Digital Commons Network^™

Sequential Testing Effects Re-Visited : Is The Effect Of Test Presentation Contingent Upon Slide Linearity?, John D. Jones

Theses : Honours

Evidence regarding the potential mediating effects sequential test presentation has upon eyewitness suggestibility is divided. Bekerian and Bowers' (1983) research suggested that sequential test presentation reduced misinformation effects, whilst McCloskey and Zaragoza's (1985) results failed to indicate any effect of this presentation method. A possible reason for these conflicting results is that the respective research groups have used different sets of slides. Bekerian and Bowers' (1983) slides appeared to contain more thematic content (i.e., linear content), which in turn increased participants' resistance to misleading postevent information. Conversely, McCloskey and Zaragoza's (1985) slides appeared to lack this feature (i.e., they are …

Testing The Matching Hypothesis : Implementing A Minimal Stress Intervention By Matching Writing Task To Emotional Coping Style, Pamela D. Mcneill

Theses : Honours

The theory of inhibition and psychosomatic disease supports the concept that failure to express emotion is psychologically and physically stressful, and associated with long-term health problems. One aspect of this study was to investigate the discrepancy hypothesis proposing that specific emotional coping styles elicit patterns of discrepant self-report and physiological responses. The major focus of the study tested whether matching therapeutic writing tasks to specific emotional coping styles would significantly decrease stress and somatic symptoms, and whether mismatching such writing tasks to emotional coping styles would not decrease stress and somatic symptoms. Undergraduate students were identified as having an emotional …

Using Multimedia Microworlds To Motivate And Engage Adult Learners, Susan B. Stoney

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

As educational institutions come under increasing pressure from outside forces to restructure the way students learn, efforts are being made by researchers to find ways to assist students to learn through independent thought and to solve problems in a resource-based, self-paced environment. Such an environment needs to be sufficiently interesting and novel to motivate students who begin to use it, and to continue to engage them as they progress through it. This study has sought to identify what such a learning environment needs to encompass in order to motivate and engage adult learners so that they will not only want …

The Language And Literacy Skills And Behaviours Of Two Middle Primary Severely To Profoundly Hearing Impaired Students In The School Environment, Renee M. Kinsman

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Much research has shown that the hearing impaired population typically achieve only very low levels of literacy. Many researchers have examined the language and literacy deficits of the hearing impaired population in order to explain this. Nevertheless, a recent study has shown that hearing impaired children's preschool language and literacy development may occur along a similar pathway to that of their hearing peers. The present study aimed to investigate the language and literacy skills, behaviours and interactions of two severely to profoundly hearing impaired middle primary boys in the context of their mainstream school. Both qualitative and quantitative data sources …

Performing Cooperative Work And Conferencing On An Intranet Using Java, Thaveeporn Limpanyalers

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The process of organising, preparing and conducting a meeting is a time consuming one. Additionally, geographic separation compounds the amount of effort required. Within this study, an electronic conferencing system in an Intranet environment is designed and implemented, thus enabling employees in the same organisation to meet up electronically without the dual constraints of time and space. Specifically, the study investigates incorporation of facial expressions and an ongoing polling system. The results demonstrate that a presence of facial expressions helps users to better engage in on-line discussion and that users find an ongoing poll to be useful in determining direction …

Validation Of The Barkemeyer-Callon-Jones Malingering Detection Scale: The Ability Of A Scale Differentiate Simulating Malingers From Controls And Prior Litigants From Those With No Litigation Experience Within A Sample Of Men Who Have All Suffered Chronic Low Back Pain, David Curnow

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Chronic low back pain costs the community, and several authors have suggested that individuals often attempt to exaggerate chronic low back pain. Currently no reliable and valid scale for assessing malingering in chronic pain populations exists, and there is a large difference in opinion on the ability of experts using clinical judgment to detect malingering. The current study seeks to provide a validation for the BarkemeyerCallon-Jones Malingering Detection Scale (MDS) which has purported to be able to identify individuals attempting to malinger neurological conditions and pain. A simulation design was used, as in previous research, because it is difficult to …

A Cave Of Their Own: A Comparative Examination Of Recurring Social And Psychological Themes In Gothic Fiction And Gothic Youth Subculture Through The Song Lyrics And Fiction Of Nick Cave, Bradley M. Hunter

Theses : Honours

The aim of this thesis is to examine the Gothic phenomenon as it pertains to late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century fiction, and extrapolate its social and psychological concerns as they relate to the Gothic revival in the late nineteenth-century Decadent movement and late twentieth-century gothic subculture. This examination focuses on recurrent social and psychological themes in eighteenth/nineteenth-century Gothic fiction, the late nineteenth-century Decadent movement and twentieth-century gothic music and subculture, which, in turn, are compared to the themes and motifs of the song lyrics and fiction of Nick Cave. Within this context, the recurring theme of the psychological exploration of …

