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This paper reports on the feasibility of "The Study Place Project" (TSP[superscript 2] ), a novel intervention designed to improve academic achievement and retention for first-year college students. Our aim was to provide students with regular study sessions in a minimal distraction environment, allowing them to apply their own strategies and abilities to accomplish their personal academic goals. The six-week intervention, conducted with students in their first semester of college, predicted significantly higher GPAs and greater first-year retention. This pattern was largely replicated with a sample of upper division participants. Our results also revealed an interesting pattern of relations between study, academic performance, and psychological well-being. TSP[superscript 2] provides a sustainable approach that may help students to overcome academic challenges of college life.

This paper reports on the feasibility of The Study Place Project (TSP (2)), a novel intervention designed to improve academic achievement and retention for first-year college students. Our aim was to provide students with regular study sessions in a minimal distraction environment, allowing them to apply their own strategies and abilities to accomplish their personal academic goals. The six-week intervention, conducted with students in their first semester of college, predicted significantly higher GPAs and greater first-year retention. This pattern was largely replicated with a sample of upper division participants. Our results also revealed an interesting pattern of relations between study, academic performance, and psychological well-being. TS[P.sup.2] provides a sustainable approach that may help students to overcome academic challenges of college life. Keywords: 1st year college students, retention, academic achievement; intervention, reciprocal determinism, Over the past decade, undergraduate institutions have confronted numerous challenges in meeting the academic, social, psychological, and financial needs of their students (D'Amico & Dika, 2013). The degree to which [...]

The current practice of relying on single sample null hypothesis tests is being re-evaluated in the behavioral sciences. To highlight the issues raised by both sides of this discussion, a meta-analysis of The Gallup Organization's most recent U.S. Presidential election polling data was conducted. During the 2004 Presidential campaign, most pre-election polling percentages reported Bush ahead of Kerry, although the differences between the voters' preferences were typically within the margin of error. The meta-analyses used in this study showed significant differences between the two candidates' polling percentages, thus yielding a more accurate prediction than the conventional analysis which was based on single samples. These improved predictions provide support for a continued discussion about potential changes in statistical approaches to psychology.

This study compares the relative accuracy of targets' self-reports and other-reports of personality in predicting two criteria: (a) emotional experience in daily life and (b) behavior in the laboratory. Ratings of the targets' extraversion and neuroticism were obtained from two knowledgeable informants and the targets themselves. Target participants wore an electronic signaling device ('beeper') for eight days and rated positive and negative emotions at four randomly selected times each day. The participants also interacted with an opposite-sex stranger in a laboratory context and their behavior was coded from videotapes. Targets' self-reports of personality were consistently more accurate than other-reports in predicting daily emotional experience. Self-reports also outperformed other-reports in predicting extraversion-related laboratory behaviors, but not neuroticism-related behaviors. The relative accuracy of self- and other-reports of personality would seem to depend on the criterion employed; self-reports are clearly better for the prediction of emotional experience, while for behavior the picture is mixed.

The current study examines relations between individual differences in attention measured in laboratory and real-world settings. In-laboratory computer-based assessments of orienting, phasic alertness, and executive attention as well as self-report measures of temperament and attention-related problems were administered to 111 undergraduate participants. Participants later completed a walking tour of a multistory building while wearing video recording glasses. The recordings were subsequently coded for orientation and capture of overt attention. Overt attention was correlated with attention-related traits only in high-demand walking conditions (stairways). Our findings suggest that individual differences should be a more important consideration in attention research. The novel methodology piloted here may be especially practical for studying overt attention in social settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]