Hypotheses from self-efficacy theory in the area of children's arithmetic achievement were tested. It was hypothesized that compared with didactic instruction, cognitive modeling would result in higher arithmetic achievement, self-efficacy, and accuracy of self-appraisal. (Author/GK)

This article showed that students demonstrate individual differences in their composition of text. It was found that noncontingent students tended to write more creative essays and used more text-creative or schema-creative propositions in composing their descriptions than did the other two register groups (imitative and contingent). (Author/GK)

Three strategies for controlling concentration during academic tasks were evaluated: (1) self-initiated relaxation; (2) self-coaching; and (3) a combination of the first two types. Results indicated that the third strategy, significantly facilitated some aspects of academic performance. (Author/GK)

The confluence model of cognitive development was tested on 7,060 children. Family size, sibling order within family sizes, and hypothesized age-dependent effects were tested. Findings indicated an inverse relationship between family size and the cognitive measures; age-dependent effects and other confluence variables were found to be…

Combined teacher ratings of perceived cognitive competence and misbehavior accounted for the most variance in peer acceptance or rejection of educable mentally handicapped children. Ratings of academic competence were associated with both acceptance and rejection of educationally handicapped children (a category of low achievers used in…

A program title and an advance organizer were used in presenting affective television materials to large college-level classes of beginning v advanced chemistry. Results showed that the advance organizer significantly increased student comprehension but had negative affective consequences. Students' perceptions of the material's value and…

Efficiency was compared between three procedures for sequencing examples with minimal stimulus variation between adjacent positive and negative examples: dynamic, static, and static with maximal differences between pairs. For young children, increasing relevant feature saliency and altering a single stimulus to generate examples reduced training…

The effect of attitudes toward mathematics-related coursework, previous mathematics coursework, student sex, spatial ability, and masculinity-femininity of interest pattern on statistics achievement were studied in 188 graduate students. Sex-related differences were found in mathematics attitude, spatial visualization, and achievement in the…

Students' evaluations of teaching were validated against both cognitive and affective criteria of effective instruction. End-of-term ratings correlated more highly with the criteria than did the midterm ratings. Both cognitive and affective criteria were correlated with different components of the student ratings, but not with each other.…

Although girls and boys were similar in cognitive skills and attitudes toward mathematics in grade 8, boys performed significantly better in mathematics by grade 11, even with mathematics background controlled. No sex-related difference in spatial visualization developed. (Author/GDC)

Small graphic changes made in normal letters of the alphabet changed the similarity relations among those letters. Children and adults classified letters of this distinctive font faster and with fewer errors than they did normal letters. Relations between letters in the stimulus set determined how difficult any particular letter was to classify.…

Fifty-one very bright adolescents participated in a productive-thinking program and a challenging course in either creative writing or the social sciences. The program produced significant gains in verbal intelligence scores. The productive-thinking program also significantly raised scores on measures of creativity. (Author/GDC)

Senior high students who were given concepts simultaneously learned more than those who received concepts successively. A second variable, instructional control strategy, contrasted an adaptive (computer-assisted) control strategy with learner control. Performance was above the criterion level for the adaptive condition, but below it for learner…

In a study using 944 fourth and fifth graders, locus of control and depression were positively related. Three measures of achievement were negatively related to both external locus of control and depression. The negative relationship also held for intelligence quotient, although it was not as strong. (Author/GDC)

College teachers were evaluated as to appeal, competence, delivery, and teaching effectiveness and their presentations were analyzed to identify features of humor usage. Correlation coefficients were computed between frequency of use of various types of humor and students' evaluations of their professors. Results indicated differences between male…