Presents an activity that utilizes the mathematical models of forest fires and oil spills that were generated (in the first part of this activity, published in the November 1998 issue) by students using probability and cellular automata. (ASK)

Presents a variety of problems for elementary and secondary school students that focus on probability. Activities involving coins, M & M candies, and the game show "Let's Make a Deal," are described, and Web sites for the activities are listed as well as sites for lesson plans. (LRW)

Provides a protocol for counseling families with an autistic member concerning the risk of having an autistic child. Reports data regarding empirical recurrence risks and identifies the key elements that influence recurrence risks for individual couples. Counseling expertise in both diagnosis and treatment of autism and in the genetics of complex…

The probabilistic retrieval model developed in this paper incorporates the relationships of descriptors. A learning model is proposed to figure out the relationships incrementally. Each time retrieval results are available, the method identifies in the relevant documents the descriptors that designate the concepts specified by the query…

Used mathematics achievement data from the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress, the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, and the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 to examine the sex difference by item difficulty interaction. The predicted negative correlation was found for all eight populations and was…

Presents abstracts of papers for a planned session dealing with the historiography and history of information science. Highlights include probability distributions underlying the use of library materials, particularly scientific journals; the temporal and historical orientation of the rhetoric of information science; and concepts of information…

The widespread interest in sports in our culture provides an excellent opportunity to catch students' attention in mathematics and statistics classes. One mathematically interesting aspect of volleyball, which can be used to motivate students, is the scoring system. (MM)

Presents some examples illustrating the importance of probability, data analysis, and statistics for the preservice mathematics teacher, and suggests ways of teaching these topics. (Contains 13 references.) (ASK)

Evaluates the thinking of third grade students in relation to an instructional program in probability which was informed by a research-based framework that included a description of students' probabilistic thinking. Reveals that overcoming misconceptions in sample space, applying both part-part and part-whole reasoning, and using invented language…

Objective: Within the framework of the Mental Health Surveys of Turkey, the authors investigated the distribution and prevalence of parent-reported behavioral and emotional problems in a nationally representative sample of 2- to 3-year-old children. Method: A cross-sectional population-based survey from October 1996 through March 1997 using a…

The study investigated the frequency, themes, and attributions for significant regrets in a random probability sample of 3,917 German and Dutch nationals between the ages of 40 and 85 years. It was found that 14% did not have any regrets in spontaneous memory, and that this increased with the age of the respondents. With respect to mentioned…

This article addresses misconceptions related to what makes an unfair game fair and describes from a personal perspective the process of discovering for oneself when a particular mathematical method works. (Contains 3 figures and 2 tables.)

The statistics for divorce in the United States are alarming. Among the shouting there are voices that are not being heard: the children's. Empirical research has shown that the implementation of protective measures may increase the probability of a child becoming resilient in the face of divorce. This review of current literature is written to…

When participants are presented simultaneously with spoken language and a visual display depicting objects to which that language refers, participants spontaneously fixate the visual referents of the words being heard [Cooper, R. M. (1974). The control of eye fixation by the meaning of spoken language: A new methodology for the real-time…

The visual system continually selects some information for processing while bypassing the processing of other information, and as a consequence, participants often fail to notice large changes to visual stimuli. In the present studies, the authors investigated whether knowledge about the probability of particular changes occurring over time…