Planning the menu for a dinner party, which involves problem-solving with a large body of knowledge, is used to study the daily operation of human memory. Verbal protocol analysis, a technique devised to investigate formal problem-solving, is examined theoretically and adapted for analysis of this task. (Author/MV)

A series of referential description tasks performed by normal and educationally subnormal children of equivalent mental age is reported, with the subnormal subjects consistently performing much worse than much younger children of normal intelligence. Aspects of performance and suggestions for improving communication skills are discussed. (MF)

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effect of aging on encoding and response selection stages of a choice reaction time task. Results suggested reducing stimulus discriminability may affect information processing prior to the encoding stage, but the encoding stage is the primary locus of the slowing which accompanied aging. (Author)

In a study of mastery learning involving student teachers, it was found that in intense, short-term instructional systems, less specific remediation is appropriate, while more detailed remediation is better when there are few time constraints. (Ed)

Two studies examined the cognitive-motivational differences between helpless and mastery-oriented children by analyzing the effects of failure feedback on problem solving strategies during testing and identifying semantic differences in children's verbalizations following failure on task. Subjects were fifth graders of both sexes. (CM)

The water jug task model was extended to four variations of the Missionaries--Cannibals river-crossing problem. Different cover stories resulted in large differences in number of illegal moves, but no difference in number of legal moves to solution. The three-stage process model explains both legal and illegal moves. (Author/GDC)

The aim of this study was to examine pattern difficulty as a general factor influencing orientation errors, and to explore psychological differentiation and task perception as variables accounting for cross-cultural differences. Samples of 30 boys and 30 girls in Ghana and Scotland were tested. (Editor)

A survey of 208 teacher aides in Ohio adult basic education (ABE) programs and interviews with 35 of the respondents were conducted to determine their basic job tasks, individual characteristics, and training needs. Results showed that aides' contributions to ABE programs are indeed significant. Four Modalitites of partnership between teachers and…

To improve resident assistant job performance in a large university setting, a six-hour training program was developed to increase the assertive behavior of resident assistants. The program combined assertive training techniques with simulated residence hall job performance situations. Results indicate significant increases for the training group…

This paper, a by-product of an extension of DOT to the Australian Census Classification of Occupations, attempts to validate worker function hierarchies in terms of worker traits. It shows that variation in worker traits across 21, 741 occupations listed in DOT is closely reflected in the 197 worker function profiles. (Author)

Four tasks which are frequently used to evaluate adolescent reasoning skill: (1) the pendulum task; (2) the ramp problem; (3) the cart experiment; and (4) the invisible magnetism experiment are analyzed to determine the Piagetian concepts that each measures. (CP)

Thirteen to fifteen year-old students from Denmark, Sweden, Italy, United States, Austria, Germany, and Great Britain were the subjects on this study of formal thought processes. Socioeconomic status, sex, and school organization provided additional categorization upon which the subjects were divided. Chi square analysis revealed some differences.…

The video tape recording is a valuable teaching tool in tennis instruction enabling the students to observe and evaluate mistakes. (JD)

Scheduling of planned activities in a classroom for 11 trainable mentally retarded adolescents was investigated. (Author/CL)