Sociological and Human Developmental Explanations of Crime: Conflict or Consensus

This paper examines multidisciplinary correlates of delinquency in an attempt to integrate sociological and environmental theories of crime with human developmental and biological explanations of crime. Structural equation models are applied to assess links among biological, psychological, and environmental variables collected prospectively from birth through age 17 on a sample of 800 black children at high risk for learning and behavioral disorders. Results show that for both males and females, aggression and disciplinary problems in school during adolescence are the strongest predictors of repeat offense behavior. Whereas school achievement and family income and stability are also significant predictors of delinquency for males, early physical development is the next strongest predictor for females. Results indicate that some effects on delinquency also vary during different ages. It is suggested that behavioral and learning disorders have both sociological and developmental correlates and that adequate educational resources are necessary to ensure channels of legitimate opportunities for high-risk youths

Dual-task performance as a measure of mental effort in searching a library system and the Web

This paper examines a dual-task method for the assessment of mental effort during online searching, having the users engage in two tasks simultaneously. Searching was assigned as a primary task and a visual observation was set up as a secondary task. The study participants were asked to perform two searches, one on the Web and the other in a web-based library system. Perceived search difficulty and mental effort for searching on the two types of systems were compared through participant self-reports, dual-task performance, and search log analysis. After the searches were completed, the subjects reported that library searching was more difficult to conduct and they had to concentrate more than when Web searching. However, the results of dual-task performance do not reveal much difference in mental effort or concentration during searches in the two systems. Rather, they invested mental effort differently when viewing search results and reading retrieved documents. The findings indicate that a dual-task method provides a useful technique to measure mental effort in online searching, and it has a great potential to be used to measure other aspects of information retrieval such as task complexity and multitasking information behavior.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/49317/1/14504201155_ftp.pd

Dennie Slone Recordings

A collection of banjo and fiddle tunes from Dennie Slone of Allen City, Floyd County, Kentucky. Included in the recording is an interview conducted by Robert M. Rennick on October 31, 1971