principal intern perceptions of their grasp of the identified state principal standards for Colorado. A non-experimental comparative approach was used for this inquiry. Interns were trained to use an online journaling process called Journey Mapping. On a six point scale they rated themselves on their…

Since the mid-1980s, arts policymakers in Minnesota have positioned "media arts"--defined as the "study and practice of examining human communication through photography, film or video, audio, computer or digital arts, and interactive media"--within the realm of aesthetic education and considered it one of six arts areas. This…

Brantmeier [Brantmeier, C., 2006. "Advanced L2 learners and reading placement: self-assessment, computer-based testing, and subsequent performance." 'System 34" (1), 15-35] found that self-assessment (SA) of second language (L2) reading ability is not an accurate predictor for computer-based testing or subsequent classroom performance. With 359…

Reports on a study in which subjects judged the veracity of truthful and deceptive communicators after viewing no, one, two, or four case-relevant baseline exposures (familiarity) of truthful communication. Finds a positive linear relationship between detection accuracy and amount of baseline familiarity. (SR)

Young children and adults looked at 400 pictures of common objects and were asked to name the object, indicate their familiarity with the object, and state how complex the object would be to draw. Normative data indicated that children and adults differed in the most frequent name assigned and the number of alternative names used. (BC)

A survey of 1,200 midwesterners received 643 replies identifying factors affecting tendency to read and use product owner's manuals: (1) product familiarity and lack of time negatively affected use; (2) having a question or problem increased use; and (3) perceived value of information (i.e., redundant or obvious information) deterred use. (SK)

In two studies, two year olds learned a novel word for a particular stuffed animal. When the animal was familiar, children interpreted the novel word as a proper noun. When the animal was unfamiliar, children frequently interpreted the novel word as a count noun referring to a kind of object. (BC)

Infants were familiarized haptically to an object and then presented with stimuli that were identical to or different in shape or texture from the first object. Infants demonstrated recognition of shape and texture when the stimuli were presented without delay; of shape when presented after a five-minute delay; and of texture when presented after…

Reviews some limiting properties of the process-dissociation model as it applies to the study of dual-process conceptions of memory. A second-generation model (conjoint recognition) is proposed to address these limitations and supply additional capabilities. Worked applications to data are provided. (Author/GCP)