EXPLORATION OF THE INTERACTIVE NATURE OF READING: USING COMMERCIAL IRIs TO GAIN INSIGHTS

A variety of commercial Informal Reading Inventories (IRIs) have recently been proposed as convenient and, perhaps, more reliable alternatives to teacher constructed instruments. This assumption is examined from an interactive point of view using case study data from three young readers. Reader variability across IRIs is discussed in terms of the varying demands of text and task, and in terms of the idiosyncratic contributions of each individual to the reading act.     

The Role of Self-Efficacy and Fear-Avoidance Beliefs in the Prediction of Disability

Both self-efficacy and fear-avoidance beliefs have been shown to be predictors of the level of disability in low back pain suffers. What is not clear from the literature, however, is whether the two constructs are differentially predictive of disability. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between pain self-efficacy and fear-avoidance beliefs and to determine whether they can explain unique variance in disability scores. One hundred and twenty-one people over the age of 18, suffering from chronic low back pain and receiving workers' compensation, completed the Pain Self-Efficacy Scale (PSEQ), the Fear Avoidance Beliefs questionnaire (FABQ), the Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale and a visual analogue scale for pain. The results show that, after controlling for pain, self-efficacy explained 24% of the variance in disability scores, and fear avoidance only a further 3.1%.     

We Welcome Refugees? Understanding the Relationship between Religious Orientation,Religious Commitment,Personality, and Prejudicial Attitudes toward Syrian Refugees

ABSTRACT

Approximately 5 million refugees have been displaced since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011. In 2016, the refugee crisis reached deadly proportions, causing many Syrians to flee their homes in search of asylum. Individual responses to refugees differed as Syrians attempted to resettle throughout the world. Research has shown that religious orientation (intrinsic, extrinsic, quest), religious commitment, and personality traits can help explain prejudicial attitudes toward outgroups. The purpose of this study is to examine the role that personality and religion play in predicting prejudicial attitudes toward Syrian refugees in the United States. The study’s sample consists of 844 participants recruited during the height of the Syrian refugee crisis. Participants completed online surveys through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Results of hierarchical regression indicated that personality explained about 14% of the variance in prejudicial attitudes; specifically, Extroversion and Conscientiousness were positively related to prejudice, whereas Agreeableness was negatively related. Religious commitment and religious orientation explained an additional 0.8% to 2.5% variance, respectively, in prejudicial attitudes above and beyond personality. We discuss implications of findings for future research and practice.     

Hindsight Bias,Visual Aids,and Legal Decision Making: Timing is Everything

Once individuals learn the outcomes of events, they tend to overestimate the ability with which they could have predicted the event (hindsight bias). We discuss the relation between processing fluency and hindsight bias in the context of visual animations designed to clarify complex events. Visual reconstructions, by increasing clarity while masking gaps or uncertainty in the underlying data, have been shown to increase hindsight bias in legal settings. More generally, any computer‐generated visual may not only clarify data sets, but breed overconfidence. Further, by taking a broader view of judgments shift over time, a clearer portrait of hindsight bias may be achieved.     

Form-Specific Visual Priming in the Left and Right Hemispheres

Word fragment completion performance was examined for items that were presented in the same or different letter case at study and test. During the study phase words and nonwords were presented at central fixation, then during the test phase a divided visual field technique was used in which word fragments were presented briefly to the right hemisphere (left visual field) or the left hemisphere (right visual field). Previous research using the word stem completion task indicated that only the right hemisphere was sensitive to case changes in words from study to test. In contrast, the current results indicate that in the fragment completion task the priming effects for the test items presented to either hemisphere were greater when the fragments were in the same compared to different letter case at study and test. These results indicate that both hemispheres are capable of supporting form-specific visual implicit memory.