新生市民主动发展倾向对城市生活适应性的影响:社会支持的中介效应

为探究主动发展倾向和社会支持对新生市民城市生活适应性的作用机制,本研究构建了结构方程模型.采用两个自编量表和一个现成量表,运用两阶段抽样调查法,在作为统筹城乡发展试验区的重庆市范围内,对已经取得城镇户口的新生市民进行问卷调查,获得有效样本322人.对采集的数据运用统计分析软件SPSS17.0和AMOS18.0进行数据分析和模型检验.结果表明,城市化新生市民的主动发展倾向和社会支持均对新生市民的城市生活适应具有显著影响,其中,社会支持在主动发展倾向对城市生活适应影响中具有部分中介作用.     

Goodbye and farewell: Siegel vs. Feyerabend∗

The discussion between Searle and the Churchlands over whether or not symbolmanipulating computers generate semantics will be confronted both with the rulesceptical considerations of Kripke/Wittgenstein and with Wittgenstein's privatelanguage argument in order to show that the discussion focuses on the wrong place: meaning does not emerge in the brain. That a symbol means something should rather be conceived as a social fact, depending on a mutual imputation of linguistic competence of the participants of a linguistic practice to one another. The alternative picture will finally be applied to small children, animals, and computers as well.     

Exploring Pathways From Television Viewing to Academic Achievement in School Age Children

The author's purpose in this study was to test 4 hypotheses that proposed different paths for the influences of children's television viewing on their academic achievement. Data were drawn from the 1997 Child Development Supplement (CDS) to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The population for this study included 1,203 children between the ages of 6 and 13 years from the CDS-PSID data set. The author used structural equation modeling to test pathways from children's television viewing to their academic achievement. The author assumed that children's television viewing hindered their academic achievement by reducing certain traits that related to academic achievement. Results showed that 3 hypothetical models fit the data—the time-displacement hypothesis, the mental effort-passivity hypothesis, and the attention-arousal hypothesis. A 4th hypothetical model, the learning-information hypothesis, which proposed that children's television viewing practices stimulate their academic achievement, was not supported. In sum, children who watched more television tended to spend less time doing homework, studying, and reading for leisure. In addition, their behaviors became more impulsive, which resulted in an eventual decrease in their academic achievement.     

Latent variables should remain as such: Evidence from a Monte Carlo study

Use of subject scores as manifest variables to assess the relationship between latent variables produces attenuated estimates. This has been demonstrated for raw scores from classical test theory (CTT) and factor scores derived from factor analysis. Conclusions on scores have not been sufficiently extended to item response theory (IRT) theta estimates, which are still recommended for estimation of relationships between latent variables. This is because IRT estimates appear to have preferable properties compared to CTT, while structural equation modeling (SEM) is often advised as an alternative to scores for estimation of the relationship between latent variables. The present research evaluates the consequences of using subject scores as manifest variables in regression models to test the relationship between latent variables. Raw scores and three methods for obtaining theta estimates were used and compared to latent variable SEM modeling. A Monte Carlo study was designed by manipulating sample size, number of items, type of test, and magnitude of the correlation between latent variables. Results show that, despite the advantage of IRT models in other areas, estimates of the relationship between latent variables are always more accurate when SEM models are used. Recommendations are offered for applied researchers.     

Specificity of Task Constraints and Effects of Visual Demonstrations and Verbal Instructions in Directing Learners' Search During Skill Acquisition

In the present study, the efficacy of visual demonstrations and verbal instructions as instructional constraints on the acquisition of movement coordination was investigated. Fifteen participants performed an aiming task on 100 acquisition and 20 retention trials, under 1 of 3 conditions: a modeling group (MG), a verbally directed group (VDG), and a control group (CG). The MG observed a model intermittently throughout acquisition, whereas the VDG was verbally instructed to use the model's movement pattern. Participants in the CG received neither form of instruction. Kinematic analysis revealed that compared with verbal instructions or no instructions, visual demonstrations significantly improved participants' approximation of the model's coordination pattern. No differences were found in movement outcomes. Coordination data supported the visual perception perspective on observational learning, whereas outcome data suggested that the modeling effect is mainly a function of task constraints, that is, the novelty of a movement pattern.     

