Testing enhances both encoding and retrieval for both tested and untested items

In forward testing effects, taking a test enhances memory for subsequently studied material. These effects have been observed for previously studied and tested items, a potentially item-specific testing effect, and newly studied untested items, a purely generalized testing effect. We directly compared item-specific and generalized forward testing effects using procedures to separate testing benefits due to encoding versus retrieval. Participants studied two lists of Swahili–English word pairs, with the second study list containing “new” pairs intermixed with the previously studied “old” pairs. Participants completed a review phase in which they took a cued-recall test on only the “old” pairs or restudied them. In Experiments 1a, 1b, and 2, the review phase was given either before or after the second study list. Testing benefited memory to the same degree for both “new” and “old” pairs, suggesting that there were no pair-specific benefits of testing. The larger benefit from testing when review was given before rather than after the second study list suggests that the memory enhancement was due to both testing-enhanced encoding and testing-enhanced retrieval. To better equate generalized testing effects for “new” and “old” pairs, Experiment 3 intermixed them in the review phase. A statistically significant pair-specific testing effect for “old” items was now observed. Overall, these results show that forward testing effects are due to both testing-enhanced encoding and retrieval effects and that direct, pair-specific forward testing benefits are considerably smaller than indirect, generalized forward testing benefits.     

Measuring change for a multidimensional test using a generalized explanatory longitudinal item response model

Even though many educational and psychological tests are known to be multidimensional, little research has been done to address how to measure individual differences in change within an item response theory framework. In this paper, we suggest a generalized explanatory longitudinal item response model to measure individual differences in change. New longitudinal models for multidimensional tests and existing models for unidimensional tests are presented within this framework and implemented with software developed for generalized linear models. In addition to the measurement of change, the longitudinal models we present can also be used to explain individual differences in change scores for person groups (e.g., learning disabled students versus non‐learning disabled students) and to model differences in item difficulties across item groups (e.g., number operation, measurement, and representation item groups in a mathematics test). An empirical example illustrates the use of the various models for measuring individual differences in change when there are person groups and multiple skill domains which lead to multidimensionality at a time point.     

Strangers at the benchside: research ethics consultation

Institutional ethics consultation services for biomedical scientists have begun to proliferate, especially for clinical researchers. We discuss several models of ethics consultation and describe a team-based approach used at Stanford University in the context of these models. As research ethics consultation services expand, there are many unresolved questions that need to be addressed, including what the scope, composition, and purpose of such services should be, whether core competencies for consultants can and should be defined, and how conflicts of interest should be mitigated. We make preliminary recommendations for the structure and process of research ethics consultation, based on our initial experiences in a pilot program.     

Applying the Lifestyle Routine Activities Theory to Understand Physical and Nonphysical Peer Victimization

Peer victimization is a serious problem, and understanding where, with whom, and how long victims spend their time is important. Applying the lifestyle routine activities theory (LRAT), this study examines the association between 4 components of LRAT and physical and nonphysical peer victimization. Using the 2007 National Crime Victimization Survey, we examined Poisson and negative binomial regression models to explain whether physical and nonphysical peer victimization was affected by measures of routine activities. Our findings indicate that students’ exposure and proximity to motivated offenders, school environment, capable guardianship, and target attractiveness were associated with risk of peer victimization. Findings also reveal that risk factors varied depending on the type of victimization.     

“We Are Not Alone”: Historical Journey of the United Church of Canada's Response to Become an Intercultural Church

Abstract The 39th General Council of the United Church of Canada (2006) declared that the “church must be intercultural.” The Ethnic Ministries Unit of the General Council proposed a vision for the church “where there is mutually respectful diversity and full and equitable participation of all Aboriginal, Francophone, ethnic minority, and ethnic majority constituencies in the total life, mission, and practices of the whole church”. 1 The vision of the church is that all people, regardless of their racial backgrounds, be invited to participate equally in the building of mutual relations in its life and work. The proposal is not the first in the history of the United Church of Canada (UCC) with the intention of improving meaningful relations among peoples of different cultural heritages. Many of the proposals presented over the years by various committees related to concerns raised by diverse ethnic communities within the church and intended to contribute toward building an inclusive faith community will be explored in this paper.     

