John J. Hedl

Smart Shoppers Tours: Outcome Evaluation

Abstract Smart Shoppers Tours were offered to mothers on limited incomes in southeast Dallas in 1995–96. Based on focus group data and the Food Guide Pyramid, the series of three tours was designed to increase the purchase of healthy foods by mothers on limited incomes. Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior and Self-Efficacy Theory, the strategies addressed attitudes, self-efficacy, and knowledge in peer-led tours to foster an intent to purchase healthier foods leading to improved food purchasing behaviors, including use of the nutrition label and unit price. The objective of the outcome evaluation was to measure changes in each construct mentioned above. A questionnaire measuring each of these aspects was administered at ticket issuance and approximately 2 months later. Pre-tour data are available on 557 individuals, 242 of whom attended tours; post-tour data are available on 114. When pre- and post-tour data were compared, knowledge and skill increased, attitudes regarding purchasing healthy foods on a limited income improved, and intent to purchase healthy foods increased. Self-reports and a home food inventory suggest improved food purchasing. Based on structural modeling, a path model that resembles but is not identical to the Theory of Planned Behavior and Self-Efficacy Theory is suggested.

Test anxiety and causal attributions: Some evidence toward replication

Abstract The purpose of the present study was to examine the nature of causal attributions and their relationship to measures of trait and state test anxiety, and perceptions of success. Eighty-four female undergraduates completed a sentence memory task after which they rated their level of perceived success, generated reasons for their performance, and rated these reasons for their performance along three causal attribution dimensions (internality, stability, globality). Perception of success was related to the three explanatory style dimensions, with internality as the weakest of the three relationships. Although the expected test anxiety-outcome interactions were not found, test anxiety relationships were noted indirectly from both the attribution rating scale analyses and directly from the content analyses. For the former results indicated that the strongest relationships were between test anxiety (trait and state) with perception of success. Content analyses supported the importance of the internalit...

Test anxiety, sentence comprehension, and recognition memory

Abstract The present study explored the relationships between trait and state test anxiety of students, and comprehension and recognition memory for sentences. The results demonstrated that test anxiety effects could be found in comprehension-based recognition memory for sentences under conditions that minimized complex retrieval operations. Comprehension was related to the test anxiety deficit, supporting the hypothesis that anxiety-recognition relations were mediated by anxiety-comprehension and comprehension-recognition relations. However, a partial correlation analysis suggested that this comprehension-deficit hypothesis is not adequate to explain the total deficit. Elaborative processes were suggested as a potential contributor to the findings.

Effects of anxiety on communication tasks for children in traditional and individualized-multiage classrooms

The effects of anxiety on concept acquisition were evaluated for first and second grade children enrolled in either a traditional or in an individualized or multiage learning program, the latter specifically designed to reduce anxiety during the learning process. Regardless of their learning environment, first graders who scored high on trait anxiety, measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, performed more poorly than those with low trait anxiety. Individualized-multiage second grade children scored lower on state anxiety than children in the traditional group. The largest reduction in anxiety occurred at the second grade, suggesting that anxiety reduction was cumulative for the individualized-multiage program children during the first two years of their primary grade education. However, the individualized-multiage environment was detrimental to performance of second graders on the easier concrete concept acquisition test, suggesting that some anxiety is needed during learning to enhance attention and facilitate performance.