Categorical And Coordinate Spatial Judgements In Face Recognition, Jill E. Russell

Theses : Honours

The role of the cerebral hemispheres in processing spatial relationships is outlined in Kosslyn 's (1987) theory that states that there are two separate subsystems for processing spatial relations: one located in the left hemisphere (LHem) that is more efficient at processing categorical information, and one in the right hemisphere (RHem) that is more efficient at processing coordinate information. To test Kosslyn's theory, this study manipulated two IVs in a within-subjects design, task: categorical and coordinate; and visual field (VF): left and right Male and female face stimuli were presented in either the left visual field (LVF) to the (RHem) …

The Effectiveness Of Using Drama In Presenting Spiritual Material To School Students, Geoff Pollard

Theses : Honours

This thesis is concerned with determining the effectiveness of using drama in presenting spiritual material to school students. As a performer in schools I often wondered if the "magic" of the stage was what the students identified with or whether in addition they were also understanding and learning spiritual truths. As an undergraduate religious student I was exposed to the research of Goldman who concluded that Scripture teaching in Primary Schools should be minimised because he believed the students were incapable of understanding parables and miracles. I looked back on my school performance years and the warm reception given to …

Sense Of Effort Associated With Exercise In The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Karen E. Wallman

Theses : Honours

Investigations into the mediators of effort sensation have indicated that central mechanisms related to corollary discharges may be responsible for an increased sense of effort during fatiguing isometric exercise. The role for central mediators for sense of effort have been objectively demonstrated through use of contralateral limb matching tasks. Subjects diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) often report prevalent fatigue associated with a greater sense of effort when involved in exercise. This study employed a fatiguing contralateral limb-matching task in order to determine if CFS subjects (n == 6) experienced an altered sense of effort associated with the task when …

Factors Which Influence Women's Decisions For Choice Of Primary Surgery For Stage I And Stage Ii Breast Cancer, Barbara Mastaglia

Theses : Honours

A descriptive correlational study was conducted to describe the factors that Western Australian women with either Stage I or Stage II Breast Cancer, perceived to be important considerations when deciding upon either Modified Radical Mastectomy (MRM) or Breast Conserving Treatment (BCT) for surgical treatment. The Conflict Theory of Decision Making (Janis & Mann, 1977) was used as the theoretical framework to guide this study. Ward, Heidrich and Wolberg's (1989) Factor List, the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) Scale (Wallston, Wallston & De Vellis, 1978) and a demographic questionnaire were used to measure variables. Questionnaires were mailed to a consecutive …

The Participant's Perception Of The Contribution Of Lyengar Yoga To Their Health And Well-Being, Ann Dragon

Theses : Honours

To date little research has been conducted to substantiate the many anecdotal claims that yoga improves both physical and mental health. Berger and Owen (1992) demonstrated that yoga practice could enhance mood state. Mind-body exercise modalities, such as tai chi and yoga, potentially offer significant benefit in the areas of exercise rehabilitation and health promotion strategy (LaForge, 1997). Yoga is steadily gaining popularity amongst western culture with an increasing number of people participating in this mind-body exercise modality. Investigating the perceived contribution of regular yoga practice to health and well-being could uncover a number of positive 'indicators towards exercise adherence …

The Effects Of Context And Number Of Presentations On Repetition Priming, Terry A. Simpson

Theses : Honours

When a stimulus such as a word is presented twice, the identification of the word on the second presentation is usually facilitated, reflecting repetition priming. This facilitation can occur without a person's awareness and is often referred to as reflecting implicit memory. The present study investigated the effects of number of presentations of words and the context in which words were presented on repetition priming. The study measured reaction times on a lexical decision task in which the participants decided whether a string of letters constituted a word or a non-word. Repetition priming on this task was determined by comparing …

Aboriginal People With Disability And Their Use Of Advocacy: A Phenomenological Approach, E. A. Leipoldt

Theses : Honours

The reasons for an apparent low use of advocacy agencies in Perth by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have a disability, in a context of high vulnerability, were investigated. A high incidence of disability exists amongst this group. No previous research in this area has been conducted. Nine Aboriginal people with disability were interviewed about their experiences with regard to their disabilities and any need for advocacy. This study used a qualitative, phenomenological approach as its conceptual framework, including also, a minor quantitative component. The quantitative component consisted of a brief survey of Perth-based disability advocacy agencies. It …

Parent And Teacher Attitudes To Pharmacological Management Of Medically Diagnosed Attention Deficit Primary School Children, K. J. Angel

