Utilizing Instructional Consultations to Enhance the Teaching Performance of Engineering Faculty

Although many kinds of data can be used to guide instructional consultations, research comparing the efficacy of such data is scant, especially in engineering. In this study, multiple modes of assessment were used to evaluate the impact of consultations informed by different kinds of data. This study illuminates two key aspects of instructional consultations: (1) their efficacy varies depending on the kind of data used to guide them, with student feedback from a Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID) having the largest positive impact, and (2) the instructional consultant plays a key role in helping both interpret the available data and identify strategies for improvement. These findings suggest three implications for practice: (1) whenever possible, SGID‐based consultations should be offered systematically and proactively for engineering faculty, (2) data for other kinds of consultations should be tailored to the needs of the individual instructor, and (3) instructional consultants should be available to collaborate with faculty to enhance their teaching, thereby building an engineering culture that actively supports teaching and learning.     

Survey of non-APA-accredited internships and their interns.

We obtained information about the characteristics of internship programs not accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) and of their interns. Surveys were completed by directors of 74% of the programs and 51% of the interns in these programs. The most prominent reason why these programs did not seek accreditation was financial, though several of these programs had been in existence for several years, and 65% of them indicated that they would eventually seek accreditation. More than half of the interns in these programs were from APA-accredited graduate programs; their choice of internship was closely related to the location of the site. Interns did rate APA accreditation as important in ideal site selection, although four factors were rated even more important. Over 350 interns train in nonaccredited programs, which suggests their importance in the development of professional psychologists. Efforts being made by the Association of Psychology Internship Centers (APIC) to apply minimum criteria to these programs seem well warranted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and sensitization to stressors among young women as a function of childhood adversity.

The authors tested a stress-sensitization version of a diathesis-stress approach to depression. In a 2-year longitudinal follow-up design, exposure to stressful life events was examined in young women in the transition to adulthood. The authors hypothesized that those who had experienced one or more significant childhood adversities would have a lower threshold for developing a depressive reaction to stressors. Results indicated that women with exposure to one or more childhood adversities—such as family violence, parent psychopathology or alcoholism, and others—were more likely to become depressed following less total stress than women without such adversity. The results could not be accounted for by chronic stress or prior depression. Both biological and psychological sensitization mechanisms may be speculated to play a role, but the actual mechanisms of stress sensitization remain to be explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading aloud: Qualitative differences in the relation between stimulus quality and word frequency as a function of context.

Virtually all theories of visual word recognition assume (typically implicitly) that when a pathway is used, processing within that pathway always unfolds in the same way. This view is challenged by the observation that simple variations in list composition are associated with qualitative changes in performance. The present experiments demonstrate that when reading aloud, the joint effects of stimulus quality and word frequency on response time are driven by the presence/absence of nonwords in the list. Interacting effects of these factors are seen when only words appear in the experiment, whereas additive effects are seen when words and nonwords are randomly intermixed. One way to explain these and other data appeals to the distinction between cascaded processing (or interactive activation) on the one hand versus a thresholded mode of processing on the other, with contextual factors determining which mode of processing dominates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infant reactivity: Physiological correlates of newborn and 5-month temperament.

The relation between measures of heart period and vagal tone and infant reactivity was investigated in a longitudinal study of infants from birth to 5 months of age. At 2 days of age, electrocardiogram (EKG) was recorded and a pacifier-withdrawal task was administered. At 5 months of age, EKG was recorded, after which infants and mothers participated in a laboratory session designed to elicit positive and negative reactivity. Maternal ratings of 5-month infant temperament were also obtained. There was a significant concurrent relation between 5-month vagal tone and negative reactivity elicited in the laboratory and maternal ratings of activity level and smiling behavior. Newborn vagal tone predicted maternal ratings of frustration and fear. Moderate stability was found for infant reactivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inhibitory processes in adults with persistent childhood onset ADHD.

The theory that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) stems from a deficit in an executive behavioral inhibition process has been little studied in adults, where the validity of ADHD is in debate. This study examined, in high-functioning young adults with persistent ADHD and a control group, 2 leading measures of inhibitory control: the antisaccade task and the negative priming task. ADHD adults showed weakened ability to effortfully stop a reflexive or anticipated oculomotor response but had normal ability to automatically suppress irrelevant information. Results suggest that an inhibitory deficit in ADHD is confined to effortful inhibition of motor response, that antisaccade and negative priming tasks index distinct inhibition systems, and that persistence of ADHD symptoms into adulthood is associated with persistence of executive motor inhibition deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model of acoustic transmission in the respiratory system

A theoretical model of sound transmission from within the respiratory tract to the chest wall due to the motion of the walls of the large airways was developed. The vocal tract, trachea, and the first five bronchial generations are represented over the frequency range from 100 to 600 Hz by an equivalent acoustic circuit. This circuit allows the estimation of the magnitude of airway wall motion in response to an acoustic perturbation at the mouth. The radiation of sound through the surrounding lung parenchyma is represented as a cylindrical wave in a homogeneous mixture of air bubbles in water. The effect of thermal losses associated with the polytropic compressions and expansions of these bubbles by the acoustic wave is included and the chest wall is represented as a massive boundary to the wave propagation. The model estimates the magnitude of acceleration over the extrathoracic trachea and at three locations on the posterior chest wall in the same vertical plane. The predicted spectral characteristics of transmission are consistent with previous experimental observations. This theoretical approach suggests that the locations of the spectral peaks are a strong function of the geometry and the wall properties of the airways, while the attenuation at higher frequencies is primarily associated with the absorption of sound in the parenchyma.     

2008设计流行趋势预测

日前，美国的流行趋势专家C．DaVis Remignanti在家具网站上发布了2008设计流行趋势报告，他与其设计顾问们忠告消费者：“好的设计是有机的并且灵活多变的——既要顾及当今的流行趋势，又不能太在意这个趋势。对于什么是好的设计，这是没有硬性规定的，接不接受流行完全凭自己的喜好。并且要记住一点，无论你把房间装饰得多么时髦，它总是会过时的，如果—个时尚的空间不能让置身其中的人感到舒服和亲切，那这个设计一定是失败的”。     

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF POLARISCOPES FOR USE IN GLASS FACTORIES1

This paper presents the most important considerations in the design and construction of polariscopes for routine factory use as found in the author's experience. A short summary of the various methods of obtaining plane-polarized light is given in which preference is given to the reflection method for this type of instrument. The use of binocular analyzers, together with the importance of the matching of the field colors due to the tint-plates, is pointed out.     

Knowledge of strategies for dealing with everyday problems from childhood through adolescence.

This study examined the knowledge that children (5th grade) and adolescents (8th and 11th grade) have of the effectiveness of strategies for dealing with everyday problems. Two hundred seventeen individuals rated the effectiveness of six strategies presented as solutions to 20 everyday problems (in school or out of the school setting) before and after information was given that added or removed an obstacle from the problem. Strategy effectiveness was dependent on the context of the specific problem. Age differences (favoring older adolescents) and gender differences (favoring females) were found when students' strategy knowledge was compared with teachers' strategy knowledge. Students' strategy knowledge was related to teachers', parents', and students' ratings of the student's practical intellectual skills as well as to achievement test scores and grades. Implications for the relation between academic and everyday intelligence are drawn. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)