Rosenbaum's (1986) interesting attempt to demonstrate the irrelevance of similar attitudes is unsuccessful for several reasons. In three of the four attraction experiments he conducted, similar-attitude conditions were not compared with neutral control conditions as required, but instead they were compared with positive trait adjective conditions. In addition, it is not possible to create a no-attitude "control" condition because people assume a high level of self-other similarity even when the other person has relatively negative characteristics. Thus, the comparison of a similar-attitude condition with an assumed similar-attitude condition does not provide an adequate test of his hypothesis. Further, the quantitative aspects of similar and dissimilar attitudes, physical attractiveness, occupation, trait descriptions, and political affiliation have been ignored. When the quantitative aspects are considered, it is shown that Rosenbaum's obtained values do not differ from those predicted by the attraction model. Altogether his attraction experiments and those using a learning paradigm do not contain the conditions necessary to test the proposition that similarity has no important consequence. Appropriate designs are suggested in order to provide such tests.

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Participation in virtual communities of practice (vCoP) can be influenced at the same time by technology acceptance and by community factors. To overcome methodological issues connected with the analysis of these influences, learning analytics were applied. Based on a recent vCoP model, the collaborative dialogue comprising 4040 interventions in 1981 messages created by a vCoP located at a US American online university was automatically analyzed. The text-based asynchronous online discussions were scored using a cohesion-based participation and collaboration analysis. Additionally, a sample of N = 133 vCoP participants responded a technology acceptance survey. Thus, a combined research model including the vCoP model and an established technology acceptance model was verified. The results confirmed the vCoP model entirely, and the acceptance model only partially. As consequence for educational research, the CoP model was confirmed and extended to vCoP settings, while the acceptance model appears to need reconsideration. For academic practice, the study initiates the development of assessment tools fostering knowledge sharing through dialogue in vCoP. Also, it suggests how virtual classrooms can be extended to open spaces where value creation takes place through social learning. Learning analytics proved thus successful, provides information that impacts both theory and practice of technology-enhanced learning.

Four hundred forty-two women and 341 men were surveyed at Panama City Beach, Florida, to assess the effects of gender, age, fraternity or sorority membership, and travel motivation on alcohol consumption and binge drinking during spring break. The mean number of drinks consumed the previous day was 18 for men and 10 for women; 91.7% of the men and 78.1% of the women had participated in a binge-drinking episode during the previous day. Respondents less than 21 years old consumed less alcohol and reported significantly lower frequencies of intoxication than those over 21. The men's reported levels of alcohol consumption, binge drinking, and intoxication to the point of sickness were significantly higher than the women's, but fraternity or sorority membership was not associated with higher levels of consumption. Students motivated to visit the specific destination because of its "party" reputation consumed significantly more alcohol than students who cited other reasons for going there.

Researchers and marketers are interested in understanding and predicting the complex behaviours of consumers. One important facet of consumer behaviour is the ‘involvement’ construct. Involvement is ‘a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on inherent needs, values, and interests’. 1 This study examined the interplay between the involvement construct and push/pull factors as motivators in destination selection. Clements and Josiam 2 found that college students who had travelled during the Spring Break vacation had significantly higher levels of involvement than non-travellers. This study surveyed 795 college students during their Spring Break vacation at the beach in Panama City Beach, Florida. Vacationers were found to be highly involved with the concept of travelling on Spring Break. As hypothesised, high levels of involvement were significantly associated with push factors relevant to travel to beachfront destinations on Spring Break. High levels of involvement were also significanlty associated with the pull factors of Panama City Beach, Florida, as a popular beachfront destination for Spring Breakers.