Understanding the psychological processes of the racial match effect in Asian Americans

Some studies on mental health outcomes research have found that when clients and therapists are ethnically or racially matched, this tends to be related to greater satisfaction and better outcomes. However, the precise underlying mechanism for the match effect has not been extensively examined. In this experimental study, we tested the effect of racial match on critical counseling processes (i.e., therapist credibility and the working alliance) using a sample of 171 Asian American respondents. We also examined Asian ethnic identification as a potential moderator of the racial match effect. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that racially matched individuals perceived greater experiential similarity with the therapist than nonmatched individuals, and experiential similarity was positively associated with therapist credibility. Although racial match did not predict attitudinal similarity, attitudinal similarity was strongly related to the working alliance and therapist credibility. Counseling implications are discussed.     

An investigation of lower extremity energy dissipation strategies during single-leg and double-leg landing based on sagittal and frontal plane biomechanics

There is limited understanding of the differences in lower extremity energy dissipation strategies between single-leg and double-leg landing maneuvers. This study sought to investigate these differences in sagittal and frontal planes, and explain the differences using kinematics and kinetics. We hypothesized that single-leg and double-leg landing maneuvers involve different lower extremity energy dissipation strategies in both planes. Ten recreational athletes were recruited and instructed to perform double-leg and single-leg landing from 0.60-m height. Force-plates and motion-capture system were used to obtain kinetics and kinematics data respectively. Joint power was taken as product of joint moment and angular velocity. Joint work was computed as integral of joint power over time, whereby negative work represented energy dissipation. In the sagittal plane, the hip and knee showed major contributions to energy dissipation during double-leg landing; the hip and ankle were the dominant energy dissipaters during single-leg landing. In the frontal plane, the hip acted as the key energy dissipater during double-leg landing; the knee contributed the most energy dissipation during single-leg landing. The knee also exhibited greater frontal plane joint ROM, moment and energy dissipation during single-leg landing than double-leg landing. Our findings indicated that different energy dissipation strategies were adopted for double-leg and single-leg landing in sagittal and frontal planes. Considering the prominent frontal plane biomechanics exhibited by the knee during single-leg landing, we expect that this maneuver may have greater likelihood of leading to traumatic knee injuries, particularly non-contact ACL injuries, compared to the double-leg landing maneuver.     

Duplex decomposition and general segregation of lotteries of a gain and a loss: An empirical evaluation

We investigate the empirical validity of two hypotheses, duplex decomposition (DD) and general segregation (GS), regarding decomposition of a binary gamble of a gain and a loss into two unitary gambles in which one consequence of each gamble is no change from the status quo. Four binary lotteries (money gambles with specified probabilities) and four decomposed lotteries designed to test GS and four decomposed lotteries to test DD were constructed, and certainty equivalents (CEs) were estimated for each lottery. Respondents’ indifference between a binary lottery and a decomposed lottery was determined by evaluating the equality between the CE of a mixed binary lottery and the CE of the corresponding decomposed lottery. Given the variability of estimates of CEs and the lack of a clear statistical definition for the equality between two CEs, we applied several criteria: we counted responses where the difference between two CEs was either ±2% (the strictest criterion), ±4%, ±6%, or ±8% (the most lenient criterion) of the range of lottery outcomes. The results showed that under the strictest criterion, GS held for 25% of the responses and DD for 22%. Under the most lenient criterion, GS held for 56% of the responses and DD for 52%. Depending upon the criterion used, between 39 and 75% of the responses were consistent with at least one of the hypotheses. Several methodological problems in determining the indifference between two lotteries are discussed.     

Rhythm typology of Korean speech

According to their rhythmic properties, spoken languages have been classified by linguists into three categories, i.e. stress-timed, syllable-timed and mora-timed. Recently, this intuitive classification has been confirmed valid with perceptual studies. These studies have shown that both newborn infants and adults, upon hearing the pure rhythms of certain languages, are only able to discriminate between languages of the different categories mentioned above. These results indicate that the capacity of the categorization of the human cognitive system makes possible the classification of language that is not yet explored rhythmically. Here, we investigate the Korean spoken language through the adults discrimination tasks with resynthesized speech. Experimental results indicate that the Korean language is, like Japanese, one of the mora-timed languages.