Forty-six junior high students were administered six tests after a variety of instructional units using PLATO and classroom instruction. Twenty-seven procedural errors in signed-number arithmetic problems were classified into two groups to facilitate investigating error changes at different times and designing remedial instruction. (BS)

Using 146 high school students, this research assessed the effects of aptitude, strategy training, and item characteristics on the strategic processes employed in the performance of spatial visualization tasks. Treatment effects were shown to depend on the subject's aptitude profile and on the characteristics of items. (BS)

Six studies were reported questioning the conclusions of Covington and Omelich that pride in success, shame in failure, and positive self-esteem are more closely linked with ability ascriptions than with effort. The research demonstrated that affective intensity is in part determined by the perceived importance of the task. (BS)

This rejoinder to Brown and Weiner (TM 509 074) attempts to resolve areas of apparent conflict and to offer a broad synthesis around the self-worth theory of achievement motivation. The different yet compatible aspects of attribution and self-worth theories in regards to achievement effort are discussed. (BS)

In response to Covington and Omelich (TM 509 075) four main empirical points of agreement regarding achievement strivings are summarized. Four issues concerning the interrelationship of effort and ability attributions and self-worth that need theoretical and empirical resolution are discussed. (BS)

The results of synthesizing 40 studies regarding the effects of gender characteristics of instructional materials on students indicate that sex-equitable materials can improve both male and female students' learning experiences and assist in developing gender-balanced associations and more flexible sex role attitudes. Effects on preference and…

Using data from the Survey of Basic Skills administered to approximately 300,000 California sixth graders, this study examines sex differences on two types of mathematics items. Probability for success is greater for girls in solving computations and for boys in solving story problems. Relationships to other influential factors are examined.

This study added extraneous information and increased syntactical complexity to determine the relative importance of computational and reading abilities in solving arithmetic word problems. Analyzing tests of 200 sixth graders indicated the combined abilities accounted for 54 percent of the variance in solution accuracy. (BS)

This study investigated the stability over time of: (1) student behavior in small groups; and (2) the relationships among student and group characteristics, group interaction, and achievement. Measurements were taken for two three-week instructional units, three months apart, on 110 students in three average-ability junior high school mathematics…

An intervention program, consisting of story grammar training and/or attribution training, was designed to remediate the failure of poor readers to use metacognitive skills. Using 42 fourth-grade poor readers in three different treatment groups, results showed strategic training produced dramatic gains in reading comprehension. (BS)

Students acquire information about their abilities by observing the differential treatment accorded high and low achievers. They then revise their own achievement expectations and perform according to the expectations perceived. This article reports the findings of two studies of elementary school reading classes that tested hypotheses derived…

Individual differences in the reading comprehension standards of 90 undergraduates were examined. Students were classified as having a dualistic or relativistic conception of knowledge by attitude measures. Data suggest that epistemological beliefs may dictate choice of comprehension criteria and that these epistemological standards may control…

This study compared teacher expectations for academic performance and future occupational status of White and Asian elementary schoolchildren. The effects of sex, social class, and the level of teacher authoritarianism were also examined. Six fictional student record cards were the basis for predictions by 25 White elementary school teachers. (BS)

This experimental study was conducted to: (1) provide further information on the susceptibility to special preparation of three Graduate Record Examination analytical item types; (2) determine the efficacy of self-study test familiarization materials for these types; and (3) ascertain the effects of several different components of special…

Exam-skilled, high-anxious college students performed comparably with skilled, low-anxious peers on the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices, yet significantly worse on the concurrent backward Digit Span test. Conversely, high-anxious, unskilled subjects were exceeded by low-anxious, unskilled peers on both tasks. (Author/BW)