Compared to their peers, low-income students are 90% less likely to graduate within 6 years and are more likely to drop out. At the local site, this problem is also evident in that the retention rate for the Fall 2014-15 cohort was 78.3%, but just 60.2% for those defined as low-income students. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of low-income 1st year college students' perceived confidence in their use of technology and how it influenced their decision to stay in college. Understanding the role technology plays in the decision to stay in college will shed light on ways to offer support to increase retention of these students. The conceptual framework that guided the study was Bruno's confidence based learning methodology. This framework suggests there is a connection between knowledge and confidence. A qualitative descriptive design was used collecting data through a series of 10 open-ended interviews with low-income 1st year college students. The central research question explored how low-income 1st year college students describe their confidence in the use of technology as a factor in their retention. Data analysis consisted of manual coding to identify themes from the interview data. The findings suggested low-income 1st year students do not have confidence in their ability to use technology and remain in college. A policy recommendation to reinstate the information literacy policy for low-income 1st year students could affect social change as additional resources help to raise low-income 1st year college students' confidence using technology and supports them to persist in college.

Erroneous suggestions can add to or contradict people’s memories for previously witnessed event details. Researchers have also investigated a different kind of erroneous suggestion in which details from a target event that had actually been witnessed are erroneously suggested to not have transpired in the event. This phenomenon is referred to as the suggested invisibility effect. Previous research examining suggested invisibility has not thoroughly examined the mechanisms underlying the effect. That is, does not reporting previously witnessed event details reflect demand characteristics or genuine memory impairments? The current dissertation research was motivated by such questions. In a newly developed paradigm, 5 experiments examined suggested invisibility and its accompanying subjective memory. Subjects watched a crime video and 2 days later read three hand-written simulated witness testimonies. Each testimony (a) stated that two event details were not visible in the video (though they in fact were clearly displayed) and (b) mentioned two other details in broad generic terms. Subjects then completed a final memory test to assess their memory for the original crime video. Experiment 1 produced the basic effect, showing that subjects were significantly less likely to report witnessed details when they had been erroneously suggested to not have been visible compared to control details. Experiment 2A was conducted to further examine the basis of suggested invisibility, however, many subjects expressed disbelief in the testimonies and this resulted in null effects. Subsequent experiments enhanced the plausibility of the testimonies. Experiment 2B amended the rationale to subjects for reading the lengthy testimonies and replicated the suggested invisibility effect; Experiment 3 embedded suggestions of invisibility in response to cued-recall questions rather than in lengthy narratives; and, Experiment 4 presented subjects with a transcript of an interview between a witness and an experimenter. In both Experiments 3 and 4, robust effects of suggested invisibility were only attained with naïve subjects who claimed to not have been suspicious of the experimental manipulation. When suggested invisibility was observed subjects’ confidence levels were similar to that of control details, suggesting that sometimes subjects were genuinely confident in not having witnessed previously seen details. Collectively, these findings support the idea that memories can be swayed in the direction of erroneous suggestions that render false reports of not having seen previously witnessed details. / Graduate

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1998 / Town & Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / In computer simulations of communication systems, linear congruential generators and shift registers are typically used to model noise and data sources. These generators are often assumed to be close to ideal (i.e. delta correlated), and an insignificant source of error in the simulation results. The samples generated by these algorithms have non-ideal autocorrelation functions, which may cause a non-uniform distribution in the data or noise signals. This error may cause the simulation bit-error-rate (BER) to be artificially high or low. In this paper, the problem is described through the use of confidence intervals. Tests are performed on several pseudo-random generators to access which ones are acceptable for computer simulation.

