The development of personal space in primary school children

Personal space in school cafeteria queues was observed for 1,047 children in kindergarten through sixth grade in seven public schools. It was found that children segregate themselves both racially and sexually in the queues. In three of the schools that were racially mixed, the children stood closer in the lower grades than in the higher grades, they stood closer to same-sex children than to other-sex children, but there was no racial difference. In three of the schools where all of the children were white, there was an increase in personal space across grades for all sex combinations except male to male. In two of the schools where all of the children were black, there was no significant increase in personal space across grades. The children in the white schools had greater queue distances than children in the black schools throughout the upper grades. In general, the results were similar to those obtained in other studies involving observation in natural settings and different from results obtained using simulated interaction.     

AGGREGATING EXPERT OPINION IN DECISION-MAKING

In using nominal groups for decision making, it is necessary to use some mechanical procedure for combining the evaluations. A simulation model is used to compare procedures for the case where a nominal group of m evaluators must select the best of n alternatives and where the evaluations are subject to random errors. Criteria are the probability of making a correct selection and the relative quality of the choice.