The purpose of the study is to determine if there is an effect on intervention/nonintervention attitudes associated with an introductory microeconomics class. The population consisted of all students enrolled in eighteen sections of Economics 1100 during the Fall semester, 1984, at North Texs State University. There were seven sections of Economics 1100, ten sections of Sociology 1510, and ten sections of Political Science 2010 used as control groups. The instruments used for pretesting and posttesting were the twenty-three item Attitude Scale and Demographic Questionnaire. The Attitude Scale contained twelve intervention and eleven nonintervention questions. Intervention questions were reverse scored so that a high score is noninterventionist and a low score is interventionist. Data were analyzed using a multiple linear regression to determine how each variable affected the intervention/nonintervention student attitudes.

The social problem of juvenile delinquency and treatment efforts to alleviate this problem are introduced in this study. Literature related to theories on delinquency, institutional treatment, the role of recreation in correctional settings, and leisure education is reviewed and summarized. A basis for a leisure theory on delinquency is presented, suggesting delinquent behaviors are socially unacceptable leisure pursuits. Implications include efforts to replace delinquent behaviors with socially acceptable leisure pursuits (i.e. recreation).

The problem of this study is whether between-channel redundancy in an instructional audio-visual message enhances immediate recall of information more than within—channel redundancy. A secondary purpose was to compare three forms of between—channel redundancy! audio—video, audio—video—caption, and audio-caption with one form of within-channel redundancy: video-caption. These comparisons were designed to demonstrate which form of redundancy had a higher association with recall of information. The subjects were administered the Kentucky Comprehensive Listening Inventory to measure listening skills, and the Receiver Apprehension Inventory to identify subjects who experienced significantly high apprehension as receivers of information. Then the subjects were randomly divided into four treatment groups and shown an eight minute newscast. All four groups were presented the same instructional message, but the mode of presentation differed depending upon the treatment group. After viewing the instructional program each member of each group was given a forty item multiple-choice retention inventory based on the information presented in the newscast. The data were presented in terms of correct responses on the Kentucky Comprehensive Listening Inventory and the forty item retention inventory. Discriminate analysis was used to determine which items from the multiple-choice retention inventory accounted for the most variance. Thirteen items were found to account …

The present investigation involved the development of a psychobiologic profile of individuals who experience exercise-related mood-enhancement and those who do not. The sample (N=301) consisted of students participating in 10-week exercise classes at North Texas State University. All subjects completed pre-test inventories assessing various psychological (i.e., trait anxiety and depression, attitude toward physical activity, self-estimation of physical ability and attraction to physical activity, expectancies of health benefits from exercise, and self-motivation) and biological (i.e., aerobic capacity and body fat percentage) variables. Trait anxiety and depression were also assessed before and after the 10-week exercise program and state anxiety and depression were assessed on an acute basis on two separate occasions during the program. Multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant function analysis were employed to determine which variables maximally discriminated between individuals who experienced mood-elevations following exercise and those who did not enjoy such rewards. The hypothesis that these two groups of individuals differ significantly from each other was not upheld by the results; thus, an overall psychobiologic profile could not be developed. However, the data did reveal that individuals who held a more positive attitude toward physical activity for the purpose of health and fitness reduced their state anxiety and …

Contemporary definitions of human listening suggest that it is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Short-term and interpretative listening may be viewed as important aspects of the listening process. However, research in time-compressed speech has focused on listening comprehension while not adequately treating other important types of listening. A broader view of the listening process would include all of the skills considered relevant to everyday human communication. This study examined the effect of time-compressed speech on comprehensive, interpretative and short-term listening. The Kentucky Comprehensive Listening Test was used to measure the three types of listening. Cut and splice tape editing was employed in the development of four master test tapes: a control tape presented at normal rate and tapes with test stimuli time-compressed by 30%, 45%, and 60%. Each of four randomly selected groups, 120 total subjects, was exposed to one of the four test tapes. The data from the test administrations was analyzed by analysis-of-variance and simple means tests. Results indicate that a statistically significant amount of the variance in comprehensive, interpretative and short-term listening scores may be explained by the manipulated variable, time-compression. However, the amount of variance-accounted-for is relatively low for both short-term and interpretative listening. Closer examination of the …

