It was hypothesized that freedom to choose words to be learned, but not the actual choice of words per se, improves performance in paired-associate tasks. Subjects offered an attractive or meaningful choice performed significantly better than subjects offered an unattractive choice, which was equivalent to no choice at all. (Author/CP)

Retention and transfer of motor tasks was greater for high interference (random) acquisition groups than for low interference (blocked) acquisition groups. This effect was most notable when transfer was measured for the transfer task of greatest complexity. Results support Battig's conceptualization of contextual interference effects on retention…

Presented are questionnaire data for 1978-79 reported by 210 engineering and technical colleges and affiliate members of the American Society for Engineering Education. Questions were asked regarding engineering study and engineering research, such as graduate degree requirements, research areas of accepted doctoral theses, and personnel engaged…

The influence of televised modeling and modeling plus direct instruction was examined on the induction of complex forms of seriation behavior. The television only and TV plus direct instruction groups made significant gains from pre- to post-test, which were maintained during retention testing. Theoretical and training implications were…

Children's ability to produce and use natural language mediators on a paired-associate recall task requiring self-generated elaboration was analyzed. Elaborations were recorded and classified according to a semantic-syntactic scheme. Comparisons between grades were made to determine the effectiveness of elaboration categories in facilitating…

Programed instruction accelerated the ability of 62 children, ages four to six, in acquiring the concept of number conservation. (CP)

A theory is proposed of the processes which enable a subject to learn while solving a problem. One subject's protocol--including 224 steps and taking 90 minutes--is described. Adequacy of the mechanisms is guaranteed by a computer simulation of the processes in an adaptive production system. (Author/GDC)

Students in integrated classrooms were found to have significantly more positive attitudes toward physically disabled persons than students in nonintegrated classrooms. Females in both classroom types had significantly more positive attitudes toward the physically disabled than did their male counterparts. (Author/DS)

Criticizes empirical research on the use of evidence in argument for producing ambiguous and contradictory findings. Notes specifically the failure to provide precise conceptualizations and operationalizations for the evidence construct. Cites definitional problems and methodological considerations which contribute to the inadequacy of past…

The orienting role of objectives was examined in relation to text organization--defined in terms of ideational prominence of elements. Ideational prominence, which was manipulated, did influence learning, but lost its effect when relevant objectives were provided. Both orienting factors were also found to be little influenced by a time constraint.…

The Orientation and Motivation Inventory was administered to a sample of high school boys and girls and factor analyzed. Eleven factors for boys and ten factors for girls were extracted, confirming 10 of 12 postulated dimensions. (Author/JKS)

The degree of relationship between academic achievement, as assessed by college grade-point average, and information processing habits, as measured by the scales of the Inventory of Learning Processes (ILP) was investigated. Results specify differences in processing between successful and unsuccessful students. (Author/JKS)

There is no unemployment in mainland China, where the government uses work to control the lives of one-fourth of the world's population. From his 1978 trip, the author describes impressions of Chinese life and work in a still underdeveloped and largely unindustrialized country. (MF)

Seventy-six department heads were asked what responsibilities they believed were most important in their jobs and what responsibilities they considered themselves most competent to fill. (Author/MLF)

Using examples from an evaluation design of a bilingual preschool program, the authors have developed a paradigm resting on contextually based evaluation and involving implementation strategies and participant researchers. Multiple methods of gathering environment-specific data are used in the process. (MH)