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"Elizabeth Carter's Legacy: Friendship and Ethics" examines the written evidence about the relationships between Elizabeth Carter and her father, Dr. Nocolas Carte; Catherine Talbot; Sir William Pulteney (Lord Bath); and Samuel Johnson to explain how intellectual and personal relationships may become the principal ethical sdource of human happiness. Based on their own set of moral values, such as intellectual and individual liberty and equality, the relationships between Carter and her friends challenged eighteenth-century traditional norms of human relationships. The primary source of this study, Carter's poetry and prose, including her letters, present the poet's experience of intellectual and individual friendship, reflecting Aristotle's ethics, specifically his moral teaching that views friendship as a human good contributing to human happiness--to the chief human good. Carter's poems devoted to her friends, such as Dr. Carter, Talbot, Montagu, Lord Bath, as well as her "A Dialogue" between Body and Mind, demonstrate her ethical legacy, her specific moral principles that elevated human relationships and human life. Carter's discussion of human relationships introduces the moral necessity of ethics in human life.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary has long been regarded as an epoch-making book, as great a scholarly achievement as the dictionaries of the Italian, French and Spanish academies, yet more enlightened in its pretensions and its politics. For Johnson does not claim to have fixed the language; his authority is not backed by the state; his decisions as to currency, propriety, meaning, and spelling are based on a jumble of general custom, literary precedent, and reason. / I argue that the intellectual origins of Johnsonian standard English lie in Sir Edward Coke's early seventeenth-century restatement of common law doctrine and terms. Salient issues are common law's need to give an account of its antiquated, medieval vocabulary and its place in the constitutional conflict of the seventeenth century. I give an account of other possible influences on Johnson--Latin and English grammars, pedagogy, philosophical speculation on the nature of language, English prose styles, and proposals for an English academy or similar reform--but cannot find in any of them a sufficiently close conceptual parallel.

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Measurement of the abilities of gifted children is challenging. Identifying patterns of performance for gifted children has proven elusive. The WJIII COG, a theory-driven measure, purports to provide information about a child's pattern of abilities, including areas previously not measured by other cognitive instruments. Only one study has addressed the relationship between the WJIII COG and gifted children. (Rizza, et al., 2001) The purpose of this study was to examine the WJIII COG's appropriateness for use with gifted children. Interpretive guidance when using the WJIII COG with gifted children was sought. The following question was addressed: Do children of high intellectual ability display distinct patterns of performance on the WJIII COG Stratum II variables. If so, do these patterns qualitatively differ from the performance of children of non-high intellectual ability?The participants for this study were taken from the standardization sample of WJIII COG participants (N= 3,145). The participants were divided into two groups: high intellectual ability, Group 1 (N = 389), and "other," (Group 2) (N = 2756). Group 1 participants had a GIA Standard score of 120 or above. The participants were further divided into three subgroups, determined by age: preschool, school-aged, and collegeaged. Approximately half of the sample was male. White participants were the majority of the sample (77.4 - 87.9%). Most participants were non-Hispanic (91.3 - 94.9%). Means, standard deviations, ranges, minimum values, and maximum values, were obtained. WJIII COG Stratum II variables were paired and compared. The comparisons made were ranges and point differences. Cumulative percentages of point differences were calculated at the 5, 7, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 point levels.Two primary findings emerged. The first finding was that Group 1 participants scored higher overall than Group 2 participants when averages were compared. The second finding was that no gifted profile emerged for Group 1. Although no gifted pattern emerged, there was a great deal of variability within individual student profiles for both Groups. It was suggested that further research be directed at whether subtypes of students with high abilities could be identified that would have clinical implications congruent with multidimensional theories of giftedness. / Department of Educational Psychology

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the validity of the Woodcock Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability-Revised (WJTCA-R) in discriminating between individuals with neurological or psychiatric impairments and those without known impairment. The primary question was whether WJTCA-R Standard Battery test scores significantly differentiated between individuals with brain-damage (n = 36), depression (n = 21), and without known impairments (n = 32). Archival data obtained for the development of a new neuropsychological assessment measure utilizing the WJTCA-R was analyzed. The results of a discriminant functions analysis indicated that significant differences between the groups existed on the WJTCA-R. Based on WJTCA-R Standard Battery performance alone, participants had a 53% chance of being correctly classified into their diagnostic group. Brain-damaged individuals had the best chance of being correctly classified while correct classification of depressed individuals was only slightly greater than that obtained from random assignment. In addition to moderately supporting the use of a multi-factored, theory-driven assessment instrument, the results of this study have clinical relevance for the development of diagnosis-specific recommendations for brain-damaged and depressed individuals. / Department of Educational Psychology

The purpose of the study was to investigate the validity of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition (SB:FE) area and composite scores and Sattler's SB:FE factor scores as predictors of school performance on the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement (WJTA).The subjects were 80 Caucasian third grade students enrolled in regular education in a rural and small town school district in northeastern Indiana. The SB:FE and WJTA were administered to all students.Two canonical analyses were conducted to test the overall relationships between sets of SB:FE predictor variables and the set of WJTA criterion variables. Results indicated that the SB:FE area scores and Sattler's SB:FE factor scores were valid predictors of academic achievement at a general level.To clarify the results of the canonical analyses, series of multiple regression analyses were conducted. Results of multiple regression with SB:FE area and composite scores indicated that the best single predictor of all WJTA scores was the SB:FE Test Composite Score. No other SB:FE variable provided a significant contribution to the regression equation for reading, math, and written language achievement over that offered by the Test Composite Score.Multiple regression analyses were also employed with Sattler's SB:FE factor scores and the WJTA scores. The optimal predictor composite for reading included the Verbal Comprehension and Memory factor scores. To predict math, the best predictor composite consisted of the Nonverbal Reasoning/Visualization and Verbal Comprehension factor scores. The optimal predictor composite for written language included the Nonverbal Reasoning/Visualization and Memory factor scores.Results of the regression analyses indicated that, without exception, the predictor composites composed of the SB:FE area and composite scores were superior in their prediction of school performance to the predictor composites developed from Sattler's SB:FE factor scores.The regression equation containing the SB:FE Test Composite Score alone was determined to be the preferred approach for predicting WJTA scores. Use of the Test Composite Score sacrifices only a minimal degree of accuracy in the prediction of achievement and requires no additional effort to compute. / Department of Educational Psychology