Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the false memory rates for word and picture Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) lists in children, adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Deese (1959), Roediger and McDermott (1995) developed the DRM paradigm as a method for testing the effects of semantic intrusion on the creation of false recollections. This method is used in the current thesis to test false memory in participants with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a disorder characterised by social, language and behavioural deficits. False memory studies of adults with this disorder have had conflicting results and found ASD participants have lower or similar false memory rates to controls. Experiment 1 compared false memory rates in 11 children, 11 adolescents and 5 adults with ASD to 15 children, 11 adolescents and 7 adult controls. ASD participants had higher false critical lure rates and lower studied item recognition rates than controls regardless of age. Adolescents had higher false and studied memory than children while adults had higher studied but lower false recognition rates than the younger groups. Due to the use of short DRM lists the adult participants recognised the fewest critical lures. In Experiment 2 there were 6 ASD children and 9 ASD adolescents compared with 6 control children and 9 control adolescents who were all tested both individually and in collaborative trios. Collaboration was beneficial to ASD adolescents and control children and adolescents by reducing false recognition and increasing studied item recognition. Collaboration was more beneficial for ASD adolescents and control children in the correct rejection of critical lures and for control adolescents in the recognition of studied items possibly due to decision making techniques. Critical lure recognition did not vary between collaborative trios and individuals and studied item recognition was decreased by collaboration in the ASD children. The observed decision making techniques employed revealed a clear pattern in social development and suggest ASD adolescents, but not ASD children, would benefit from group work. Overall the findings of this study, when taken into context with previous DRM studies, suggest that ASD participants have a delay in their social development and in the development of their association networks.

This study explored the possible connection between organizational culture and worldview and the narratives professional associations use to sell these perspectives to external audiences. Burke's pentad and ratio analysis were utilized to identify the dominant terms in nineteen narratives featured in a promotional booklet published by the National Business Incubation Association. In eleven of the stories, the "agent" elements were most prevalent in these stories, signaling an idealistic worldview. The remaining eight narratives were agency-dominant and provided an underlying pragmatism to the highly idealistic outlook of the agent-focused stories. In addition to providing a philosophical label for the narrative messages, analyzing the pentad elements gave clues as to this association's value system toward incubation clients and the business incubation industry in general. The implications of this professional association's influence on an emerging industry were also discussed. / Department of Communication Studies

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

Recreation programs have become important resources on college campuses. They can provide important benefits to students and to the university. Students benefit from the opportunity to participate in leisure activities, which helps them develop a healthy lifestyle. The university benefits from the assistance in retaining students who might otherwise terminate their enrollment. This study presents information regarding intramural programs at colleges and universities in 1997. The following questions were researched: 1) What activities are currently being offered for intramural competition in universities that are institutional members of the NIRSA and list a student population between 10,001 and 30,000? 2) How many teams compete in these events? 3) What percent of the university community participates in intramural sports? The study surveyed those colleges and universities who were institutional members of the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) in 1997, and had a listed student population between 10,001-30,000. A total of 150 institutions met the criteria and wereincluded in the study. These 150 institutions were grouped into three population categories (10,001-15,000; 15,001-20,000; 20,001-30,000). They were also grouped into six regional categories, as defined by the NIRSA. A survey return rate of 71% was achieved. Survey respondents were asked to list the activities offered in their intramural programs, and the number of teams entered in those activities. Respondents were also asked to identify the percent of the university community that participates in intramural sports. Over 50% of respondents indicated that 11-40% of their campus community participates in intramural sports. It is difficult to draw comparisons in any given activity. The number of teams entered varied significantly from one institution to another. Recreation professionals can use this study to identify new activities to add to their intramural programs. The information can assist in identifying intramural activities that might be of interest to students on their campus. Activities that draw a large number of teams at other institutions might be successful on many campuses. Activities that do not attract many entries may not be of interest to students, and are therefore less likely to be successful on other campuses. / School of Physical Education