In search of average growth: Describing within-year oral reading fluency growth across Grades 1–8

Measures of oral reading fluency (ORF) are perhaps the most often used assessment to monitor student progress as part of a response to intervention (RTI) model. Rates of growth in research and aim lines in practice are used to characterize student growth; in either case, growth is generally defined as linear, increasing at a constant rate. Recent research suggests ORF growth follows a nonlinear trajectory, but limitations related to the datasets used in such studies, composed of only three testing occasions, curtails their ability to examine the true functional form of ORF growth. The purpose of this study was to model within-year ORF growth using up to eight testing occasions for 1448 students in Grades 1 to 8 to assess (a) the average growth trajectory for within-year ORF growth, (b) whether students vary significantly in within-year ORF growth, and (c) the extent to which findings are consistent across grades. Results demonstrated that for Grades 1 to 7, a quadratic growth model fit better than either linear or cubic growth models, and for Grade 8, there was no substantial, stable growth. Findings suggest that the expectation for linear growth currently used in practice may be unrealistic.     

Examining classroom influences on student perceptions of school climate: The role of classroom management and exclusionary discipline strategies

There is growing emphasis on the use of positive behavior supports rather than exclusionary discipline strategies to promote a positive classroom environment. Yet, there has been limited research examining the association between these two different approaches to classroom management and students' perceptions of school climate. Data from 1902 students within 93 classrooms that were nested within 37 elementary schools were examined using multilevel structural equation modeling procedures to investigate the association between two different classroom management strategies (i.e., exclusionary discipline strategies and the use of positive behavior supports) and student ratings of school climate (i.e., fairness, order and discipline, student–teacher relationship, and academic motivation). The analyses indicated that greater use of exclusionary discipline strategies was associated with lower order and discipline scores, whereas greater use of classroom-based positive behavior supports was associated with higher scores on order and discipline, fairness, and student–teacher relationship. These findings suggest that pre-service training and professional development activities should promote teachers' use of positive behavior support strategies and encourage reduced reliance on exclusionary discipline strategies in order to enhance the school climate and conditions for learning.     

Factorial validity of the Mental Toughness Questionnaire-48

The purpose of this study was to assess the factorial validity of the Mental Toughness Questionnaire-48 (Clough, Earle, & Sewell, 2002). In total, 8207 participants (male n = 4019, female n = 3922, unspecified = 266) aged between 16 and 68 years (M = 37.00, SD = 12.09) completed the MTQ48. Model fit was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling, in addition to the robust maximum likelihood estimator. Overall, our results support the factorial validity of the MTQ48 and indicate that the MTQ48 is a robust psychometric measure of mental toughness. Along with previous data, which supports the internal validity of the MTQ48 in addition to results of this study, it would appear that the MTQ48 is an acceptable method of assessing mental toughness.     

Evolution of communication in perfect and imperfect worlds

We extend previous work on cooperation to some related questions regarding the evolution of simple forms of communication. The evolution of cooperation within the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma has been shown to follow different patterns, with significantly different outcomes, depending on whether the features of the model are classically perfect or stochastically imperfect (Axelrod, 1980a,b, 1984, 1985; Axelrod and Hamilton, 1981; Nowak and Sigmund, 1990, 1992; Sigmund, 1993). Our results here show that the same holds for communication. Within a simple model, the evolution of communication seems to require a stochastically imperfect world.     

INTEGRAL GEOGRAPHY: SPACE,PLACE, AND PERSPECTIVE

Considering the role of space and place in Integral Ecology is presented as the concept of Integral Geography. First, an ecological AQAL model is proposed to situate the diverse scientific disciplines used in geography, giving equal consideration for their respective contributions in knowledge and understanding of the world. Second, a model for incorporating perspectives provided in the arts and humanities is proposed in situating scientific understanding in relation to aesthetic and cultural aspects of “being and becoming.” Third, a Geographical Information System (GIS) based map model illustrates how biophysical and social realities can be viewed and analyzed from a geographical perspective as “Integral places.”