What determines initial feeling of knowing? Familiarity with question terms, not with the answer.

How do people know whether they have an answer to a question before they actually find it in their memory? Two experiments explored this question. Ss were trained on relatively novel 2-digit?×?2-digit arithmetic problems (e.g., 23?×?27). Before answering each problem, Ss made a quick feeling of knowing judgment as to whether they could directly retrieve the answer from memory or had to compute it. Knowing the answer initially appeared to be linearly related to having a feeling of knowing the answer; however, when the frequency of exposure to complete problems and the frequency of exposure to parts of the problems were separately varied, feeling of knowing was better predicted by the frequency of presentation of the problem parts, not by knowledge of the answer. This suggests that the processes involved in knowing the answer are different from those involved in having a feeling of knowing. Specifically, an early feeling of knowing is not just based on an early read of the answer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Designing and validating a measure of moral judgment: Stage preference and stage consistency approaches.

The Defining Issues Test (DIT) of moral judgment is discussed in light of the recent challenge by C. Lind (1995) with the Moral Judgment Test (MJT), which is widely used in Europe. The 2 tests represent alternative methods as well as support different conclusions about moral judgment. The key difference is a stage-consistency (MJT) vs. a stage-preference (DIT) approach. Construct validity is defined in terms of 7 types of studies, and the approaches are compared. The stage-preference approach systematically outperforms the stage-consistency approach. Benchmarking by using classic studies in moral judgment illustrates an empirical, multistudy, quantitative approach to moral judgment research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child Restraint Fitting Stations reduce incorrect restraint use among child occupants

This study evaluated the effectiveness of the NSW Restraint Fitting Station Network in preventing incorrect use of rearward facing and forward facing child restraints.The way children used restraints was observed randomly as they arrived at observation sites during a cross-sectional ecological study across New South Wales, Australia. Trained researchers examined restraint system installation once the child left the vehicle. A structured interview was also conducted with the driver. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between parental report of ever having the restraint checked at a Restraint Fitting Station and whether or not the restraint was used correctly, while controlling for potential confounders and accounting for the complex sample design. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated.The results demonstrated that children of respondents who did not use Restraint Fitting Stations were 1.8 times more likely to be incorrectly using their restraints (95% CI 1.1–2.8) than children of Restraint Fitting Station users. Regardless of whether or not a Restraint Fitting Station had been used, there was a trend towards a greater likelihood of incorrect restraint use as the length of restraint ownership increased (OR 1.3 95% CI 1.0–1.7).These results are important for developing strategies aimed at reducing child occupant casualties by reducing the rate of incorrect restraint use, and support programs encouraging the use of Restraint Fitting Stations and similar services as a countermeasure to incorrect use.     

Drinking to regulate positive and negative emotions: A motivational model of alcohol use.

The present study proposed and tested a motivational model of alcohol use in which people are hypothesized to use alcohol to regulate both positive and negative emotions. Two central premises underpin this model: (a) that enhancement and coping motives for alcohol use are proximal determinants of alcohol use and abuse through which the influence of expectancies, emotions, and other individual differences are mediated and (b) that enhancement and coping motives represent phenomenologically distinct behaviors having both unique antecedents and consequences. This model was tested in 2 random samples (1 of adults, 1 of adolescents) using a combination of moderated regression and path analysis corrected for measurement error. Results revealed strong support for the hypothesized model in both samples and indicate the importance of distinguishing psychological motives for alcohol use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Commitment to organizational change: Extension of a three-component model.

Three studies were conducted to test the application of a three-component model of workplace commitment (J. P. Meyer & N. I Allen, 1991; J. P. Meyer & L. Herscovitch, 2001) in the context of employee commitment to organizational change. Study 1, conducted with 224 university students, provided preliminary evidence for the validity of newly developed Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment to Change Scales. Studies 2 and 3, conducted with hospital nurses (N = 157 and 108, respectively), provided further support for the validity of the three Commitment to Change Scales, and demonstrated that (a) commitment to a change is a better predictor of behavioral support for a change than is organizational commitment, (b) affective and normative commitment to a change are associated with higher levels of support than is continuance commitment, and (c) the components of commitment combine to predict behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The structure of precocious reading ability.

The purpose of this study was to describe the cognitive correlates of precocious reading achievement and to identify the structure of individual differences in reading subskill patterns that are compatible with precocious achievement. Several oral reading tasks and selected subtests from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised were administered to 87 postkindergarten children whose Peabody Individual Achievement Test reading comprehension scores ranged from the second- to the fifth-grade level. Parents provided information about the children's reading histories. Factor analysis of 11 reading subskill scores yielded results consistent with a hierarchical modification of the hypothesized model. Three specific factors—Speed, Decoding Rule Use, and Graphic Precision—varied independently of superordinate differences in General Ability. Verbal ability, letter-naming speed, and forward and backward digit span each correlated moderately with one or more reading factors. Many aspects of the results were consistent with findings from studies of average, disabled, and autistic/hyperlexic readers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

IT2000: A critical appraisal of Singapore's state-wide strategic planning process for information technology

In April 1992, the Singapore Government announced its information technology (IT) vision and plan for the next 15 years to turn Singapore into ‘an intelligent island’, providing a strategic regional switching centre for expertise, goods, services and information. At the heart of this plan is a national information infrastructure that would capitalize on information as a key factor of production and an important ingredient for enhancing the quality of life of its people. Code named ‘IT2000’, the plan was developed by 60 senior managers at the National Computer Board in 1991 with participation and inputs from about 200 business and industry leaders, domain experts and academics. This paper describes the background of Singapore's drive into the information age, the IT2000 planning process, the roles of various participants and the main recommendations of the plan. An evaluation of IT2000 is made in terms of its objectives, its unanticipated results and its impacts on industry participants. Implications and lessons are drawn for strategic IT planning at the national or sectoral level.     

An observer-based psychoacoustic procedure for use with young infants.

This article describes an observer-based technique for assessing auditory capacities of infants from 3 to 12 months of age. This technique, referred to as the Observer-based Psychoacoustic Procedure (OPP), combines features of the Forced-choice Preferential Looking technique developed by Teller (1979) and of Visual Reinforcement Audiometry (Moore, Thompson, & Thompson, 1975). The rationale behind the procedure and the specific techniques used in its application are detailed here. Psychometric functions and thresholds for pure-tone detection and frequency discrimination obtained with OPP are also presented. The results for 6-month-olds are compared with results from previous studies employing a visually reinforced head-turn procedure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positioning and animating human figures in a task-oriented environment

TEMPUS is an interactive graphics system which enables a user to model the task-oriented activities of several human agents in a three-dimensional environment. The user can create one or more human figures which are correctly scaled according to a specific population, or which meet certain size constraints. These figures may be viewed in any of several graphical modes.