High quality decision-making can be produced through a sophisticated analytical process in addition to an intuitive process. A high quality intuitive process is dependent on an extensive repertoire of previous patterns generated by decision outcomes. Intuition is frequently poorly understood and often dismissed as unreliable and irrelevant. Yet there is a noteworthy sector within the literature that suggests otherwise (Glöckner, 2009; Smith, 2007). Termed dual-process (Evans, 2010), the combined strength of intuition and analysis forms the basis of how expert ski guides make decisions in avalanche terrain. Typically, the quality of the decision process is described as being contingent on the evolved expertise of the decision maker. Deliberate practice (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, 1993) aimed at the development of context specific expertise provides the foundation. Ski guides are charged with the role of conducting guests through a constantly changing, hazardous environment with the goal of maximizing the guests’ rewards, within a risk envelope that does not eliminate the potential for a fatality. The challenge for ski guides is to formulate an operational context within a feedback environment that is plagued with inconsistencies and burdened with massive negative consequences. The ski guide decision process is influenced by the depth and breadth of expertise, with rapid pattern recognition generating a sense of confidence. However misleading environmental feedback can complicate the perception of decision quality. When nothing bad happens, poor decisions can masquerade as good ones. This may support the development of a faulty pattern recognition process. Research that helps to describe the innovative practices and extant knowledge of mountain guiding will help to harmonise theory and practice. There is considerable knowledge entrenched within the daily activities of the Canadian mechanized ski industry, as the average annual fatality rate is just under one and a half fatalities per 100,000 skier days. However it is arguable that even this number of fatalities is too many and all efforts should be made to reduce the number of fatalities. Data were contributed over two seasons (2008/09 and 2009/10) by a self-selected group of 35 heli-ski and snowcat-ski guides working in British Columbia. Mixed methods were used to analyse three sources of data. An initial quantitative analysis of the participants’ background experience and 96 event reports (62 good day reports and 34 near-miss reports) was used to provoke qualitative questions of interview data. The findings of this study address the issue of how and when intuition plays a role in ski guide decision-making. Decision-making in avalanche terrain is a complex process and professional guides have well developed strategies to help them manage the challenges. Years of training in analytical decision processes are supported by a wealth of available snowpack and weather information. Guiding teams provide a valuable peer support network to further the sophistication of the decision process. Yet despite the wealth of information available to support an analytical decision, most decisions are influenced by an intuitive factor.

The aim of this study was to establish whether a relation between confidence in judgments and decisions is affected when individuals are made aware of their birth order position. Students from The University of Arizona were recruited and asked to give upper- and lower-bound ranges for a guess before and after a subtle birth order reminder. Participants also completed The General Decision Making Style questionnaire to determine whether any style correlated with birth order position. It was discovered that no statistically significant relationship was found between reminder of birth order position and confidence in decisions made. The General Decision Making Style Questionnaire indicated a significant relationship between age and the intuitive style.

This work will explore the interconnections between political power and the various forms of corruption endemic in Denver in the late 19th century placing municipal corruption and election fraud into the larger political, economic, social and cultural framework. Municipal political corruption in Denver operated through a series of relationships tying together, the city police, political factions, utility and industrial leaders, con men, gamblers, protection rackets and the election of U.S. Senators. This work will explore not only the operational ties, but also how these ties served all parties, and the discourse used to rationalize the behavior and distribute blame. The dates for this study are bracketed by two significant events: a mayoral election and trial in 1889-1890, and the City Hall War in the spring of 1894. Each of these events represents a point when a rupture in the tight net of political control sparked a battle for hegemony with a concomitant turn to corruption and election fraud on the part of competing political factions. The level of municipal corruption in Denver was not necessarily unusual; however, the extent of the documentation enables a detailed analysis. Denver newspapers blamed the corruption on an unspecified "gang" and a shadowy "machine." The editors railed against the scourge of con men, and simultaneously used the ubiquitous fraud as a metaphor for trickery and corruption of all kinds. This detailed analysis reveals a more complex series of events through which a cabal of business and industry leaders seized control of both the city and the state government, giving them the political power to wage what has been called a war against labor.

