Examines three instructional designs involving new interactive media: scenario-based, hypermedia, and parallel system designs. Hypotheses about their learning effects are advanced, based on findings in three areas of research: intrinsic motivation, aptitude for learning, and learner control of instruction. (14 references) (LRW)

Discusses new theories of feedback which suggest that all students may not benefit from immediate, positive feedback, depending on their level of ability and the difficulty of the task. Cognitive interpretations of feedback research are reviewed, including motivation to learn, and applications to instructional design are presented. (LRW)

This review of the research on aptitude-treatment interaction (ATI) discusses four methods or assumptions that might explain why ATI research has not generated the anticipated empirical support: (1) the lack of a theoretical base; (2) disagreement over what a given aptitude means and how it should be measured; (3) difficulties in defining…

A media attribute approach was used in a study which hypothesized that compositional syntactic placement may bridge the processing link between the learner's cognitive capacity and the demands of a simple concept attainment task. Compositional syntactic placement refers to the relative horizontal position of the primary symbol or object within a…

This book contains a snapshot of state-of-the-art research on the design of automated instructional systems. Selected cognitive psychologists were asked to describe their approach to instruction and cognitive diagnosis, the theoretical basis of the approach, its utility and applicability, and the knowledge engineering or task analysis methods…

Reviews cognitive research related to computer-based instruction in the areas of motivation; the relationship between computer-assisted instruction and learning; learner control; transfer of learning; hemispheric dominance; and anxiety. Design professionals are urged to consider congitive views. (MBR)

Current issues in educational communications and technology are addressed in this collection of 51 papers, which are mainly research reports. The first five papers were prepared for a symposium on the status of research in instructional technology, an introduction and four discussions of divergent points of view in the current controversy over the…

A prescriptive theory for learning which delivers prescriptions for designing prototypes of instructional materials with different knowledge structures, the Elaboration Theory of Instruction (ETI) is based on important principles and theories of learning and instruction. This paper reports three experiments which tested ETI. The first experiment…

Describes a British study with undergraduate accountancy students which compared the quantitative and qualitative effects of three types of embedded tasks or questions--relational-semantic, transpose-semantic, and non-semantic--on learning outcomes. Variables investigated included mathematical background, recall, and comprehension. Relevance of…