Theses : Honours

The purpose of this study was to compare the attitudes of parents and teachers to the use of pharmacological management or intervention for the child with ADHD in the classroom. Particular focus was placed on differences in attitude toward the use of stimulants, for the management of emotional/behavioural, cognitive/academic, social and classroom organizational behaviours of children with ADHD. Thirty female Western Australian primary school teachers and 90 female parents participated in the present investigation. Participants included: (a) parents of non-medicated children with ADHD, (b) parents of medicated children with ADHD, (c) teachers in regular primary schools, and (d) parents of …

Women On The Move: A Qualitative Study Of Relocation To A Remote Area, Ann Jones

Theses : Honours

This study uses a feminist framework to explore women's experiences of relocating from a city or large regional centre to a small and isolated town. It comes in response to my personal and professional experience of remote relocation and to the dearth of feminist discussion in this area. The site of the study is a town of 2,500 people, situated in Northern Australia over 1200 kilometres from the nearest capital city and 800 kilometres from the nearest regional centre. Six women who relocated within the previous 18 months participated in the study. Two of the women were single and four …

Good Software Development Processes Lead To Harmonious Project Teams Which In Turn Lead To Effective Project Performance, Rweyunga Kazaura

Theses : Honours

The modem world relies on computers in almost every facet of life. With the explosion of Information Technology, software development has become an important process. However, from the beginning, this process has suffered and continues to suffer from a number of problems. If these problems are not rectified, they can jeopardise projects and lead to project failure. Project failure results in a project being delivered: • without satisfying the functional and non-functional requirements requested by the user or customer • beyond the agreed schedule and/or • over budget. Research indicates that practising good software development processes (SDPs) can override these …

Person-Job Fit In The Changing Work Environment : Models For Office Workers And Teleworkers, Sharon C. Elsley

Theses : Honours

This thesis empirically examined the theoretical domain of Person-Job Fit proposed by Edwards (1991). Two models were tested with data collected from a sample of 101 Office Workers and 101 Teleworkers categorised as professional, managerial, clerical, technical and sales. The adequacy of the two models was tested using Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis. The Person-Job Fit model found that measures of Abilities, Desires, Supplies and Demands were equally predictive of Personal and Organisational Outcomes for both groups. Commensurate measures were employed for Desires and Supplies. The h1ended Person-Job Fit model included the meaning of home (Groves, 1996b), which was hypothesised …

Skill Acquisition And Transfer : The Effect Of Practice On Performance, Tracy Piani

Theses : Honours

This study was designed to examine the effect of amount of training on the specificity of skill acquisition and transfer. Within the theoretical framework of two contemporary theories of skill acquisition, Anderson's ACT" theory (1982, 1987), and Logan's Instance theory of automisation (1988, 1990), the study extends research by Greig and Speelman (in press) that demonstrated skills can be both general (i.e., can apply beyond the training experience) and specific (i.e., are limited to training experiences). The experiment was divided into training and transfer phases. The amount of practice in the training phase was manipulated across three experimental conditions, with …

The Role Of Management In The Movement Towards Sustainability: Perceived Responsibilities, Challenges, And Opportunities, Martin Brueckner

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The aim of this thesis was to explore the role of management in the movement towards ecologically sustainable development (ESD), investigating perceived responsibilities, challenges, and opportunities facing business management today. The point of departure for this study was the acknowledgement of the present paucity of references to ESD within the management literature, widespread amoral business conduct, and the dominance of economic rationalism within business science. This research provided an analytical review of ESD related literature, concentrating on the history and rise of the ESD paradigm, its ethical underpinnings, and economic implications to management practice. The paper highlighted the importance of …

"Family" As Constructed By Adoptees After Making Contact With Their Birth Families, Adrianne Moloney

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Legislative changes during the 1980s and 1990s opened confidential adoption files of the past enabling many adoptees and relinquishing parents to establish contact. This study examines the way in which the meaning of family is constructed by adoptees who have made contact with their birth relatives, and how these constructions were altered after contact. The ways in which biological and social definitions of family are constructed and contested in these settings is explored. Sociological definitions of family are discussed and the gap between ideal notions of 'family' and the lived experience of 'family' is explored. The study focuses on the …

The Predictive Accuracy Of The Violent Offender Treatment Program Risk Assessment Scale, Ann Ward

Theses : Honours

Current methods for screening violent offenders for program eligibility are expensive and time consuming. Developers of the Violent Offender Treatment Program (VOTP) have designed 2 brief and economical instrument to screen offenders for program eligibility. The present study was undertaken to assess the reliability and predictive accuracy of the VOTP Risk Assessment Scale (RAS). An inter-rater reliability of 20 court histories attained a mean kappa of .8 I. The RAS was applied to court histories of 202 violent offenders released between 1985 and 1987. A I 0-year follow-up of convictions for violent behaviour yielded a 47~ base rate. Receiver Operating …

Women And Leadership Working Paper Series: Paper No. 12: Career Barriers And The Older Woman Manager, Leonie V. Still, Wendy Timms

Research outputs pre 2011

The removal of the age retirement barrier has led to expectations that more and more older workers will remain in the workforce past the usual retirement age of 65. Women make up an increasing proportion of older workers, and Patrickson and Hartmann ( 1996) have shown that Australian women are planning not to retire in order to improve their retirement income.