Abstract The aim of this essay is to explore how teachers and leisure educators can strengthen and increase students’ self-confidence in different ways in their line of work. I chose this inquest for personal reasons and also because it will be of great aid for me since this is what I intend my future profession to be. For this inquest I have chosen to do five qualitative interviews and two unstructured observations. The inquest was also based on relevant literature connected to its purpose. The results show that self-confidence is linked to something the individuals accomplish and that self-esteem is the way they see themselves, an inner feeling. Self-confidence is something that grows by achieved performances and developing your own knowledge while the self-esteem is strengthened by confirmation through other individuals and faith in one’s self. As the individual evolves so does the self-image he or she may have of themselves. Self-esteem and self-confidence will vary depending on the response the individual gets from others. Family and friends are the key factors that determine whether self-esteem and self-confidences goes up or down. The results also show that the teacher, schoolmates and the school environment have a great impact on self-confidence and self-esteem. The subjects I interviewed press on the importance of a safe environment consisting of good friends and peers who accept faults and imperfections in one and other. The students ought to be able to feel encouraged, supported and guided in order to evolve their self-confidence and self-esteem. The answers during the interviews show that public speaking was used to empower the students’ self-confidence and self-esteem and create a secure place for the students to grow.   Key words: ability, self-confidence, self-esteem, evolvement / Sammanfattning Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur lärare och fritidspedagoger kan arbeta för att stärka eller förstärka elevers självförtroende och självkänsla. Valet av undersökningen ligger i det personliga intresset samt att få en inblick i hur min framtida yrkesroll kan utvecklas. Metoden jag använt mig av för detta är fem stycken kvalitativa intervjuer samt två ostrukturerade observationer. Undersökningen har även belysts utifrån relevant litteratur kopplat till mitt syfte. Det resultat som framkommit visar att självförtroende är kopplat till något individen gör, medan självkänsla är individens syn på sig själv, en inre känsla. Självförtroendet växer genom överkomna prestationer och kunskapsutveckling, självkänslan stärks istället genom andras bekräftande och genom den egna tilltron på sig själv. Under tiden individen utvecklas förändras även självbilden, där både självförtroende och självkänsla skiftar upp och ner beroende på gensvar utifrån. Här är den inre kretsens, vänner och familj, uppfattning om individen den avgörande faktorn för i vilket håll självförtroende och självkänsla tar vägen. Resultatet visar även att läraren, klassen och skolmiljön är en viktig del i stärkandet av självförtroende och självkänsla. De intervjuade förespråkar en trygg klass eller grupp där eleverna ska känna sig säkra och veta att det är tillåtet att göra fel och att våga göra fel. Eleverna ska även få uppleva stöd, uppmuntring, peppning och handledning för att utveckla sitt självförtroende och sin självkänsla. De intervjuade använde sig av muntligt framträdande för att uppnå känslan av trygghet och på så vis stärka elevernas självförtroende och självkänsla. Nyckelord: förmåga, självförtroende, självkänsla, utveckling

Denna studie tar del i den stora hälsotrenden som pågår i dagens samhälle. Ingen kan ha undgått hur media påverkar och har ett stort inflytande när det kommer till kroppsfixering och självförtroende hos människor. Överallt får man intrycket av att man ska vara smal eller vältränad för att passa in och det är viktigt att vara som alla andra. Och är du inte det så uppfyller du inte omgivningens krav. Självklart borde detta spegla av sig på självförtroendet om man inte känner att man uppfyller kraven, eller är det verkligen så? Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om manliga och kvinnliga universitetsstudenter har olika syn på sitt eget utseende och självförtroende, och även undersöka om det finns några könsskillnader i detta. Vi har valt att göra undersökningen med hjälp av enkäter via det webbaserade programmet Survey & Report. Sedan analysera resultatet i Survey & Report och statistikprogrammet SPSS. Vi valde att gå runt på Karlstads universitet med enkäten och låta slumpmässigt utvalda respondenter få svara på enkäten och det var 50 studenter som deltog i undersökningen. Resultatet visade att de kvinnliga studenterna hade generellt sämre självförtroende än vad de manliga studenterna hade. Både de kvinnliga och manliga studenterna var överlag ganska positiva till sitt eget utseende. De manliga studenterna visade sig vara mer säkra i olika sorters situationer än vad de kvinnliga studenterna var. Slutsatserna är att det var ett brett område att undersöka, kanske för brett för en b-uppsatts och för den lilla andelen respondenter vi hade. Det går inte heller dra någon generalisering av forskningen då det var för få respondenter. Men av det som vi valt att undersöka går det att dra en slutsats att de manliga respondenterna visade på ett bättre självförtroende och att de var säkrare i olika situationer. De kvinnliga respondenterna var mer jämnnöjda med sitt utseende än vad männen var, och de kvinnliga respondenterna svarade att de ville ändra mindre på sig själva utseendemässigt än vad männen svarade att de ville. / The paper takes part in the big health trend going on in today's society. No one can have failed to notice how the media influences and has a major influence when it comes to body fixation and self-confidence. Everywhere one gets the impression that one should be slim or fit to fit in and it is important to be like everyone else. And if you're not, you don’t meet the demands of your surroundings. Obviously, this should reflect on your self-confidence if you do not feel you meet the requirements, or is that the case? The purpose of this paper is to examine whether male and female university students have different views of their own appearance and self-confidence, and also investigate whether there are gender differences. We have chosen to do the survey using questionnaires via the web-based program Survey & Report. After analyzing the results of the Survey & Report and SPSS, we chose to walk around at Karlstad University with the survey and let the randomly selected respondents answer the questionnaire and there were 50 students who participated in the survey. The results showed that female students generally had lower self-confidence than the male students had. Both the female and male students were overall quite positive about their own appearance. Male students were found to be more secure in different kinds of situations than the female students were. The conclusions are that there was a wide area to explore, perhaps too wide for this kind of paper and for the small percentage of respondents we had. It is not possible to draw any generalization of the research when there were too few respondents. But from what we have chosen to investigate it is possible to draw a conclusion that male respondents showed a better self-confidence and were more reliable in different situations. The female respondents were more evenly satisfied with their appearance than men were, and female respondents answered that they wanted to change less of themselves in appearance than men responded that they would.

