This symposium paper describes 2 experiments in which the principles of observational learning were applied in school settings to the treatment of 2 separate groups of test-anxious junior high school students. The first experiment was designed to test the assumption that the counter-conditioning responses thought to occur in systematic…

If students have control over learning devices such as tape recorders, do they learn more? That was the question which this experiment tried to answer using three different situations. In situation A, the subject had no control over the tape playback once the lesson had been started. In situation B, the subject could stop the lesson to take notes…

Seven studies were conducted to investigate the interactions between imagery-ability and experimental treatments that parallel instructional procedures. The general orientation of the studies was to extend the concepts of imaginal and verbal coding systems to include individual differences in symbolic habits. Thus all the studies took into account…

This study investigates the hypothesis that it is mixed-dominance among left handers (i.e. left handedness and right eye and/or foot dominance), that is related to academic learning difficulties among such individuals, rather than the generally held notion that their difficulties stem from the fact that they are left handers in a "right…

In this investigation of potential sources of individual differences in free-recall learning and retention by children, learning ability is defined in terms of performance on a free-recall test with the upper and lower thirds of the distribution typically being defined as fast and slow learners. Variables concerned with short-term memory,…

Primarily a longitudinal and quantitative analysis of achievement functioning, this experiment sought to identify factors which promote or impair the learning of individual children. The 683 Junior High students were divided into one of eight groups according to sex, race and whether their seventh grade Iowa Test of Basic Skills Composite score…

This study investigates the relationship between temporal organization and the rate at which discrimination-reversal learning mastery occurs within sixth-grade students. Subjects were 22 male and 30 female students from a predominantly white, middle class rural school. Temporal behavior was assessed with a task that had subjects reproduce standard…

Assesses the physics, chemistry and biology content of the Nuffield Combined Science Course used in British schools by experimental testing to children's understanding of the course. A model by which the pupils' achievement is mapped to an estimate of their maximum Piagetian level of thinking is presented. (HM)

Discusses briefly Piaget's views on intellectual development as related to science teaching. Describes intellectual activities observed in science classrooms and shows how specific science lessons can be designed to encourage cognitive development. (GA)

Investigated the relationship between syntactical complexity of high school students' written language and their ability to reason formally. Format reasoning ability of 50 high school students was measured by a 15-item group-administered demonstration test developed by Lawson. (HM)

The hypothesis that "on a new task, elementary school children would perform relatively better on the egrule (discovery) method, and that high school children would perform relatively better on the ruleg (expository) method" was tested by G. D. Hermann (1971). This study replicated Hermann's research using only one of his tasks (map reading) and…

To examine the efficacy of using generic categories and programs that include educable mentally retarded (EMR), learning disabled, and emotionally disturbed children, 40 educationally handicapped and 20 EMR children (9 to 13 years old) were compared using five problem-solving tasks. (IM)

Presents a written narrative on adult education principles that is given to experts from various fields involved in planning or implementing nursing continuing education programs. This narrative covers seven important factors in the teaching of adults and for each one includes one or more adult learning principles and their adult education…

The author criticizes some highly publicized psychological research on the development of number concepts, arguing that the research was poorly executed and emotively reported. (SD)

A review of literature including a summary of pertinent studies on middle-aged and older workers in five broad categories: physical capacity, learning ability, job performance, performance in training, and worker attitudes. (ABM)