Sandy Venneman

This commentary provides additional information related to equines and suggestions for strengthening the proposed protocol for testing synchronization to a musical beat in this species.

Physician-written “do not resuscitate” DNR orders elicit negative reactions from stakeholders that may decrease appropriate end-of-life care. The semantic significance of the phrase has led to a proposed replacement of DNR with “allow natural death” (AND). Prior to this investigation, no scientific papers address the impact of such a change. Our results support this proposition due to increased likelihood of endorsement with the term AND.

We investigated the benefits of using a virtual laboratory, Sniffy Lite CD—ROM (Alloway, Wilson, Graham, & Krames, 2000), as a supplemental teaching tool to present schedules of reinforcement in operant conditioning. Our results suggest that using the virtual laboratory significantly enhanced understanding. Students who used the virtual laboratory earned a mean score of 76% on the measure of comprehension, whereas control group participants who studied an equivalent period of time as the virtual laboratory assignments earned 63%, as did those who received no intervention. Increased student comprehension supports the efficacy of this low-cost learning tool.

A firm's adoption of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) has been hypothesized to increase employee productivity. Resulting employee productivity is hypothesized to improve firm profitability and thus ultimately improve stock performance. Most studies to date have tested potential relationships between the mere presence of an ESOP and changes in employee productivity and firm profitability. Few studies have attempted to identify the variables that are associated with employee satisfaction with an ESOP. In order to maximize the productivity gains associated with the adoption of an ESOP, researchers must first identify the relationships and variables most likely to positively affect employee attitudes and subsequently their satisfaction toward an ESOP. The purpose of this paper is to identify the demographic and attitudinal correlates of employee satisfaction with an ESOP. This exploration will provide a more substantive foundation for future research efforts in the area. Correlation and regression results indicated that employees' perceived influence on decision‐making, perceived pay equity and perceived influence on stock performance, when examined separately, were each significant correlates of ESOP satisfaction. When combined with the modelled employee demographics in a step‐wise regression model, only employees' perceived influence on stock performance, perceived influence on decision‐making and age explained a statistically significant amount of variance in ESOP satisfaction.