Psychosocial adaptations are sometimes affected by experiences that are ordinarily considered to be amusements. In 1974, a field study was undertaken by the Program on Psychosocial Adaptation and the Future to determine if it is possible to measure the effect of television on adult viewers. A sample of 260 couples, controlled for demographic…

The effects of early family and school environments on the language development of young children are explored in this paper on developing literacy. It is stated that children's intellectual development can be detrimentally modified by such home conditions as: (1) poor prenatal nutrition, (2) low socioeconomic status, (3) poor language skills of…

The proceedings of the 1974 Conference on Instructional Computing in Michigan comprise this special issue of the newsletter on educational use of computers among Michigan colleges and universities. Individual papers were presented on conceptual, technical, and practical aspects of instructional computing in (1) mathematics, (2) the physical and…

During the 60's, systems for the observation of classroom behavior have become an important area of educational research. Many new systems have been devised both for the evaluation of teaching techniques and for basic research into teaching processes. In the development of such systems the investigator must determine what behaviors are to be…

Two years of observation of the behavior of visitors in several museums led to the knowledge of the degree of simplicity that is desirable in museum surroundings and of the need for pamphlets that are better prepared than the usual guide books and catalogs. It also led to the advice that museum directors become experimental psychologists, and that…

This report describes the design of a Policy Research Center (PRC) for the U.S. Office of Education. The PRC was conceived as a place to produce information and to develop systematic ways of understanding complex processes that would help educational policy planners (1) make better decisions about current problems, (2) anticipate the future, and…

Building Research is urged to expand into areas concerned with human behavior, and a need for information on how people react physically and mentally, and how they perform their various tasks in environment created for them by the design professions, is cited. A research project at the University of Michigan is described, aimed at measuring the…

Videotaped group work lessons of an elementary school third grade class provide material for study of the non-verbal aspect of group behavior. A system of activity categories is developed and a typology of pupils' working methods in group study distinguishes types and characteristic forms of activity. The following activity categories are used in…

The need for more precise analysis of the complex educational and psychological processes which exist in special classes for the emotionally handicapped, is emphasized. A psycho-educational model, involving teacher-pupil interaction, is developed, and a procedure (the Interaction Analysis System) is formulated for observing and recording behavior.…

Several indices of factorial consistency were applied to a biographical inventory administered to a longitudinal sample of 2070 students in the 7th, 9th, and 11th grades. Results were compared with those of a prior cross-sectional study at the same grade levels. Comparisons of dimensional change over the three grades, for the cross-sectional and…

A system of appraising teachers that is acceptable to the teaching profession, the public, and school management is needed. To meet this need, Project D developed a diagnostic system of appraisal whose aim was to pinpoint areas in which teachers might reasonably be expected to improve their performance. The procedures adopted included the…

This document reports on a conference focused on speech problems. The main objective of these discussions was to facilitate a deeper understanding of human communication through interaction of conference participants with colleagues in other disciplines. Topics discussed included speech production, feedback, speech perception, and development of…

The Atlanta Public School System conducted four major programs during the summer of 1971. These were Youth-Tutoring-Youth, Community Schools, Handicapped Children, and Prekindergarten Instruction. Evaluation of the Prekindergarten (Pre-K) project was contracted to the Laboratory for Applied Behavior Research at Georgia State University. The…

Research and development work performed by the authors as employees of the Central Midwestern Regional Educational Laboratory is treated in this book concerning the acculturation processes through which children develop the essential human characteristics, in particular, the humane processes of humanization. The 10 chapters of the book are: 1.…

Ways of utilizing behavioral objectives to their best advantage are specified. The purpose of the study is to help educators improve instruction through examination of different approaches to constructing behavioral objectives. Classroom teachers have been convinced that behavioral objectives are "necessary" for the functioning of the…