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Intellectual curiosity is a topic of research interest and often predicts academic performance (AP). However, evidence for its incremental validity, which the present study aimed to assess, is mixed. Participants were 216 (52 males, 151 females, 13 not reported) third-year psychology students (age M = 23.0 yrs) who completed tests of fluid and crystallised intelligence, five-factor model (FFM) personality, intellectual curiosity, and confidence. AP was obtained from university transcripts. No incremental validity above intelligence and FFM personality was found for measures of curiosity or confidence. In all analyses, Conscientiousness was the most substantial predictor of AP. Future research may focus on the conditions in which curiosity or confidence predict AP.

Scales of Need for Cognition (NFC), Typical Intellectual Engagement (TIE), and Epistemic Curiosity (EC) measure intellectual curiosity (IC). These scales correlate strongly and have been factor-analyzed individually but not together. Here N = 396 (143 males) undergraduates completed measures of NFC, TIE, and EC. Six factors, labeled Intellectual Avoidance, Deprivation, Problem Solving, Abstract Thinking, Reading, and Wide Interest, were identified. TIE is the broadest scale, measuring all factors except Deprivation; NFC measures Intellectual Avoidance and Problem Solving, plus Abstract Thinking and Deprivation to a lesser degree; and EC largely measures Deprivation. Moreover, Reading may not fit in the IC domain; higher-order factor analysis indicated that, whereas items measuring Reading loaded more strongly on their first-order factor, items measuring the other factors strongly loaded on a general factor of IC. These results are significant for understanding the contents of these scales, and for future scale development.

Participants were 160 (50 males) young adults aged 17–32 years, predominantly first-year university undergraduates who completed online questionnaires measuring fluid ability (Gf: Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices-Short Form [APM-SF]), Conscientiousness, and four tests of intellectual curiosity (Openness to Ideas [OI], Need for Cognition [NFC], Typical Intellectual Engagement [TIE], Epistemic Curiosity [EC]). All study variables correlated substantially with final school grades (Tertiary Entrance Rank [TER] or Australian Tertiary Admission Rank [ATAR]), confirming that educational outcome may reflect fluid ability, Conscientiousness and intellectual curiosity. Exploratory factor analysis found a strong general intellectual curiosity factor but, after controlling for APM-SF and Conscientiousness, this did not improve prediction of TER/ATAR. TIE explained additional 1.8% of variance in TER/ATAR (p

We consider the commentary by von Stumm, Hell, and Chamorro-Premuzic (in press) on our results (Powell & Nettelbeck, 2014) that typical intellectual engagement (TIE) had small incremental predictive validity for academic success and that, to the extent that this was so, it reflected something other than intellectual curiosity. We address each of the objections raised but maintain that these do not invalidate our original conclusions.

An explanation (maybe even an apology) is called for when entering the crowded and noisy arena where quality is debated. Good sport is often had there, but decisions are few: instead most outcomes follow tiresomely circular rather than linear trajectories. My justification for adding to the overcrowded and unruly scene is simple. It is to give a view of quality in architecture which is not widely represented and which seems to be often overlooked. The view comes from the modern history of the UK construction industry, a wide perspective which extends beyond buildings as artifacts. The paper will borrow a definition of quality and, crucially, try to show how it is connected with the operation of the construction industry, and is growing.

Aijaz Ahmad and Christopher Powell agree that the events are being used to realign global power, bolstering an inter-state system that provides the repressive undergirding of global capitalism. There is disagreement, however, on the way forward. Whereas Panitch and Wood look to the renewal of the democratic Left fighting within national contexts, Powell's call for the detachment of all peoples from"their" states is more in line with the anarchist current of thought that runs through the anti-(capitalist) globalization movement.

Excavations beneath the Copan Acropolis provide the most complete record known for the origins and development of an Early Classic Maya royal complex (ca. a.d. 420–650). Beginning at the time of the historically identified dynastic founder, the earliest levels include the first royal compound, centered on a small talud-tablero platform, a vaulted tomb that may be that of the founder, and an adjacent tomb that may be that of the founder's wife and dynastic matriarch. The timing and development of architecture provide evidence of the founding and growth of Copan as the capital of a Classic-period polity during the reigns of the first seven kings (a.d. 426–544). By the reigns of Rulers 8–11 (a.d. 544–628), the Early Classic Acropolis covered about the same area as its final version in the Late Classic. Documentation of specific Acropolis buildings provides evidence of the external connections that reinforced the authority of Copan's Early Classic kings. Building sequences reflect the perpetuation of political power by using important locations as symbolic links to the sacred past. The Early Classic Acropolis also provides new evidence for the beginnings of palace architecture that have important implications for the origins of Maya state-level organizations. Overall, the findings from the Early Classic Copan Acropolis promise to significantly advance our understanding of the origins and development of Maya state systems.

Synthesizing ideas from two authors as similar and as different as Marx and Elias is a tricky and dangerous undertaking. Each of them proposed not only specific explanatory claims about the workings of social phenomena but also methodological approaches for generating explanations, epistemological standards for evaluating explanations, and ontological concepts for defining the phenomena to be explained. Each articulated these claims in a body of work that has been institutionalized as paradigmatic for a network of researchers. As Kuhn (1996) pointed out, explanatory claims made under the auspices of different scientific paradigms are not only different but incommensurate. For this reason, even simple comparisons between two paradigms can be problematic.

Theoretical conditions associated with division of labour among firms are considered in relation to designers and constructors of buildings in the UK. A long-term historical view of this slow-changing industry suggests that designers' independence peaked around the middle of the twentieth century and that subsequently some of their functions began to be integrated into other firms. The waning of designers' independence occurred despite continued market growth (albeit subject to considerable fluctuations). It is proposed that independence and its decline related to aspects of the professionalization of designers. Sharp division of labour promoted by professionalization divorced designers and clients, and in this sense progressed too far. The recent developments have partly reversed this trend. Copyright 1996 by Oxford University Press.

This study investigates the range of unit costs of different building types, as a broad approximation to building quality. Examination of the current position is followed by a view of long-term trends. The manner in which the costs of different building types have fluctuated relative to one another over time is described in outline. Some ways in which to view possible causal influences are noted, along with possible uses of further studies and interpretations.

In view of lack of clarity in the concept of ‘quality’ in buildings, this paper examines generally some judgements made by assessors of award-winning buildings. Attributes of the buildings noted by the assessors are identified and classified to give a preliminary outline of the field.

Relationships between workload fluctuations and quality of service, with particular reference to design, are investigated by means of a study of architects’ practices. A method of experience survey is described. Conditions of temporary slackness are found to be regarded as serious, and effects almost entirely harmful. Conditions of temporary overstraining are found to be common and regarded as serious. Their effects are seen as largely harmful, but ambivalent attitudes arise from some benefits to building design. Heavy workload is believed to be more likely than light workload to be associated with higher quality design.