Classrooms for mentally retarded, emotionally disturbed, learning disabled, and average students were studied to identify which rules of formal logic teachers and students employ. Results indicated that teachers and students use extralogical reasoning significantly more often than formal logical rules. This was true for three grade levels and all…

A theory of motivation based upon attributions of causality for success and failure is offered. Three central causal dimensions are identified: stability, locus, and control; these dimensions, respectively, are linked with expectancy change, esteem-related emotions, and interpersonal judgments. A theory of motivation with implications for…

Mnemonic value of spellings in a paired-associate sound learning task was examined in first and second graders. Learning was fastest when correct spellings were seen or imagined. The preferred interpretation was that spellings are effective because they provide readers with orthographic images for symbolizing and storing sounds in memory.…

This research evaluated the effects of a design modification in an open-plan high school. The addition of several variable height partitions throughout the school reduced classroom interruptions and increased content questions. Hypotheses about specific design mechanisms contributing to environment-behavior congruence in open plan schools were…

College students' expectations for subsequent performance were manipulated by false evaluative feedback from instructors. Subjects then listened to an audiotaped lecture, and took an exam on the lecture. Subjects rated the instructor who gave the lecture. The evaluative feedback manipulation had a significant effect on subjects' performance and…

Hoyt recommends the use of norm groups, to adjust student ratings of instruction. Prior methods of generating norm groups relied upon the use of volunteer subjects. Results of the present study indicate that volunteer teachers' student ratings were superior to nonvolunteer teachers' ratings. (Author/RD)

A learning strategy system and a set of training procedures to facilitate the communication of this system to college-age students were developed. Students receiving this training exhibited significantly greater positive precourse-postcourse changes on comprehension/retention and self-report measures than did students in the control groups.…

Ten models are proposed for predicting a student's final grade placement in a computer-assisted instruction curriculum from the time the student spends taking lessons. Two of the simplest models, using only the most recent point and parameters estimated for the whole group, are best at prediction. (Author/RD)

College students attributed their own performance and the performance of the average student to ability, test difficulty, preparation, and luck. Successful students perceived internal factors and unsuccessful students perceived external factors as more important causes of their own performance. Students' anxiety and their ratings of the course and…

This study investigated age trends in children's explanations of their own academic successes and failures. Ability attributions for success and failure in reading were more effectively predicted by reading attainment in older than in younger children. Perception of own attainment was more accurate in older children. Sex differences were also…

The orienting role of objectives was examined in relation to text organization--defined in terms of ideational prominence of elements. Ideational prominence, which was manipulated, did influence learning, but lost its effect when relevant objectives were provided. Both orienting factors were also found to be little influenced by a time constraint.…

Previous "educational seduction" research suggested that teacher differences in expressiveness controlled the degree to which lecture content affected student ratings differently from student achievement. We attempted to replicate this Expressiveness x Content x Measures interaction in four simulated college classes. Student incentive and study…

The generalizability and validity of student ratings were examined by studying within-class and between-classes correlations of ratings with other variables for regular faculty and their teaching assistants. Most ratings are generalizable, but only some are related to learning. Certain aspects vary with instructor's role and the level of data.…

Gifted and nongifted children in grades 4 to 6 judged the importance of intelligence, creativity, and personal-social characteristics in teachers' classroom behavior. All children, regardless of intelligence, creativity, sex, or age, valued the intelligence domain of teacher behavior much more than the other two. (Author/RD)

Twenty primary abilities were measured using the Comprehensive Ability Battery. Factor analysis produced six oblique second-stratum factors. Four were identified as capacities in Cattell's triadic theory of ability structure. Correlations among factors yielded three oblique third-stratum factors. Implications for a hierarchical conceptualization…