Results indicate that subjects scored better when tested by an experimenter of the opposite sex and also that there is some tendency for experimenters to receive scores from their subjects in accordance with their expectations of the subject's performance. (JD)

Capsule summaries of eight projects reveal clues to key findings in educational research. (MB)

Gender-related differential item functioning (DIF) was examined in a context in which 3,946 middle school students received mathematics instruction focusing on problem solving. Reasons why four tasks on the performance assessment favored female students and two favored male students are discussed. (SLD)

Reflects on a previous article in this issue that demonstrated the use of log-linear analysis in research investigating categorical variables associated with the study of career development and transition for individuals with disabilities. Initial exposure to and motivation for pursuing the study and use of multivariate categorical data analysis…

Addresses issues involving the transition to an evaluation emphasis in counseling and offers a stimulus for developing new approaches for evaluating the effectiveness of what counselors and clients do together. Claims that new ways to gather evidence attesting to client change are needed, as is an expanded, collaborative model for evaluation. (RJM)

The perceived relationship between marriage and achievement among 167 women graduates (ages 45-65) of the University of Michigan was analyzed. Women believed they had high potential for achievement because of perceived spousal commitment to shared family goals and domestic chores, whereas women with less or no support reported achievement was…

Reviews the literature investigating children's ability to use the computer mouse. Results suggest that the mouse is suitable for children. Identifies issues requiring further attention, including the role of individual characteristics and previous experience in competent mouse usage. Examines adequacy of measurement tools used, stressing the…

Comparison of the effects of pretest anxiety on the social and nonsocial problem solving of 45 boys (ages 9 to 11) with learning disabilities (LD) and 45 nondisabled boys found the LD group reported significantly higher pretest anxiety which escalated over the course of the problem-solving session. However, boys with or without LD were equally…

Research on motivation and gifted students is classified into two broad categories. The first focuses on motivation as a relatively stable characteristic useful for making decisions on identification, counseling, and some programming issues. The second defines motivation as a transitory outcome measure that may be affected by the educational…

Two studies examined the viability of assessing reading strategies using a think-aloud protocol combined with latent semantic analysis (LSA). Findings demonstrated that the responses of less-skilled readers semantically overlapped more with focal sentences than with causal antecedent sentences, whereas skilled readers' responses overlapped with…

Three studies examined children's understanding of their authority over their self-knowledge. Findings suggest that the shift from reliance on adults to self occurs between 5 and 10 years of age, with parallel development in judging own and other people's self-knowledge. Children between ages 5 and 7 could differentiate between information about…

Examined role of social-referential context in 13- and 18- month-olds' mapping of verbal and nonverbal symbols to object categories. Found that infants at both ages showed evidence of learning both words and sounds when the experimenter produced a label within a familiar naming routine, and failed to learn when labels were emitted from a baby…

Surveyed fifth-graders and school staff in 117 elementary schools regarding school processes and outputs. Found that the open systems and human relations models provided the best-fit statistics and explained the most variance in achievement progress, followed by the rational goal model. Explored implications for effective schools research and…

Forty-nine African American children (ages 3-5) enrolled in Head Start were assessed using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Their mean score was significantly lower than the mean for the normative sample. Few items were systematically missed; instead, performance seemed reflective of socioeconomic and/or ethnic patterns of vocabulary usage.…