John O. Mitterer

Acceptance by Undergraduates of the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique for Multiple-Choice Testing.

Undergraduates completed a questionnaire after using the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT), a commercially available answer form for multiple‐choice (MC) testing that can be used easily and conveniently with large classes. This simple new technique for MC testing provides immediate feedback for each item in an answer‐until‐correct format and permits the earning of partial credit when the students initial response is incorrect. Reaction to the IFAT was extremely positive, with students saying it was easy to use and contributed to their learning, and they indicated a strong desire to use the IFAT for all MC tests. Liking for the IFAT was not related to either personal characteristics or test performance variables, indicating that it has broad appeal to students.

Computerized Repertory Grids: Review Of The Literature

Abstract We review the literature documenting more than 25 years of progress in the design of computer software for repertory grids. First, analysis programs are reviewed; then programs that arc designed specifically for grid elicitation are discussed; finally, multifunction software packages (i.e., those that perform grid construction, elicitation, and/or analysis) are reviewed. Comparisons are offered, not only between the particular programs, but also between the single-function and multifunction categories. Directions for future development are considered.

Omimigrid-Pc: A new development in computerized repertory grids

Abstract A new approach to computer programs used to administer and/or analyze repertory grids is described. The system outlined here, OMNIGRID-PC, is a variation of OMNIGRID, which was designed to have broad practical and theoretical applications. The general features of OMNIGRID are discussed; then the unique features of the OMNIGRID-PC system, Versions 1.0 and 1.5, are explained in detail along with their underlying theoretical rationale. The Appendix more fully explicates the interpretive significance of the most substantive new feature of Version 3.5–Cromwell Format data collection.

The end of “information”: Computers, democracy, and the university

This paper describes some of the challenges which the growing pervasiveness of computers and electronic communications technology present to liberal democracies. We argue that these technologies, by their influence on the mechanisms of publicity and privacy, make possible the abuse of an under-developed popular epistemology. The confused response of the courts to cases of information crime suggests that the university is a better forum in which to meet and master these challenges.

On the Importance of Discovering Water: Educating Psychologists for the Global Village

The current education of undergraduate psychology students leaves them relatively unable to address problems posed by a rapidly emerging worldwide society. In particular, teachers of psychology too often educate their students as naïve empiricists who lack the intellectual tools to identify and question the often-unarticulated cultural assumptions that maintain cultural status quos. An alternative approach to educating these students is to stress a more ironic postmodern epistemology/ontology in order to teach them to better critique their own cultures and help find solutions to global problems.

Improved real-time control on the apple by mimicking an on-board 60-Hz clock

By delivering the vertical synch pulse to the maskable interrupt, it is possible to supply the Apple with a functional on-board 60-Hz clock that operates virtually independently of the CPU. This modification makes it easier to program more complex experiments involving independent control over stimulus exposure duration and the timing of response latency.