Examined possibility that arousability as manifested in sensitization contributes to individual differences in infants' attentional profiles. Sensitization tended to occur more frequently with more complex than with less complex checkerboards. Infants showing sensitization looked longer and did not habituate as readily as infants who showed no…

Interviews with 10 high school students with learning disabilities identified 3 themes concerning homework: (1) factors that make homework easy (such as assigning homework early in the class); (2) factors that make homework difficult (such as low ability); and (3) recommendations for teachers, students, and parents (for example, students should…

It is often presumed that software technology will increase group productivity, but this may not be the case. Examines the impact of technology on time-to-complete-task, member satisfaction, perceived information load, number of contributing transactions, and task complexity. Three appendices provide examples of complex and simple tasks and the…

Results of three studies, involving 606 high school and college students, show that the perceived randomness of a sequence is better predicted by its encoding difficulty than its objective randomness. Results imply that judging the extent of randomness of a sequence is based on the attempt to encode it. (SLD)

The degree to which an undergraduate mathematics curriculum matched the item difficulty levels of representative mathematics problems based on that sequence was studied with 62 items and 423 undergraduates and 937 high school seniors. Results suggest congruence between curriculum sequence and item difficulty levels. (SLD)

Addresses difficulty levels and the importance of providing experience at all levels. Levels are count and land, at which children do not understand if the number arrived at is reasonable; number sense and relationships, where children are developing a sense of reasonableness; and parts of numbers, when children are able to work flexibly with…

Four autistic children, age 8-15, exhibited fewer correct responses to a stimulus as the number of stimulus components was increased from 1 to 4. Training was effective in producing some generalized increases in responses to complex stimuli. (Author/JDD)

Linguistic performance of 7 children (mean age=68 months) with spina bifida, hydrocephalus, and average intelligence was evaluated. Subjects dealt with the semantic-pragmatic requirements of linguistically posed problems in an age-appropriate manner. Performance declined as task demands increased but no more than performance of nondisabled…

Describes knowledge mapping, a tool developed to increase the objectivity and accuracy of task difficulty ratings for job design. Application in a semiconductor manufacturing environment is discussed, including identifying prerequisite knowledge for a given task; establishing training development priorities; defining knowledge levels; identifying…

Severely hearing-impaired students (n=187, ages 7-23) at eight reading levels were evaluated to determine their ability to comprehend common English modals. Although subjects' modal comprehension improved with reading level, subjects at the highest reading levels did not demonstrate complete mastery of modals. Modals tended to be acquired in a…

Seven rigidity tests varying in difficulty were administered to 45 retarded subjects, with a mean age of 10, and 45 mental age-matched nonretarded subjects. Subjects did not differ on 3 easy tests, but retarded children were more rigid on 4 difficult tests. (Author/JDD)

Examined the ability of students at different achievement levels to understand worksheet directions and accurately identify the reasons for completing worksheets. The cognitive processes that students employed when they read directions were also examined. (PCB)

Investigated ability of 32 children from grades one, three, five, and seven to distribute study time so that certain units of material were given more emphasis than others (differential allocation) and determine how much study time was needed to meet the study goal (sufficient allocation). Age differences, effect of order of study, and allocation…

Discusses the importance of providing enough activity choices for young children during outdoor play. Defines simple, complex, and super play units. Describes the application of an equation for determining the number of available play spaces in a playground. (RJC)

The effect of using statistical and cognitive item difficulty to determine item order on multiple-choice tests was examined, using 120 undergraduate students. Students performed better when items were ordered by increasing cognitive difficulty rather than decreasing difficulty. The statistical ordering of difficulty had little effect on…