According to the theory of desirable difficulty, conflict during practice can elicit a greater degree of processing and result in a later memory benefit (Bjork & Bjork, 1994). The present paper extends the work by Thomson et al. (in prep) that there may be a stage-specific mechanism involved. They found a desirable difficulty effect when directing a conflict towards the categorization stage through classifying names by gender. However, no such effect was seen when classifying words by size. They provided evidence that gender classification is more semantically central than categorizing items by size, which tends to be relative and depend on context. We took the same stimuli used in the Thomson et al. (in prep) but had participants make animacy judgments (animal or “thing”) on words. A subsequent memory test revealed a desirable difficulty effect for incongruent words compared to congruent. Interestingly, animal words were better remembered overall compared to “thing” words. A second experiment directed a conflict towards the categorization and response processing stages through classifying names as male and female with semantic (male/female) and response selection (left/right) primes. A subsequent memory test revealed a desirable difficulty pattern of results (although non-significant) where incongruent compared to congruent words were better remembered for the sematic primes and congruent compared to incongruent words were better remembered for response primes. These results suggest to-be-remembered material needs to be the focus of attention and increasing difficulty to any stage of processing does not give you a guaranteed desirable effect. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Children with reading difficulty experience stress in school and may develop negative socio-emotional adjustment. It is unclear what influences some students to experience externalizing patterns and others internalizing patterns. This study investigated the influence of the age of identification of reading difficulties on coping strategies and socio-emotional adjustment. 36 children (ages 9-12) from Winnipeg Schools and Child-Care centres completed measures of coping strategy and socio-emotional adjustment and their parents/guardians reported age of initial reading difficulty. Conditional processing analyses, using percentile bootstrapping, were used to examine mediating effects of coping strategies in the relationship between age-of-identification and socio-emotional adjustment. Results showed children who were identified with reading difficulties in Grade 2 or later were more likely to report using disengagement coping strategies but children identified with reading difficulties before Grade 2 were more likely to report higher internalizing patterns. Evidence for expected mediation by coping strategy was not found. These findings suggest that prolonged experience of reading difficulties is associated with greater risk of developing internalizing problems. Clarifying how age of identification of reading difficulty influences socio-emotional adjustment will help resolve theoretical debates and will help educators/clinicians to better serve students learning to read, and promote struggling readers’ healthy socio-emotional adjustment. / October 2016

By an orthodox application of the perturbation theory to the general case of a quantized field, it is shown that the divergence difficulty hitherto encountered arises from a faulty application of the expansion method. The difficulty disappears if the degeneracy of the unperturbed system is properly treated by the method of secular perturbation. Physically, it is shown that this amounts to a rigorous treatment of the radiation reaction.

Results from traditional assessment measures used with Spanish-English bilingual children may not be representative of this population’s morphosyntactic abilities due to their dynamic proficiencies. Short-term learning tasks such as structural priming may provide more comprehensive information on bilingual children’s morphosyntactic abilities. The purpose of this thesis was to analyze items from the experimental version of the Bilingual English Spanish Assessment-Middle Extension (BESA-ME) in order to select appropriate item types to be used on a structural priming task. The Experimental BESA-ME was administered to 137 children with typical development and 37 children with language impairment between the ages of 7;0 to 9;11. Results revealed that appropriate items for a structural priming task were third-person singular, past tense, and possessives in English, and conditionals, subjunctives, and direct object clitics in Spanish. Depending on the purpose of the structural priming tasks, additional items also showed potential for use. / text

This study seeks to determine whether grammatical and presentational features of authentic non-fiction French texts are in any way related to the level of difficulty of texts as perceived by students who have taken Advanced Subsidiary Level (AS). The notions of text and genre are examined, as are the processes of reading in the first language (L1) and in the foreign language (L2). The question of ‘readability, and that of ‘authenticity’ in L2 are also examined. In order to ascertain students’ reactions to different text-types, 150 texts from French sources were gathered and classified. 100-word samples of each text were analysed for various linguistic features. Statistical tests on these were carried out, as well as statistical tests on the visual elements and layout of the whole texts. Further linguistic analysis was carried out within the text-type groups in order to ascertain their grammatical features. 31 students from local tertiary institutions were interviewed, and their perceptions on a sample of the texts were sought. This included the grading of texts for difficulty on a 1-5 Likert scale. The results of the interviews were triangulated with the statistical and linguistic analyses. A relationship was found between text-type and level of perceived difficulty. In the light of these results, the distinction between genre and text-type was examined, and a way was found of linking these into a textual taxonomy, which has close relations with the grammatical and presentational features which characterise the various text-types. In the light of these results, the question of the ‘topic approach’ to the teaching of French is examined, and a way found by which text-types that are perceived to be simpler are studied before those which are perceived to be more difficult. This approach advocates a more logical continuum of grammatical presentation than has hitherto been witnessed in course books for French at this level, while retaining the semantic integrity inherent in the ‘topic approach’.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of task difficulty and magnitude of reinforcement upon the performance of mentally retarded institutionalized individuals in a level of aspiration situation.

