Sixty second grade students participated in an investigation of the usefulness of an instructional technique, "story impressions," for improving readers' processing of unfamiliar narratives. Both above- and below-average readers in the story impressions group answered more postreading test questions correctly than did students who only read the…

Comparison of the effectiveness of inductive versus deductive teaching approaches in helping high school second language (French or Spanish) students (N=319) understand grammatical concepts found no significant differences between the two approaches, dispelling the long-held bias against inductive methods.(CB)

Examines the effectiveness of paper versions and computer versions of 10 ethical situations posed for student photojournalists. Finds that in-depth situations presented through computer software can give students more information on photojournalism ethics than 2-sentence scenarios on paper. (MS)

Compares information requirement-elicitation (IRE) methods for decision support systems (DSS) with knowledge acquisition (KA) methods for expert systems (ES) development. The definition and architectures of ES and DSS are compared and the systems' development cycles and IRE/KA methods are discussed. Differences are noted between ES and DSS…

Finds main effects for group but not gender. Finds that the combined use of direct and indirect measures appeared most effective in examining the complexities of writing produced by learning-disabled and nonlearning disabled college students. (RS)

Examines linguistic encoding of curricular knowledge in classroom testing events. Argues that dominant epistemological orientation of testing events is positivist and values a discrete, bounded form of knowledge. Compares the language of testing events and earlier lesson presentations of the same curricular information, suggesting that testing…

An exploratory study of six undergraduates under laboratory conditions aimed to clarify the role of explicit teaching of different kinds of second-language grammar rules. In this look at methodology, one hypothesis was supported: that explicit and deductive learning is better than implicit for simple categorical rules. (Contains 24 references.)…

Reports on a small-scale study of 13 dyads working at number tasks that found "sidework," a modified form of associative interaction, gave rise to more high order talk and to more posttest learning than did collaboration. Suggests sidework may have greater potential to enhance students' learning than the collaborative mode. (TJQ)

The utility of using the Keane Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Posttraumatic Stress Disorder scale as an instrument separate from the full MMPI was evaluated. Results with 175 African American and white male veterans support use of the scale as an alternative to the full test. (SLD)

Observations, supervisor reports, and self-reports were compared as measures of the use of hearing protection by blue-collar workers. Results with samples ranging from 48 to 318 workers support self-report as an appropriate method that may be the best choice when time and money restrict measurement. (SLD)

A maximum likelihood approach to correlational outlier identification is introduced and compared to the Mahalanobis D squared and Comrey D statistics through Monte Carlo simulation. Identification performance depends on the nature of correlational outliers and the measure used, but the maximum likelihood approach is the most robust performance…

In 4 experiments, 85 preschoolers and kindergartners had to pronounce the initial consonants of spoken words. Subjects' performance varied markedly with the linguistic structure of the words. Words with initial consonant clusters were more difficult than words beginning with a single consonant. Implications for phonemic awareness instruction are…

To alleviate the staffing pressures of increased demands for tours and classes at the Duane G. Meyer Library, Southwest Missouri State University, two HyperCard programs were developed--a library instruction text and a library orientation tour. A study of the relative effectiveness of the HyperCard text with paper texts for bibliographic…

An experiment with 766 homeowners compared 3 strategies for delivering radon test results to homeowners. Small improvements in consumer satisfaction were found for personalized messages (a telephone call or personal letter) over a form letter. No detectable improvement was found in recall of advice or compliance for any strategy. (SLD)

The algorithm developed by B. A. Schneider (1980) for analysis of paired comparisons of psychological intervals is replaced by one proposed by R. M. Johnson. Monte Carlo simulations of pairwise dissimilarities and pairwise conjoint effects show that Johnson's algorithm can provide good metric recovery. (SLD)