An Empirical Investigation of the Impact of Cognitive Complexity and Experience of Programmers, and Program Complexity on Program Comprehension and Modification (open access)

An Empirical Investigation of the Impact of Cognitive Complexity and Experience of Programmers, and Program Complexity on Program Comprehension and Modification

The psychological characteristics of programmers are believed to be important determinants of programming productivity. However, little evidence is available to support this contention. This investigation, motivated by the lack of such evidence, was concerned with determining the influence of the programmer's cognitive complexity (differentiation and integration) and experience on comprehending and modifying programs of different levels of complexity. Data were collected from ninty-three graduate and undergraduate students in a classroom experimental setting. In the first phase of the experiment, a background questionnaire was administered in order to collect experience and other demographic information. Also, a domain-specific Role Construct Repertory (REP) Test was administered to collect cognitive complexity information. In the second phase, the subjects were randomly assigned to either the program comprehension group or to the program modification group. Both groups used two COBOL programs of differing levels of complexity to do comprehension and modification exercises. Three sets of hypotheses were tested. The first set of hypotheses was designed to evaluate the direction and strength of the relationship between cognitive complexity and program comprehension and modification. The second set of hypotheses was designed to evaluate the combined influence of cognitive complexity and program complexity on the comprehension and modification of …
Date: May 1986
Creator: Khalil, Omar Elnadi M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Fiber, Fabric, Art (open access)

Fiber, Fabric, Art

The problem addressed in this paper was the appropriateness of fiber, especially in the form of fabric, as an art medium. Relevant statements by crafts makers, philosophers, art critics, and artists were investigated along with historical and contemporary art and craft works.
Date: May 1984
Creator: Dishongh, Suzanne
System: The UNT Digital Library
Testing and Evaluation of Environmental Fate Models Using Aquatic Microcosms and Three Organic Chemicals (open access)

Testing and Evaluation of Environmental Fate Models Using Aquatic Microcosms and Three Organic Chemicals

Two compartment (sediment and water) flow-through model ecosystems were constructed to investigate the compartmentalization of different organic chemicals. Lindane, naphthalene, and mirex were pumped into the systems and resultant compartmental chemical concentrations determined. Steady state concentrations were compared to those predicted by two environmental fate models - EXAMS (Exposure Analysis Modeling System) and SLSA (Simplified Lake and Stream Analysis) which were developed by EPA-Athens, Georgia and HydroQual, Inc., respectively.
Date: December 1983
Creator: Staples, Charles A. (Charles Allen)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Curricular Content of Elementary Music in China Between 1912 and 1982 (open access)

The Curricular Content of Elementary Music in China Between 1912 and 1982

The purpose of this study was to investigate the curricular content of elementary music in China between 1912 and 1982. The questions addressed were: (1) What changes in elementary music resulted from China's becoming a republic in 1912? (2) What changes in elementary music resulted from China's becoming a socialist country in 1949? (3) What changes in elementary music in the People's Republic of China resulted from the Anti—Rightist Struggle Movement in 1957? (4) What changes in elementary music in the People's Republic of China resulted from the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)? (5) Have changes occurred in elementary music in the People's Republic of China since the beginning of the reform movement in 1978? (6) Did any of the changes affect curricular goals, contents, methods, required materials, and instruction time allotted in a like manner, or did some of these components remain the same while others changed? (7) Were the changes important enough to attribute them to a changed political ideology? After translating all pertinent documents, the goals, contents, methods, materials, and time allotted for the elementary music curricula between 1912 and 1982 were listed and identified. Subsequently, the areas of focus within those categories as well as changes in focus …
Date: December 1989
Creator: Ma, Shuhui
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Development and Contributions of the Department of Adult Education, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, to Adult Education in Nigeria: 1945- 1980 (open access)

The Development and Contributions of the Department of Adult Education, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, to Adult Education in Nigeria: 1945- 1980

This study examined the historical development of the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and its contributions to adult education both in Nigeria and in other African nations. This was aimed at providing up-to-date insight into the department's contributions to the development of adult education in Nigeria and in other African nations. Specifically, this study examined the department's founders and their goals, the department's management structure, its relationship with other adult education agencies in Nigeria and in Africa, its programs and services, and the participants in these. This study reveals that the department's founders were both British and Nigerian politicians, educators, and humanitarians. They were concerned with eradicating illiteracy, preparing adults for democratic roles, and improving the economic well-being of these adults. The department does not have a consistent pattern of management. The selection of its leadership is usually based on seniority and academic merits. The department initially relied on donations and on the revenues from the local, state, and federal governments of Nigeria to operate. It now relies on those from the profit from its services to the public and on those from Nigeria's state and federal governments. The department interacts with other departments of the university and with other …
Date: May 1987
Creator: Adeniji, Olufemi O. (Olufemi Ogunruku)
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Guide for the Identification and Research of Victorian Furniture in Six Historic House Museums in Texas (open access)

