Effects of environmental design and police enforcement on violations of a handicapped parking ordinance.

This study presents two experiments that evaluate strategies to reduce violations of a handicapped parking ordinance. The first experiment compared effects of upright versus ground handicapped parking signs on percentage of intervals in which cars were parked illegally. Introducing upright signs produced an immediate reduction in the percentage of intervals of inappropriate use of parking spaces. The second experiment examined effects of a police enforcement program on percentage of intervals of inappropriate use of parking spaces and frequency of inappropriately parked cars. Results showed consistent reductions in percentage of intervals of inappropriate use and number of inappropriately parked cars compared with a control site where no enforcement program was introduced. Implications of the research data for law enforcement and public policy are discussed.     

Correspondence analysis of incomplete contingency tables

Correspondence analysis can be described as a technique which decomposes the departure from independence in a two-way contingency table. In this paper a form of correspondence analysis is proposed which decomposes the departure from the quasi-independence model. This form seems to be a good alternative to ordinary correspondence analysis in cases where the use of the latter is either impossible or not recommended, for example, in case of missing data or structural zeros. It is shown that Nora's reconstitution of order zero, a procedure well-known in the French literature, is formally identical to our correspondence analysis of incomplete tables. Therefore, reconstitution of order zero can also be interpreted as providing a decomposition of the residuals from the quasi-independence model. Furthermore, correspondence analysis of incomplete tables can be performed using existing programs for ordinary correspondence analysis.     

Explicit candecomp/parafac solutions for a contrived 2 × 2 × 2 array of rank three

Kruskal, Harshman and Lundy have contrived a special 2 × 2 × 2 array to examine formal properties of degenerate Candecomp/Parafac solutions. It is shown that for this array the Candecomp/Parafac loss has an infimum of 1. In addition, the array will be used to challenge the tradition of fitting Indscal and related models by means of the Candecomp/Parafac process.     

The rank of reduced dispersion matrices

Psychometricians working in factor analysis and econometricians working in regression with measurement error in all variables are both interested in the rank of dispersion matrices under variation of the diagonal elements. Psychometricians concentrate on cases in which low rank can be attained, preferably rank one, the Spearman case. Econometricians cocentrate on cases in which the rank cannot be reduced below the number of variables minus one, the Frisch case. In this paper we give an extensive historial discussion of both fields, we prove the two key results in a more satisfactory and uniform way, we point out various small errors and misunderstandings, and we present a methodological comparison of factor analysis and regression on the basis of our results.Financial support by the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (ZWO) is gratefully acknowledged.     

Some additional results on principal components analysis of three-mode data by means of alternating least squares algorithms

Kroonenberg and de Leeuw (1980) have developed an alternating least-squares method TUCKALS-3 as a solution for Tucker's three-way principal components model. The present paper offers some additional features of their method. Starting from a reanalysis of Tucker's problem in terms of a rank-constrained regression problem, it is shown that the fitted sum of squares in TUCKALS-3 can be partitioned according to elements of each mode of the three-way data matrix. An upper bound to the total fitted sum of squares is derived. Finally, a special case of TUCKALS-3 is related to the Carroll/Harshman CANDECOMP/PARAFAC model.     

A simplification of a completeness proof of Guaspari and Solovay

The modal completeness proofs of Guaspari and Solovay (1979) for their systems R and R ^– are improved and the relationship between R and R ^– is clarified.     

Mechanical output about the ankle in countermovement jumps and jumps with extended knee

In this study the mechanical output (e.g., force, contraction velocity, instantaneous power) about the ankle was measured during a jump with and without occurrence of transportation of power and pre-stretch potentiation. To examine this, a model of the m. triceps surae was used. Eleven subjects performed a maximal one-legged countermovement jump (CMJ) and a maximal one-legged jump with extended knee (EKJ). Ground reaction forces, cinematographic data and electromyograms of m. triceps surae were recorded. The power output, defined as the product of moment and angular velocity, and work done about the ankle were higher during CMJ (1404 W, 130 J) than during EKJ (852 W, 76 J). The peak moments were the same during both jumps. The model of the m. triceps surae showed that the power delivered by m. triceps surae was higher during CMJ than during EKJ, as a result of catapult-action of m. gastrocnemius tendon. The difference in work done is explained, in addition to transportation of energy, by a greater contraction range of m. soleus during CMJ. There is no reason to assume that pre-stretch potentiation plays a role in the difference in mechanical output. The results show that the mechanical output of muscles in complex movements is strongly dependent on the dynamics of the movement, and not only on its contractile capacity.     

Metamemory for narrative text

In this experiment, we investigated metamemory for narrative text passages. Subjects read two stories and made memory predictions for the idea units in one and rated the importance of ideas in the other. Half of the subjects were asked to recall the story immediately after reading the passages and half were asked to recall 1 week later; half received passages with single inconsistent idea units and half received passages with corresponding consistent idea units. All subjects made confidence judgments about the accuracy of their recall. Subjects’ prediction ratings were related to recall, as shown by significant prediction accuracy quotients. Importance ratings were related to recall on the delayed test but not on the immediate test. Memory prediction ratings predicted recall better than did importance ratings. The absolute level of memory predictions did not differ with delay, but subjects did give higher confidence judgments on an immediate than on a delayed test. Subjects recalled the inconsistent idea better than the consistent idea for one story but not for the other. For both stories, subjects predicted that they would remember the inconsistent ideas better, suggesting that they have avon Restorff-type view, rather than a schema view, of memory. We conclude that subjects can predict their memory for the idea units in narrative text.     

Young People's Perceptions of their Vocational Guidance Needs: Ii. Influences and Interventions

Questionnaire responses from 1,366 pupils at 20 schools in England were used to develop a scale tentatively interpreted as reflecting vocational development. This interpretation was evaluated by concurrent assessments from local careers officers and by its predictive value in the first months on the labour market. Influences on scores included reading ability, social and economic factors, and features of the school. Careers interventions were effective in increasing vocational awareness. Schools providing formal careers education in the fourth or fifth years had pupils whose scores suggested a gain of six months' vocational awareness. The input of the Careers Service was also related to the scale, pupils at schools with more active careers officers appearing more advanced in their vocational development.     

A controlled trial of cognitive-behavioural and behavioural treatment of anorexia nervosa

This study was undertaken to investigate whether a cognitive-behavioural treatment procedure was superior to a standard behavioural treatment, in the outpatient therapy of patients with anorexia nervosa. The two treatments were also compared with a control treatment procedure consisting of routine outpatient management. Each group consisted of eight subjects. All the groups showed some improvement, but the findings did not provide support for the prediction that cognitive-behavioural treatment, designed specifically to manipulate both attitudes and behaviour, was superior to the other types of treatment. The implications of the findings are considered.