Teachers' judgments of the aptitudes of hypothetical students and decisions about classroom organization and management were examined using a policy-capturing approach. Teachers' decision policies could not be represented by a single set of common regression weights. Rather, for each judgment, teachers' decision policies were essentially…

The effect of free- versus no-talk conditions between target and peer subjects under vicarious reward conditions was examined. Data collected from fourth graders on an alphabet reproduction task showed that vicarious reinforcement effects occurred when verbal communication of reward enjoyment to nonreward subjects was possible. (Author/BW)

Text information relevant to questions was learned better than text information irrelevant to questions. Results are predicted by a theory that readers selectively allocate a greater volume of attention to question-relevant information, and that a process supported by the additional attention causes more of the information to be learned.…

Learning-disabled (LD) students showed significantly less argument on the importance ratings of story idea units than did normal students. Cue selection before recall depressed performance of the LD subjects relative to that of normal college students. (Author/PN)

The relationships among students and group characteristics, group interaction, and achievement in cooperative small groups were investigated. Three categories of interaction were related to achievement: receiving no explanation in response to a question or error was negatively related to achievement; giving explanations and receiving explanations…

It is suggested that the classical conservation justifications (reversibility, compensation, identity, identity action) are both formally and empirically inadequate justifications for the conservation deduction, particularly from a pedagogical perspective. A test for the distinction between true and empirical reversibility, that subjects know of…

This study compares college freshmen's reading test scores over 50 years. The 1978 freshmen at the University of Minnesota scored significantly lower than their 1928 counterparts on vocabulary, comprehension, and reading rate. (Author/PN)

The effect of educational television background music on selective exposure and information acquisition was studied. Background music of slow tempo, regardless of its appeal, had negligible effects on attention and information acquisition. Rhythmic, fast-tempo background music, especially when appealing, significantly reduced visual attention to…

Students perceive low achievers as the recipients of more frequent negative feedback and teacher direction and of more work and rule orientation than high achievers. High achievers are seen as receiving higher expectations and more opportunity and choice than low achievers. (PN)

The keyword method of vocabulary learning was compared with five methods designed to increase semantic processing of the definitions of vocabulary words. The method enhanced vocabulary/definition (associative) learning, but not definition (response) learning per se. In contrast, the semantic conditions tended to increase nonassociative learning of…

The procedures for (1) assessing the heterogeneity of a set of effect sizes derived from a meta-analysis, (2) testing for trends by means of contrasts among the effect sizes obtained, and (3) evaluating the practical importance of the average effect size obtained are described. (Author/PN)

The relationships among scores on traditional college entrance tests and scores on an essay placement test for women and men and four ethnic groups were examined. The tests correlated highly with essay performance. However, women tended to be underestimated and men and ethnic minorities overestimated by these measures. (Author/PN)

The amount and type of peer interaction occuring in four racially mixed eighth grade classrooms were explored. Analysis of the interactions suggested that cross-race interactions of all groups were more task-related than within-race interactions. In turn, within-race interactions were more social than cross-race interactions. (Author/PN)

The present findings imply that a readability formula is not an effective writing production criterion, even when the writer does not deliberately write to the formula. Comprehensibility of text might be better controlled through the proper use of the transformer concept (MacDonald-Ross and Waller). (Author/PN)

A promising line of inquiry concerning the development and use of formal operations strategies is presented and a number of conceptual and empirical questions are raised. (Author/PN)