An important section of the older workers group are the managerial and professional women, aged in their 50s, who are part of the first generation of women to have long-term careers like men i.e. full-time careers extending over 25 …

Homework And Telework: A Guide To Best Practice In Human Resource Management, Peter Standen, Maryam Omari

Research outputs pre 2011

In Australia today there is widespread interest in homeworking and teleworking as flexible work options with significant advantages to both employers and employees. In the research behind this guide we surveyed 500 Australian organisations, finding employer interest in these advantages, along with uncertainty about how to implement homeworking, and some worries about potential drawbacks. Significantly, those organisations that had implemented homeworking reported positive outcomes. In an interview study, homeworkers themselves reported improved work performance, and were appreciative of the flexibility. This guide shows how to implement homework and telework to achieve such outcomes while avoiding the problems that concern managers.

Number Sense In School Mathematics: Student Performance In Four Countries, Alistair Mcintosh, Barbara Reys, Robert Reys, Jack Bana, Brian Farrell

Research outputs pre 2011

Since 1988 teams of researchers in the United States, Japan and Australia have been involved in a collaborative research project to assess the mental computation ability of their students. The results of this research have been reported elsewhere (Mcintosh, Bana & Farrell 1995; Mcintosh, Nohda, Reys & Reys 1995). The researchers involved were Professors Robert and Barbara Reys of the University of Missouri - Columbia, Professor Nobuhiko Nohda of the University of Tsukuba and Alistair Mcintosh, Jack Bana and Brian Farrell of Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia.

The United States and Australian researchers went on to assess the number …

The Perception Of Effort During Muscular Fatigue And Recovery, Juan H. Svendsen

Theses : Honours

This study investigated how sense of effort is altered during fatigue in nine normal subjects. A contralateral limb matching paradigm was used in which the subjects nondominant (reference) arm was held at 20% MVC with force production matched at one minute intervals by the dominant (marching arm). It was found that matching force increased in a linear fashion with fatigue. It was also observed that EMG amplitude increased in the reference and matching arm and remained elevated during a 15 minute recovery period. As in previous studies strong correlation (r = 0.85) between rmsEMG in the reference arm and matching …

Aboriginality And English : Report To The Australian Research Council, Ian G. Malcolm, Marek M. Koscielecki

Research outputs pre 2011

The relation of aboriginality to English has important implications for communication between Aborigines and other Australians, and especially for the education of Aboriginal and other Australian children within a context of reconciliation.

The investigation of which this is the final report derives from the assumptions that Aboriginal English has been maintained at least in part because of its function' as a bearer of aboriginality and that, by exploring the nature of the distinctiveness of this dialect and the historical circumstances of its formation and ongoing development we may better understand how to provide appropriately for the communicative and educational needs …

Review Of Personal Identification Systems, J. M. Cross

Research outputs pre 2011

The growth of the use of biometric personal identification systems has been relatively steady over the last 20 years. The expected biometric revolution which was forecast since the mid 1970's has not yet occurred. The main factor for lower than expected growth has been the cost and user acceptance of the systems. During the last few years, however, a new generation of more reliable, less expensive and better designed biometric devices have come onto the market. This combined with the anticipated expansion of new reliable, user friendly inexpensive systems provides a signal that the revolution is about to begin. This …

Theory Of Mind Deficits In Children With Intellectual Disabilities : A Test Of Specificity And Uniqueness Hypotheses, Dianne Campbell

Theses : Honours

This study was designed to determine (a) whether children with intellectual disabilities have a theory of mind deficit relative to younger children of the same verbal mental age and (b) whether theory of mind in children with intellectual disabilities is domain-specific or related to other general cognitive functions. A group of 15 children with intellectual disabilities (mean age= 10;0), 15 children of average intelligence (mean age= 10;0) and 15 children of average intelligence (mean age= 6:0) matched on verbal mental age with the children with intellectual disabilities. The children were given a series of theory of mind tasks. The children …

Love And Disease : The Humanism Of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love In The Time Of Cholera, Alan Sheardown

Theses : Honours

No abstract provided.