The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of collaborative learning strategies on formulating solutions to linear programming word problems that were designed to incorporate problem-solving skills. Forty-six students majoring in business at a small southwest college in Virginia participated in the study. After an instruction session, a study period, and a question and answer discussion, participants completed the test instrument based upon random assignment to three treatment groups. These included individual study with individual test taking (control), paired study with individual test taking, and paired study with paired test taking. All participants returned in 17 days to complete a posttest individually having received no further instruction in linear programming theory. The following null hypothesis was examined: No differences in treatment means measuring problem-solving abilities would be found based on students' test and posttest scores using two treatment groups of collaborative study, with collaborative or individual test taking, and a control group of individual study with individual test taking. After satisfying the assumptions of no difference in ability in the treatment groups, establishing significant influence of ability on test score and posttest score variables, and establishing homogeneity of regression, an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypothesis. The null hypothesis was rejected. Treatment had a significant effect on the variance for the test score variable, F = 3.92, p < .05, and for the posttest score variable, F = 4.44, p < .05. Newman-Keuls post hoc test showed significant differences in the adjusted means of the test score variable between the individual study with individual test taking group (72.22) and the paired study with paired test taking group (87.86). For the posttest score variable, the Newman-Keuls post hoc test revealed significant differences between the adjusted means of the individual study with individual test taking group (36.25) and the paired study with individual test taking group (59.20), and between the adjusted means of the individual study with individual test taking group (36.25) and the paired study with paired test taking group (55.77). Implications of findings and recommendations for further research were discussed. / Ph. D.

This study investigated the effects of group cohesiveness on group conformity, and on member satisfaction. In this study, group cohesiveness, group conformity, and member satisfaction were considered to be constructs. The definition of the construct of group cohesiveness included the interrelated components of psychological closeness, interpersonal liking, group affiliation, and trust. The definition of group conformity included the components of compliance and acceptance. The definition of member satisfaction included the components of satisfaction with the group decision, satisfaction with the group process, and satisfaction with the group atmosphere. The major research hypotheses suggested that group cohesiveness has an effect on member satisfaction, on acceptance of social influence, and on compliance with the group. The study examined also the role of the moderating variables of self-esteem, sociometric status, and gender. A total of 77 undergraduate students at Virginia Tech participated in a decision-making experiment. The students were led to believe they were assigned to congenial work groups based on their responses to pre-experimental questionnaires. In fact, the students were randomly assigned to groups, and randomly assigned to one of the two treatment conditions high or low cohesiveness. Verbal and written manipulation instructions were used to induce high and low cohesiveness in the groups. This manipulation was significant, and moderately successful. During the experiment, the subjects had to work on two rank-ordering exercises as individuals, and as groups. The experimental results suggested that group cohesiveness and member satisfaction are significantly correlated. Subjects who perceived their group to be highly cohesive were more satisfied with the experimental group meeting than subjects who perceived their group to be less cohesive. There was no evidence for a relationship between group cohesiveness and acceptance of social influence. This finding, however, should not be generalized since it is possible that group cohesiveness has no immediate impact on acceptance in emerging groups. The results also suggest there is a relationship between group cohesiveness and compliance. Students who were assigned to the high cohesiveness treatment complied more frequently with their group than students who were assigned to the low cohesiveness treatment. / Master of Science

Thesis (M. Div.)--Emmanuel School of Religion, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-72).

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Research has repeatedly shown that when groups whose members have varying expertise are combined to make a decision, they tend to discuss common information at a higher rate than unique information, hindering their ability to make the best decision. In response to these findings and the fact that organizations are increasingly using groups rather than individuals to make important decisions, a new intervention was developed based on past research to help groups make better decisions and discuss more unique information. The intervention was developed through three phases to determine which techniques were most powerful. The formal evaluation of the intervention was tested on a total of 228 undergraduate students (44 groups of four and 52 individuals). Groups were randomized into an experimental condition, receiving the intervention, or a control condition. Groups participated in a hidden profile business simulation acting as the top management team of a fictional Hollywood movie studio. Information was distributed so that there was common and unique information for each group. Groups given the intervention made significantly better decisions, shared more unique information, and performed significantly better than individuals. Unique information sharing was positively related to performance and the unique information given to one group member mediated the relationship between the condition and performance. In addition, this study revealed that within the inventory of unique information, different types of information may be more critical in reaching the best possible decision than others. Future research aims and implications are discussed.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1985 B348 / Master of Science

This dissertation describes the successful implementation of a work group infrastructure to support electronic meetings. An exploratory study was undertaken to observe and document the broad range of activities necessary to implement an infrastructure for work groups in a field setting. Activities falling within the scope of this dissertation include the design of a set of work group software tools, the implementation of that software, the gathering of field data, and the interpretation of those data in reference to the software's impact. The dissertation also reports on the effects of the implementation on work group performance, group characteristics, task characteristics, and the technology itself. The final product of the study is a set of factors critical for the successful implementation of a work group infrastructure, including observations and insights related to facility design, software design, facilitation training, and management involvement.

