This study assessed the effect of test order for three different speeds (60, 120, and I80 degrees /sec) on the reliability of measures of peak torque, average torque, and the joint angle at which peak torque occurred, using the KIN-COM dynamometer to measure concentric and eccentric contractions of the quadriceps muscle. The effect of test order in assessing the reliability of measures of isokinetic movement at different speeds has not been systematically considered in other studies and is important because of the traditional clinical practice of testing patients at several speeds. Eighteen healthy subjects (14 females, 4 males) between the ages of 22 and 37 were selected for the study. None of the subjects had prior experience using the KIN-COM, and none of the subjects were engaged in strength training. The ICCs for concentric and eccentric peak torque and average torque, collapsed across testing order, ranged from .76 to .95 and were significant at the p < .01 level for all three speeds. When testing order was analyzed, the measurements of subjects who began testing at 180 degrees /sec had much lower reliability than the measurements of subjects who experienced the high speed as either the second or third speed within each session. Measures of joint angle were less reliable than peak torque and average torque measures, with ICCs ranging from -.16 to .64. Thus, these results suggest that normal persons being tested at different speeds on the KIN-COM dynamometer should be tested at slower speeds before higher speeds. In addition, this study showed no evidence of low reliability for measures of eccentric peak torque at the slower speed of 60 degrees /sec, as reported by other researchers in an earlier study. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 1992;15(4):175-182.

A study examined the possible relationships between student study behaviors and academic achievement and represented a continuation and extension of an earlier large-scale project undertaken at the Far West Laboratory. Subjects, 184 college students enrolled in an introductory psychology course, had their study skills, self-efficacy, academic aptitude, locus of control, and memory assessed. Results indicated that: (1) the self-efficacy instrument (Self-Concept of Academic Ability Test) is more accurately described as a measure of academic self-concept than as a measure of self-efficacy; (2) in certain academic contexts, the measure of academic self-concept is not as important a predictor of academic achievement as is locus of control; (3) the best predictor of course achievement was the subjects' self-assessment of their memory ability; and (4) four subscales of the study activities measure were significant predictors of course achievement. (Two tables of data are attached.) (RS)

This experiment examined the effects of headings and adjunct questions embedded in expository text on the delayed multiple-choice test performance of college students. Subjects in the headings-present group performed significantly better on the retention test than did the subjects in the headingsabsent group. The main effect of adjunct questions was not significant, but there was a significant interaction of locus of control group and adjunct questions. For subjects with an internal locus of control, performance in the questions-present condition significantly exceeded performance in the questions-absent condition; however, adjunct questions did not significantly affect the performance of subjects with an external locus of control. The results support the view that headings may promote the organization of passage information so as to increase its general availability, and the results suggest possible differences in the organizational effects of adjunct questions in readers differing in locus of control.

This experiment compared the effects of prepassage questions quizzing information of different structural importance on college students' memory for expository prose passages. In conditions in which information from a high-level passage unit was quizzed by the question, indirect recall (i.e., recall of nonquizzed information) was greater than recall in both the low-level question condition and the no-question condition. The low-question condition exceeded the no-question condition only when the analysis was limited to recall of superordinate information from the subtopic cluster containing the quizzed unit. These results indicate that questions which direct the subject's attention to material at the top of the organizational structure facilitate the effective encoding of the central organizational idea within the passage segment. A significant interaction was also found between subjects' vocabulary ability and question condition. The facilitative effect of high questions declined with increasing vocabulary ability. This interaction is consistent with the view that high-ability and low-ability people differ in their tendency to use the superordinate organizational structure of the passage and thus in their tendency to benefit from processing aids such as adjunct questions.

This study examined the possible relationship between emotional competence and transformational leadership in K-12 school leaders as a function of self-other agreement. The study found that, for those school leaders whose self-assessment of their leadership agreed with that of their subordinates, the self-ratings of emotional competence were strongly and significantly correlated with the self-ratings of transformational leadership. However, the correlations between emotional competence and leadership self-ratings were not significant for those school leaders who either over-or under-estimated their transformational leadership. In contrast, the correlations of others' ratings of the leaders' emotional competence and transformational leadership were equally strong and significant for all leaders. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that those leaders who agreed with their subordinates in the assessment of their transformational leadership also agreed with their subordinates in the rating their social and emotional competence, whereas leaders who over-estimated their transformational leadership were likely to rate their emotional competence higher than were their subordinates. These identified relationships have potential implications for professional development programming for school leaders and for furthering establishing the degree to which development of emotional competence promotes the development of transformational leadership.