Relationships between Turkish Eighth-Grade Students’ Oral Reading Efficacy,Reading Comprehension and Achievement Scores on a High-Stakes Achievement Test

The present study aimed to explore the relation between students’ oral reading efficacy, reading comprehension, and academic performance on a nationwide high school placement exam (TEOG). The students were selected from a public middle school. The students’ oral reading efficacy, comprehension, and TEOG achievement scores were obtained to figure out the relations between them. The students’ TEOG results were obtained from the school administration. The findings revealed that there were statistically significant relations between oral reading efficacy, reading comprehension and TEOG achievements. Particularly, students’ reading comprehension and accuracy skills together explained 57% of variance in overall TEOG achievements.     

Adolescents-Family Connectedness: A First Cross-Cultural Research on Parenting and Psychological Adjustment of Children

Connectedness between children and their family is a major factor that distinguishes between collective and individualistic cultures. The Multigenerational Interconnectedness Scale, measuring adolescents-family connectedness was administered to adolescents in nine western and eastern countries. The findings show that connectedness in eastern countries was higher than that in western ones. Female adolescents were more connected to their families than males. Connectedness was higher among families with a higher economic level and where the parents had more education. Financial and functional connectedness was associated with adolescents’ better mental health, whereas emotional connectedness (or dependency) was associated with psychological disorders. The association between connectedness and psychological disorders was not the same across countries.     

A strict test of the phonological loop hypothesis with Libyan data

In Arabic, there are two ways, differing in length, of pronouncing each digit. This feature of word pairs that are conceptually identical but of different length allows for a stricter test of the phonological loop hypothesis than has been reported previously. Libyan schoolchildren, both boys and girls, of two grades took part in a quasi-experimental study in which shorter and longer digits and shorter and longer words were presented in recall and pronunciation tasks. The results confirmed the validity of the phonological loop model in that memory span was longer for shorter stimuli. Analysis of the data with structural equation modeling showed that only 17% of the individual-level variation in memory span could be explained by pronunciation speed. In an analysis of covariance, it was determined that pronunciation speed could account for a substantial proportion of the variation found across age (8-year-olds vs. 10-year-olds), stimulus modality (digits vs. words), and stimulus length (short vs. long), but not for gender differences.     

An investigation of the role of some person and situation variables in multiple cue probability learning

Making decisions using judgements of multiple non-deterministic indicators is an important task, both in everyday and professional life. Learning of such decision making has often been studied as the mapping of stimuli (cues) to an environmental variable (criterion); however, little attention has been paid to the effects of situation-by-person interactions on this learning. Accordingly, we manipulated cue and feedback presentation mode (graphic or numeric) and task difficulty, and measured individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC). We predicted that graphic presentation, fewer cues, and elevated WMC would facilitate learning, and that person and task characteristics would interact such that presentation mode compatible with the decision maker's cognitive capability (enhanced visual or verbal WMC) would assist learning, particularly for more difficult tasks. We found our predicted main effects, but no significant interactions, except that those with greater WMC benefited to a larger extent with graphic than with numeric presentation, regardless of which type of working memory was enhanced or number of cues. Our findings suggest that the conclusions of past research based predominantly on tasks using numeric presentation need to be reevaluated and cast light on how working memory helps us learn multiple cue–criterion relationships, with implications for dual-process theories of cognition.     

High involvement HR systems and innovative work behaviour: the mediating role of psychological empowerment,and the moderating roles of manager and co-worker support

Employees’ innovative work behaviour can help firms’ competitiveness. Existing research focuses on several factors, including HR policies, psychological empowerment as well as manager and co-worker support, to explain innovative work behaviour. However, much of this literature analyses just one of these, neglecting how they interact and limiting our understanding of the causes of innovative work behaviour. Synthesizing this work, we develop a novel and holistic framework that examines 1) how high-involvement HR systems are linked via the mediating role of psychological empowerment to innovative work behaviour and 2) how both manager and co-worker support moderate this relationship. Analysing software companies in Pakistan, we use hierarchical linear modelling to assess this framework. We draw on a unique dataset that captures HR policies at the organizational level as well as management and co-worker support, and supervisors’ assessments of individuals’ innovative work behaviour at the individual level. We analyse specific groups of HR practices. Psychological empowerment mediates the relationship between high-involvement HR systems and employees’ innovative work behaviour. Manager and co-worker support moderate the relationship between psychological empowerment and innovative work behaviour. Motivation-enhancing HR practices have a direct effect on innovative work behaviour, whereas ability- and opportunity-enhancing ones are mediated by psychological empowerment.