With a clearer understanding of the way humor works, individuals might be better able to give it the attention it deserves when they study and teach the arts. But where do they turn to find a theoretical framework for the study of humor--one that will help them clarify the role that humor plays in the arts and that will help them as well to…

This paper argues that if education practitioners, policy-makers and researchers are to gain insights from new forms of online self-representations, there is a need to take stock of research involving homepages in order to identify important methodological issues and lessons that need to be addressed in future research. Home page authorship…

Identifies two fundamental properties of questions, i.e., they have a structure that consists of a subject and a query, and they presuppose a limited number of basic categories of human thought. A system for classifying questions by conceptual presupposition is proposed to assist information professionals in handling user questions effectively.…

This paper explores the issue of the social relevance of instructional technology research, and examines the state of research in the field today. A modification of Dick and Dick's (1989) research article classification scheme is used to categorize the field's research literature. This new classification scheme represents an effort to distinguish…

This review of abstracting policies used by database producers focuses on the degree to which these policies incorporate criteria vital for acceptability of abstracts for free-text searching. Each topic in abstracting policy (abstract type, length, content, and language) is examined to consider its effect on retrieval. (MBR)

Reviews the present status of the categories developed by the Writing Research Unit at the University of London for classifying discourse function. (HOD)

Examines the implications of cognitive psychology for some of the fundamental components of instructional development. Behaviorism and information processing are compared in their relationships to instructional design, and potential changes for such ideas as objectives, evaluation, instructional taxonomies, content analysis, and instructional…

Provides a classification scheme for recognizing and analyzing the elements of graphic persuasion embodied in political cartoons. (PD)

Presents findings from a search of 21 years of National Society for Performance and Instruction (NSPI) publications and conference programs undertaken to determine yearly trends in number of articles and talks, organizational affiliations of speakers and writers, types of presentations, and topics. A context taxonomy and recommendations are…

Describes functions comprising task analysis process--inventory, description, selection, sequencing, and analysis--and reviews distinctions between the micro/macro level, top-down/bottom-up, and job/learning task analysis processes. These functions and distinctions are combined into a quasi-algorithm suggesting which of 30 task analysis procedures…