The major purpose of the study was to identify and describe leadership duties and service responsibilities provided by Coordinating Secretaries in state, provincial and regional organizations affiliated with the Association of School Business Officials of the United States and Canada. A second purpose of the study was to identify and describe significant historical antecedents leading to the development of the position of Coordinating Secretary.The population of the study included sixteen individuals identified as Coordinating Secretaries of associations affiliated with ASBO and five association secretaries who, though elected annually, have, by agreement, continued to serve year after year.A data gathering. instrument was designed to secure responses from study participants relative to personal and employment information. Also, data was collected relative to the fiscal and personnel support provided by the state association to the Coordinating Secretary to conduct ASBO services and activities. The questionnaire was also designed to secure information relative to value judgment data from study participants regarding the degree of importance of various organizational activities associated with the office of Coordinating Secretary. In addition, information relative to historical antecedents leading to the development of the office of Coordinating Secretary and information relative to the formation of administrative "umbrella" associations was secured from study participants through the data gathering instrument.Findings derived from the study included:(1) Forty-seven percent of the respondents reported having had ten or more years of state ASBO service as a coordinating or elected secretary.(2) Fifty-seven percent of the Coordinating Secretaries reported that at least one-fifth of the total work week was devoted to state ASBO activities.(3) Coordinating Secretaries reported holding other employment positions as faculty members of state universities, professional staff members of state departments of public instruction and as Executive Directors of other professional associations. Four respondents reported being retired from full-time employment positions.(4) Additional compensation paid to Coordinating Secretaries for state association service varied from $0 to $10,000.(5) The number off members in state organizations served by a Coordinating Secretary ranged from 160 persons to 850 persons. The average number of members was computed to be 502 persons.(6) The annual budgets for state associations served by a Coordinating Secretary varied from $2,000 to $54,000. The average annual state association budget was computed to be $25, 750.(7) Coordinating Secretaries reported the following association activities to be of major importance: publications-newsletters-mailings, correspondence, budget control and reporting, membership promotion, relations and communication with ASBO, fiscal record keeping and reporting, workshop planning and relations with the state department of public instruction.(8) The need for continuity, the need for coordination, the need for representation with other educational associations and the need for a centralized repository for association records were reported by study participants to be the four major forces causing state ASBO leadership to establish the office of Coordinating Secretary.Conclusions developed from the study included the following:(1) The establishment of the office of Coordinating Secretary can be very beneficial to a state ASBO organization, primarily because stability and continuity of leadership are strengthened.(2) Because state universities and state departments of public instruction have typically had a strong commitment, to service, have been willing to provide service assistance to professional education groups and have staff members with the needed background and interest, state ASBO officials contemplating the establishment of the position of Coordinating Secretary should explore both sources for assistance and support.(3) Because of the essential nature of the services provided by Coordinating Secretaries, more and more state associations will be considering the establishment of an office of Coordinating Secretary.

The purpose of this study was to investigate administrators' perceptions of their evaluations by school boards in larger Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) schools. Critical questions about the evaluation practices of ACSI schools were addressed. Through the use of survey methodology, 282 administrators in ACSI schools of over 400 students were asked to respond to 19 questions. The first question asked whether or not the administrator had been evaluated. The next two questions pertained to written policies and practices that define the administrator's evaluation. The remaining questions explored the nature and extent of evaluations that had been conducted. Answers to these questions provide information crucial to developing more effective practices for ACSI school board members to follow in the evaluation of chief administrators.This study produced seven major findings:1) Most larger ACSI schools (91.4%) had written job descriptions for the chief administrator.2) Most larger ACSI schools (60.2%) did not have a formal policy for evaluating the chief administrator.3) Most existing policies (67%) did not specify a procedure to be followed for evaluating a chief administrator.4) Most chief administrators in larger ACSI schools (61.3%) had been evaluated by their school boards.5) Most administrators (56.9%) reported that their evaluations were informal.6) Geographic location did not appear to have an effect on practices used for evaluating chief administrators.7) The chief administrator's length of time in the current position did not appear to have an effect on practices used for evaluating chief administrators.In general, results suggested a dissatisfaction with the present state of evaluation. ACSI schools were less likely than public schools to have formal policies in place to govern board evaluation of a chief administrator. Finally, ACSI school boards were less likely than public school boards to evaluate their chief administrators.Three recommendations evolved from this study:1) Further research needs to be conducted concerning administrator and board evaluation in larger ACSI schools.2) ACSI could play a key role in helping member schools improve in the area of board evaluation of the chief school administrator.3) Larger ACSI schools need to improve policy and practice in the area of administrator evaluation. / Department of Educational Leadership

