Previous research has documented reliable effects of teachers' judgments or expectations, respectively, on their students' school performance. However, the importance of those effects has been controversially discussed because of their limited effect size. The impact of teacher judgments on students' lives might have been underestimated due to a…

Educational science has consistently examined what drives adolescents to aspire to occupations in math-related fields -- and which factors, such as gender stereotypes, may drive them away. In this study, we utilized a large longitudinal data set (N = 1,092) to test whether past grades, gender, and the math level of mothers' and fathers'…

The effects of ability performance goals, normative performance goals, and mastery goals on anxiety, interest, and performance were examined in a series of experiments. Challenging problem-solving tasks that would demonstrate the effects of each performance goal more clearly were designed. Groups of early adolescents (Study 1) and college students…

Teacher-report is commonly used to assess executive functions (EFs) in schools, but teachers' perceptions of EF skills may be biased by students' demographic characteristics. In this short-term longitudinal study, we assessed whether students' gender, ethnicity, and English language learner (ELL) status predicted teachers' reports of students'…

Twenty primary abilities were measured using the Comprehensive Ability Battery. Factor analysis produced six oblique second-stratum factors. Four were identified as capacities in Cattell's triadic theory of ability structure. Correlations among factors yielded three oblique third-stratum factors. Implications for a hierarchical conceptualization…

The study of ability factors in young children has passed the stage of demonstrating that separate factors exist, the effort now being devoted to systematic identification of measurable abilities. This study was designed to confirm some of the tentative abilities demonstrated in other studies and to extend the exploration into memory processes and…

How learning styles (massed versus distributed practice) influence the relationship between abilities and task performance was studied with 209 undergraduates. Analysis reveals that perceptual speed contributes to performance for subjects who massed practice, whereas spatial visualization contributed for those who distributed practice.…

Reading comprehension and vocabulary scores, and verbal and nonverbal IQ were significantly related to both simultaneous and successive processing ability in fourth grade Canadian boys. High levels of both types of processing ability are necessary for high achievement; high levels of one type only will result in moderate achievement. (Author/GDC)

Investigates the behavioral correlates of academic achievement and assesses the predictive value of combinations of discrete behaviors at the beginning and end of the school year. (Author/DEP)

The association of typical intellectual engagement with various abilities, and the association of such engagements with broader personality domain and available performance measures were studied with 138 undergraduate students (61 males and 77 females). Results demonstrate that individuals differ in typical intellectual engagement and that those…

Reanalysis of the factor analysis of S. Simpson, B. Licht, R. Wagner, and S. Stader (1996) of children's responses to four ability-related self-perceptions shows how applying a construct validity approach leads to conclusions opposed to theirs but still consistent with previous theory and research on academic self-concept. (SLD)

H. Marsh and A. Yeung have criticized the conclusions of the present authors with regard to academic self-concept as inconsistent with previous research. It is argued that this inconsistency is because items on the academic self-concept scales are not adequate for answering questions about children's differentiation of perceived ability and…

Results indicated that individual differences in learning ability cannot be accounted for in terms of individual differences in short-term memory. (Authors)