While thematic curriculum designs based on Bruner's structuralism are a great improvement over the old chronological literature anthologies, they still ignore several important contexts in which a literary work might be studied. The multifunctional approach can provide this complexity of contexts. (SJL)

The language competency of learning disabled (LD) children as it relates to social situations demanding interpersonal communication skills was examined in 28 LD and normal elementary school children. (DLS)

Various experiments demonstrated that the difficulty level of several performance-type intelligence test tasks is determined directly by stimulus and task variables that vary the information to be processed. The implications of these findings for intelligence and the problems of an experimental approach to the measurement of intelligence are…

In a sentence-completion task, eighty sixth-grade students were assigned specific difficult goals or general goals ("do your best"). Subjects received one of four levels of monetary incentive. Specific difficult goals produced higher performance than nonspecific across various incentive conditions, and maintained those levels when previously…

Authors of the taxonomy made various claims about its properties that concern both educational and psychological issues; these claims have stimulated investigations of the taxonomy's validity. As the taxonomy is now entering its twenty-second year, this review attempts to survey these investigations and appraise the findings. (Author/CP)

Patterns of relationships between 96 adolescents' cognitive and verbal domains suggest a three-level cognitive complexity continuum: Level 1, a creative, analytic, flexible, differentiating mode; Level 2, a person-oriented, moderately complex functioning level; and Level 3, an inflexible, concrete, simplistic mode of operation. (RL)

Seventh grade students answered questions while reading programmed science materials. For increasingly difficult questions, achievement and time required to complete the unit increased. Post-instruction achievement was higher in groups which answered questions during the unit than those which read additional material but answered no questions.…

The effects of student effort exerted studying, and of written feedback from the instructor, were studied in undergraduate classrooms. Students received high or low-effort assignments, and high or low praise from their teacher. Those completing high-effort assignments and receiving high praise formed significantly more positive attitudes.…

The data do not support either the expectations that males are invariably superior in mathematics achievement and spatial visualization or the idea that differences between the sexes increase with age and/or mathematics difficulty. The pattern of differences in mathematics achievement, spatial visualization and affective variables strongly…

Mothers of 20 infants ranging in age from 14 to 16 months were asked to predict their infants' preferences within sets of toys varying in a single attribute. Their accuracy was checked by observing the infants at play. (Author/JMB)

Suggests some practical testing skills needed by the classroom teacher. (Author/RK)

Data collected regarding the learning strategies of English-as-a-second-language students (N=33) working with computerized spelling and dictation lessons revealed that the strategies of advance preparation, monitoring input, and monitoring output were used according to the complexity of the learning task. The monitoring input strategy was more…

Discusses new theories of feedback which suggest that all students may not benefit from immediate, positive feedback, depending on their level of ability and the difficulty of the task. Cognitive interpretations of feedback research are reviewed, including motivation to learn, and applications to instructional design are presented. (LRW)

Applies markedness theory to the area of error evaluation by native speakers' reactions to non-native speakers errors. The number of errors involving marked and unmarked pairs of forms and structures is tested. Errors reflecting the unmarked-to-marked direction (1st person/3rd person singular, for example) caused greater irritation in native…

An experiment was conducted that contrasted a variant of computerized adaptive testing, self-adapted testing, with two traditional tests. Participants completed a self-report of text anxiety and were randomly assigned to take one of the three tests of verbal ability. Subjects generally chose more difficult items as the test progressed. (Author/LMO)