A PHYSIOGNOLINGUISTIC APPROACH TO READING ASSESSMENT: AN ALTERNATE FORM OF MISCUE ANALYSIS

This article is a good natured parody of an area of controversy, informal classroom reading assessment, which has been receiving a great deal of journal coverage in recent years. Any similarity between this article and actual research being conducted is completely gratuitous.     

THE READING RECOVERY APPROACH TO PREVENTIVE EARLY INTERVENTION: AS GOOD AS IT GETS?

Reading Recovery is a widely used preventive early intervention program designed for young children who have failed to respond adequately to formal reading instruction after 12 months of schooling. The focus of this article is on the theoretical underpinnings of the program, the assessment battery used in the program, the specific procedures and instructional strategies emphasized in the program, and the manner of program delivery. Following an examination of Reading Recovery in relation to contemporary theory and research on children’s reading problems and effective intervention strategies, fundamental changes to the program are recommended.     

TEST VALIDATION FOR SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING: TWO DEMONSTRATIONS OF AN APPROACH TO STUDYING PREDICTOR-CRITERION LINKAGES

This paper argues that a construct-oriented approach to test validation is likely to enhance scientific understanding of our predictor measures, performance criteria, and links between them. In particular, examining relationships between relatively homogeneous predictors and criteria tapping specific performance areas operationalizes earlier conceptual statements made by Guion and Dunnette about test validation for scientific understanding. Two demonstrations are offered to show how measures of predictor constructs have predictably different patterns of correlations with different criteria. In a study of Navy recruiters ( N = 267), individual personality scales had significantly different relationships with three different rating criteria; in a second study, with Army enlisted soldiers ( N = 8, 642), cognitive ability and personality construct measures also showed predictable patterns of correlations, with rating criteria measuring three different performance areas. The paper discusses scientific and practical implications of this construct-oriented approach to test validation.     

ORGANIZATIONAL RECRUITING AS MARKETING MANAGEMENT: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF ENGINEERING GRADUATES

With the intent of encouraging interdisciplinary research, this study applies principles, theories, and practices of marketing management to examine engineering recruitment as a process of "job marketing." Six hypotheses concerning campus recruiters and strategic recruiting issues were proposed and investigated through a national survey of 242 graduating engineers representing five engineering fields. Survey responses revealed that both overall satisfaction with recruiting processes and likelihood of job acceptance were significantly related to recruiter interpersonal skills and interview information provided about compensation/benefits, job/career, and security/success issues. Further, student satisfaction with recruiting processes was significantly related to recruiter/job applicant similarity in gender and educational characteristics. Contrary to conventional inferences of recruiting research, students did not respond more favorably to line management or engineering recruiters than to personnel representatives. Implications of these findings are identified and discussed in terms of both the marketing and management literatures.     

MENTAL PROCESSES INVOLVED IN RAPID LOGICAL REASONING

S medslund , J. Mental processes involved in rapid logical reasoning. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1968, 9, 187–205.—Approximate reaction times of adult subjects were recorded in three studies of addition and subtraction of units, and in one of transitive inference. Transformations such as from 'V has more than H' to 'H has less than V' were found to be important determinants of RT in additionlsubtraction. Under some conditions subjects preferred to combine the first two elements in a triad of operations first, under other conditions they seemed to select inversions (V + 1 & V−1) first. Symmetries (V + 1 & H +1) were apparently never preferred. All transitive tasks seemed to be converted into normal form (A>B ∓ B>CorA < B & B < C) before they were solved.     

