The paper reviews research on the cognitive structures of gifted students. Theories of R. Sternberg and his triarchic model of intelligence are described. Sternberg asserts that three processes appear to account for insight: selective encoding, selective combination, and selective comparison. H. Gardner's perspective citing six types of…

Meta-analyses of the hypotheses that relationships exist between play and problem solving, and between play and creativity, were conducted. The data set for the meta-analyses included studies designed to investigate the relationship between play and fluency or originality, or between play and problem-solving behavior. The meta-analyses of…

Several developments in the use of the new method of meta-analysis give cause for optimism. First, different meta-analysts are doing work in the same areas, leading to increased confidence in meta-analytic results. Second, meta-analysts are beginning to include raw data in their reports, which helps readers pinpoint the exact studies that lead to…

Results of a study of 47 smoking and 29 alcohol school-based programs indicate that smoking and alcohol interventions have modest effects on immediate behavioral outcomes. Smoking interventions have been more successful than alcohol interventions at altering students' long-term behavior. (JOW)

Three meta-analyses by C. J. Garrett (1984, 1985), P. Kaufman (1985), and W. S. Davidson and others (1984) of juvenile delinquency interventions are summarized. This systematic literature review indicates that interventions to reduce juvenile delinquency may have small, but meaningful, impacts. Promising avenues for future research are suggested.…

Meta-analysis of the literature (47 studies) comparing spatial task performance of blind and sighted subjects found that early onset (of blindness) groups generally showed poorer performance than either the late onset or the sighted groups. (Author/DB)

Meta-analysis is a set of procedures used to quantify, integrate, and analyze the findings of a large number of research studies. The article describes the new statistical techniques used and provides an example of their application to data regarding gender differences in throwing velocity of children and adolescents. (Author/MT)

The situational specificity hypothesis predicts that, if the setting does not vary, validity will not vary. Using data from a large-sample validity study numerous small-sample studies were generated for which the setting was held constant. Results indicate variability across studies in observed validity coefficients, significance levels, and…

Meta-analysis of 70 studies examining the efficacy of drug treatment for severe behavior disorders indicate a modest positive effect for drug intervention. Subsets of data aggregating behavioral, cognitive, and physiological outcomes are examined as well as variation for drug effects in terms of subject characteristics and design variables.…

Treatment studies using the Zung Self-Rating Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression as dependent measures were reviewed to determine whether these scales provide comparable data for assessing treatment effects. Results indicated that the Zung and the Beck showed less change in depression following…

Findings from a meta-analysis of 46 studies on the effectivenss of creativity training revealed that the program with the most consistent impact on Torrance Test of Creative Thinking was the Osborne-Paines Creative Problem Solving program. Generally, verbal creativity appeared to be more affected by training than figural creativity. (CL)

Graphic organizer research was surveyed in a quantitative and qualitative meta-analysis. Effect size was used to quantify outcomes from several graphic organizer studies. Results are discussed. (DF)

Ruth Wade replies to an article written by Georgea Sparks in the same issue of "Educational Leadership" (EA 518 309) as a response to Wade's meta-analysis of inservice teacher education also appearing in this issue (EA 518 308). A closer look at the major findings is needed. (DCS)

This paper highlights the relative strengths and weaknesses of the contemporary methods of research synthesis and proposes a multistage approach to research synthesis that draws on the strengths of each of these individual methods. In this approach, the decisions at every step of the synthesis process are guided by the nature of the data. The…

A meta-analysis explored the association between past studies on intercultural communication effectiveness and intercultural communication competence, and examined the relationship between knowledge-based and skill-based attributes in predicting intercultural communication competence. A total of 16 studies met the criteria of having recoverable…