Deux techniques permettent d'effectuer la cession des entreprises en difficulté : d'une part, la cession d'entreprise à proprement parler, c'est-à-dire la cession externe plus souvent appelée "plan de cession" en raison des dispositions du Code de commerce. Et d'autre part, la reprise interne de l'entreprise qui conduit l'investisseur à présenter un plan de continuation que celui-ci prenne la forme d'un plan de sauvegarde ou de redressement. Cette étude tente de déterminer les points de convergences et de divergences entre ces deux formes de cession de l'entreprise en difficulté. En apparence, certaines dispositions font de la cession externe la forme de cession la plus attractive, mais en pratique la cession externe entretien une relation conflictuelle avec les autres branches du droit, ce qui peut être une source de risques pour le candidat à la reprise. Afin d'éviter les inconvénients de la cession externe, ce dernier peut se diriger vers la reprise interne. L'étude des conditions et des effets des différentes formes de cession des entreprises en difficulté met en évidence l'existence d'une étroite convergence des deux modes de reprise. De la sorte, la reprise interne s'avère être un mode de cession concurrent de la cession externe. Ainsi il est parfois plus opportun pour le candidat à la reprise d'effectuer une reprise interne qu'une cession externe. / Two technics permits to do the transfer of companies in difficulty : in one side, the transfer of companies in the strict sense of the word, it is the external transfer more frequently called "transfer plan" owing to dispositions in the Commercial code. In other side, the internal takeover leads investors to introduce a business continuation plan which is a protection plan or a recovery plan. This study tries to determine points of convergence or divergence between this two forms of transfer of companies in difficulty. In appearance, some dispositions do the external transfer the more attractive of the transfer form, but in practice the external transfer maintain a controversial connection with other branches of law, that will be a sources of risk for the candidate for taking over. In order to avoid the disadvantage of the external transfer, the latter can make for an internal takeover. The study of conditions and effects of different forms of transfer of companies in difficulty put in evidence the existence of a narrow convergence of the two way of takeover. In this way, the internal takeover take out to be a way of competing transfer of the external transfer. Thus it is sometimes more appropriate for the candidate of the takeover to do an internal takeover then an external transfer.

The difficulty of decision - making by women who are widows compared to when they were wives was studied. The areas of decision-making that were rated as to difficult concerned family finance, child care, homemaking (family foods, clothing, home furnishings, and housing), social activities, and yard and car care. The sample consisted of 33 widows living in Logan, Utah during Spring Quarter, 1971. The subjects had at least one child living at home and had been widowed at least one year. The instruments used were: ( l) a background questionnaire, and (2) a decision-making questionnaire. The statistical test used for analysis was the sign (binomial) test. Decisions concerning family finance, child care, cleaning and upkeep of the home, and yard care were more difficult for the women as widows than such decisions had been for them as wives. Decisions concerning food, clothing, and home furnishings were not more difficult for the women as widows. Decisions concerning washing the car were not more difficult, while decisions about maintenance, servicing, and repairs for the car were more difficult for the women as widows. Decisions concerning social activities that are often done as individuals, not couples, were not more difficult for the women as widows. Decisions concerning those social activities that couples often participate in were more difficult for the women as widows than such decisions had been for them as wives.

The purpose of this study was to examine and provide a pedagogical content analysis of the published songs of Karl Goldmark (1830-1915), an Austrian composer from the Romantic Era. The songs' characteristics were evaluated to determine the level of singer for which they would be appropriate. The creation of an annotation format was devised for the analysis of each song including the areas of subject matter, difficulty level, range, tessitura, tempo indication, duration, and unique characteristics of the vocal line and the piano line. The detailed entries provide an easy and accurate evaluation of the individual songs in order for the voice teacher to assess their value for each student, with particular attention to their suitability for the beginning, intermediate and advanced singer. These levels generally correspond to freshman or sophomore, junior or senior, and graduate student, respectively. The results indicate a division of difficulty level among all of the songs, with moderate difficulty being the most common. It has also been concluded that there are valuable songs for all levels of student. Areas for further study are included.

The purpose has been to investigate leisure-time centers actual work on children with attention deficit disorder. In addition, the study strives to make leisure-time centers way of working, in relation to their assignments, visible. The study has also compared how the leisure-time centers work and what the research says. The survey was conducted with the help of three exploratory interviews with pedagogues and three-piece observations at the leisure-time centers. It was carried out at three different schools in two counties in Sweden.The results of the survey show that the schools are trying to create clear procedures, though the centers succeed with this in varied degrees. Likewise, pedagogues at the centers have the theoretical knowledge of how they can help children with difficulties, but the working methods that is designed to work for all children is diverse. Practical things to consider in work concerning children with attention difficulties is to always have well-planned activities and it is important to have a good approach to these children. / Syftet har varit att undersöka fritidshemmets faktiska arbete kring barn med koncentrationssvårigheter. Dessutom har syftet varit att synliggöra fritidshemmets arbete i relation till deras uppdrag, samt studera hur fritidshemmet arbetar kring dessa barn i jämförelse med vad forskningen rekommenderar. Undersökningen har genomförts med hjälp av tre stycken explorativa intervjuer med fritidspedagoger, och tre stycken observationer på fritidshem på tre olika skolor fördelat på två län.Resultatet av undersökningen visar att skolorna försöker skapa tydliga rutiner, men att de lyckas i varierad grad. Likaså har pedagogerna teoretiska kunskaper i hur de kan underlätta för elever med koncentrationssvårigheter, men att fritidshemmens arbetsmetoder som är utarbetade för att fungera för alla barn på fritidshemmet är varierande. Praktiska saker att tänka på i arbetet kring barn med koncentrationssvårigheter är att alltid ha en välplanerad verksamhet, samt att det är viktigt med ett bra förhållningssätt till dessa barn.