The investigation might be summed up as follows. A new type of item for use in interest inventories was conceived to be one stated in relatively general terms. It was felt that the use of this type of item, coupled with assistance to the subject in making the comparisons by the use of the paired-comparison form might result in increased reliability and counselling validity in interest inventories. Parallel tests composed of matched items were administered, under as nearly as possible identical conditions, to the same group of approximately eighty high school students, and the results compared. The first of these tests was composed of less structured items matched to certain items of the second test, "The Kuder Preference Record" form BB, as exemplifying the use of the usual specific or structured item. There appeared to be no significant difference in the reliabilities of the two tests. Since there were approximately seven times as many items in the Kuder as there were in the experimental test it was concluded that the evidence warranted giving credit for superior reliability to the new type, or less structured, item. Very significant coefficients of correlation were obtained between the total scores for the corresponding areas of the two tests. This appeared to provide substantial evidence that the two types of item were measuring essentially the same thing, at least in major respects. A test of internal consistency was devised. The items of the experimental test and the matching items of the Kuder were compared on this basis. The less structured items appeared to be manifestly superior in regard to this property. An effort was made to indicate the extent to which each test distinguished clearly between the subjects most preferred area and least preferred area. Here also the experimental test and hence the less structured item appeared to demonstrate a distinct superiority. In the last section of the report various incidental observations and impressions were reported as such. In conclusion it seems safe to say that the new type of item shows considerable promise for use in interest inventories, and that verification and further investigation would be well warranted. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

No description available.

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Education. / This thesis seeks to broaden our understanding of how students combine and use information to make a judgement about a subject in which they may be interested. A review and assessment of previous studies is presented, including a discussion of Brunswik's single lens model. A simple idiographic analysis focusing on a person's behaviour across a large number of situations is presented. The emphasis is on the repeated sampling of a person across many situations. The situations in this study contain profiles or collections of information that involve educational descriptions. The profile is in the form of some ratings (or a set of cues) that describe a subject. The findings support earlier studies, which reported individual variation in perceptions of interest and differences in the ability to make accurate judgement of interest. The purpose of this study was to (1) investigate how students use available information to make a judgement in a matter of educational interest; (2) how they perceive the world when it is organised in a particular way; and (3) how students construct their own reality and combine information to judge their own reality. The research question was: Does increasing the correlation between the items of information impact upon the nature of judgements made by people in terms of: (a) the correlation between each item of information and judgement or (b) the multiple correlation between all items and judgement? In the past, interest was regarded as an undifferentiated motivational factor to learning and achievement, thus limiting the scope of the study of interest. This study, however, focuses on how students take into account the relationship between different factors when determining their level of interest in a subject they may be interested in studying. In this context, the ability of students to handle information effectively may positively affect the quality of their judgements in regard to their interest in the subject they are considering studying. The research comprised four separate studies. Participants were university students from three different universities, the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Lagos and Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife. Six different cues were used. Participants were given a booklet comprising 75 judgement profiles. These profiles contained six different cues or informational details. Participants were asked, How interested would you be in taking a subject that has been described in this way?" Participants were also asked to study the cues in the profile and judge their own interest on a scale of 0 (no interest) to 9 (high interest) based on the information described in the profile. Profiles (N=15) were repeated to determine the reliability or consistency of judgement for each participant. Both multiple correlations and cue utilities based on Brunswik's single lens model were computed. In each study, the four most reliable students based on test-retest reliability, were chosen for further analysis. The cues varied in intercorrelation from 0.0, 0.2, 0.5 and 0.8. Generally the results showed that participants were different in terms of their judgments and also varied in their perceptions of the situation. There was a plethora of idiosyncratic responses to the various profiles and cues. This individual variation was consistent even across the four content areas. Overall, the results of the four studies were not substantially different from each other. It shows that policy capturing involves not only attaining some useful measure of cue importance through the procedure of multiple regression but also gaining some knowledge of how cue values are functionally related to judgements. The primary interest is on nonlinear relationships which are additive in nature and addressed the issue of the cue-judgement relationships. The overall depiction showed that multiple correlation and multicollinearity varied from one case study to another. However, the overall results tended to confirm the importance of individual variation in perceptions relating to judgement of interest in a subject as earlier and widely reported in the interest literature. More importantly this study continues to highlight the large individual difference in human judgement and perception of the world in determining whether educational interest or some other factor that may influence the ways in which components of the educational world are intercorrelated. These findings tended to support earlier reports that individuals differ in their ways of making a judgement (Parkin 1993, Armelius & Armelius 1976). Indeed, the result of the study confirmed previous reports on the significant differences that exist in individual perceptions of interest. Taken together, the results of this study support the view that judgement analysis may function as a very important aid to individual student learning and performance on the judgment task. Significantly, the outcome of these four studies, show how students have combined and used information to make a judgement in a subject including how they have constructed their own world of reality.

No description available.

