The effect of contextual cues on children`s ability to remember an occurence of a repeated event

<b>Purpose.</b> This study examined the usefulness of contextual cues in enhancing the accuracy of children's narrative accounts of an occurrence of a repeated event.<br /><br /><b>Method.</b> Children aged 6 to 7 years took part in the same staged event four times whereby 16 target details varied in each occurrence (e.g. the colour of a cloak varied each time). Three days later, the children's free recall of the final occurrence was elicited. This occurrence was identified in one of two ways. Either it was identified via the temporal term 'last', or else the term 'last' was combined with a feature related to the environmental context or setting that was unique to the occurrence (i.e., the interviewer referred to a new object that was worn throughout the occurrence or a new person who carried out the event). For each condition, performance was compared to that of children who experienced the event only once.<br /><br /><b>Results.</b> Children's memory of details specific to the target occurrence was better after the single than the repeated event. However for both event types, children who were given the contextual and temporal cue performed better than those who were given the temporal cue only. The benefit of using a contextual cue did not result in an increase in errors.<br /><br /><b>Conclusion.</b> Contextual cues (generated by an interviewer) can facilitate children's recall of an occurrence of an event. However, further research needs to determine whether this finding would generalize to a more practical situation where the child (rather than the interviewer) generates the cues.<br />

The contextual nature of the market orientation and organisational performance relationship: an Australian and New Zealand study

As part of a broader study of the relationship between traditional and online marketing mix elements and organisational performance, the study reported in this paper utilised structural equation modelling to examine the relationship between market orientation and organisational performance. The study found that there was an insignificant relationship between market orientation and organisational performance, thereby lending support to studies conducted in the UK, Ghana, and the US (since the studies in the US by Narver and Slater (1990)), which found that there may be a contextual nature to the relationship between the two constructs. The study, therefore, does not support Pulendran et al. (2000).<br />

The re-emergence of the public accountancy profession in China: a contextual analysis

Little has been published on the professionalisation projects in non-English speaking countries. In particular, where these countries operate under a non-capitalist environment, the role of accountants and their professionalisation process have been relatively under-explored. This paper seeks to contribute to addressing this apparent gap by choosing the public accountancy profession in China as the subject matter of the research. This paper draws on Gramsci's concept of hegemony to examine the circumstances leading to the re-emergence of the public accountancy profossion in China. In particular, the paper attempts to understand the political ana' ideological influence upon the professionalisation process of the Chinese accountants. To this aim, the paper examines the social and cultural environment of China highlighting the importance attached to propagating the political ideology by the hegemonic ruling class in the history of China. The paper concludes that while the re-emergence of the CPA profession is a by-product of the government's push for economic reconstruction, the real contextual factor that led to the revival of the public accountancy profession is the political ideologies, which were propagated by the ruling political force in an attempt to establish hegemony.<br />

Strategies for the marketing of higher education with comparative contextual references between Australia and Turkey

Education is now a global product with institutions worldwide competing for students and finding ever more creative ways to satisfy student needs and preferences. With the continuing rise in the preference for flexible distance learning, educational institutions are finding that when students and faculty have significantly different cultural backgrounds and learning styles that the expectations of the learning experience can be unfulfilled. In Australia, international students have made education Australia&rsquo;s third largest service export, earning $5.8 billion. This means that student populations have moved from being homogenous and captive to domestic constraints and expectations, to being multi-cultural, dispersed and subject to a plethora of constraints and expectations. Today in Turkey, education is the responsibility of government however, in recent years, the private sector has entered the market providing educational services at all levels. In particular, after the 1990s, private higher education institutions (HEIs) with a commercial focus have mushroomed.<br /><br />In 2007, there are 25 private universities in Turkey with more than 2.000.000 students enrolled in these universities. Of these students, more than 1.000.000 are registered in distance education faculties. With such large student numbers competition between private universities for students has intensified particularly over the last 15 years. As a consequence the need to develop strategies for attracting students has become more important. Marketing strategies in Turkey have tended to concentrate on three distinct categories: strategies between governmental HEIs, private HEIs and distance education HEIs. The contribution of technologies to education processes has been immense with students and faculty each learning to adapt to an environment of continuous change and opportunities. This paper seeks to explore the notion that a competitive advantage in marketing of higher education can be attained by customizing learning experiences for particular student cohorts in a pro-active and constructive way.<br />

Evidence for crossvergence in the perception of task and contextual performance : a study of western expatriates working in Thailand

The applicability of the Western model of task and contextual performance to the context of Thai and Western managers, professionals and consultants working together in Thailand is addressed in this research. The results show a clear difference in the factor structure of how Western and Thai managers perceive the importance of performance factors. Moreover, the task and contextual factor structure found for Western managers working in a Western culture did not hold for Westerners working within the Thai cultural environment. These findings provide evidence of adaptation by the Westerner to the Thai cultural environment, supporting the notion of crossvergence.<br />

Contextual factors which influence creativity in requirements engineering

In many disciplines, creativity has been recognised as an important part of problem solving. In business, creativity enables the generation of better solutions and provides an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage. In Information Systems (IS) creativity assists developers in finding solutions to difficult problems by helping to efficiently utilise available resources and allows the more effective planning and running of complex projects. One of the most important aspects of IS development is Requirements Engineering (RE), the development activity aimed at understanding the needs and wants of IS customers. While previous RE researchers suggested that creativity is crucial in building high quality information systems, fostering creative outcomes in RE is difficult as it is affected by the multifaceted socioorganisational context within which IS development commonly takes place. This paper reports findings from an empirical study into creativity in RE. Specifically, it reports various contextual factors which were found to influence the creativity of individuals and their teams<br />

