Quiz-o-Matic: A free Web-based tool for construction of self-scoring on-line quizzes

Increasingly, educators are using the World-Wide Web (the Web) and related technology to supplement their traditional teaching materials. In this paper, we present a free tool that has been placed on the Web to enable educators to create Web pages that present self-scoring quizzes. Such Web-based practice quizzes provide students with an opportunity for interactive assessment and review of course material. The tool, Quiz-o-Matic, uses active server pages to build the HTML and JavaScript code for each quiz, without requiring the user to edit any code. We present evidence that students judge the self-scoring quizzes to be useful and worthwhile additions to a course.     

Christian Stewardship in Light of a Theology of the Cross1

Abstract : The article translates a keynote address delivered in Spanish at the November 2007 “Life and Mission” special assembly of the United Lutheran Evangelical Church in Argentina, held in Buenos Aires. Departing from Jesus' “giving it all away on the cross,” it lays a cruciform foundation for a Christian theology of abundant generosity, and offers practical implications for stewardship leaders.     

To Be a Donor or Not to Be? Applying an Extended Theory of Planned Behavior to Predict Posthumous Organ Donation Intentions

Using a theory of planned behavior (TPB) perspective, individual intentions to register and discuss the decision of organ donation with significant others were examined. In addition to standard TPB variables (attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control [PBC]), self-identity and moral norm were incorporated into the TPB as predictors. Australian university students ( N  = 303) completed a survey comprising standard and additional TPB constructs. Separate analyses were conducted for both registered and nonregistered participants. In general, results provide support for the extended TPB model in predicting intentions to register and discuss the donation decision, with the exceptions that self-identity did not predict discussion intentions for either registered or nonregistered participants, and PBC did not predict discussion intentions for nonregistered participants.     

A Cue Utilization Approach for Investigating Harvest Decisions in Commons Dilemmas

Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) is introduced as a new tool for investigating decision making in commons dilemmas. University undergraduates ( N  = 171) managed a virtual fishery, with 2 computer-simulated fishers, over 60 seasons. Level 1 HLM analyses revealed that participants took significantly more fish during seasons when feedback suggested fish stocks, fish value, and fishing expenses were high; and when noncooperative and cooperative others had taken more fish and fewer fish, respectively, in the previous season. Level 2 analyses produced several cross-level interactions, indicating that participants' use of feedback information varied as a function of their social values and environmental attitudes.     

ENHANCING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A PLAY INTERVENTION BY ABOLISHING THE REINFORCING VALUE OF STEREOTYPY: A PILOT STUDY

An alternating treatments design compared one condition in which a child with autism was allowed to engage in stereotypy freely prior to the intervention (abolishing operation component) to a second condition without the free‐access period. Levels of stereotypy and problem behavior were lower and levels of functional play were higher in the condition with the abolishing operation component. These data provide preliminary support for the use of abolishing operations in interventions to increase the play skills of children with autism.     

Family and Neighborhood Fit or Misfit and the Adaptation of Mexican Americans

In this study, a person-environment fit model was used to understand the independent and combined roles of family and neighborhood characteristics on the adjustment of adults and children in a sample of 750 Mexican American families. Latent class analysis was used to identify six qualitatively distinct family types and three quantitatively distinct neighborhood types using socioeconomic and cultural indicators at each level. The results showed that members of single-parent Mexican American families may be particularly at-risk, members of the lowest-income immigrant families reported fewer adaptation problems if they lived in low-income neighborhoods dominated by immigrants, members of economically successful immigrant families may be more at-risk in integrated middle class neighborhoods than in low-income neighborhoods dominated by immigrants, and members of two-parent immigrant families appear to be rather resilient in most settings despite their low socioeconomic status.     

Trait displaced aggression and psychopathy differentially moderate the effects of acute alcohol intoxication and rumination on triggered displaced aggression

When angered, alcohol and rumination increase aggression toward the source of a subsequent minor annoyance. Little is known about individual differences that moderate this phenomenon. One hundred university students (47 men, 53 women) were provoked and given either alcohol or placebo and subsequently induced to ruminate or engage in distraction. Participants were then given the opportunity to aggress against a somewhat annoying fictitious participant by determining the amount of hot sauce the other participant must consume. Alcohol and rumination independently augmented aggressive behavior, and these effects were moderated by trait displaced aggression and psychopathy, respectively. These findings suggest alcohol use and rumination as targets of intervention, specifically for those high in trait displaced aggression and psychopathy.     

BECOMING WHO WE ARE: A THEORETICAL EXPLANATION OF GENDERED SOCIAL STRUCTURES AND SOCIAL NETWORKS THAT SHAPE ADOLESCENT INTERPERSONAL AGGRESSION

A conceptualization of gendered interpersonal aggression that is grounded in the social ecological framework is presented to explicate factors in adolescents' gendered environments that give rise to aggression and victimization. The focus is on gendered social structures and social networks. Our framework for prevention suggests that violence prevention requires that we move our culture from one that continually recreates gendered structures that reinforce power and authority as masculine and that confer opportunities and constraints in ways that favor men over women. It will require deliberate action to legitimize the feminine in our culture and develop laws and practices that abolish gender inequities.     

Investigating the causes of wrap-up effects: Evidence from eye movements and E-Z Reader

Wrap-up effects in reading have traditionally been thought to reflect increased processing associated with intra- and inter-clause integration (Just, M. A. & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). A theory of reading: From eye fixations to comprehension. Psychological Review,87(4), 329-354; Rayner, K., Kambe, G., & Duffy, S. A. (2000). The effect of clause wrap-up on eye movements during reading. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,53A(4), 1061-1080; cf. Hirotani, M., Frazier, L., & Rayner, K. (2006). Punctuation and intonation effects on clause and sentence wrap-up: Evidence from eye movements. Journal of Memory and Language,54, 425-443). We report an eye-tracking experiment with a strong manipulation of integrative complexity at a critical word that was either sentence-final, ended a comma-marked clause, or was not comma-marked. Although both complexity and punctuation had reliable effects, they did not interact in any eye-movement measure. These results as well as simulations using the E-Z Reader model of eye-movement control (Reichle, E. D., Warren, T., & McConnell, K. (2009). Using E-Z Reader to model the effects of higher-level language processing on eye movements during reading. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,16(1), 1-20) suggest that traditional accounts of clause wrap-up are incomplete.