Academic stress was measured in Black and White, middle- and lower-class adolescents in an inner city school. Race differences were observed on four of ten factors with Blacks indicating significantly more pressure. A race by class interaction was revealed for the consequences of academic failure factor. (Author/RD)

The effect of students' race and performance on nonverbal behavior of teachers was investigated. White college-age subjects, acting as teachers, were led to praise successful or unsuccessful students. Results showed that stimulus teachers were more pleased with successful than unsuccessful students, and more pleased with White than Black students.…

A set of immediate memory-span tests, concept- and rule-learning tasks, and an IQ test were administered to adolescents. A color-form memory factor and IQ substantially predicted rule-learning proficiency. Effects of memory aids appeared to induce conceptual rules and serve as a base for rehearsing information. (Author/RD)

The assumptions underlying the classfication rule-learning description of concept acquisition are critically examined. An alternative characterization of what it means to have a primacy hypothesis and Gibson's position that knowledge of the world is a product of direct perception are discusssed. (Author/RD)

Students were administered either conditional syllogism, biconditional syllogism, or conditional and biconditional syllogism tests. Analyses confirmed a tendency towards biconditionality. With conditional syllogisms, results indicated variations across forms of both major and second premises and a reversed developmental trend on problems which…

The effectiveness of an instructional-learning management system designed to minimize the time needed for students to complete specified learning tasks and to maximize the opportunity for the individual students to complete the tasks is investigated. Instructional design makes use of teacher's and student's school time more effective. (Author/RD)

The influence of televised modeling and modeling plus direct instruction was examined on the induction of complex forms of seriation behavior. The television only and TV plus direct instruction groups made significant gains from pre- to post-test, which were maintained during retention testing. Theoretical and training implications were…

Ninth-graders read a passage for a test to be taken the next day, anticipating a recall test, a multiple-choice test, and a retention test. Half received either a recall or a recognition test regardless of prior instructions. Subjects did better on the recognition tests in all conditions. (Author/RD)

The effect of college course content on students' growth in critical thinking was investigated. Students enrolled in various philosophy courses and a non-philosophy control were pre- and post-tested for critical thinking. Only the logic course had a consistent impact on certain aspects of critical thinking. (Author/RD)

College students were trained on a hierarchical mapping technique designed to facilitate prose processing. The students studied a geology passage and five days later were given four types of tests. The treatment group significantly outperformed a control group; the major differences were attributable to concept cloze and essay exams. (Author/RD)

This study examined the effects of visual aids and word structure on kindergarten children's learning of phonemic segmentation--a skill which correlates with reading achievement. Visual aids were the counters, squares, and pictures previously utilized by Soviet researchers. Squares contributed to segmentation of two-phoneme words. Error patterns…

The compound nature of Gagne's original definition of learning hierarchies leads to two methods of validation, the positive and negative methods. Sections of a hierarchy that had been validated by the negative method were subjected to test by the more cumbersome positive method, and again were found to be valid. (Author/RD)

Children's ability to produce and use natural language mediators on a paired-associate recall task requiring self-generated elaboration was analyzed. Elaborations were recorded and classified according to a semantic-syntactic scheme. Comparisons between grades were made to determine the effectiveness of elaboration categories in facilitating…

Conditions under which confidence estimation facilitates problem solving were examined in a study assessing spelling, mathematics, and reasoning. Participants who used a confidence estimation procedure and whose teacher valued and nurtured warranted uncertainty performed better on spelling and improved more than did other participants. (Author/RD)

The effectiveness of pausing for learning from lectures was investigated. Pause location and kind of activity conducted during the pause were varied. Free-recall and cued-recall tests were administered immediately after the lecture and two weeks later. Interspersed pauses coupled with group discussion was the most efficient procedure. (Author/RD)