Relationship of drug use to involvement in school, home, and community activities: results of a large survey of adolescents.

All 7th, 9th, and 11th grade students in 129 school districts responded to a 466-variable survey that primarily assessed drug use but also contained questions about involvement in various activities. Meaningful relationships were obtained between students' involvement in school, family, and church activities and reported use of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana. Factors reflecting the extent of parental supervision were also related to the reported use of those substances.     

Characterizing the manifest probabilities of latent trait models

The problem of characterizing the manifest probabilities of a latent trait model is considered. The item characteristic curve is transformed to the item passing-odds curve and a corresponding transformation is made on the distribution of ability. This results in a useful expression for the manifest probabilities of any latent trait model. The result is then applied to give a characterization of the Rasch model as a log-linear model for a 2 ^J -contingency table. Partial results are also obtained for other models. The question of the identifiability of “guessing” parameters is also discussed. The research reported here is collaborative in every respect and the order of authorship is alphabetical. Dr. Cressie was a Visiting Research Scientist at ETS during the Fall of 1980. His current address is: School of Mathematical Sciences, The Flinders University of South Australia, Bedford Park SA, 5042, AUSTRALIA. The preparation of this paper was supported, in part, by the Program Statistics Research Project in the Research Statistics Group at ETS.     

The use of the position analysis questionnaire in selecting correlates of job performance among mentally retarded workers

The present study investigated the efficiency of various existing measures, mainly psychological tests, for predicting job performance of mentally retarded workers in a sheltered occupational shop. Twenty-two production-related jobs and one nonproduction-related job were analyzed with the Position Analysis Questionnaire resulting in two job attribute clusters. Correlations between 19 predictor variables and 5 criterion variables, which consisted of supervisor ratings of job performance, were then calculated separately for subjects performing preferred jobs in each attribute group. The results indicated that, contrary to past research, existing measures are predictive of performance on some but not all jobs in a sheltered workshop.     

Visual imagery and verbalization with simple tachistoscopic displays

Two experiments, designed to compare the perception and retention of tachisto-scopic displays of four block capital letters and four simple “nonsense” figures are described. The results show that the letters were much better remembered and suggest that this was mainly due to the ease with which they were verbalized. The nonsense figures usually gave rise either to rapidly fading “iconic” images, or to an unstable kind of mixed imagery which was difficult to describe or remember, but in which inadequate verbalization was often a source of error. Subsidiary experiments illustrate the importance, not only of verbalization, but also of symmetry and simplicity in remembering visual display.     

The sense-making approach for audience assessment of adolescents

The purpose of the research was to test the methodology used to identify how adolescents approach their nutrition concerns and questions. The methodology was based on Dervin's sense-making theory. Using a time-line interview technique, 305 adolescents 14 to 16 years of age detailed a situation involving their most important nutrition concerns. Other pertinent information was obtained. Cluster analysis was chosen as the appropriate analysis to identify groups of adolescents who responded similarly to the technique. Discriminant analysis was then used to determine which variables maximally separated the groups. Four groups were identified, two of which described action-oriented approaches to dealing with nutrition situations and differed in terms of how much outside help they wanted. The remaining two groups perceived barriers to dealing with situations and also differed in how much help they wanted. A fifth group indicated no nutrition concerns or questions. The results will be used to develop and test the effectiveness of nutrition education when it is focused on the different approaches.     

The logic of arithmetic

Conclusion The arithmetic developed along the lines indicated by Cantor has up until now found no application in the real, as opposed to the mathematical, world. It is to be hoped that the changes suggested in this paper bring mathematics closer to human thought and allow it to be of increasing benefit in its service to mankind.