Focusing on what authors can do to facilitate learning from content area textbooks, this report labels authors as "considerate," providing text that readers can understand with a minimum of cognitive effort, or as "inconsiderate," creating text that requires a conscientious, highly skilled effort if readers are to comprehend…

A comparative study of item analysis was conducted on the basis of race to determine whether alternative test construction or processing might increase the proportion of black enlisted personnel among those passing various military technical knowledge examinations. The study used data from six specialists at four grade levels and investigated item…

This experiment compared retarded and normal subjects at different developmental levels on visual (V) and haptic (H) matching tasks. Systematic observations of variables known to have developmentally linked effects on accuracy, including stimulus complexity and haptic exploratory search style, were made. Seventeen mentally retarded subjects, with…

This study assessed the construct validity of a cognitive structure interpretation of multidimensional scaling solutions of concept similarity data. Using high school subjects, convergent validity was assessed through correspondence of scaling solutions of three similarity rating tasks; word association, similarity judgment, and semantic…

Thirty-eight sixth grade students (20 good and 18 poor readers) were involved in a study that examined comprehension under oral and written modes of presentation and across four expository texts that had been prepared at two levels of difficulty (easy and hard). All subjects listened to and read the texts in a counterbalanced order and afterwards…

The purpose of this study was to clarify the age of emergence of differential attributions for the success and failure of girls and boys on feminine and masculine tasks. Subjects were 192 children attending either preschool or third grade. From this group 6 boys and 6 girls from each grade level were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions…

A sample of 48 second grade and fifth grade children, containing equal numbers of high and low ability readers, participated in a study that explored the degree to which oral and silent reading represented the same cognitive process for different age and ability level children. Their reading rates and comprehension scores for both oral and silent…

This annotated bibliography developed in connection with an ongoing investigation of the use of computer simulations for fault diagnosis training cites 61 published works taken predominantly from the disciplines of engineering, psychology, and education. A review of the existing literature included computer searches of the past ten years of…

Ninety Swedish teenagers and adults with varying levels of formal education were interviewed about their own learning experiences and techniques. Subjects were then asked what they actually meant by learning. The concept was variously defined as: (1) an increase in knowledge (merely a synonym for the word learning); (2) memorizing; (3) an…

On the basis of the grammatical theory developed by Noam Chomsky, it is reasonable to presume that the different parts of a sentence may not all be understood with equal facility and speed. One purpose of this study was to determine whether some of the grammatical relations within a sentence were understood more readily than others. Sentences of…

A test of problem solving behavior which provides information about the mastery of the prerequisites of the problems has been developed for fourth grade children. Each problem solving question is preceded by two other questions which assess the child's understanding of the information contained in the actual question, and an application question…

Four statistical methods for identifying biased test items were used with data from two ethnic groups (1,691 black and 1,794 white high school seniors). The data were responses to 150 items in five subtests including two traditional tests (reading and mathematics) and three nontraditional tests (picture number test of associative memory, letter…

In order to develop a scientific theory of curriculum, a method for measuring the curriculum-related planning activity of teachers is proposed. This choice of focus is based on the assumption that a logical connection can be made between the level of teacher planning, the quality of the resulting actions, and the corresponding goal attainment by…

This paper reports a pilot study of ecological variables in a kindergarten play area. Behaviors in ten complex categories were recorded for all children present in the area. The level of experimental control was similar to the level of control that the teacher would have in the manipulation of the normal classroom environment. Subjects were 20…

This technical report is in three parts. Part I is a conceptual treatment of communication in which the human being is viewed as a goal-attainment system. The goal-attainment problem is defined as a discrepancy between the current state of the system and a specified goal state. Several forms of the communicative relationship are outlined. Part II…