Individual differences in student cheating.

The incidence and causes of cheating were investigated using a questionnaire, consisting of 21 cheating behaviors, which was distributed to students at an English university. Respondents were asked to indicate, confidentially, which of the behaviors they had engaged in. Reported cheating was widespread and some types of cheating (e.g., on coursework) were more common than others. Reported cheating was more common in men than women; more common with less able students than more able ones; more common in younger students than mature ones; and more common in science and technology students than those in other disciplines. It is suggested that students' motivation, in particular whether they are studying to learn rather than simply to obtain good grades, is a major factor in explaining these differences. The results also indicate that cheating consists of a number of different types of behavior rather than being a unitary concept. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tests of a temporal theory of attentional binding.

Different features of stimuli present in the field of view appear to be registered in different cortical maps. How, then, are the features that come from the same object bound together rather than mistakenly assembled with features coming from other simultaneously present objects? One theory supposes that an attentional mechanism intercepts input coming from particular retinal locations at a way station prior to parsing of the features from the same object. Any enhancement (or facilitation) at that stage will cause all the features from that object to be modified simultaneously in the downstream registers. The imposed temporal synchronicity serves as the essential binding cue. Five experiments provided no support for the theory. There is no tendency for synchronicity of features to cause binding unless the features come from the same location. Location, rather than temporal synchronicity, appears to be the essential cue for binding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word naming and memory load: Still searching for an individual differences explanation.

S. E. Bernstein and T. H. Carr (1996) and P. M. Pexman and S. J. Lupker (1995) suggested that classifiable individual differences in word-naming performance can account for the varied findings on the naming and memory load task (NMLT; K. R. Paap and R. W. Noel, 1991). Bernstein and Carr's technique of testing their explanation by using performance on part of the NMLT to classify participants is problematic, however. To remedy this, in the present study participants were classified on the basis of performance on a priori tasks: Participants completed a naming task, a naming task with low memory load, and the NMLT. Performance on the NMLT was not predicted by performance on either a priori task, thus providing no support for either Bernstein and Carr's or Pexman and Lupker's individual differences accounts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A tool for visualizing the execution of interactions on a loosely-coupled distributed system

The paper describes in detail the implementation of INMON, a prototype monitor for recording and displaying interaction networks. The interaction network is designed to show the interrelationships between significant events that occur during the processing of an interaction on a loosely-coupled distributed system. By being directed at analysing what happens in an interaction, this approach is fundamentally different from other graphical representations that show what happens during the execution of a single program on a distributed system. Examples are given of interaction networks recorded by INMON. The approach is based on very general models of a distributed system and of an interaction, and could be widely applied. We conclude by summarizing what is needed to provide facilities within any operating system for recording interaction networks.     

Understanding and tailoring the degradation of PVA‐tyramine hydrogels

We have previously reported on a hydrogel system fabricated from poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) functionalized with tyramine groups (PVA‐Tyr) that has the ability to co‐polymerize with proteins in their native state. These gels were also shown to be hydrolytically degradable through the ester groups present in the functional groups. In this article, the hydrolytic degradation of the PVA‐Tyr gels is shown to be strongly dependant on pH, where at pH < 7.4 the lack of ionization of the tyramine groups resulted in slower hydrolysis. The gels' degradation was also highly influenced by temperature, where heat (>25°C) was required to facilitate the hydrolysis of the ester bonds. Moreover, the degradation rates were successfully tailored between 19 to 27 days by varying the hydrogels' initial macromer concentration. It was highlighted that the cross‐linking density was dependant on the sodium persulphate to tyramine ratio, as well as the viscosity of the macromer solution. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42142.     

Memory for the color of non‐monochromatic lights

The aim of this work was to explore the limits of memory for the hue of coloured illumination using nonspectral colours. Eighty‐four undergraduate optometry students with normal colour vision as assessed by the Ishihara 38 plate test, were given 10 s to memorize the hue of a luminous surface (luminance 120 cd m^?2), subtending 22 by 18 degrees in an otherwise unlit room. The sample hue was one of 12 samples with chromaticity spaced evenly every 30 degrees around a hue circle in the CIE UCS diagram. The circle, radius 0.06, was centered at the chromaticity of D65 (u′ = 0.198, v′ = 0.468). The hue was displaced randomly by between 40 and 100 degrees, and the participants were required to use one of two keys to return the hue to its original appearance. The keys changed CIE 1976 hue angle (h_uv) by 1 degree, one in a clockwise and the other in a counterclockwise direction, but left the CIE 1976 saturation (s_uv) and the luminance unchanged. Each participant saw the to‐be‐memorized hue once only and made subsequent adjustments without seeing it again. Four adjustments were made immediately, four after 1 h, and a further four after 1 week. The second and the fourth in each set of four were preceded by a clockwise displacement of hue angle and the remaining two by an anticlockwise displacement. The CIE 1976 UCS chromaticity of the standard and the chromaticity of the very first adjustment performed immediately after the presentation of the standard were separated by 0.0210 (s.d. 0.0178) averaged across hues. One hue (purple) was more readily nameable than the others and was more accurately reproduced. There was no evidence of stable individual differences in observers' memory: observers' accuracy in reproducing one colour was not significantly correlated with their accuracy in reproducing another. Adjustments made after an interval of 1 h were worse than those undertaken immediately, but no better than those performed after 1 week. The variability of hue memory under these conditions was similar to the variability of coloured surfaces under common sources of illumination. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 32, 11–15, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.20281     

Group remembering: Does social loafing underlie collaborative inhibition?

When people collaborate to recall information, they experience collaborative inhibition, a deficit in recall relative to nominal groups (the pooled, nonredundant recall of individuals working alone). That is, people recalling in groups do not perform up to their potential. Collaborative inhibition may be due to retrieval interference (e.g., B. H. Basden, D. R. Basden, S. Bryner, & R. L. Thomas, 1997) or to motivational factors such as social loafing in the group situation. Five experiments examined the role of motivational factors by varying monetary incentives, recall criterion, personal accountability, group cohesion, and group gender. Increasing motivation sometimes increased the overall level of recall but failed to eliminate the collaborative inhibition effect. The results suggest that collaboration interferes with an individual's ability to reconstruct his or her knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ambiguity and visual word recognition: Can feedback explain both homophone and polysemy effects?

In a lexical-decision task (LDT), Y. Hino and S. J. Lupker (see record 1996-06577-001) reported a polysemy effect (faster response times for polysemous words [e.g., BANK]), and attributed this effect to enhanced feedback from the semantic system to orthographic units, for polysemous words. Using the same task, P. M. Pexman et al (in review) reported a homophone effect (slower response times for homophonic words [e.g., MAID]) and attributed this effect to inconsistent feedback from the phonological system to orthographic units, for homophones. This article tests two predictions derived from this feedback explanation: Polysemy and homophone effects should (1) co-occur in a standard LDT (with pseudoword foils) and (2) both be larger with pseudohomophones (e.g., BRANE) as foils in LDT. The results support both predictions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)