中、英文阅读理解之比较研究

本文在句法、语义和事实方面比较了中、英文的阅读过程,并发现中文读者在阅读加工中更多地采用分散的策略,而英文读者则更多地采用集中的策略。在中文中,语义违反所造成的朗读混乱大于句法违反所造成的混乱;而在英文中则句法违反所造成的混乱大于语义违反所造成的混乱。但是,由句法、语义和事实的违反所形成的曲线在中、英文中是相似的,这说明中、英文的阅读加工有其共同之处。     

A COMPARISON OF READING COMPREHENSION PROCESSES IN POLISH AND ENGLISH*

Two experiments in Polish replicated several conditions in English experiments on reading comprehension processes. In Polish syntactic information is represented primarily by morphology and in English primarily by word order. Lexical, syntactic + semantic, within-syntactic class, between-syntactic class, semantic, and factual information were violated in stories. Native speakers read the stories aloud and the protocols were scored for increases in production time around violations. The disruptions in oral reading caused by the syntactic violations were relatively larger and occurred earlier in Polish than in English. The semantic and factual violations produced broader disruptions in English than in Polish. Reading comprehension processes varied to meet the cognitive demands imposed by how the available information was represented. Polish readers adopted a focused strategy and English readers a more diffused strategy.     

THE EFFICACY OF AN ALL-POSITIVE APPROACH TO CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

This study addressed the question of whether an all-positive approach to classroom management can be effective. The on-task behavior and academic performance of eight, second- and third-grade children with behavior problems were examined. Results indicated that an all-positive approach that relied primarily on praise was not effective. However, when an individualized reward system was used, the children's rates of on-task behavior were high and stable. Similar effects were observed for academic productivity. Thus, a classroom can be managed using only positive consequences. However, to be successful, such an approach may require a considerable amount of teacher time and effort, particularly potent, varied and individual rewards, and high rates of appropriate behavior previously established using both positive and negative consequences.     

中文阅读之句法分析历程初探

该文报告的是香港中文大学心理学系的认知心理实验室中最近完成的两个与句法分析有关的实验。第一个实验探讨阅读中文时词汇、句法以及语意资料之触发和运用的时序问题。第二个实验研究的是中文读者所使用的句法分析策略。在两个实验中,基本的作业是让被试阅读在电脑屏幕上呈现的短文。文中每个字的阅读时间则由电脑记录作为反映阅读理解即时处理历程的指标。文中除了报告实验的结果外,还依据这些结果讨论了读者在阅读中文时所使用的句法分析策略以及句法资料的触发和使用历程。     

AN EXTENSION OF INCIDENTAL TEACHING PROCEDURES TO READING INSTRUCTION FOR AUTISTIC CHILDREN

In an extension of incidental teaching procedures to reading instruction, two autistic children acquired functional sight-word reading skills in the context of a play activity. Children gained access to preferred toys by selecting the label of the toy in tasks requiring increasingly complex visual discriminations. In addition to demonstrating rapid acquisition of 5-choice discriminations, they showed comprehension on probes requiring reading skills to locate toys stored in labeled boxes. Also examined was postteaching transfer across stimulus materials and response modalities. Implications are that extensions of incidental teaching to new response classes may produce the same benefits documented in communication training, in terms of producing generalization concurrent with skill acquisition in the course of child-preferred activities.     

不同年级学生阅读科技文章的眼动研究

本实验使用４２００Ｒ眼动仪对小学三年级、初二、高二和大学生阅读科技文章的眼动特征进行研究。结果发现;１．随年龄的提高,被试阅读课文的总注视次数显著减少;２．高年级学生能够根据阅读内容的重要性来灵活地调节自己的眼动策略;３．随着年级的提高,各年级被试使用前进式回视的比例逐渐减少,而使用选择式回视的比例逐渐增加。     

TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF GENDER DIFFERENCES IN INFERRING SEXUAL INTEREST

Research has shown that, after brief opposite-gender interactions, men perceive women more sexually than women perceive men (e.g., Abbey, 1982 ). This study examined interpersonal perceptions following dyadic cross-gender interactions between unacquainted individuals. Of particular concern were perceptions of sexual traits, interaction qualities, and physical attractiveness. The influence of being gender schematic on sexual judgments was examined. The results provide further support for Abbey's finding that men oversexualize women following brief interactions but failed to support the hypothesized gender schema effects. Additional analyses suggest the presence of another gender difference in judging attraction. Women who rated their partners as physically attractive also attributed more positive qualities to their partner and the interaction. By contrast, men's ratings of women revealed more limited associations with perceived physical attractiveness. Results are discussed in terms of gender differences in judging sexual attraction, the correlates of physical attractiveness, and continuing efforts to explain oversexualization.