Details the use of the game Yahtzee with modified rules to help students understand the extreme improbability of obtaining complex structures by chance in the process of evolution. Includes a discussion of probability calculations. (DDR)

Discusses information retrieval systems and the need to have them adapt to user needs, integrate information in any format, reveal patterns and trends in information, and answer questions. Topics include statistics and probability; natural language processing; intelligent agents; concept mapping; machine-aided indexing; text mining; filtering;…

Presents a game in which if player is playing a match of this game with an opponent, at each step in the game he has to decide whether to continue or to stop. Helps students to develop a strategy for making such a decision based on the expected gain and related probabilities. (Author/ASK)

Presents an activity on probability and area in which students try to decide which door to buy. (ASK)

Discusses the performance of Malaysian secondary school students on a probability concepts test covering various intuitive and taught probability concepts. Describes the establishment of a probability concepts hierarchy and considers probability understanding in relation to independent variables. Boys, Form Six students, and students with a higher…

An investigation of the use of probabilistic methodologies for identifying cheaters on classroom multiple-choice examinations concludes that imperfections in the detection techniques, coupled with legal issues, necessarily limit the applicability and utility of these strategies. (Author)

Presents an instrument designed as a profile of teacher achievement and teacher needs with regard to the probability and statistics strands in the mathematics curriculum. Discusses uses for the instrument and further development possibilities. (MM)

We studied the choice behavior of 2 monkeys in a discrete-trial task with reinforcement contingencies similar to those Herrnstein (1961) used when he described the matching law. In each session, the monkeys experienced blocks of discrete trials at different relative-reinforcer frequencies or magnitudes with unsignalled transitions between the…

This article offers a five-level variable that highlights the level and the consistency of a student's educational "anticipations," and tests the explanatory power of this approach to the histories of traditional age community college students using the postsecondary transcript files of the NELS:88\2000 longitudinal study. In logistic…

Studies have shown that exposure to discrimination increases the probability that African American adolescents will engage in delinquent behavior, especially acts of violence. The present study extended this research by examining the extent to which supportive parenting buffers a youth from these deleterious consequences of discrimination.…

Background: Although reward processing is considered an important part of affective functioning, few studies have investigated reward-related decisions or responses in young people with affective disorders. Depression is postulated to involve decreased activity in reward-related affective systems. Methods: Using functional magnetic resonance…

Background: Research has shown that a large proportion of adolescents with symptoms of depression and substantial distress or impairment fail to meet the diagnostic criteria for a major depressive disorder (MDD). However, many of these undiagnosed adolescents may meet criteria for a residual category of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of…

A traditional method of localizing brain functions has been to identify shared areas of brain damage in individuals who have a particular deficit. The rationale of this "lesion overlap" approach is straightforward: if the individuals can no longer perform the function, the area of brain damaged in most of these individuals must have been…

Trait psychology implicitly assumes consistency of the personal traits. Mischel, however, argued against the idea of a general consistency of human beings. The present article aims to design a statistical procedure based on an adaptation of the pi* statistic to measure the degree of intraindividual consistency independently of the measure used.…

This study explored the relationship between participation in sport and non-sport activities and freshmen persistence in college. Three categories of persistence behavior were employed: (1) continuing at the same institution, (2) changing institutions, and (3) dropping out of college completely. For men and women, involvement in sports increased…