The Learning Research and Development Center, an institute composed of faculty from the University of Pittsburgh, has as its general purpose the scientific study of the problems of learning and instruction. Particular attention is given to the nature of the educational and psychological environment required to maximize the potential of the…

The author's purpose in this paper is to explain and illustrate four principles for designing learning environments within which even young children can acquire complex symbolic skills with relative ease. After discussing the principles themselves and the theoretical system out of which they emerged, the author considers an illustrative…

This study tested the following hypotheses: (1) that children would use both verbal-associative and acoustic memory attributes when encoding words in memory, and that the recall of younger children would indicate dominance of the acoustic attribute while the recall of older children would indicate dominance of the verbal-associative attribute; (2)…

This study was undertaken to determine students' views of their experiences in studying the basic sciences in first year medical school. Emphasis was placed on the processes of learning employed. An instrument was developed consisting of verbs or phrases describing various behaviors performed by a scientist when doing science. Such activities…

The purposes of this study were to examine priority of recall of newly learned items (PRNI) from a developmental standpoint and to investigate whether preschool children are capable of using the attentional strategy employed by adults in free recall learning (FRL) of new items. In the first experiment the PRNI effect was examined from a…

Two experiments investigated the impact of immediate knowledge of a correct response (KCR) upon learning in programed instruction. The 356 subjects completed a programed lesson on myocardial infarction taught by means of the PLATO IV computer assisted instructional system. Subjects who received KCR after responding learned significantly more than…

The purpose of this research was to investigate the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) subtest scores of information (IN), arithmetic (AR), digit span (DS), and coding (CO). The subjects were all of the students admitted to and remaining in the Seattle Public School District #1 Learning/Language Disability (LLD) Program since…

Reports on two experiments which question the assumption that semantic processing is superior to nonsemantic processing, and which demonstrate that effective semantic elaboration cannot be equated with the quantity of semantically congrous information. (Author/AM)

Effects on learning of most principal independent variables can be generalized within, but not between, five different categories: intellectual skills, verbal information, cognitive strategies, motor skills, and attitudes. Psychological research has been and continues to be well-served by this categorization. (GC)

An overview and analysis of the use of learning hierarchies in instruction and research, examines some current research on learning hierarchies, and considers the implications of this research for instructional psychology and for theories of cognitive development. (Author)

Discusses the cognitive consequences of education, and reviews evidence which supports the hypothesis that differences in the social organization of education promote differences in the organization of learning and thinking skills in the individual. Proposes that new accommodations are needed between school-based learning and learning experiences…

A discussion of experiments with four-year-old children posed with the paired-associate task of learning where nine different animals lived, using apparatus designed for self-instruction through picture matching. (Author)

Based, in part, on a PhD Dissertation at the University of Oregon under Melton C. Martinson. (RJ)

The authors discuss the evaluation of mathematics learning at four levels: associative learning, concept learning, principle learning and problem solving. (MM)