The study of literature has many important benefits for students, but research shows that students often have difficulty interpreting literary texts, are unable to read critically, and are challenged to write interpretations that go beyond basic plot summary. This article provides a theoretical interpretation of the processes by which students…

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether the learning benefits of self-controlled knowledge of results (KR) would generalize to children. Specifically, the authors chose 10-year-old children representative of late childhood. The authors used a task that required the children to toss beanbags at a target. One group received KR…

An experiment was conducted to determine the impact of an auditory model on blocked, random, and mixed practice schedules of three five-segment timing sequences (relative time constant). We were interested in whether or not the auditory model differentially affected the learning of relative and absolute timing under blocked and random practice.…

The purpose of this exploratory and small-scale study was to examine the instructional effects of different chunking strategies used to complement animated instruction in terms of facilitating achievement of higher order learning objectives. Eighty-five students were randomly assigned to three treatment groups: animated program instruction, simple…

This longitudinal study was designed to (a) examine changes in children's deliberate memory across the 1st grade; (b) characterize the memory-relevant aspects of their classrooms; and (c) explore linkages between the children's performance and the language their teachers use in instruction. To explore contextual factors that may facilitate the…

This study outlines the construction of a tool to enhance the competence of foreign language teachers in estimating the effectiveness of language-learning tasks. Five assumptions basic to second-language acquisition are crucial to the design of the tool. Subsequently, drawing on insights from cognitive psychology about information-processing, a…

This study investigated three of the issues recently raised in connection with the traditional concept of foreign language aptitude: the relationship between foreign language aptitude and working memory and phonological short-term memory capacity, the role of foreign language aptitude in predicting success in the framework of focus-on-form foreign…

The author's secondary school mathematics students have often reported to her that quadratic relations are one of the most conceptually challenging aspects of the high school curriculum. From her own classroom experiences there seemed to be several aspects to the students' challenges. Many students, even in their early secondary education, have…

The theory of signal detection is convenient for measuring mnemonic ability in recognition memory paradigms. In these paradigms, randomly selected participants are asked to study randomly selected items. In practice, researchers aggregate data across items or participants or both. The signal detection model is nonlinear; consequently, analysis…

Memory plasticity, or the ability to improve one's memory performance through instruction and training, is known to decline during adulthood. However, direct comparisons among middle childhood, adulthood, and old age are lacking. The authors examined memory plasticity in an age-comparative multisession training study. One hundred and eight…

Has it ever seemed to you that some students are hardwired to dislike math? If so, then here's a book that explains how negative attitudes toward math get established in the brain and what you can do to turn those attitudes around. Math teacher and neurologist Judy Willis gives you over 50 strategies you can use right away in any grade level to:…

The ability to compute, problem solve, and apply concepts and skills in mathematics influences multiple decisions in our lives. The National Research Council (1989) reported that mathematics is especially evident in our technology-rich society, where number sense and problem solving skills have increased the importance and demands of advanced…

This experimental investigation replicates previous investigations of the effects of left margin screen background color hue to signal lesson sections on declarative knowledge and extends those investigations by adding a measure of structural knowledge. Participants (N = 80) were randomly assigned to receive 1 of 4 computer-based lesson treatments…

This study investigated the phonological processing skills of 29 children with prelingual, profound hearing loss with 4 years of cochlear implant experience. Results were group matched with regard to word-reading ability and mother's educational level with the performance of 29 hearing children. Results revealed that it is possible to obtain a…

Two related topics of interest to educational psychologists are those of meaningful versus rote learning and discovery versus reception techniques of teaching. (CK)