The purpose of this study is to determine, by actual classroom experiment, the relationship between mental ability and reading achievement; and to ascertain the best methods of increasing reading ability. A secondary purpose in connection with this study was the critical evaluation of a testing program.

The limited-instruction spelling course proved to be the best method of integrating spelling and typewriting instruction. The students achieved better results when they looked up the meanings of words and typed the words in sentences. Studying seven or eight words a day was more effective than studying fifteen or more words. The second-year students in both the intensive and limited-instruction group benefited more from this type of instruction than did the first-year students. The students who received no instruction showed very little improvement in spelling ability. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationships among field dependency levels, performance on a non-locomotor balancing task both sighted and blindforded, and the acquisition of a complex biplanar motor skill. The participants for this investigation were young (ages 9-17) female gymnasts (n = 17) who had all received at least one year of gymnastics training, and could perform the prerequisite skills required for this experiment. All subjects were given the embedded figures test (EFT) (Witkin, Oltman, Raskin, & Karp, 1971) and a sighted and a blindfolded task on a stabilometer. The subjects, having been taught with a non-visual teaching method, were then given 50 trials of the full twisting back flip (FULL) on the trampoline. The gymnasts were attached to an overhead spotting rig to insure their safety. A single factor model (field dependence-independence) with three levels (high, middle, and low) was used to examine the relationships among variables. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to adjust posttest FULL scores to pretest scores and to assess the effects of field dependency levels on the FULL learning which:it:ook place. Multiple correlations were used to examine the relationships among EFT scores, stabilometer time in balance (TIB) and time in balance blindfolded (TIBB) scores, and pretest and posttest FULL scores. From the data analysis it was found that subjects' field dependency levels did not correlate significantly with their pretest or posttest FULL scores, or with the stabilometer measures. A significant relationship was found between pretest and posttest FULL scores (r = .837) and TIB and TIBB scores (r = .541). The following conclusions were drawn from the findings: (1) because of the lack of significant correlations between the FULL and either the EFT or the stabilometer task, the use of either of these measures as a predictor of the rate of learning of the FULL is not warranted; (2) of all the variables used in this investigation, subjects' pretest FULL scores are the best indicators of how rapidly they will learn the FULL, having been taught by the non-visual method. / M.S.

Effects of the Assessment tenter process on participants’ self-esteem were examined and related to past research and traditional self-esteem theories. Thirty-nine sales representatives were assessed for career-development potential at a large midwestern pharmaceutical company. It was proposed, in accord with consistency theory, that high and low self-esteem participants would show post assessment self-esteem change scores in the direction of their initial level of self-esteem. A two-group, pre-post design was employed resulting in significant changes for high and low self-esteem participants.The implications of the present findings for the use of assessment center methodology and future research needs were discussed. / Master of Science

