Fifth-grade students classified as high or low in self-concept were paired in an achievement-related task in which one succeeded and one failed. High self-concept children attributed success more to their high ability and engaged in more positive self-reinforcement than did low self-concept children. Results were discussed within an attribution…

The effects of Teams-Games-Tournament (TG T), an instructional game employing biracial learning teams, on cross-racial friendships in integrated classes was examined in four experiments involving 558 students in grades 7-12. Sociometric measures and chi-square analyses indicated that TGT was an effective means of increasing cross-racial friendship…

Forty-three preschoolers learned the concept of one-to-one correspondence by matched discovery, expository, or observational learning. The groups did not differ on short-term recall and near transfer, but the discovery group excelled on far transfer and delayed recall. The effect of guided discovery on broader learning outcomes was also discussed.…

Two types of instruction were emphasized in the solution of insight problems. One study directed subjects to reformulate their initial view of the problem to avoid unnecessary assumptions about it; another required visualization of problem components. Results indicated that reformulation instructions contributed to performance, but visualization…

Undergraduate students took a multiple choice, computer assisted test and received feedback (items with the correct answers identified) either: (1) immediately, item-by-item; (2) following the entire test; (3) 24 hours later; or (4) no feedback. Retention one to three weeks later was significantly better for delayed feedback, and confidence…

Undergraduate student-initiated questions and responses were rated by trained observers during eight one-hour class sessions. In addition, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the State-Trait Curiosity Inventory, and the Tuckerman Teacher Feedback Form were administered. Results are reported for male and female students. (Author/JAC)

Teachers and peers rated retarded children on the dimensions of misbehavior and academic performance. Perceived academic incompetence was associated with educable mentally retarded children's level of social acceptance, whereas perceived misbehavior was associated with social rejection by peers. Amount of exposure to nonretarded children did not…

Fifth-grade children prerated both abstract and concrete nouns for likability, and paired-associate lists were constructed by pairing nouns. High self-concept children learned liked noun pairs more efficiently than disliked pairs, while the low self-concept children learned disliked noun pairs more readily. These self-concept patterns were most…

Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control Scale (I-E) and the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes were administered to 138 undergraduate students in a personalized system of instruction course. Results indicated that the I-E scale is related only to academic attitudes and that study habits are related to two measures of performance. (Author/JAC)

The use of an elaborative process by kindergarten children in the performance of verbally presented arithmetic addition problems was investigated. A static rather than dynamic verbally described relation between stimulus sets resulted in more correct responses for two of nine Developmental Level X Prompt Condition groups, supporting the use of…

A simple-structure factor analysis of test data from 149 sixth-grade children in Norway was conducted. Broad factors were interpreted to represent Visualization, Speediness, and Fluency, as well as Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence. The results are discussed in relation to the Cattell-Horn theory of intelligence. (Author/JAC)

Ten nursery school children who knew how to count but were unacquainted with arithmetic were taught a simple algorithm for solving single-digit addition problems and were then given extended practice. The reaction time on the final block of extended practice suggested that subjects had invented a more efficient procedure to replace the original…

Experiments with 81 college students and 48 fifth graders investigated the role of one form of intra-word orthographic redundancy--the characteristic asymmetric spatial distributions of letters of the alphabet across serial positions within words. Adults were sensitive to letter positional distributions, as were fifth graders who were good…

Performance of over 200 third and fourth graders on a post test and a two-month follow-up measure showed that groups receiving lessons based on a task analysis instructional design performed significantly better than groups receiving placebo lessons at two levels of advanced mastery for the concepts, "equilateral triangle" and "tree." (Author/CP)

Research on teacher effects should be reconceptualized by a psychological model which incorporates human learning and information processing perspectives. Exemplary areas of research include teacher decision making strategies, student cognitive processes, and teacher-student interactions in the classroom. (CP)