This report describes a study of the use of social reinforcement to increase the industriousness, and subsequently the reading competence, of children in the kindergarten through third grade classes of the Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP) demonstration school. Teacher behaviors, pupil industriousness, and pupil reading performance were…

To increase the efficacy of visual instruction, more must be known about the operational forces within the image, and the determining factors in picture quality as a means of communication. The theory of information applied to this analysis of pictorial content, the fundamental thesis being that the value of an image depends on its content of…

This paper examines the development of visually evoked EEG patterns in retarded and normal subjects. The paper focuses on the averaged visually evoked potentials (AVEP) in the central and occipital regions of the brain in eyes closed and eyes open conditions. Wave pattern, amplitude, and latency are examined. The first section of the paper reviews…

The attending development module of the Early Education-Special Education Teacher Preparation Program at the University of Virginia deals with various aspects of attention in young children. Areas covered include: (1) developmental aspects of attention; (2) gaining and maintaining attention; (3) motivation and attention; (4) cognitive styles and…

A group of 24 seventh-grade students was involved in a meditation (zen) experience as a means of assessing the relationship of meditation to learning. Using a simple rote memory task as both a pre-test and a post-test the experimental group (N=16) showed a significant increase (.01) in the number of objects recalled, whereas with the control group…

A survey of research indicates that a high correlation exists between the attending behavior of beginning readers and their ability to learn to read. Level of attention can be associated with ability to ignore unrelated stimuli, interest in the reading material, perceptual problems, and the sex of the reader. It is suggested that sex differences…

A brief inservice program followed by supervisory prompts and feedback provided to 39 education staff in 21 classrooms serving 152 severely handicapped students was consistently accompanied by increased student involvement in functional educational tasks. Improved services continued throughout a two-year follow-up period. (Author/JW)

The percent and characteristics of children who produced invalid profiles on two different continuous performance tests (CPTs) tasks were examined. Sixty-one children referred for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessment and 24 non-clinical control children (all children ages 5-16) were given the Test of Variables of Attention…

This article reviews the literature on self-monitoring interventions with students having learning disabilities. It discusses results of self-monitoring studies in terms of major dependent measures, such as on-task behavior and academic productivity and accuracy. It then analyzes studies comparing effects of self-monitoring of attention and…

Disorders of attention, memory, and executive function are common sequelae of traumatic brain injuries in children. Intervention usually involves externally focused interventions aimed at changing the environment to minimize the dysfunction; internally focused interventions aimed at improving the underlying cognitive ability; or compensatory…

This study, involving a 10-year-old child with cerebral palsy and autism, found that the use of headphones resulted in an increase in on-task behavior whether stimuli were presented in an audiovisual mode, an audio-only mode, or a visual-only mode. Preference was for the auditory only or the mixed audiovisual stimuli. (DB)

Provides a critical review of recent research in metacognition and presents recommendations for assessing and improving metacognitive skills in trainees. Topics discussed include self-regulatory skills; training methods for problem solving; attention allocation; transfer of training; and cognitive-based techniques for task analysis and…

Two studies, each involving four intermediate grade students with learning disabilities, examined the differential effects of attention monitoring and performance monitoring on spelling study behaviors and story writing behaviors. Both interventions had a positive impact; neither was clearly or consistently superior to the other. (Author/JDD)

Effects of constant time delay, observational learning opportunities, and differential attentional cuing were examined during small-group instruction of three elementary students with mental retardation or at risk for learning problems. Findings support the salience of time delay in facilitating word acquisition in heterogeneous groups, and a…

This study examined the cognitive and neural development of attention switching using a simple forced-choice attention task and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Fourteen children and adults made discriminations among stimuli based on either shape or color. Performance on these trials was compared to performance during blocked trials…