Faculty Perceptions of Student Self Plagiarism: An Exploratory Multi-university Study

The purpose of this research study was to evaluate faculty perceptions regarding student self-plagiarism or recycling of student papers. Although there is a plethora of information on plagiarism and faculty who self-plagiarize in publications, there is very little research on how faculty members perceive students re-using all or part of a previously completed assignment in a second assignment. With the wide use of plagiarism detection software, this issue becomes even more crucial. A population of 340 faculty members from two private universities at three different sites was surveyed in Fall 2012 semester regarding their perceptions of student self-plagiarism. A total of 89 faculty responded for a return rate of 26.2 %. Overall, institutional policies on self-plagiarism did not exist and faculty did not clearly understand the concept and believed their students did not either. Although faculty agreed students need to be educated on self-plagiarism, faculty assumed students had previously been educated on plagiarism as well as self-plagiarism; only 13 % ensured students understood this concept.     

Good or Bad,We Want it Now: Fixed‐cost Present Bias for Gains and Losses Explains Magnitude Asymmetries in Intertemporal Choice

Intertemporal tradeoffs are ubiquitous in decision making, yet preferences for current versus future losses are rarely explored in empirical research. Whereas rational‐economic theory posits that neither outcome sign (gains vs. losses) nor outcome magnitude (small vs. large) should affect delay discount rates, both do, and moreover, they interact: in three studies, we show that whereas large gains are discounted less than small gains, large losses are discounted more than small losses. This interaction can be understood through a reconceptualization of fixed‐cost present bias, which has traditionally described a psychological preference for immediate rewards. First, our results establish present bias for losses—a psychological preference to have losses over with now. Present bias thus predicts increased discounting of future gains but decreased (or even negative) discounting of future losses. Second, because present bias preferences do not scale with the magnitude of possible gains or losses, they play a larger role, relative to other motivations for discounting, for small magnitude intertemporal decisions than for large magnitude intertemporal decisions. Present bias thus predicts less discounting of large gains than small gains but more discounting of large losses than small losses. The present research is the first to demonstrate that the effect of outcome magnitude on discount rates may be opposite for gains and losses and also the first to offer a theory (an extension of present bias) and process data to explain this interaction. The results suggest that policy efforts to encourage future‐oriented choices should frame outcomes as large gains or small losses. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Precipitation in a Cu–4Ti–2Be alloy

It is known that the binary Cu–2?wt.% Be alloy can be strengthened by ageing its supersaturated solution at 523?K. The increase in the strength arising from ageing is because of the formation of GP zones. The same level of strength is achieved by ageing the supersaturated solid solution of a dilute binary Cu–4?wt.% Ti alloy at 723?K. In contrast to Cu–2?wt.% Be alloy, the increase in strength in this alloy occurs on account of spinodal decomposition of the as-quenched microstructure through the mechanism of clustering and ordering. In the present study, decomposition of a supersaturated solid solution of the ternary Cu–4?wt.% Ti–2?wt.% Be alloy was studied. Whereas ageing of this alloy at 523?K resulted in the formation of GP zones like in a Cu–2?wt.% Be alloy, ageing at 723?K resulted in a spinodally decomposed microstructure as in a Cu–4?wt.% Ti alloy. The decomposition of the ternary alloy at the two temperatures by two different mechanisms indicates that Be and Ti in solution in Cu act, more or less, independently of each other during ageing.     

Simultaneous visual discrimination in Asian elephants

Two experiments explored the behavior of 20 Asian elephants (Elephas aximus) in simultaneous visual discrimination tasks. In Experiment 1, 7 Burmese logging elephants acquired a white+/black- discrimination, reaching criterion in a mean of 2.6 sessions and 117 discrete trials, whereas 4 elephants acquired a black+/white- discrimination in 5.3 sessions and 293 trials. One elephant failed to reach criterion in the white+/black- task in 9 sessions and 549 trials, and 2 elephants failed to reach criterion in the black+/white- task in 9 sessions and 452 trials. In Experiment 2, 3 elephants learned a large/small transposition problem, reaching criterion within a mean of 1.7 sessions and 58 trials. Four elephants failed to reach criterion in 4.8 sessions and 193 trials. Data from both the black/white and large/small discriminations showed a surprising age effect, suggesting that elephants beyond the age of 20 to 30 years either may be unable to acquire these visual discriminations or may require an inordinate number of trials to do so. Overall, our results cannot be readily reconciled with the widespread view that elephants possess exceptional intelligence.     

