Cover, Copy, and Compare: A Self-Managed Academic Intervention Effective Across Skills, Students, and Settings

Cover, Copy, and Compare (CCC) is a simple, efficient, self-managed academic intervention that can be used to improve accuracy, fluency, and maintenance across students, curricula objectives, academic skill domains, and settings. In it's simplest form CCC requires students to look at an academic stimulus (e.g., for spelling the stimulus would be a written a word) cover the stimulus, respond by copying the stimulus (e.g., writing the word), and evaluate the responses by comparing it to the original stimulus. The CCC procedure and research that supports the generalizability and ecological validity of this procedure is described and analyzed. Following this analysis, recommendations for implementing Cover, Copy, and Compare in educational settings are provided.     

Exploring the space of cognitive architectures

Production systems have been proposed as a candidate for the basic architecture of the human information processor. We consider a number of dimensions along which production systems can vary, and we discuss PRISM, a production system formalism designed to aid cognitive modelers in their exploration of the space of architectures. Examples of PRISM settings are presented in the context of particular models. Finally, some heuristics are suggested for efficiently searching the space of possible architectures.     

Affect intensity and the appraisal of emotion

The present study investigated the association between a personality trait known as affect intensity and the perceived qualities of emotions. Subjects completed the Affect Intensity Measure (AIM), and they rated the phenomenological qualities and causal dimensions of previous emotional experiences involving happiness, pride, anxiety, and hate. The results showed that high and low scorers on the AIM reported different perceptions of certain qualities of the emotional event, independent of the emotion's valence; subjects with high scores on the AIM rated their emotions as higher in intensity, frequency, and vividness of recall. In contrast, further analyses revealed little relation between AIM scores and causal dimension ratings of the emotions. However, within-subject analyses indicated that the emotions did differ in their perceived causes, thus supporting predictions from Weiner's attributional model of emotion. The results are discussed in terms of the need for a complex approach to the study of emotion which incorporates intersubject and intrasubject differences.     

Computer control of memory experiments on a large-scale timesharing system

This paper describes a computer system for running verbal learning and memory experiments using a large-scale timesharing computer. Its application is illustrated by control programs used to set up, execute, and analyze a series of interactive free recall experiments. While limitations of timesharing systems for experimental control surely exist, they can often be removed by simple hardware or software. Further, a large machine can provide significant advantages in cost and software development over dedicated laboratory minicomputers. It is possible to obtain the advantages of both types of systems by introducing local intelligence to provide more precise timing and flexible control of experimental devices, while retaining the power and hardware and software resources of the large machine.     

Achievement and adjustment correlates of the matching familiar figures test

To help clarify the relationship between the Matching Familiar Figures (MFF) Test and measures of school achievement and adjustment, 450 children from kindergarten, second, and fifth grades were tested and achievement scores and teacher's ratings of classroom and personal adjustment were obtained. Regardless of grades, MFF latency in most instances did not predict achievement or adjustment. At the kindergarten level the correlations between MFF errors and both achievement and adjustment were significant for most subscales but at second grade correlations were lower and generally nonsignificant except for a few adjustment items. At the fifth grade level the correlations were moderately high but when IQ was partialled out the correlations with achievement and school adjustment dropped to near zero; however, partialling out IQ did not affect the moderate correlations between errors and personal adjustment. The errors score evidencedmore important relationships than the latency scores. The relationship between the MFF and ratings of social and emotional adjustment was consistently higher than the correlations between the MFF and achievement. These results suggest that MFF errors are personalogically relevant and that MFF performance is generally more related to adjustment than achievement.     

Principles and theory in bioethics.

The following citations were selected from BIOETHICSLINE, the online database prepared at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics for the National Library of Medicine's MEDLARS system. Searching the keywords autonomy, beneficence, casuistry, justice, and virtues, as well as the text word principlism produced more than 400 citations. Only the citations concerned with theory and principle in the practice of bioethics are included here -- e.g., works about justice in resource allocation have been deleted.     

Applying the Interactive Systems Framework to the Dissemination and Adoption of National and State Recommendations for Hypertension

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (DHDSP), commissioned an Institute of Medicine (IOM) report to identify the highest priority action areas for CDC, state health departments, and other public health partners in their efforts to reduce and control hypertension. To assess the dissemination and adoption of the IOM report recommendations, DHDSP developed an evaluation based on the Interactive Systems Framework for Dissemination and Implementation (ISF). The evaluation incorporates data collection at critical points across 3 years. In this article, we focus on the ISF systems to describe the role of funded state partners and their relationship with CDC in implementing public health recommendations. We describe baseline results for three data collection activities: (1) key informant interviews, (2) a Web‐based survey, and (3) content analysis of state workplans to determine the degree of alignment with IOM recommendations. For example, currently 30 % of surveyed programs are implementing most (or all) of the recommendations in the IOM report, however 76 % intend to change hypertension program priorities based on the recommendations of the IOM report. Qualitative data suggest that there are several facilitators and barriers in implementing public health policy recommendations. DHDSP will use these baseline results to provide additional technical assistance and support to state health departments in their efforts to implement the IOM report's recommendations. Special Issue: Advances in Bridging Research and Practice Using the Interactive System Framework for Dissemination and Implementation; Guest Editors: Abraham Wandersman, Paul Flaspohler, Catherine A. Lesesne, Richard Puddy; Action Editor: Emilie Phillips Smith     

Catholic/Jesuit Values in an Introductory Religious Studies Course

A growing interest in the communication to students of the mission and identity of a higher education institution prompted this study about the presence of Catholic, Jesuit values in the introductory religious studies course at a faith‐based university. To conduct this study a survey instrument was developed, piloted, further refined, and then administered again to about four hundred and fifty students. The study's results showed that the introductory course had a positive effect on the majority of students surveyed, namely, those who had no Catholic schooling or only had a Catholic elementary school education. Statistically significant advances in several areas of knowledge about Catholic teachings endorsed by Catholic bishops and the pope occurred. Although less extensive, knowledge of Jesuit values also advanced in the course.     

When is a Concrete Property Basic?

We more or less understand how composition works in the case of objects. We cement bricks together to build a wall. We stir together red paint and yellow paint to get orange paint. In both cases, one way or another, A = B + C. This paper examines composition in the case of concrete natural properties. It explains why property composition is so much less straightforward than object composition. Then it distinguishes strictly basic properties (like the mass of an electron), compositely basic properties (like the mass of a planet), and fully non-basic properties (like the saltiness of blood). It shows how strictly basic properties compose, or result in, compositely basic and fully non-basic properties, which differ from, yet depend for their natures on, the strictly basic properties they result from. It explains the characteristics and differences of these types of properties. It notes that the existence of compositely basic and non-basic properties grounds an argument for the genuine existence of composite properties as well as the composite objects they characterize. Finally, it defends the usefulness of these distinctions by identifying projects they assist, and by applying them both to mark off distinct metaphysical views too often conflated and to correct sundry metaphysical mistakes.