This study examined the accuracy of a 13-year-old girl's account of a sexually abusive incident. Information given by the victim was compared with an audiotaped record. Over 50% of information reported by the victim was corroborated by the audio record and 64% was confirmed by more than one source. (Author/CR)

Describes a study conducted with mature students at the Open University (Great Britain) who entered with low educational qualifications. Using a social cognitive framework, a model of credible and tentative students was developed which focuses on the interplay between psychological, social, and institutional issues which affected their study.…

Describes the information-use environment (IUE) of African-American gatekeepers in an inner-city neighborhood in Milwaukee (Wisconsin). Highlights include information needs, including race relations, crime, and family; sources of unmet needs, including lack of awareness or access to information sources; trustworthiness and credibility of…

Examined possibility that increased speech rate affects persuasion either by acting as an agreement cue or through impact on message processing. Fast speech inhibited participants' tendency to differentially agree with strong versus weak message arguments under both moderate and high relevance. However, fast speech was associated with increased…

Describes two successful fund-raising campaigns conducted by the new Dean of the College of Communication at the University of Texas, Austin. Describes strategies used as a novice fund-raiser with no help from a development officer. Suggests that the Aristotelian principles will serve anyone well if he or she is willing to give it the time and…

In this article, the author examines briefly several broad themes in reading reform to see what these can tell about policy makers' respect--or lack of respect--for teachers of reading. He talks about the current discourse of "scientifically-based" research which is about teachers, teachers who are blamed for reading failures. He…

Norenzayan, Smith, Jun Kim, and Nisbett (2002) investigated cultural differences in the use of intuitive versus formal reasoning in 4 experiments. Our comment concerns the 4th experiment where Norenzayan et al. reported that, although there were no cultural differences in accuracy on abstract logical arguments, Koreans made more errors than U.S.…

This study investigated the effect of teacher misbehavior on student affect for the teacher and teacher credibility. Participants completed an Affect Toward Teacher Scale and a Source Credibility Scale in reference to one of four experimental conditions. The first two research questions examined the effect of misbehaviors on student affect for the…

The current work investigated the effects of social influence on children's recall accuracy and metacognitive monitoring. Two studies were conducted in which 8-and 10-year-olds were confronted with postevent information in an interview situation. An interviewer (Study 1) or a confederate (Study 2) provided postevent information with two levels of…

This multilevel investigation examined the effect of group interaction and its influence on individual-level membership variables and group assimilation. The study is based on a model of group socialization developed by Moreland and Levine (1982) and was modified in this study to investigate the development and maintenance of highly interdependent…

Children's learning--in the domains of science and religion specifically, but in many other cultural domains as well--relies extensively on testimony and other forms of culturally transmitted information. The cognitive processes that enable such learning must also administrate the evaluation, qualification, and storage of that information, while…

In 1999, the staff of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) of the Virginia General Assembly (the state legislature) completed a review of the Virginia Board of Medicine that found problems with the process used to regulate physicians and recommended major changes to a system that had remained relatively unchanged for almost…

This study documented the experiences of women college presidents in associate, baccalaureate, masters and doctoral institutions in the United States. Using the quantitative and qualitative methods, the researcher looked at the women college presidents' perceptions on how gender affects leadership abilities, professional relationships, and…

In his book entitled "Teaching Defiance: Stories and strategies for activist educators," this author asserted that, although his book was not a discussion of the Iraq war, it was concerned with the way the war has been "waged" in the countries of the three invaders: the USA, the UK and Australia. For him, the fact that each…

Richard Nixon's 1952 "Checkers" speech was an innovative use of television for political communication. Like television news itself, the campaign fund crisis behind the speech can be thought of in the same terms as other television melodrama, with the speech serving as its climactic episode. The speech adapted well to television because…