An investigation was made of the relationships between creativity and factors associated with the aging process of retired and current artists over the age of 65. Its focus was to determine differences among three groups of creative people--continuing artists, retired artists, and new artists--in terms of their views of how aging affects…

This Spanish-language master's thesis presents a study which measured special education teachers' knowledge of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) virus transmission and their attitudes toward children with AIDS in schools. Attitudes were then related to social variables such as sex, teacher's age, and knowing someone with AIDS. A survey of…

This issue of the newsletter "Prevention Forum" focuses on smoking among adolescents. The articles are as follows: (1) "Where There's Smoke--Will Prevention Put Out the Fire?" (Joanne Burgess), an overview of the Surgeon General's report "Preventing Tobacco Use among Young People," including interviews with prevention…

This study investigated teacher and peer perceptions of aggression in minority elementary school students enrolled in three urban public schools in southern California. Students (N=650) in grades 3, 5, and 8 were rated by teachers and completed a peer assessment questionnaire. Boys received significantly more peer nominations for aggressive…

Participants in a program to raise the academic achievement of at-risk elementary school students in the Newark (New Jersey) School District by raising their self-esteem showed both increased self-esteem and achievement gains. The program included individual and group counseling sessions, parent participation, and the use of the Toward Affective…

This technical report describes a series of three studies designed to instruct students in the relationship between texts, comprehension questions, and two sources of answer information--the text to which a given question refers and their own background knowledge. The focus of the technical report is on individual differences in the amount and…

Though many theories of the greater impact of a spouse's death on men than on women derive some support from role theory, little empirical data exist to support the hypotheses. Behavioral studies of widowhood have focused on social participation as a determinant in coping, without studying the survivor's degree of social involvement before the…

A study examined the differences in the appreciation of language ambiguity as represented in the word play of children aged 6 through 11 years. In six weekly play sessions, students were read stories containing many lexical ambiguities and pictures and were invited to verbalize and to draw similar ambiguities. Criteria necessary to the…

A study investigated differences in writing processes among second year (age 10) and fourth year (age 12) English school children using a modified protocol procedure thought to be less distracting to the writing process. Four children from each grade level wrote a descriptive paper, and their spontaneous comments during the writing period were…

A study was conducted to determine the effects of age, verbal ability, education, reading habits, and recall strategies on prose recall among adults. Subjects were 422 adults in three age groups--young (18-28 years), middle (40-54), and older (62-80). They were asked to read and recall in writing two 388-word prose passages and to answer questions…

A study examined developmental trends in the quality and outcomes of disagreements occurring in the conversation of small groups of acquainted peers. Specifically, the study focused on the relationship of disagreeing and arguing sequences to the general level of topical coherence achieved in the conversation as a whole. Five discussion groups,…

Research has shown that many behaviors previously thought to be purely psychological in origin do, in fact, have a physiological basis. To examine the relationship of smoking behavior to locus of control, and to attitudes toward, knowledge about, and behavior with respect to nutrition, 116 Canadian undergraduate students completed the Nutrition…

Previous research on intelligence and aging has relied on tests developed for younger adults, which often incorporate many factors that could impede optimal performance in elderly populations. To investigate short-term longitudinal changes in memory, intelligence, and perceived competence in everyday situations among older adults, 227 adults were…

Building on previous research indicating that among first, third, and fifth graders, older children expect affective expressive behavior to be regulated, a study was made of children's beliefs about rationales for and consequences of regulated affective expressive behavior. Children's beliefs were examined in conjunction with their parents' (1)…

Examined were the effects of chronological age and mental age on the understanding of logical rules by four subject groups (10- to 14-years-old): 10 average IQ Ss, 10 learning disabled Ss, 10 older educable retarded Ss and 10 younger educable retarded Ss. (Author/CL)