Education is, at least, the endeavor to get people to do things they could not previously do, to understand things they did not previously understand, and perhaps, to become the people they did not expect to become. - Sockett, 1998, p. 195 In today’s fast-paced technology driven knowledge-based society, students in the Gulf and abroad, are expected to remain engaged while playing a more invested role in becoming independent, mature learners, no matter what their personal or educational challenges are. It is quite common for students to abandon their EFL studies due to a lack of motivation and/or confidence. There has been extensive research undertaken to better understand how motivation and confidence affect EFL/ESL learners, yet little attention has been paid to a more recent area of educational research in emotional intelligence (EI) and how self-coaching may also contribute to a tertiary EFL/ESL learners’ ability to succeed. It is not unreasonable to hypothesize that everyday occurrences encountered in their personal and academic life may very well, at times, have a detrimental effect on students’ confidence and motivation, and therefore impede their ability to reach set goals. This study explores the possible correlations between the three main constructs, confidence, motivation and EI while investigating female Emirati tertiary EFL students at Zayed University in the U.A.E. and their interest towards self-coaching to reach their academic and personal goals. This exploratory longitudinal interpretive study used a mixed-method approach to gather data generated from a survey (CMEII) constructed and piloted for this study and completed by 199 female Emirati tertiary EFL participants measuring motivation, confidence and EI. In addition, student journals, interviews and progress reports retrieved from CMEI workshops also informed the research questions pertaining to these aforementioned constructs. Results suggest that there is a correlation between confidence, motivation and EI. These results would indicate that when the level of motivation increases, so does the level of confidence in speaking English. Motivation to self-direct in English is positively correlated with problem solving, higher life-satisfaction and confidence levels. Surprisingly the higher the academic anxiety, the more students want to self-direct. Furthermore it was found that students participating in this study found self-coaching methods extremely helpful in supporting them in reaching both their personal and academic goals. The implications of this exploratory study into confidence, motivation and emotional intelligence has laid the foundation for future research in this area. By creating and piloting the first Confidence, Motivation and Emotional Intelligence survey instrument (CMEII) designed for the ESL/EFL learning environment, a primary obstacle has been traversed. The CMEII research instrument and results of this study will no doubt help bring light and understanding to how self-coaching and self-direction can support female EFL students in reaching their personal and academic goals in the U.A.E and abroad.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis describes a Bayesian method to determine the number of samples needed to estimate a proportion or probability with 95% confidence when prior bounds are placed on that proportion. It uses the Uniform [a,b] distribution as the prior, and develops a computer program and tables to find the sample size. Tables and examples are also given to compare these results with other approaches for finding sample size. The improvement that can be obtained with this method is fewer samples, and consequently less cost in Weapons Testing is required to meet a desired confidence size for a proportion or probability. / http://archive.org/details/bayesianmethodto00flor / Lieutenant Commander, Hellenic Navy