While the concept of multipotentiality is often referred to in the giftedness literature, implicit and explicit definitions of the concept change from author to author. Additionally, few empirical studies have been done to provide support for the many anecdotal claims made about multipotentiality. The present nine-year follow-up study (N = 180) of gifted youth (mean age = 20.2 years) provides evidence that many gifted individuals may indeed be multipotentialed. The definition of multipotentiality ("the ability and desire to pursue different activities and goals") used to operationalize the concept was validated by six experts in the field. Degree of multipotentiality was found to be significantly related to SES, verbal IQ, variety of interests and abilities, participation in leisure activities, answer-seeking, attitude towards school, and several scores derived from the 1993/94 administration of the Strong Interest Inventory. Multipotentiality was not, however, found to be related to Holland's (1985) concepts of differentiation, consistency, or vocational identity. It thus appears that experience with activities and perhaps motivation to learn contribute to the phenomenon of multipotentiality. Little evidence was found to support the contention reported in the giftedness literature that multipotentiality leads to career indecision. Additionally, few career-related experiences were found to differentiate between more or less "successful" multipotentialed subjects, although those who scored highest on the Vocational Identity Scale were more active in their career deciding (prioritizing and focusing interests) and less likely to view career planning as a frustrating and on-going process. Direction of causality for all of the mentioned results is unknown, and many avenues for future research including nongifted subjects have been illuminated.

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Education. / This thesis seeks to broaden our understanding of how students combine and use information to make a judgement about a subject in which they may be interested. A review and assessment of previous studies is presented, including a discussion of Brunswik's single lens model. A simple idiographic analysis focusing on a person's behaviour across a large number of situations is presented. The emphasis is on the repeated sampling of a person across many situations. The situations in this study contain profiles or collections of information that involve educational descriptions. The profile is in the form of some ratings (or a set of cues) that describe a subject. The findings support earlier studies, which reported individual variation in perceptions of interest and differences in the ability to make accurate judgement of interest. The purpose of this study was to (1) investigate how students use available information to make a judgement in a matter of educational interest; (2) how they perceive the world when it is organised in a particular way; and (3) how students construct their own reality and combine information to judge their own reality. The research question was: Does increasing the correlation between the items of information impact upon the nature of judgements made by people in terms of: (a) the correlation between each item of information and judgement or (b) the multiple correlation between all items and judgement? In the past, interest was regarded as an undifferentiated motivational factor to learning and achievement, thus limiting the scope of the study of interest. This study, however, focuses on how students take into account the relationship between different factors when determining their level of interest in a subject they may be interested in studying. In this context, the ability of students to handle information effectively may positively affect the quality of their judgements in regard to their interest in the subject they are considering studying. The research comprised four separate studies. Participants were university students from three different universities, the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Lagos and Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife. Six different cues were used. Participants were given a booklet comprising 75 judgement profiles. These profiles contained six different cues or informational details. Participants were asked, How interested would you be in taking a subject that has been described in this way?" Participants were also asked to study the cues in the profile and judge their own interest on a scale of 0 (no interest) to 9 (high interest) based on the information described in the profile. Profiles (N=15) were repeated to determine the reliability or consistency of judgement for each participant. Both multiple correlations and cue utilities based on Brunswik's single lens model were computed. In each study, the four most reliable students based on test-retest reliability, were chosen for further analysis. The cues varied in intercorrelation from 0.0, 0.2, 0.5 and 0.8. Generally the results showed that participants were different in terms of their judgments and also varied in their perceptions of the situation. There was a plethora of idiosyncratic responses to the various profiles and cues. This individual variation was consistent even across the four content areas. Overall, the results of the four studies were not substantially different from each other. It shows that policy capturing involves not only attaining some useful measure of cue importance through the procedure of multiple regression but also gaining some knowledge of how cue values are functionally related to judgements. The primary interest is on nonlinear relationships which are additive in nature and addressed the issue of the cue-judgement relationships. The overall depiction showed that multiple correlation and multicollinearity varied from one case study to another. However, the overall results tended to confirm the importance of individual variation in perceptions relating to judgement of interest in a subject as earlier and widely reported in the interest literature. More importantly this study continues to highlight the large individual difference in human judgement and perception of the world in determining whether educational interest or some other factor that may influence the ways in which components of the educational world are intercorrelated. These findings tended to support earlier reports that individuals differ in their ways of making a judgement (Parkin 1993, Armelius & Armelius 1976). Indeed, the result of the study confirmed previous reports on the significant differences that exist in individual perceptions of interest. Taken together, the results of this study support the view that judgement analysis may function as a very important aid to individual student learning and performance on the judgment task. Significantly, the outcome of these four studies, show how students have combined and used information to make a judgement in a subject including how they have constructed their own world of reality.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri, 1929. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 52. Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri, 1929. / Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography: p. 52.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1936. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 55-56.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2006. / Title from PDF title page screen. Advisor: Paul J. Silvia ; submitted to the Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references (p. 30-33).