Examining the validity of the family investment and stress models and relationship to children's school readiness across five cultural groups

Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) dataset, this study examined whether the family investment and the family stress models generalized to non-European American (EA) families. Specifically, we examined whether parenting processes mediated the association between family demographics and children's school readiness, and whether the pathways vary across cultural groups. Both models were most salient for EAs followed by African Americans (AAs) and Spanish-speaking Hispanics, but less so for English-speaking Hispanics (EHs) and Asian Americans. Findings indicated that sensitive parenting was a salient mediator between family demographics and children's school readiness for all groups except EHs; negative parenting and parent-child activities were salient mediators for EAs only.     

Psychotherapie, Globalisierung, Hartz?IV

The mental effects of globalization, the economic crisis and unemployment must not be underestimated. In general they have to be looked upon as a complex system of structural traumatization which is causing severe psychological mental disorders, such as depression. Not only that, a psychotherapist has to pay particular attention to this. More than in physical illnesses the psychotherapist has to be solidly united with the patient, which might also result in political action.     

The prevalence of symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among soldiers with amputation of a limb or spinal injury: a report from a rehabilitation centre in Sri Lanka

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder has been identified as one of the most commonly occurring mental illnesses in combatants. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among soldiers who had undergone amputation of a lower or an upper limb or sustained a spinal cord injury in the battlefield, and to compare the prevalence among these categories. The research presented seeks to increase the awareness of this condition among those treating war casualties so that appropriate treatment choices could be made to address them. The study was carried out in 2009 at a rehabilitation centre for combatants of war. Data were collected from 96 male army veterans between the ages of 18-49 years using a pre-tested self-administered questionnaire based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the Impact of Event Scale and the PTSD symptom scale. Soldiers with injuries sustained at least four weeks prior to the study were selected by a convenience sampling technique. Soldiers with multiple injuries, head injuries or those diagnosed with psychiatric disorders were excluded. The results revealed that 41.7% of the study population was compatible with the diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Within the three groups, 42.5% of the lower limb amputees, 33.3% of the upper limb amputees and 45.7% of the participants with spinal cord injury had symptoms compatible with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. There was no difference between the prevalence among the different injury categories considered. This study highlights the need to pay more attention in providing psychological care as a part of the overall health management of injured combatants. Early preparation of soldiers for stressors of war and screening for and proper management of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder will improve the overall outcome of rehabilitation.     

INFLUENCES OF RESPONSE RATE AND DISTRIBUTION ON THE CALCULATION OF INTEROBSERVER RELIABILITY SCORES

We examined the effects of several variations in response rate on the calculation of total, interval, exact‐agreement, and proportional reliability indices. Trained observers recorded computer‐generated data that appeared on a computer screen. In Study 1, target responses occurred at low, moderate, and high rates during separate sessions so that reliability results based on the four calculations could be compared across a range of values. Total reliability was uniformly high, interval reliability was spuriously high for high‐rate responding, proportional reliability was somewhat lower for high‐rate responding, and exact‐agreement reliability was the lowest of the measures, especially for high‐rate responding. In Study 2, we examined the separate effects of response rate per se, bursting, and end‐of‐interval responding. Response rate and bursting had little effect on reliability scores; however, the distribution of some responses at the end of intervals decreased interval reliability somewhat, proportional reliability noticeably, and exact‐agreement reliability markedly.     

OBSERVER TRAINING REVISITED: A COMPARISON OF IN VIVO AND VIDEO INSTRUCTION

We compared the effects of 2 observer‐training procedures. In vivo training involved practice during actual treatment sessions. Video training involved practice while watching progressively more complex simulations. Fifty‐nine undergraduate students entered 1 of the 2 training conditions sequentially according to an ABABAB design. Results showed that the 2 training methods produced almost identical scores on a posttraining observational test; however, the video method required fewer training sessions to complete.