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Investigates gender differences in confidence judgments when they were correct and incorrect on exam items with postsecondary students (N=551) in five countries. Large and significant differences were found in overall confidence, confidence when correct, and confidence when wrong, associated primarily with country and culture. In contrast, gender differences tended to be surprisingly small when viewed within countries. (Author/MKA)

A meta-analysis was conducted of 107 classroom and laboratory studies concerning the effects of expecting a recall, recognition, essay, multiple-choice, or true-false test on students' subsequent achievement. Laboratory studies did not generalize well to classrooms. In classroom studies, subjects performed better when they knew which test type to expect. (SLD)

The construction industry has experienced malpractice, which is a significant cause for concern. Does the nature of the industry provide some hint for tracing the underlying reasons of the relatively severe ethical problems in construction? Can one of the most influential stakeholders in the industry, the professionals, improve the situation? This study was conducted in Hong Kong to investigate what kinds of ethical problems are faced by construction professionals, and to explore the factors influencing their ethical decision making. Statistical factor analyses identified six intuitive underlying factors that affect ethical decision making when construction professionals are facing ethical dilemmas in the industry. Four of them influencing decision making are 'deontological factor,' 'consequential factor--egoism,' 'consequential factor--utilitarianism,' and 'legal requirement.' Two other factors are 'oneself/family' and 'stakeholders.' Results show that construction professionals' ethical behavior is guided by legal requirements. When making ethical decisions, they adopt an egoism approach that prioritizes their self-interest and their families' interests higher than the public's interest; they would consciously evaluate the consequences of any unethical behavior. CE Database subject headings: Construction industry; Decision making; Ethics; Hong Kong.

The authors investigated students' accuracy and confidence judgments for course-related material in college classrooms. Under conditions of group work and instructor feedback, students produced higher exam accuracy scores working in groups than alone but at a cost of increased confidence for groups' wrong answers. Groups' high confidence for wrong answers generated the case when ''two heads' are worse than one.' Students participating in groups that arrived at wrong exam answers gave higher confidence when wrong and lower confidence when correct for repeated items on a final exam. 'Two heads' groups when wrong had no adverse effect on students' accuracy for repeated exam items. An intervention of lecture and readings on confidence calibration, metamemory, and overconfidence did not improve the students' accuracy-confidence judgments.

Although gender differences are fairly consistent when people report their general confidence, much less is known about such differences when individuals assess the degree of confidence they have in their ability to answer any particular test question. The objective of this research was to investigate gender differences in item-specific confidence judgments. Data were collected from three psychology courses containing 70 men and 181 women. After answering each item on course exams, students indicated their confidence that their answer to that item was correct. Results showed that gender differences in confidence are dependent on the context (whether items were correct or wrong) and on the domain being tested. Moreover, although both men and women were overconfident, undergraduate men were especially overconfident when incorrect.

Rajan Mahadevan evidences an exceptional memory for arrays of digits. We tested whether Rajan's spatial memory was likewise exceptional. Eight control Ss and Rajan were instructed to remember the position and orientation of 48 images of common objects shown either to the left or the right of fixation and facing either left or right. Rajan's accuracy for judging whether the position and orientation of these pictures had changed when they were shown in a different sequence was lower than that of control Ss for both judgments. Rajan's exceptional memory capacity apparently does not extend to spatial relations.

Describes the use and analysis of pretests/posttests for assessing instructional consequences in introductory college chemistry. Results from two studies (N=58 and N=136) are discussed as well as the use of pretests/posttests in helping instructors to identify course topics which need attention and improvement. (Author/JN)

The Lombard effect is the tendency to increase one's vocal intensity in noise. The present study reports three experiments that test the robustness of the Lombard effect when speakers are given instructions and training with visual feedback to help suppress it. The Lombard effect was found to be extremely stable and robust. Instructions alone had little influence on the response to the noise among untrained speakers. When visual feedback correlated with vocal intensity was presented, however, subjects could inhibit the Lombard response. Furthermore, the inhibition remained after the visual feedback was removed. The data are interpreted as indicating that the Lombard response is largely automatic and not ordinarily under volitional control. When subjects do learn to suppress the effect, they seem to do so by changing overall vocal level rather than their specific response to the noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]