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The present study examined the efficacy of clickers in a community college classroom. Specifically we sought to compare the effects of clicker technology on perceived knowledge and exam scores with the effectiveness of essays and pop quizzes. One hundred students completed surveys measuring presemester motivation to take psychology and baseline psychology knowledge. Regression analyses found that after controlling for motivation and baseline knowledge, students in the essay and pop quiz conditions reported greater perceived comprehension of the material as compared with the students in the clicker condition for two of the three exams. Additionally, students who wrote essays and took pop quizzes on the course material subsequently scored higher on the cumulative exam than did students in the clicker class, although there were no differences across conditions on Exam 1 and Exam 2 scores. Similarly, there were no significant differences across conditions on any of the exam scores when extra credit was factored into the grades. Implications for future research are discussed.

Chronic illness places considerable burdens on patients and their interpersonal relations with families. In this study, patients' perceptions of family and medical staff expectations regarding responsibility for care and routine functions were examined. The authors hypothesized that a patient's perceived inability to meet others' expectations about coping with illness would lead to poorer adjustment. Forty-two chronically ill patients were assessed prospectively for perceptions of others' expectations, social support, and psychological adjustment. Findings confirmed that expectations predicted subsequent decreases in psychological adjustment over a 3-month period, even when social support was controlled. A test of the reverse hypothesis showed that poorly adjusted patients did not misperceive others' expectations. Theoretical interpretations of the findings and their relation to social support research are discussed.