First-year University of Hong Kong students were subjects in a study using sex, verbal intelligence, personality, and attitudinal variables as predictors of English language skills. Results showed that levels of proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking were independent of one another. (LMO)

Discusses relation between verbal ability and metamemory and how these two factors relate to the later recallability of material. A study is described that separated 32 children into high and average verbal ability groups, administered a metamemorial questionnaire, and tested recall one week later. (Author/LRW)

Examined the frequency and associations of multiple diagnoses in 205 psychiatric inpatients, assessing past and current episodes of illness. Over one-half of the sample received more than one diagnosis. Alcoholism, antisocial personality, and drug dependence formed one group; primary depression, primary mania, and secondary affective disorder,…

Determines the accuracy of teacher judgment of the oral proficiency of pupils in French and Spanish high school classes. Results indicate that (1) teachers consistently overrate pupil performance and (2) the letter grade of the student in the foreign language class severely biases the accuracy of the teacher's judgment regardless of actual oral…

Examines factors involved in decisions regarding adoption of microcomputers for administrative and instructional use in early childhood education. A study of 80 administrators in Illinois is described and analyzed that considered relevant past experiences, future expectancies, openness to change, and social support as decision-making influences.…

Psychometric intelligence and adaptive competence constructs were compared in five- to seven-year-old children in a rural Phillippine barrio. Individualized psychometric subtests of intelligence, indigenous with respect to content, and a form for obtaining adults' ratings of children's adaptive competencies, were developed. (Author/LMO)

A review of research about second language learning indicates that nonprimary acquisition is sensitive to the center-periphery distinction. There is clear evidence that this construct has reflexes in interlanguage word order with respect to the probability of native word order influence, difficulty, and order of emergence. (CB)

This study investigated whether affective reactions in achievement settings were related to self-esteem. Subjects were 308 undergraduate university students displaying affective reactions to various academic situations portrayed in short stories. Resulting biserial correlations indicate that affective reactions to success and failure were related…

This study of undergraduate and graduate students examined the potential relationship between spatial aptitude and videogame use to: (1) determine relationship between scoring ability on videogames and spatial aptitude as defined by standardized tests; (2) explore potential gender differences; and (3) examine effects of videogames practice on…

Data on the early prediction of learning problems was summarized by a meta analysis of 58 studies reporting correlations between measures administered in kindergarten or first grade and later reading achievement. The best single predictors of achievement were attention-distractibility, internalizing behavior problems, and language variables.…

Investigates relationships among: techniques used by search analysts during interviews with users before engaging in online retrieval of bibliographic citations ("open" and "closed" questions, pauses of different lengths); amount of new information gained by user as result of search; and user's satisfaction with quality of…

Students of high intellectual ability and their parents were tested on a battery of cognitive tests. Vernon's model of intelligence best fit results. A verbal-educational and a practical-spatial-mechanical factor explained most performance variance. Among children, age related to verbal but not spatial or mechanical abilities. (Author/RD)

The main purpose of this research is to clarify the relationship between adult students' self - directed learning (SDL) ability and instructional technology (IT) competency. The research involves surveying 199 students who take online courses in a large Midwest state university. Preliminary results indicate a considerable positive correlation…

If teenagers do not find support at school, home, or in the community, then they will find it with peers, gangs, or other means. Subsequently, the importance of extra-curricular involvement for at-risk youth is reported in this paper; to what extent this involvement had potential to influence performance in academics is also examined. Involvement…

In the 1970s and 1980s, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) built a longitudinal record as the Nation's Report Card based on periodic brief assessments of a modest but representative sample of the nation's students. In 1990, data collection was expanded from a sample of 10,000 students in each grade and subject area to 100,000…