William Metlay

Evaluation of Problem-Solving Groups The Case of Quality Circle Programs

This article states the case for evaluating the effectiveness of problem-solving groups, develops a model of group problem-solving behavior, and applies the resulting conceptual framework to 16 actual evaluations of quality circle programs published between 1981 and 1986. It recommends that problem-solving groups be evaluated to improve their effectiveness, that evaluations be comprehensive- attending to feedback variables and to input and process variables, as well as to the commonly measured output variables, and that self-report data-collection pro cedures be supplemented by more objective measures.

Effect of context on verbal recall

Sixty-seven S s were presented with samples of English text in which one word had been replaced by a blank and were allowed 15 min to list all the words that might have been the one deleted. The context surrounding the blank varied from 0 to 40 words. Increasing the amount of context decreased the number of words that S could produce to fit the context, but increased the proportional recall rate, that is, the proportion of the total number of words recallable that was produced per unit time. The results were interpreted in terms of a search model for verbal recall, in which the context determines the number of target words, the number of items in memory through which S searches for target words, and the rate at which he scans these items.