The changes which occurred in man's view of the solar system from the time of Ptolemy to that of Galileo are presented. Contained is a brief review of the chain of events which resulted in the acceptance of a heliocentric system. Ptolomy's theory is described and a diagram illustrates the paths of the epicycle of Mars according to his geocentric…

Low (conjunctive), medium (disjunctive), and high (biconditional) level concept attainment problems were used to assess whether high level versus low and/or medium difficulty concept rules yield less positive transfer for observers than models. Direct learning and transfer of models was compared with vicarious learning and transfer of observers.…

The present study investigated the potential of modeling or observational learning in resocializing asocial psychiatric patients. Patients received one of three treatments: modeling, instructions, or attention. The effects of the treatment indicated that the modeling and instruction groups were of equal impact and superior to the attention group.…

Studied were the effects on observational concept learning of the experimenter as his own model, versus the experimenter plus a separate model, versus a nonmodeling (control) procedure, as well as the provision of favorable versus neutral outcome-expectation. (Authors/CB)

Results lend support to the notion that children at different ages are differentially responsive to various conceptual-strategy models. (Author)

The question-asking behavior of disadvantaged Mexican-American second-grade children was found readily modifiable using an adult model offering contingent praise. (Authors)

Relevance of cognitive and developmental variables to observational learning and imitation is also discussed. (Authors/MB)

This program was designed to examine the effectiveness of modeling in changing maternal behaviors. Results indicate that modeling can rapidly increase the mother's performance of information processing acts. (Author)

This study examined the effects of similarity to prior examples in predicting errors in dermatologic diagnosis. Two interpretations about the acquisition of expertise are independent cues and instance-based categorization. The subjects (N=16) were first-year family medicine residents from McMaster University (Ontario). (MLW)

The concept of cultural universals, the basic needs shared by people around the world, is a critical concept in assessing the impact of culture on decisions about the international marketing of goods and services. In most cases, international marketers have little need to understand all the ways in which their culture differs from the culture of…

Through an understanding of learning theories, both those that are cognitive in focus and those which rely on a stimulus-response paradigm, educators may come to a fuller knowledge of what is involved in languaging acts and to a more complete understanding of how to teach necessary communication skills. This paper provides a brief overview of…

Investigates the effects of a videotaped model upon children's verbal originality. Among the four experimental groups tested, it was found that the group who viewed the videotaped model had significant increases in both quantity and quality of divergent productions. (Author/DEP)

Presents a modified social learning theory account of the contribution of imitation to sex role development. Subjects of the two experiments described were elementary school boys and girls. (MP)

This discussion article addresses the nature of models used in hydrology. It proposes a minimalist classification of models into two categories: models built on data from observations of the processes involved, and those for which there are no observation data on any of these processes, at the scale of interest. (LZ)

Efforts to enhance student motivation can be more effective if they are approached from the perspective of psychological models of what drives human behavior including social learning theory, personal growth as a primary goal, cognitive development theory, self-efficacy theory, and expectancy-value theory. (Author/MLW)