The influence of an adult model's degree of persistence and statements of confidence were studied with 100 first and second grade Black and Hispanic children from a lower-class, urban school. The model duration of performance and statements of confidence increased the children's degree of persistence. (Author/GK)

This investigation provided empirical data and addressed theoretical issues regarding the Educational Set Scale (ESS) and theory. An expanded model is proposed and directions for future research are suggested. (Author/GK)

The influence of elated and depressed moods on affective evaluation of sentences and efficiency in learning these sentences was explored. Results indicate that elated moods facilitate clear differentiation between pleasant and unpleasant sentences as well as remembering them, whereas depressed moods lead to indifferent evaluations. (Author/GK)

This study investigates the unique and common contributions of global self-concept, academic self-concept, and need for academic competence to the variance in academic achievement of inner-city, Black adolescents. Results indicate that academic self-concept and need for academic competence accounted for significant proportions of criterion…

This study examined the effects of a particular model of direct instruction, focused instruction (FI), and two alternative student evaluation structures, individual learning expectations (ILE) and relative standing (RS), on students' mathematics achievement and attitudes. Results indicated that focused instruction and certificates of recognition…

The relationship of family constellation and sociocultural variables to intellectual performance was examined. A language/schooling factor consisting of language of child and parents, parents' schooling attainment, and country of parents' education was the best predictor of intellectual performance. (Author/GK)

Learning disabled and slowly developing readers were assigned to reading instruction programs on context cue use differing only in extent of pupil control over determination of errors. Results indicated no main effect for experimental condition. Interaction was found, however, between pretreatment locus of attribution and experimental condition.…

Literature generated by Liebert and Morris's two-component conceptualization of test anxiety, and other related theoretical and research programs are reviewed. Recent advances in assessment are noted and a revised worry-emotionality questionnaire is presented, along with the factor-analytic evidence on which it is based. (Author/GK)

This article reports an experimental study of the impact of textbook availability on mathematics achievement of students in Nicaraguan first-grade classes. This intervention is compared with control classes in which textbooks are rare and with a radio-based instructional program using student worksheets. (Author/GK)

Empirical validity of nonoverlapping scores of original problem solving on a lenient solution-standard predictor was evidenced in college students by high correlations with corresponding scores on stringent solution-standard criterion tasks. Findings support the construct validity of conceptualizations of original problem solving based on…

Two studies are reported that examine intraindividual variability in performance on measures of fluid intelligence, varying either practice or testing time conditions. Substantial improvement in level of correct performance is obtained for both conditions; error patterns, however, differ for the two. (Author/GK)

Two studies were conducted to determine whether students perceive meaningful influence patterns among the causal variables involved in determining exam performance. It was observed that the students perceived a number of both unidirectional and bidirectional intercausal effects; these were related to both perceived success and causal attributions.…

This study addressed whether students could change their reading rate when presented with two clearly explicated purposes for reading. Results indicated that students could adapt their reading rate to fit different purposes but that passage difficulty affected the degree of flexibility. (Author/GK)

Matched pairs of skilled and less skilled readers read aloud material in cloze procedure format and printed in geometric transformations. Skilled readers made greater use of grammatical and contextual information. The stability of differences suggests that differential utilization of syntactic and semantic cues contributes to differences in…

Reading disabled children were given direct instruction on a medial vowel sound, practice on monosyllabic words containing the sound, and specific transfer training on nonsense syllables. Word attack strategy was varied for the five treatment groups. The initial bigram strategy yielded significantly better performance on transfer words. (Author/BW)