NBC News Scripts
WBAP-TV (Television station : Fort Worth, Tex.)
1954-12-31
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The overclaiming technique requires respondents to rate their familiarity with a list of general knowledge items (persons, places, things). Because 20% of the items are foils (i.e., do not exist), the response pattern can be analyzed with signal detection methods to yield the accuracy and bias scores for each respondent. In Study 1, the accuracy index showed strong associations with two standard IQ tests (β = .50–.59). Study 2 replicated the validity of the accuracy index with IQ and showed coherent associations with school grades, peer ratings, and self-ratings. Study 3 ensured that the validity of the accuracy index is invulnerable to a warning about foils. Study 4 showed that validity is maintained even when the ratings are completed at home. The discussion focuses on the advantages of this self-report approach over standard ability...
We take school admission mechanisms to the lab to test whether the widely-used manipulable Boston-mechanism disadvantages students of lower cognitive ability and whether this leads to ability segregation across schools. Results show this is the case: lower ability participants receive lower payoffs and are over-represented at the worst school. Under the strategy-proof Deferred Acceptance mechanism, payoff differences are reduced, and ability distributions across schools harmonized. Hence, we find support for the argument that a strategy-proof mechanisms 'levels the playing-field'. Finally, we document a trade-off between equity and efficiency in that average payoffs are larger under Boston than under Deferred Acceptance.
This research used a spatial skills test and cognitive-mapping test to examine the effect of GIS learning on the spatial ability and spatial problem solving of college students. A total of 80 participants, undergraduate students at Texas A&M University, completed pre- and post- spatial skills tests administered during the 2003 fall semester. Analysis of changes in the students?? test scores revealed that GIS learning could help students improve their spatial ability. Strong correlations existed between the participants?? spatial ability and their performance in the GIS course. The research also found that spatial ability improvement linked to GIS learning was not significantly related to differences in gender or to academic major (geography majors vs. science and engineering majors). A total of 64 participants, recruited from students ...
ePublished: 2009-09-13
How does known diversity in cognitive ability among market participants influence market outcomes? We investigated this question by first measuring subjects' cognitive ability and categorizing them as `H' type for those above median ability and `L' type for those below median ability. We then constructed three kinds of markets with six traders each: 6H, 6L, and 3H3L. Subjects were informed of their own cognitive type and that of the others in their market. We found heterogeneous markets (3H3L) generated significantly larger mispricing than homogeneous markets (6H or 6L). Thus, known diversity in cognitive ability among market participants impacts mispricing.
Do chief executive officers (CEOs) really matter? Do cross-sectional differences in firm performance and CEO pay reflect differences in CEO ability? Examining CEO departures over 1992-2002, we first find that the stock price reaction upon departure is negatively related to the firm's prior performance and to the CEO's prior pay. Second, the CEO's subsequent labor market success is greater if the firm's predeparture performance is better, the prior pay is higher, and the stock market's reaction is more negative. Finally, better prior performance, higher prior pay, and a more negative stock market reaction are associated with worse postdeparture firm performance. Collectively, these results reject the view that differences in firm performance stem entirely from non-CEO factors such as the firms' assets, other employees, or "luck," and th...
We estimate a structural dynamic programming model of schooling decisions with unobserved heterogeneity in school ability and market ability on a sample taken from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Both the instantaneous utility of attending school and the wage regression function are estimated flexibly. The null hypothesis that the local returns to schooling are constant is strongly rejected in favor of a convex wage regression function composed of 8 spline segments. The local returns are very low until grade 11 (1% per year or less), increase to 3.7% in grade 12 and exceed 10% only from grade 14 to grade 16. The average return increases smoothly from 0.4% (grade 7) to 4.6% (grade 16). The convexity of the log wage regression function implies that those who obtain more schooling also experience higher average returns. ...
This study examined adult students of limited reading ability, determining the extent to which their performance on a standardized examination was a function of their reading ability, rather than function of their knowledge of the material tested by the examination.
The key resource in efficient production is the management input used to coordinate the land, labour and capital. Yet, our understanding of this resource is still somewhat limited, especially the factors involved in improving the managerial ability of farmers. This paper summarises three tests developed to help assess managers, and uses the data collected through random surveys of all types of farmers to explain the origins of managerial ability. Survey data on the competencies farmers believe are important in successful management is reviewed, and finally a computer based teaching package to develop the important competencies is outlined. The tests developed cover managerial style, the locus of control, and aptitude.
Understanding mathematics and teaching mathematics involve
numerous factors, one of which may be an individual's spatial ability.
This paper examines research conducted on the relationship between
spatial abilities and mathematics, gender differences in the area of
spatial ability, the types of experiences that may affect one's spatial
ability, and issues surrounding the teaching of spatial skills.
Researchers have found that spatial ability does relate to mathematics
and males tend to have greater spatial ability than females. Instruction
has also been shown to be successful in helping individuals learn spatial
skills.
This paper also reports the results of a study that examined the
differences in spatial ability among 98 participants (males, females,
faculty, and students in the sciences and non-sciences) at a Pacific
No...