Work on Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) task interaction and visualization paradigms has typically focused on providing information about the current task step (a cue) immediately before or during its performance. For sequential tasks that involve multiple steps, providing information about the next step (a precue) might also benefit the user. Some research has shown the advantages of simultaneously providing a cue and a precue in path-following tasks. We explore the use of precues in VR and AR for both path-following and object-manipulation tasks involving rotation. We address the effectiveness of different numbers and kinds of precues for different tasks. To achieve this, we conducted a series of user studies: First, we investigate whether it would be possible to improve efficiency by precueing information about multiple upcoming steps before completing the current step in a planar path-following task. To accomplish this, we developed a VR user study comparing task completion time and subjective metrics for different levels and styles of precueing. Our task-guidance visualizations vary the precueing level (number of steps precued in advance) and style (whether the path to a target is communicated through a line to the target, and whether the place of a target is communicated through graphics at the target). Participants in our study performed best when given two to three precues for visualizations using lines to show the path to targets. However, performance degraded when four precues were used. On the other hand, participants performed best with only one precue for visualizations without lines, showing only the places of targets, and performance degraded when a second precue was given. In addition, participants performed better using visualizations with lines than ones without lines. Second, we extend the idea of precueing information about multiple steps to a more complex task, whose subtasks involve moving to and picking up a physical object, moving that object to a designated place in the same plane while rotating it to a specific angle in the plane, and depositing it. We conducted two user studies to examine how people accomplish this task while wearing an AR headset, guided by different visualizations that cue and precue movement and rotation. Participants performed best when given movement information for two successive subtasks (one movement precue) and rotation information for a single subtask (no rotation precue). In addition, participants performed best when the visualization of how much to rotate was split across the manipulated object and its destination. Third, we investigate whether and how much precued rotation information might improve user performance in AR. We consider two unimanual tasks: one requires a participant to make sequential rotations of a single physical object in a plane, and the other requires the participant to move their hand between multiple such objects to rotate them in the plane in sequence. We conducted a user study to explore these two tasks using circular arrows to communicate rotation. In the single-object task, we examined the impact of number of precues and visualization style on participant performance. Results show that precues could improve performance and that arrows with highlighted heads and tails, with each rotation destination aligned with the next origin, yielded the shortest completion time on average. In the multiple-object task, we explored whether rotation precues can be helpful in conjunction with movement precues. Here, using a rotation cue without rotation precues in conjunction with a movement cue and movement precues performed the best, implying that rotation precues were not helpful when movement was also required. Fourth, we address sequential tasks involving 3DoF rotations and 3DoF translations in headset AR. In each step, a participant picks up a physical object, rotates it in 3D while translating it in 3D, and deposits it in a target 6DoF pose. We designed and compared two types of visualizations for cueing and precueing steps in such a task: Action-based visualizations show the actions needed to carry out a step and goal-based visualizations show the desired end state of a step. We conducted a user study to evaluate these visualizations and their efficacy for precueing. Participants performed better with goal-based visualizations than with action-based visualizations, and most effectively with goal-based visualizations aligned with the Euler axis. However, only a few of our participants benefited from precues, possibly because of the cognitive load of 3D rotations. In summary, we showed that using precueing can improve the speed at which participants perform different types of tasks. In our VR path-following task, participants were able to benefit from two to three precues using lines to show the path to targets. In our object-manipulation task with 2DoF movement and 1DoF rotation, participants performed best when given movement information for two successive subtasks and rotation information for a single subtask. Further, in our later study focusing on rotation, we found that participants were able to use rotation precues in our single-object task, while in the multiple-object task, rotation precues were not beneficial to participants. Finally, in a study on a sequential 6DoF task, participants performed better with goal-based visualizations than with action-based visualizations.

This study determined whether there was a relationship between the responses of teachers to teacher competency tests, measures of self-concept, and locus of control. The study was designed to investigate the issue of student and cooperating teachers responses toward testing. Fifty-five student teachers from Old Dominion University and Virginia Wesleyan College were paired with cooperating teachers from the school systems of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Chesapeake, Virginia. To determine their responses toward competency testing of teachers, a critiqued questionnaire was administered to this population. The Rotter Locus Of Control (1965) was given to determine if an individual viewed control of one's life from an internal or external perspective. In order to ascertain an individual's self-concept, the Tennessee Self Concept Scale was administered. The results from the instruments were analyzed using percentages and comparisons using the chi square test. Results indicated that there was no significant difference (< .05) in responses of teachers toward testing of teachers. No significant differences were found in how internals and externals viewed testing; nor were there significant differences found between those with high and low self concepts. Conclusions from the study indicate that student and cooperating teachers are not opposed to competency testing of teachers. The respondents felt that persons will not be encouraged or discouraged from entering the teaching profession because of their feelings about teacher testing or because of personality characteristics such as locus of control or self-concept. / Ed. D.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The study described the development of a standardized, normed, content-valid machine transcription test which could be used to evaluate the ability of secretarial applicants to type a mailable copy of a business letter from a dictated tape recording. The test was based on a thorough job analysis and was pretested using a pilot study with job incumbents to confirm its feasibility. Normative data were developed from 50 job applicants. Interrater reliability was statistically significant (r = .85, p <..05). The test was adopted for use at the headquarters office of a major oil and gas producing company.