Studies suggest that the oral narratives of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are less organized than those of typically developing peers. Many studies, however, do not account for children's language abilities. Because language impairment (LI) is a frequent comorbid condition in children with ADHD, this exploratory…

There are several causal explanations for dyslexia, drawing on distinctions between dyslexics and control groups at genetic, biological, or cognitive levels of description. However, few theories explicitly bridge these different levels of description. In this paper, we review a long-standing theory that some dyslexics' reading impairments are due…

Few studies have examined the longitudinal impact that systems of care (SOCs) have on the clinical functioning of young people. This study investigated patterns of clinical improvement over time in an SOC and explored the degree to which demographic characteristics and referral source affected those patterns. Data were gathered at the time of…

Objective: To examine the mediational significance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the development of eating disorder symptomatology following sexually traumatic experiences. Method: Seventy-one victims of sexual trauma and 25 control subjects completed interviews and questionnaires assessing eating disorder psychopathology and…

Loans are a central component of college finance, yet research has generated a dearth of strong evidence of their effect on student choices. This article examines challenges to causal modeling regarding the effects of borrowing and the prospects of indebtedness on students' college-going behaviors. Statistical estimates of causal effects are…

Understanding the particulate nature of matter (PNM) is vital for participating in many areas of science. We assessed 11 students' atomic/molecular-level explanations of real-world phenomena after their participation in a modelling-based PNM unit. All 11 students offered a scientifically acceptable model regarding atomic/molecular behaviour in…

This study evaluated and described student perceptions of a course in agroecology to determine if participants experienced changed perceptions and behaviors resulting from the Agroecosystems Analysis course. A triangulation validating quantitative data mixed methods approach included a written survey comprised of both quantitative and open-ended…

Although there is consensus among medical educators that students must receive training in the biomedical sciences, little is known regarding the role of biomedical knowledge in diagnosis. The present paper presents two studies examining the role of biomedical knowledge, specifically knowledge of causal mechanisms, in novice diagnosticians. In…

Much research has highlighted incoherent implications of judgmental heuristics, yet other findings have demonstrated high correspondence between predictions and outcomes. At the same time, judgment has been well modeled in the form of as if linear models. Accepting the probabilistic nature of the environment, the authors use statistical tools to…

Policy problems like "What should we do about global warming?" are ill-defined in large part because we do not agree on a system to represent them the way we agree Algebra problems should be represented by equations. As a first step toward building a policy deliberation tutor, we investigated: (a) whether causal diagrams help students learn to…

This study questions whether administrative location of an academic department influences the qualitative nature of its educational output, as measured by the distribution of field choices among graduating students. To address this question, the author recorded curriculum vitae data on 661 economics PhD candidates, all of whom were on the Spring…

In the last few decades, the implementation of information technology has given rise to several organizational training needs that have to be satisfied, in order to empower organizational IT performance. The users of new technologies have to be trained quickly and efficiently, and since they are usually distributed to different remote locations,…

Experimental designs are distinguished as the best method to respond to questions involving causality. The purpose of the present paper is to explicate the logic of experimental design and why it is so vital to questions that demand causal conclusions. In addition, types of internal and external validity threats are discussed. To emphasize the…

In behavioral research, interest is often in examining the degree to which the effect of an independent variable X on an outcome Y is mediated by an intermediary or mediator variable M. This article illustrates how generalized estimating equations (GEE) modeling can be used to estimate the indirect or mediated effect, defined as the amount by…

In this article welfare systems and support networks are empirically analyzed to determine which generate the highest level of subjective well-being among retired persons. Propositions derived from support network theories and national welfare system typologies have been analyzed using causal models that indicate the influence of the various…