Tests the hypothesis that there is no monotonic relationship between increasing competence in different linguistic domains and growth in second-language proficiency. The article concludes with an introduction to some assessment models that can accommodate discontinuous growth patterns. These models can describe and model a student's qualitative…

Presents a framework for studying the effects of the Maturation Hypothesis on the problem of language learning, parametrically conceived, and offers a method for finding all existing maturational solutions for any parametric hypothesis space and any learning algorithm that differs from Gibson and Wexler's Triggering Learning Algorithm. (27…

This study evaluated Holland's (1973, 1985, 1997) structural hypotheses--circular order and circumplex--in two populations in China at both the subtest (Activities, Competencies, Occupational Preferences, and Self-ratings on Abilities) and the entire test levels of the Self-Directed Search (SDS; Holland, 1994). Confirmatory factor analyses…

The present study examines the relation between psychopathy and the Big Five dimensions of personality in two samples of adolescents. Specifically, the study tests the hypothesis that the aspect of psychopathy representing selfishness, callousness, and interpersonal manipulation (Factor 1) is most strongly associated with low Agreeableness,…

Based on the literature about self-disclosure, it was hypothesized that different groups of subjects differ in their pattern of self-disclosure with respect to different areas of social interaction. An extended latent-trait latent-class model was proposed to describe these general patterns of self-disclosure. The model was used to analyze the data…

Two Chinese samples of the high school students (N=721) and the college students (N=943) were administered a translated version of the Personal Globe Inventory (PGI, Tracey, 2002), and the responses were examined with respect to their structure. Results of separate factor analyses demonstrated that there were three substantive factors:…

For comparing nested covariance structure models, the standard procedure is the likelihood ratio test of the difference in fit, where the null hypothesis is that the models fit identically in the population. A procedure for determining statistical power of this test is presented where effect size is based on a specified difference in overall fit…

This article presents a psychometric model for estimating ability and item-selection strategies in self-adapted testing. In contrast to computer adaptive testing, in self-adapted testing the examinees are allowed to select the difficulty of the items. The item-selection strategy is defined as the distribution of difficulty conditional on the…

This study tested the hypothesis that positive career orientation can prevent adolescents from engaging in or escalating problem behaviour. A 1-year, longitudinal study was conducted on a sample of 234 junior-high and high-school students, who were 14.8 years old on the average in the beginning of the study. Using structural equation modeling, a…

This longitudinal field study integrates the theories of transformational leadership (TFL) and relationship marketing to examine how TFL influences employee service performance and customer relationship outcomes by transforming both (at the micro level) the service employees' attitudes and (at the macro level) the work unit's service climate.…

The similarities between television viewing and fantasy activity (daydreaming, reverie, mind-wandering, internal dialogue) more than warrant the building of a theoretical construct, especially in the context of recent empirical research on television viewing consequences. A construct of the television viewing process, based on cognitive theories…

This study proposes to explore characteristics not usually considered musical, and yet which might combine in persons in such a way that results may lead to a clearer understanding and more accurate measurement and prediction of musical talent. Two hypotheses were tested: (1) Musical talent can be predicted by means of a selected set of variables…

Relative effectiveness of indexing using full-text or less than full-text was tested using non-Boolean, chaining type of file structure and searching method. Indexing was done using titles, abstracts, full-text, references, and various combinations; Goffman's indirect method of information retrieval was used to structure and search file.…

Discusses the concept of temperament interactions in the context of statistical interaction. Categorizes temperament interactions that involve temperament as an independent variable, as a dependent variable, or as both. Describes use of hierarchical multiple regression for the analysis of temperament interactions. (Author/CI)