It was hypothesized that thought would result in greater attitude polarization than distraction and that this effect would be more pronounced with better developed "schemas" (naive theories) for thinking about the attitude object. (Editor)

"How can the children learn," parents ask, "when they are having so much fun? How can they learn when all they do is play?" Examines the work of educational theorists in answering such questions. (Author/RK)

Tests three proposed attentional mechanisms as possible behavioral strategies by which schizophrenics could prevent relevant information from registering and considers whether stimulation coming through the visual or the auditory channels is differentially susceptible to motivated attempts to disattend to relevant information. (Author/RK)

One of the most frequently encountered problems in educational research and evaluation is that of evaluating the effect of a treatment in settings over which the researcher or evaluator has little control. A strong plea is made for use of quasi-experimental designs in these situations and this research provides a method of testing the hypothesis…

There is a fundamental gap between people's assertions as to what is right or wrong and their actual behavior. This has been traditionally attributed to "akrasia" or weakness of the will. This research examines this concept and considers what moral education can do about it. (Editor/RK)

Delineates various levels of theory with implications for research in library and information science. Based upon a review of literature on theory building and research methods in the social sciences, a model is proposed which displays a taxonomy of theory in hierarchical form. (EM)

The use of U-statistics based on rank correlation coefficients in estimating the strength of concordance among a group of rankers is examined for cases where the null hypothesis of random rankings is not tenable. (Author/BW)

Although the primary responsibility rests with the authors of articles reporting nonsignificant results to demonstrate the worth of the results by discussing the power of the tests, consumers should be prepared to conduct their own power analyses. This article demonstrates the use of power analysis for the interpretation of nonsignificant…

A computer program randomly sampled ordered pairs of scores from known populations that departed from bivariate normal form and calculated correlation coefficients from sample values. Hypotheses were tested (1) that population correlations are zero using the t statistic; and (2) that population correlations have non-zero values using the r to z…

This paper describes how to determine whether enough observations have been sampled to be reasonably certain that a correct decision will be made about how the difference between the means of an experimental and control group compares to a constant specified by the experimenter. Equal variances are not assumed. (Author/BW)

Provided is a description of three methods for testing certain types of a priori hypotheses about differences among covariance matrices. Briefly outlined are procedures for using two computer programs, COFAMM and LISREL, for testing such hypotheses. Also provided are examples of application of the methods to a meaningful data set. (Author/BW)

The concept of information as it is used in ordinary discourse is elucidated, using philosophical methods of conceptual analysis. Five essential and four derivative properties of the phenomena of information are identified. This information concept is contrasted with several proposed concepts in information theory literature, communication theory,…

The normative implications of applying significance tests in evaluation research are examined. The authors conclude that evaluators often make normative decisions, based on the traditional .05 significance level in studies with small samples. Additional reporting of the magnitude of impact, the significance level, and the power of the test is…

Argues that hypothesis testing is an inadequate paradigm for evaluating academic debates because (1) defenders of hypothesis testing cannot meet the standards they impose on other arguers and (2) hypothesis testing does not achieve its goal of discovering probable truth. (PD)

This study of 580 sports book reviews appearing between 1970 and 1980 reveals that number of sports books published has increased, but percentage of reviews has decreased; of total sample, 36 percent were indexed in "Book Review Index" (BRI), 0.2 percent in "Book Review Digest" (BRD), 8 percent in both BRI and BRD. (EJS)