One college teacher's use of mock trials in sociology instruction is described. Students are assigned roles as petitioner, respondent, attorneys, judge, courtroom staff, witnesses, reporters, and jurors. Pretrial investigations provide experience in information-gathering and critical thinking. Posttrial debriefing reveals others' thinking…

Presents the first stage in a research effort developing a detailed computational model of working memory. The central feature of the model is counterintuitive. It is assumed that there is a primacy gradient of activation across successive list items. A second stage of the model is influenced by the combined effects of the primacy gradient and…

Presents a one-day, integrated activity in which a class monitors several students simulating a NASA space-shuttle flight. Includes space-shuttle crew application and space-shuttle time line. (MKR)

Describes a computer program that can model the equilibrium processes in the production of ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen, sulfur trioxide from sulfur dioxide and oxygen, and the nitrogen dioxide-dinitrogen tetroxide equilibrium. Provides information about downloading the program ChemEquilibrium from the World Wide Web. (JRH)

Basic procedures for performing computerized adaptive testing based on the successive intervals (SI) Rasch model were evaluated. The SI model was applied to simulated and real attitude data sets. Item pools as small as 30 items performed well, and the model appeared practical for Likert-type data. (SLD)

Reports on a trial simulation in which exposure to publicity regarding the defendant and general stories about acquaintance rape were manipulated; participants then viewed an enacted rape trial. Finds that male subjects exposed to predatory rape publicity were pro-defendant, whereas women were unaffected. Discusses male reaction to information…

Examines the advantages of presenting case study information via multimedia. Highlights identify advantages of using multimedia, including browsability, comprehensiveness, currency, flexibility, linkage, simplicity, precision, closeness to problem, and cost savings. Potential problems are also discussed. (Contains eight references.) (SLW)

Computer simulations indicate that the correlation between baseline and change, by itself, does not invalidate the use of gain scores to measure change, but when the negative correlation is accompanied by decrease in variance from pretest to posttest, covariance is a superior measure of change. (SLD)

Reviews the rationale for the use of simulation and game exercises as part of counselor education programs. Counselor competencies in the areas of knowledge, skills, and self-awareness are discussed; and the use of experience-based learning activities is explained, including the debriefing stage. (Contains three references.) (LRW)

Examines four working steps from an empirical model where an expert abstractor discovers what a paper is about and drafts a topic sentence; a simulation system is developed using this model. Discusses knowledge processing activities of professional summarizing. Results indicate that a small simulation model of professional summarizing is feasible.…

Discussion of the changing economic environment and the resulting restructuring of society focuses on changes in education needs. Highlights include evaluative simulations, interactive distance learning in the home and in the workplace using interactive media, and a list of World Wide Web information sources for distance education. (LRW)

A Monte Carlo study was conducted to investigate the robustness of the assumed error distribution in maximum likelihood estimation models for multidimensional scaling. Results show that violations of the assumed error distribution have virtually no effect on the estimated distance parameters. (SLD)

Crossroads to the World is an interdisciplinary, teacher-developed, technology-based project involving constructive learning that can be adapted to almost any social-studies curriculum. Beginning with literary models (like Whitman's "Song of the Open Road"), students use simulation software to generate ideas for their own simulated world…

Robustness of the school-level item response theoretic (IRT) model to violations of distributional assumptions was studied in a computer simulation. In situations where school-level precision might be acceptable for real school comparisons, expected a posteriori estimates of school ability were robust over a range of violations and conditions.…

A maximum likelihood approach to correlational outlier identification is introduced and compared to the Mahalanobis D squared and Comrey D statistics through Monte Carlo simulation. Identification performance depends on the nature of correlational outliers and the measure used, but the maximum likelihood approach is the most robust performance…