Reports on a project which developed a measure of levels of difficulty of reference questions handled by the California Interlibrary Reference Referral Network, and identified indicative measures that would reliably stand for the concept of difficulty. Correlations of predictive difficulty and actual difficulty are discussed. (nine references)…

Describes a study of undergraduates that was conducted to examine the equivalence of the mode of administration using the paper-pencil and computer-based versions of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory. Differences in scores are discussed, time taken for the inventories is studied, and further research is suggested. (Contains 16 references.)…

Describes a correlation method for calculating reference statistics using weekly door counts that was tested at the University of South Carolina while studying a sampling technique for collecting reference statistics. Results indicate this method may offer libraries an accurate and less time-consuming procedure for keeping reference statistics.…

Background: It has been repeatedly found that performance of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is more impaired when a long inter-stimulus interval (ISI) is used than when a short ISI is used. According to the cognitive-energetic model, this may reflect difficulty in remaining in an optimal motor activation state…

This study explored the degree of verbal short-term memory deficit among individuals with Down syndrome and Williams syndrome, and the extent to which any such impairment could be accounted for by a relative slowing of rehearsal and output processes. Measures of serial recall and detailed assessments of speeded articulation for short and long…

In 3 experiments the role of mediators in task switching with transparent and nontransparent cues was examined. Subjects switched between magnitude (greater or less than 5) and parity (odd or even) judgments of single digits. A cue-target congruency effect indicated mediator use: subjects responded faster to congruent cue-target combinations…

This study assessed the hypothesis that the response time to an item increases as the positions of the item and the respondent on the continuum of the trait that is measured draw closer together. This hypothesis has previously been stated by several authors, but so far it does not seem to have been empirically assessed in a rigorous way. A…

Background: Observation studies of students with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) problems in natural classroom situations are costly and relatively rare. Aims: The study enquired how teacher ratings are anchored in actual student classroom behaviours, and how the behaviour of children with ADHD problems differs from their…

The role of central auditory processing in reading skill development and reading disorders is unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine whether individuals with specific reading disabilities (SRD) have deficits in processing rapidly presented, serially ordered non-speech auditory signals. To this end, we compared 12 children with SRD and…

We now stand at an interesting intersection in the perennial debate about the merits of homework, write Marzano and Pickering. Arguments against homework are becoming louder and more popular; at the same time, research is providing growing evidence that homework can be useful when employed effectively. After reviewing three recent books that have…

Sixty adolescents, stratified by sex and grade level (i.e., 9th, 12th, and college sophomore) participated in an examination of Piaget's suggestion that the formal operations are prerequisite to the development of political idealism, abstract thought and future time perspective in adolescence. Analysis of the cognition data revealed that the…

Successive samples from among students enrolled in French in grade 8 of the Ontario public schools were given English usage and mathematics concepts tests. Results revealed that an increase from 20 to 40 minutes per day of French instruction had no significant effect on students' achievement in English or mathematics. (JB)

Two factor analysis algorithms, previously described by P. Horst, have been programed for use on the General Electric Time-Sharing Computer System. The first of these, Principal Components Analysis (PCA), uses the Basic Structure Successive Factor Method With Residual Matrices algorithm to obtain the principal component vectors of a correlation…

The purpose of this study was to test a specific hypothesis with regard to how cloze retrieval takes place once semantic constraints are recognized. Results from human subjects and computer simulation suggested that increase in latency between the two- and three-semantic-constraint conditions was not artifactual. (JAZ)

In a study of sign language interpretive skills, data provided evidence of a definite relationship between lag time and miscue occurrence. As the degree of temporal synchrony between the sign language message and the target language interpretation increased, so did the frequency of miscues. (CB)