Studied the effects of goal setting and self-monitoring during self-regulated practice on the acquisition of a complex motor skill with 90 high school girls. Results indicate that girls who shifted goals developmentally from process to outcome goals surpassed those who had only process goals. (SLD)

In the continuation of an earlier study, 69 high school students who had completed an epistemological beliefs questionnaire in 1992 completed the questionnaire again as seniors in 1995. Beliefs in fixed ability to learn, simple knowledge, quick learning, and certain knowledge changed as they grew older. (SLD)

Data on academic self-concept, school grades, and teacher ratings of achievement were collected from 603 students for three high school subjects in each of three years. Structural equation models show reciprocal effects for prior achievement and academic self-concept for all subjects. Effects were largest for mathematics. (SLD)

Teacher, parent, peer, and self-ratings of social acceptance, academic and athletic competence, physical appearance, and conduct were obtained for 463 third graders and 434 sixth graders. The complexity of the relationships revealed among these variables has implications for the reflected self-appraisal process and for programs to enhance…

Two studies involving 253 Norwegian sixth and eighth graders found that self-defeating ego orientation was associated with high anxiety and negatively related to achievement and self-perception. Self-enhancing ego orientation was positively related to achievement, self-perception, and intrinsic motivation. (SLD)

Results of a cued-recall test taken by 152 Dutch fourth and sixth graders indicate that children who watch a children's news show on television recall more than those who read the same news in print regardless of reading proficiency or expectation of a memory test. (SLD)

Two experiments involving skilled readers (159 college students) explored the benefits to student attitude and content retention of adding emotional interest, through seductive text, or cognitive interest, through signals for structural understanding, to scientific text. Results support the benefits of cognitive over emotional interest. (SLD)

Results of a study with 52 dyslexic children and 52 normal readers show that reading acceleration through computer-controlled reading rates improves reading performance in both groups, but auditory masking by playing a song is beneficial only to the dyslexic children. Implications are discussed in terms of phonological processing. (SLD)

Regression-based procedures were used to identify 17 phonological and 15 surface dyslexics from a sample of 68 reading-disabled third graders by comparing them to chronological age controls. Defining dyslexic subtypes by reference to reading-level controls identified the phonological dyslexics, but only one of the surface dyslexics. (SLD)

Correlations between phonological, orthographic, semantic, metacognitive, and working memory measures were studied for 40 learning-disabled students and 40 skilled readers ages 8 to 12. Results suggest that the cognitive processes that contribute to reading deficits are best understood in the context of their combination with other operations.…

Spoken word recognition was compared in 39 reading-disabled and 61 normally achieving elementary school students on a speech gaiting task, and relationships among speech recognition, phonemic awareness, and reading were examined. Results support the argument that spoken word recognition may be developmentally delayed in those with reading…

Whether the information children express only in gesture can be understood by adults not trained in gesture coding was studied with 20 teachers and 20 undergraduates who saw vignettes of 12 children explaining solutions to equations. Both teachers and undergraduates frequently understood strategies children had not expressed in speech. (SLD)

Multiple-group structural equation modeling was used to analyze structural relationships between latent factors underlying measures of handwriting, spelling, and composing for students in grades one through six. Results with 300 children show that the mechanical skills of writing may constrain the amount and quality of composing. (SLD)

Evidence about the intuitive foundations for learning fractions was found in a study of early developments in proportional reasoning involving 60 children ages 5 to 7 years. Participants were able to use part-whole relations to compare proportions by 7 years. Increasing reliance on part-whole reasoning was observed with age. (SLD)

First graders at risk for handwriting problems (n=144) were assigned to 1 of 6 treatment conditions, including handwriting instruction and phonological awareness training. Converging evidence across multiple measures shows that combining numbered arrows and memory retrieval was the most effective treatment for improving both handwriting and…