Linseed oil (Linum usitatissimum L.) is valued for its food and non-food applications. Although Canada is the world’s largest linseed producer and exporter, linseed remains a minor crop in part because its yield has been stagnating over the last decade compared to other oilseeds. Narrow genetic base, absence of an efficient hybrid production system and limited genomic tools for linseed breeding are the main factors hindering yield and quality improvements. Here, we characterized the Canadian flax core collection of 407 accessions with 448 genome-wide simple sequence repeat markers and, using association mapping (AM), we demonstrated its potential for the improvement of seed quality and agronomic traits. Genetic structure analyses assigned all accessions to two major groups that were weakly differentiated (FST = 0.094). Genetic diversity was abundant in the total panel (5.32 alleles per locus) with weak familial relatedness (mean = 0.287) for most individual pairs. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) decayed relatively quickly with an average genome-wide LD of ~1 cM. AM for seven seed quality traits including oil content (OIL), palmitic acid (PAL), stearic acid (STE), oleic acid (OLE), linoleic acid (LIO), linolenic acid (LIN) and iodine value (IOD) identified nine stable candidate QTL. LIO and LIN QTL co-localized with previously identified QTL and some mapped in the vicinity of genes known to be involved in the fatty acid biosynthesis pathway. AM conducted for nine agronomic traits including yield, bolls per area (BPA), seeds per boll (SPB), thousand seed weight (TSW), start of flowering (FL5%), end of flowering (FL95%), plant height (PH), plant branching (PB) and lodging (LDG) identified twelve significant marker-trait associations for six of the traits. The associated markers explained between 0.5 to 18.5% of the phenotypic variation, with Lu526 and Lu2532 associated with TSW and Lu943 associated with flowering being the most promising for marker-assisted selection. Statistical simulation for five markers associated with TSW indicated that the favorable alleles have additive effects. None of the accessions carried the five favorable alleles but a few breeding lines had four, indicating that further improvement of TSW and yield could be achieved through marker assisted breeding

The study was designed to investigate the relationship between the perceptions of public elementary school principals concerning the procedures for the voluntary accreditation of elementary schools by regional accrediting associations and how acceptable the idea of voluntary accreditation was to the same principals. Section I of the survey instrument developed for the study, "Survey of Perceptions about Voluntary Elementary School Accreditation," was a request for demographic information about the respondents. Section II was designed to assess the amount of congruence between the perceptions of the principals concerning North Central Association requirements for elementary school accreditation and the actual requirements as set forth in "Policies and. Standards for the Approval of Elementary Schools." In Section III, the respondents indicated where they would place themselves on a five-point scale in regard to each of ten statements expressing positive attitudes toward the voluntary accreditation of elementary schools. The first and last statements in Section III expressed a positive attitude toward involvement in the accreditation process. The other eight of the ten statements identified benefits which might be derived from accreditation. The five-point scale ranged from "strongly disagree" at one end of the scale to "strongly agree" at the other. It was postulated that there would be a strong positive correlation between perceptions of accreditation that were congruent with the North Central Association Policies and Standards and positive attitudes toward accreditation.Other related questions were also investigated. Is the relationship between principals' perceptions of North Central Association Policies and Standards and their acceptance of voluntary accreditation related to such other factors as geographical location, school size by enrollment, age, level of teaching experience, years of experience as elementary principals, years of experience in their present assignments, educational level attained, experience in number of school corporations, or previous experience with the North Central Association?The population for the study was the 1,345 public elementary school principals in Indiana. From the population, a random sample of 273 subjects, stratified by eight geographical districts and five categories of school size, was drawn. Usable returns were received from 14.8 of the 273 subjects, 54-.2 percent of the sample.Relationships between the main variables of the study, congruency of principals' perceptions of accreditation with actual North Central Association requirements and acceptability of the concept to the subjects, were tested statistically with Pearson product moment coefficients of correlation. The relationships between the main variables and each level of the potentially monitoring variables noted above were also tested with Pearson correlation coefficients.The main hypothesis of the study, stated in null form to facilitate testing, was rejected at the .01 level of statistical significance (r = +.391 and +.380). A positive relationship not due to chance appeared to exist between the extent to which the principals' perceptions of accreditation procedures were congruent with the actual procedures defined by the North Central Association and the acceptability of voluntary accreditation to the principals. None of the other eighteen hypotheses, which were concerned with relationships between each of the main variables of congruency and acceptability with each of nine potentially monitoring variables, were rejected. A few statistically significant relationships were discovered between some levels of the variables which were investigated for monitorial relationships and the congruency and acceptability measures; but, since statistical significance did not occur consistently among the various levels of each of the potentially monitorial relationships, the null hypotheses relating to these relationships were not rejected.