Architectural expression of liturgy and doctrine in the Eastern churches of the fourth to sixth centuries: towards a theologically contextual typology

Many scholars of Byzantine architecture have theorised about the reasons for church form and structure, with most relating them to sources in pagan architecture or local traditional construction methods (Krautheimer, Crowfoot, Ward-Perkins, Mango and Hill); to aspects of provincialism, regional independence or location peripheral to empire (Megaw, Delvoye, Wharton), or to environmental constraints such as frequent earthquakes (Curcic). But just as the wording of the various creeds and ecumenical statements responded to aspects of contemporary non-orthodox beliefs or &quot;heresies&quot;, so did the theological debate inform the liturgical practices and consequently church planning. It could be expected that these responses would also be reflected in the architectural approach to form and symbolism. Thus a contextual typological framework is proposed, based on the association of different architectural approaches to church planning and form in the 4th to the 6th centuries with the contemporary doctrinal disputes over the true nature of Christ.<br />

Area variation in recreational cycling in Melbourne : a compositional or contextual effect?

<b>Objective</b>: To examine whether compositional and/or contextual area characteristics are associated with area socioeconomic inequalities and between-area differences in recreational cycling.<br /><br /><b>Setting</b>: The city of Melbourne, Australia.<br /><br /><b>Participants</b>: 2349 men and women residing in 50 areas (58.7% response rate).<br /><br /><b>Main outcome measure</b>: Cycling for recreational purposes (at least once a month vs never).<br /><br /><b>Design</b>: In a cross-sectional survey participants reported their frequency of recreational cycling. Objective area characteristics were collected for their residential area by environmental audits or calculated with Geographic Information Systems software. Multilevel logistic regression models were performed to examine associations between recreational cycling, area socioeconomic level, compositional characteristics (age, sex, education, occupation) and area characteristics (design, safety, destinations or aesthetics).<br /><br /><b>Results</b>: After adjustment for compositional characteristics, residents of deprived areas were less likely to cycle for recreation (OR 0.66; 95% CI 0.43 to 1.00), and significant between-area differences in recreational cycling were found (median odds ratio 1.48 (95% credibility interval 1.24 to 1.78). Aesthetic characteristics tended to be worse in deprived areas and were the only group of area characteristics that explained some of the area deprivation differences. Safety characteristics explained the largest proportion of between-area variation in recreational cycling.<br /><br /><b>Conclusion</b>: Creating supportive environments with respect to safety and aesthetic area characteristics may decrease between-area differences and area deprivation inequalities in recreational cycling, respectively.<br />

Effects of contextual interference on children learning forehand tennis groundstrokes

Previous research on contextual interference theory in controlled laboratory situations consistently illustrated that random practice was superior to blocked practice when learning motor skills. However, when considered in relation to physical education class settings the findings of the contextual interference experiments were not as uniform. Furthermore, the results of the contextual interference research were ambiguous when an open skill was used as the experimental task, with no definite trend evident. Random practice was found more effective for learning (del Rey, 1989) whereas French, Rink and Werner (1990) demonstrated blocked practice to be superior. In the present study, the influence of high and low contextual interference as practice schedules was investigated within an applied sports setting using an open sports skill as the experimental task. Two groups of boys and girls, 8-9 and 10-12 years of age, were taught a forehand tennis groundstroke using both their preferred and non-preferred hands over a ten week coaching and practice period. The findings showed that male subjects were significantly better at the experimental task than female subjects at the pre-test stage only. The result also demonstrated that the 10-12 year old subjects were significantly better than the 8-9 year olds at the task with the exception of the preferred hand at the post and retention test stage. The contextual interference effect was demonstrated in the retention phase on the preferred hand of the 10-12 year old subjects where the random practice group was significantly better than the blocked practice group in an applied sports setting. These findings were discussed in relation to the role of cognition in the learning of these motor skills and the influence of the subjects related background experiences.

Contextual influences on femoral injecting behaviour in the UK Randomised Injectable Opiate Treatment Trial

Femoral injecting amongst participants of the Randomised Injectable Opiate Treatment Trial (RIOTT) has created a number of procedural, ethical and medical dilemmas for staff, clients and researchers. This study investigated the effect on femoral injecting behaviour of a drug consumption room (DCR) in the context of the RIOTT currently being conducted at the Maudsley Hospital, South London. It uses in-depth qualitative interviews with 10 RIOTT clients to investigate the effects of this environmental intervention on the injecting behaviour of individuals who injected femorally upon treatment entry. Interviewees were selected on the basis of membership in one of four groups: 1) never injected femorally, 2) injected femorally prior to trial and have ceased completely, 3) injected femorally prior to trial and have ceased within the DCR, and 4) have continued to inject femorally the inside and outside clinical settings. The paper uses case studies and clinical protocols to interpret changes in behaviour in injecting behaviour in regards to the goals of treatment. Preliminary results indicate that there are major advantages and disadvantages associated with femoral injecting. The most commonly reported reason for commencing femoral injecting was a lack of other viable veins and interviewee narratives illustrate how this issue use addressed within the context of the DCR. Within this setting, the paper explores the boundaries of harm reduction in the context of a traditional 'risk boundary' within the 'ideal' risk environment. Other issues explored include: gender differences in femoral injecting episodes, femoral injecting as a risk boundary and the importance of time pressures as a major predictor of choosing to inject femorally.<br />