The problem of this study was an analysis of major spelling deficiencies among collegiate business students. The purposes were as follows: (1) to develop a diagnostic instrument that will measure spelling deficiencies; and (2) to make recommendations regarding the preparation of materials that will assist students in overcoming these deficiencies. Written assignments prepared by collegiate Business Communication students were examined for spelling errors. Errors were then classified into the following categories: (1) words with "ie" and "ei" ; (2) final "e"; (3) final consonant rule; (4) final "y"; (5) confusion over vowel sounds; (6) pronunciation problems; (7) sound-alikes; (8) plurals; (9) apostrophes; (10) omissions; (11) additions and repetitions; (12) substitutions; (13) demons; and (14) miscellaneous. Percentages of total errors served as a guideline for preparation of a Table of Specifications, and a Spelling Diagnostic Test was developed. Validity of the instrument was determined by a panel of experts. The test was then administered to 214 collegiate business students, and a reliability coefficient of .83 was determined using the split-half method.

It was the purpose of this research, to develop and test an artificially intelligent, learner-based, computer-assisted physics tutor. The resulting expert system is named ARPHY, an acronym for ARtificially intelligent PHYsics tutor. The research was conducted in two phases. In the first phase of the research, the system was constructed using Ausubel's advance organizer as a guiding learning theory. The content of accelerated motion was encoded into this organizer after sub-classification according to the learning types identified by Gagnds. The measurement of the student's level of learning was accomplished through the development of questioning strategies based upon Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. The second phase of this research consisted of the testing of ARPHY. Volunteers from four levels of first-semester physics classes at North Texas State University were instructed that their goal was to solve three complex physics problems related to accelerated motion. The only students initially instructed by ARPHY were from the class of physics majors. When the threshold values of the pedagogical parameters stabilized, indicating the fact that ARPHY's instructional technique had adapted to the class' learning style, students from other classes were tutored. Nine of the ten students correctly solved the three problems after being tutored for …

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is the description of the social map that is presented to the viewers of public television. Using content analysis methodology, the study describes how different genders, racial groups, and age groups are being portrayed on PBS programming. The sample consisted of one week of PBS 1984 fall programming broadcast on KERA-TV, the PBS station in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas. Research questions addressing proportions of groups, types of roles, length of scenes, occupational variation, conversational behaviors, conflict management modes, and cultural norms were answered. All coding was accomplished by the principal investigator. Upon completion of the coding sub-totals for the variables under study by program types and a grand total for the entire sample were then tabulated. After this extensive content analysis, the report concludes that females are still extremely underrepresented in PBS programming, accounting for only 32.7% of the total participants. Blacks and Hispanics are also underrepresented except in children's programming. Occupational variation for white males is evident for all types of PBS programming. Occupational variation for white females is evident in children's programming and informational/documentary programming. Minorities with delineated occupations are extremely limited in all types of programming except for children's programming. …

This study examined the contribution of several variables to the prediction of perceived freedom in leisure (PFL) and life satisfaction in older adults. Demographic, health and socioeconomic variables were compared with participation in recreation programs, church involvement and PFL. Church involvement was viewed as a leisure activity rather than a measure of religiosity. The survey instrument incorporated all these variables and was pretested and revised before use in the study. The sample consisted of 198 persons 60 years of age and older who were members of two Southern Baptist churches. Subjects were randomly selected, but persons considered by church staff members to be incapable of completing the survey were eliminated. Surveys were hand delivered and picked up by volunteer workers, and a 38 percent return rate was obtained. Alpha reliability for the church involvement, PFL and life satisfaction scales in the instrument were .87, .94, and .77, respectively. Frequency counts and percentages or means and standard deviations were calculated for the demographic variables. Subjects were categorized by level of involvement in church and community recreation programs. Persons involved in community but not church recreation programs were underrepresented in the sample. A selective sampling procedure was utilized to obtain more respondents …