We conducted 2 studies to (a) establish the usefulness of the construct of home chaos, (b) investigate its correlates, and (c) determine the validity of the Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale (CHAOS) used to measure the construct in each study. Study 1 relied on a sample of European American preschoolers and their mothers and Study 2 on a sample…

Children (ages 5, 7, and 9 years) and young adults completed two visual attention tasks that required them to make a forced choice identification response to a target shape presented in the center of a computer screen. In the first task (high correlation condition) each target was flanked with the same distracters on 80% of the trials (valid…

This study examined whether 2 aspects of disruptive behaviors (i.e., hyperactivity-inattention and aggressiveness-opposition) observed in kindergarten predict noncompletion of high school by early adulthood. Also investigated was whether other personal characteristics such as anxiety or prosociality as well as parent child-rearing attitudes and…

This study examined whether the differential maternal treatment of twins affected the twins' on-task behaviors in a teaching interaction. A total of 175 mothers and their same-sex 14-month-old twins were videotaped in their homes in triads. This was repeated for 170 of the families when the children were 24 months, and for 146 of the families when…

This case study describes an intervention to increase compliance with routine tasks in a 7-year-old boy with moderate mental retardation. Prior to intervention the boy was unable to complete a series of eight routine tasks associated with arriving at school and preparing for work. The highly structured intervention used picture prompts for each…

This study examines executive function and its relationship to attention dysfunction and working memory. It attempts to document the manifestations of executive function problems in school-related extended processing tasks, such as verbal problem-solving in math and reading of extended passages. Subjects (in grades 1-12) included 49 children with…

Statistical methods employed to test individual differences in dual-task performance and the existence of a general time-sharing ability are reviewed and critiqued. Specifically, both the types of data being collected and the types of data analysis procedures have been inadequate to the critical evaluation of a hypothetical…

The effectiveness of Oralographic reading instruction was investigated with a sample of 89 disabled readers in second to fifth grade from five cities; children in each city were randomly assigned to experimental or control groups. All children in the experimental group received reading instruction using the materials and procedures of the…

Research on teacher effectiveness addresses questions about how teachers bring about desirable student outcomes. Until recently, most research has focused on long-term outcomes, such as achievement gains over one year. Short-term outcomes--students' immediate responses to instruction--are also important. Four categories of short-term student…

A total of 286 subjects was presented with a series of motivations and asked to evaluate the relative importance of each in their exposure/avoidance decisions about watching sports programs on television. The 188 sports viewers assessed the importance of each motivation for their viewing of baseball, hockey, football, and tennis. The 98…

The problem of this conference panel was to explore attentional and motivational systems and the factors in classroom management that influence them. The contents of this panel report consist of three approaches to the problem: the study of the psychological state of children as they take part in schooling, with special consideration given to the…

A 3-year-old (severely retarded and visually impaired) was trained in a program emphasizing functional, age-appropriate visual motor tasks requiring use of vision for successful task completion. Use of a repeated prompting procedure was successful in establishing visual attention, and generalization of visual attention to untrained tasks was…

This study examined the relation between teacher suspicion of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and teacher ratings on common behavior measures used to identify and diagnose ADHD. The children, urban, Midwestern, African-American first graders, (N=372) completed the Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CPT), an objective measure of…

This action research project describes an intervention to increase attending and on-task behaviors in first- and second-grade students. The problem of inattentive behaviors was documented by means of teacher, student, and parent surveys and teacher observations. The intervention used behavioral management, organizational strategies, role playing,…

Summarizes the immediate and long-range effects of two classroom treatment programs on the academic achievement and nonattending behaviors of elementary school boys. Compares the teacher-training method and the direct intervention method of implementing management strategies in regular classroom settings. (SB)