The influence of three mechanisms of working memory (phonological short-term memory (PSTM capacity), attentional resource control/allocation, and processing speed) on children's complex (and simple) sentence comprehension was investigated. Fifty two children (6-12 years) completed a nonword repetition task (indexing PSTM), concurrent verbal processing-storage task (indexing resource control/allocation), auditory-visual reaction time (RT) task (indexing processing speed), and a sentence comprehension task that included complex and simple sentences. Correlation and regression analyses were run to determine the association between the memory variables and sentence comprehension accuracy. Results revealed: (1) none of the memory variables correlated with simple sentence comprehension, (2) resource control/allocation and processing speed correlated significantly with complex sentence comprehension, even after covarying for age, and (3) attentional functioning and processing speed predicted complex sentence comprehension (after accounting for age). Results were interpreted to suggest that working memory is significantly involved in school age children's comprehension of familiar complex sentence structures.

Public relations students at two US. universities separated by several time zones were assigned to use online message boards to communicate with each other as well as cultural consultants in Korea to write an issue statement and promotional plan for an international strategic communications project. The technology acceptance model was found to fit well with student attitudes and behaviors related to online bulletin board systems used in the class project. Student perceptions of the ease of using online technology were the strongest predictors of their intentions to use this technology in their careers beyond the classroom.

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Constructs derived from Schlenker's triangle model of accountability were used to explore the relationship between perceptions of the accountability of government, industry, and the regulatory process and survey respondents' knowledge and attitude toward potential applications of plant genetic engineering. Regression analysis indicated that accountability was a better predictor of attitude toward potential applications of plant genetic engineering than respondents'level of knowledge. The results lend support to the argument that perceptions of accountability may play a significant role in consumer reactions to food biotechnology.

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