EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF PRIORITY SCHEDULING IN A BANK CHECK PROCESSING OPERATION

This paper reports on a simulation study which was undertaken to determine if float could be significantly reduced by altering a bank's check-processing priority assignments. Float, the dollar value of check payments not yet collected from parent banks, represents a significant opportunity cost in terms of lost interest income to receiving banks. The study consisted of a comparison of a major city bank's present checksorting decision rules based on minimization of check handling, versus a proposed sorting scheme based on dollar magnitudes of checks. The reults of the research indicated that float could be substantially reduced and interest income increased by employing the proposed priority of scheduting rules.     

The effect of French television sexual program content on the recall of sexual and nonsexual advertisements

This study examined the impact of television program sexual content and explicit sexual advertisement content on memory for advertisements. Eighty-two French participants, aged 18 to 48 years, watched either a sexual program (Sex and the City) or a nonsexual program (Friends), with three sexual and three nonsexual adverts embedded within it. They then completed free- and cued-recall questionnaires testing their memory of the advertisements, as well as a gender identity scale. Overall, sexual advertisements were recalled (in free recall) better than nonsexual advertisements. Participants were found to recall adverts significantly better within the nonsexual program than within the sexual program. No interaction was found between program type and advertisement type: Sexual adverts were recalled better than nonsexual adverts within both programs. Males and females recalled sexual adverts equally, with no mediating effect of gender identity. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.     

The Portfolio as Artifact and Actor

This article proposes a tentative framework to support empirical analysis of portfolios as pedagogical tools for formative and summative assessment in higher education. It aims to get a deeper understanding of the role of the portfolio in student learning both as a tool and as representations of this tool. To that end, we use three sets of theoretical ideas: Wartofsky's conceptualization of perception through the creation of artifacts, actor-network theory, and Wertch's notions of internalization, appropriation and mastery. This article is meant to complement current portfolio research with an original approach that addresses explicitly epistemological questions and concepts like learning and knowledge and explores possible avenues for analyzing and understanding portfolios as artifacts and tools in learning activities.     

Are Life Insurance Holdings Related to Financial Vulnerabilities?

Using the 1995 Survey of Consumer Finances and an elaborate life-cycle model, we quantify the potential financial impact of each individual's death on his or her survivors and measure the degree to which life insurance moderates these consequences. Life insurance is essentially uncorrelated with financial vulnerability at every stage of the life cycle. As a result, the impact of insurance among at-risk households is modest, and substantial uninsured vulnerabilities are widespread, particularly among younger couples. We also identify a systematic gender bias: For any given level of financial vulnerability, couples provide significantly more protection for wives than for husbands. (JEL D10 , G22 )     

Temperamental Vulnerability and Negative Parenting as Interacting Predictors of Child Adjustment

This study examines parenting by temperament interactions in predicting child adjustment. Participants included 40 first and second graders, their mothers, and teachers. Child report of maternal psychological control and hostility was assessed using the Child Puppet Interview. Mothers completed temperament scales from the Child Behavior Questionnaire, and teachers provided information on child adjustment. As expected, among children high in irritable distress, maternal psychological control was associated with internalizing problems and maternal hostility was associated with externalizing problems. Among children with poor effortful control, maternal hostility was associated with externalizing behavior. This study offers evidence that the effects of negative parenting are accentuated among children with temperamental vulnerabilities.