The effect of anxiety on learning in a variety of educational contexts is examined, and two areas of anxiety research that are especially relevant to educational psychology are discussed in detail: the interaction between anxiety and instructional methods, and test anxiety reduction programs and their outcomes. (Author/RD)

Six investigations of the keyword method of foreign language vocabulary learning were conducted to evaluate differences found in highly structured laboratory-like settings. Two experiments produced keyword effects when the method was administered to small or classroom-sized groups of elementary school children. (Author/RD)

College students studied text about an imaginary solar system. Two cuing systems were manipulated to induce a single or double set of cues consistent with one or two sets of text propositions, or no target propositions were specified. Cuing systems guided construction and implementation of prose-processing decision criteria. (Author/RD)

Black first graders varying in internal-external control completed digit substitution problems during which performance was praised by a Black boy and girl or a Black man and woman. Boys were most responsive to peer feedback and girls to adult feedback. Predictions involving locus of control were modestly supported. (Author/RD)

Sixth-grade children classified as high or low in self-concept were given an achievement task on which they succeeded or failed. High, more than low, self-concept children attributed their success to the skill cue. High self-concept children also engaged in more self-reward for success. (Author/RD)

Two experiments with 100 undergraduates investigated effects of delay of feedback on immediate and delayed transfer tasks involving different pattern recognition strategies. Delay of feedback resulted in greater retention of the concepts underlying construction of the different patterns in all transfer tasks. Results support the Kulhavy-Anderson…

Epistemological beliefs of 146 male and 252 female university students were examined as a function of their educational level and field of study. Epistemological beliefs can be represented in terms of five factors. Students' beliefs about learning are a product of the activity, the culture, and the context. (SLD)

Studied prior knowledge as a mediator of effectiveness of the elaborative interrogation strategy for 50 male and 50 female undergraduates in a learning task. The elaborative interpretation group had significantly greater matching scores on an associative memory test for animal information than the control group only for familiar animals. (SLD)

A theoretical base is proposed for the current empirical literature on study skills. The proposed compensation model emphasizes the function of study activities as a subclass of cognitive skills aimed at cognitive control that compensates for limitations of the information processing system. A factor analysis confirms five basic structures. (SLD)

The Skills Reinforcement Project was designed to increase basic mathematics and language arts skills of disadvantaged and minority youth. Forty-five minority and economically disadvantaged sixth graders who participated in a 110-hour program made statistically greater gains in mathematics than 45 comparison sixth graders and nonsignificant gains…

Two experiments with 78 college students investigated the effect of visual display coherence and simultaneous presentation of visual displays and stories on detailed recognition memory. Results suggest that unification of the visual display has a detrimental effect on memory for detail. (SLD)

Studied interrelationships among metacognitive abilities at the word level (phonemic awareness and metacognitive abilities in word identification), word identification skills, and reading comprehension for 55 year-5 Australian students (aged about 9-10 years). Metacognitive abilities at word level are related to reading comprehension directly and…

Two studies with 33 reading-disabled and 31 non-reading-disabled second through fourth graders indicate that young disabled readers may not be able to hold phonemic information in their memories long enough to make adequate discrimination of phonological information within syllables. (SLD)

Directions for future research on goal theory are suggested. The need for greater specificity in construct definition and the possible contributions of constructivist perspectives on learning and instruction are considered. An investigation is proposed of the way social goals interact with mastery and performance goals. (Author/SLD)

The relative effectiveness of practice and motivation was studied with 18 sixth grade classes learning English usage. Results suggest that the most effective device for learning is to increase the amount of practice, while the prime function of motivation is to make the practice more palatable. (SLD)