A Guide for the Identification and Research of Victorian Furniture in Six Historic House Museums in Texas

One hundred and seventy-eight pieces of Victorian furniture in six Texas historic house museums have been photographed and researched in order to fulfill the three-part problem. (1) to research and write descriptive essays of the four major Victorian substyles--Victorian Empire, Rococo Revival, Renaissance Revival, and Eastlake; (2) to identify and choose six Texas historic houses which are open to the public and which display these Victorian substyles in period room settings; and (3) to identify, photograph, measure, and catalogue each piece of authentic Victorian furniture, and to compile a research guide which includes each of these six houses and their Victorian furnishings. This six-part guide includes brief histories of each house and a catalogue of authentic pieces which represent the major substyles of Victorian furniture. To give the study a broad base, and to make it useful for all students, teachers, and professional interior designers in Texas, two houses which represented the best collections of furniture from each geographic location were chosen. These included: (1 ) from North Texas, the George House and Millermore, both in Dallas; (2) in Central Texas, East Terrace and Fort House, located in Waco; and (3) in South Texas, Fulton Mansion in Fulton Beach, and …
Date: August 1984
Creator: Rice, Ralph Albert
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Art Curriculum Guide for the Junior High Catholic School System of the Dallas Diocese (open access)

An Art Curriculum Guide for the Junior High Catholic School System of the Dallas Diocese

This study is about the development of a curriculum guide which projects flexibility, continuity, sequential framework, and to a certain extent, uniformity, around which each teacher may build an art program that will best meet the students' needs. Areas pertinent to developing the curriculum guide are presented in light of literature in this field. The guide may be used to facilitate the teaching of art in recognizing and understanding artistic development that is essential in bringing to fruition the inherent individual ability of all the Junior High Catholic School students.
Date: May 1983
Creator: Da Silva, Geraldine
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Anabaptist Purity of Life Ethic (open access)

The Anabaptist Purity of Life Ethic

This dissertation establishes that the Evangelical Anabaptists lived a noticeably distinctive Christian life when compared with their peers, accounts for their committed pursuit of holiness, and describes the outcome of that commitment. The sources used include the arranged archival source material in the Tauferakten, confessions, tracts, letters, debates, martyrologies, miscellaneous writings of the Anabaptists, and subsequent scholarship on the subject.
Date: May 1985
Creator: Dalzell, Timothy Wayne
System: The UNT Digital Library
Articles on Drama and Theatre in Selected Journals Housed in the North Texas State University Libraries: a Bibliography (open access)

Articles on Drama and Theatre in Selected Journals Housed in the North Texas State University Libraries: a Bibliography

The continued publication of articles concerning drama and theatre in scholarly periodicals has resulted in the "loss" of much research due to the lack of retrieval tools. This work is designed to partially fill this lack by cassifying the articles found in fourteen current periodicals using Trussler's taxonomy. This bibliography could also be updated on a regular basis. The issues that are presently not available through the North Texas State University Libraries could be ordered, classified and appended to this work. In short, this thesis is a start toward the opening of the source material held by the campus libraries. But it is only a start. There is still a treasure trove yet to be developed.
Date: December 1985
Creator: Foster, Jimm
System: The UNT Digital Library
Edvard Munch's Fatal Women: A Critical Approach (open access)

Edvard Munch's Fatal Women: A Critical Approach

This study is the first comprehensive analysis of the fatal woman motif in the writings and art of Edvard Munch from the early 1890s to 1909. It uses a background of the women in the artist's life as well as the literary and artistic worlds in which Munch participated. Following separate accounts of Munch's relationships with five women, the manner in which the artist characterizes each as a fatal woman in his writings and art is discussed and analyzed. Next, the study describes the fatal woman motif in late nineteenth century art and literature. It begins with a discussion of the origin of the Symbolist and Decadent Movements and an ideological examination of the fatal woman motif as it is manifested in the writing and art of these two groups. In addition, it compares Munch's visual manifestations of the femme fatale with the manner in which the artist's contemporaries depicted her. Finally, this study describes two groups of men with whom Munch was particularly close: the Christiania Bohéme and the Schwarzen Ferkel Circle. An examination of the literary works of these men helps to determine the way in which they affected Munch's pictorial perception of the fatal woman.
Date: December 1985
Creator: Bimer, Barbara Susan Travitz
System: The UNT Digital Library