Memory is a complex cognitive process which has been widely researched within the field of neuropsychology. In clinical studies of adults, the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) is widely used. At this time there is no comparable clinical tool within the child literature pertaining to memory. There are studies which have extended the age limits of the WMS, but the youngest sample ranged from 10 to 14 years of age. The present research was conducted in two studies. The first study concerns the development of a memory scale for use with children aged six to twelve. This scale, Wilson's Adapted Memory Scale for Children (WAMS-C), was constructed utilizing the basic structure and subtests of the WMS. The scale was administered to 33 normal children, ranging in age from 6 to 12 years. It was hypothesized that the scale would reflect the developmental nature of memory as well as the relationship between memory and intelligence. The second study compared the memory skills of a learning disabled (LD) sample of children to those of a sample of normal learning (NL) children. A specific profile of academic achievement was used to define the LD children who participated in this study. (Reading and Spelling impaired, and relatively better Arithmetic skills). Research conducted by Rourke and his associates identified this subtype of LD children and provided predictions pertaining to their differential performance on verbal and visual tasks. The WAMS-C contains both verbal and visual memory tasks. It was predicted that these children would (1) do less well than NL children on the memory scale and (2) that these LD children would be impaired on the verbal memory portion of the WAMS-C, compared to NL children, but would exhibit equivalent performance on the visual memory tasks. The results of the studies showed the WAMS-C to reflect the developmental nature of memory and the relationship with intelligence. Also, LD children had significantly lower scores on the WAMS-C. However, neither the verbal or visual subtests differentiated between groups. Rather, subtests which may reflect short-term memory deficits and/or attentional problems appeared responsible for the differences found.

This study examines the impact of organisational culture and GSS (Group Support Systems) on small group decision-making as measured by group decision outcomes. Laboratory experiments were designed to investigate how two types of groups selected on the basis of having apparently different organisational cultures make decisions on a preference task, in situations where they were given one of two different means of support (face-to-face GSS support or manually structured support) to aid their decision-making. Organisational culture and GSS are the independent variables, whilst the dependent outcome variables were perceived decision quality, decision process satisfaction, decision satisfaction, unified commitment, collaborative climate, and group cohesiveness. The research results showed that manually-supported groups, those who were given simple physical decision-support aids and worked face-to-face, had higher perceived decision quality and decision process satisfaction but no significant differences in unified commitment, decision satisfaction, collaborative climate, and group cohesiveness were found when compared to face-to-face GSS???supported groups who were given electronic aids. One of the two groups drawn from environments where organisational culture was expected to be quite different, that is the Kensington Campus group had higher perceived decision quality, decision process satisfaction, unified commitment, and group cohesiveness but no significant differences in decision satisfaction and collaborative climate when compared with groups drawn from a campus of the same university, ADFA (Australian Defence Force Academy) Campus, one which is attended only by military students. Whilst compared with those of manually structured support on group outcomes, the impacts of GSS on group outcomes weakened when they performed a preference task, organisational culture was found to have a significant impact on group outcomes when both face-to-face GSS and manual settings were considered.

According to the IPCC (2007) fourth assessment report, small islands and coastal communities have a set of characteristics that makes them very vulnerable to climate change impacts, mainly sea-level rise and storm surges. Coastal hazards including inundation, salinisation of the water supply, and erosion threaten vital infrastructure that support coastal communities. Although Canada has the longest coastline in the world, little work has been done on impacts of climate change and adaptation to these impacts in the Canadian coastal zones. This research is part of an International Community-University Research Alliance (ICURA) C-Change, project to develop a multicriteria decision evaluation and support for the systems analysis of adaptation options for coastal communities toward adapting to environmental changes. This study estimates the vulnerability of coastal communities with respect to their environmental, economic, social, and cultural dimensions. It also applies a group version of the Analytical Hierarchy Process for identifying decisions that various stakeholders make on suggested adaptation strategies. This study develops a methodological framework that is applicable to various coastal and small island contexts. The application of the proposed framework is further discussed in a case study conducted on the communities of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (PEI), and Little Anse on Isle Madame, Nova Scotia. Specifically, the state of the Little Anse breakwater is analyzed and new adaptation options are presented and evaluated. This research has illustrated and applied a process of decision evaluation and support that explicitly engages multiple participants and critieria in complex problems situations involving environmental change in coastal communities.

According to the IPCC (2007) fourth assessment report, small islands and coastal communities have a set of characteristics that makes them very vulnerable to climate change impacts, mainly sea-level rise and storm surges. Coastal hazards including inundation, salinisation of the water supply, and erosion threaten vital infrastructure that support coastal communities. Although Canada has the longest coastline in the world, little work has been done on impacts of climate change and adaptation to these impacts in the Canadian coastal zones. This research is part of an International Community-University Research Alliance (ICURA) C-Change, project to develop a multicriteria decision evaluation and support for the systems analysis of adaptation options for coastal communities toward adapting to environmental changes. This study estimates the vulnerability of coastal communities with respect to their environmental, economic, social, and cultural dimensions. It also applies a group version of the Analytical Hierarchy Process for identifying decisions that various stakeholders make on suggested adaptation strategies. This study develops a methodological framework that is applicable to various coastal and small island contexts. The application of the proposed framework is further discussed in a case study conducted on the communities of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (PEI), and Little Anse on Isle Madame, Nova Scotia. Specifically, the state of the Little Anse breakwater is analyzed and new adaptation options are presented and evaluated. This research has illustrated and applied a process of decision evaluation and support that explicitly engages multiple participants and critieria in complex problems situations involving environmental change in coastal communities.