The effects of reinforcement conditions on the test scores of 15 middle income and 15 low income children labeled learning disabled and behaviorally disordered were assessed. A repeated measures design was used, with each subject tested under conditions of no reinforcement, immediate tangible reinforcement, and immediate social reinforcement.…

Motivational techniques and strategies that may be used by teachers to strengthen student performance and reinforce positive attitudes toward learning are discussed and analyzed. The topic is divided into eight major factors for consideration: (1) why human behavior occurs, what is motivation, the mythology of motivation and learning, and the time…

This study examined the effect(s) of rhyme on the recognition and recall of story events by 32 nursery school children at the University of Maine Child Study Center. Although subjects reported liking stories better when they were presented as nursery rhymes rather than prose passages, recognition of story events was significantly higher for prose…

This study investigated the effects of an 18/1 versus a 30/1 student-instructor (S-I) ratio on instructor behavior and student achievement in a computer-managed Navy technical school. Students were randomly assigned to two learning centers in which in 18/1 S-I ratio was maintained, while a 30/1 S-I ratio was maintained in two other learning…

Performance differences and differences in expectancies of success between men and women were examined relative to the replication of preselected and constrained movements. No performance differences were found between the sexes, but preselected movements were reproduced more accurately than constrained movements. Persons who made preselected…

Two experiments used two 2 x 3 x 2 (instructors x test forms x class times) designs to compare three aspects of student performance (mean final examination scores, homogeneity of variance, and retake frequencies) on three test forms. The test items on the three forms were arranged in three ways: (1) forward--items paralleled the presentation of…

A 12-item survey of English background and proficiency was administered to all Washington State University freshman English students on the first day of class during the fall semester of 1977. A sample of 700 completed questionnaires was selected for analysis. In general, student responses indicated an overall weakness in the teaching of writing…

THE PURPOSE OF THIS SYMPOSIUM WAS TO CONSIDER SOME PROBLEMS FREQUENTLY ENCOUNTERED WHEN PREPARING INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES AND TO DISCUSS SEVERAL MEANS BY WHICH FUTURE EFFORTS AT IMPLEMENTATION MIGHT BE FACILITATED. TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE--(1) "IN DEFENSE OF INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES," (2) "SOME IMPORTANT WAYS IN WHICH PERFORMANCE…

SIX NEW YORK CITY DAY CARE CENTERS WITH PROGRAMS SIMILAR TO HEAD START WERE SELECTED AS STUDY SAMPLES TO DETERMINE WHETHER THERE IS A MEASURABLE LONG-RANGE EFFECT OF PRE-SCHOOLING UPON READING ACHIEVEMENT. EACH CENTER WAS CONSIDERED TO HAVE A GOOD PROGRAM, HAD BEEN OPERATING FOR AT LEAST SIX YEARS, AND HAD RACIALLY MIXED POPULATIONS. DAY CARE…

Forty nonclinical psychology graduate students participated in brief small-group interchanges designed as psychotherapy analogues. The interaction was rated by trained judges, and the "clients" in the simulations also rated "therapist" empathy. The most powerful predictor of client-rated empathy was gender, with women receiving higher empathy…

Abramson, Seligman and Teasdale's reformulated model of learned helplessness hypothesized that an attribution of causality intervenes between the perception of noncontingency and the future expectation of future noncontingency. To test this model, relationships between attribution and performance under failure, success, and control conditions were…

Past research has suggested that supervisors, when evaluating the poor performance of a subordinate, are influenced by the outcome of the performance. Nurses (N=55) in advanced training assumed the role of a supervisor of a nurse described as having performed poorly. Half of the subjects read an incident without an outcome and half read an…

The effects of overassignment (three students living in a room usually assigned to two) on students at Rutgers and Douglass Colleges are examined in a study of differences between students housed in two- and three-person rooms for the semester. The dependent measures were perception of the university environment, academic performance, physical…

An analysis of the assessment results and general findings of a statewide assessment in reading conducted in Hawaii in 1975 is presented in this report. Chapters provide a perspective on the assessment program, the preparation of the statewide assessment, the methodology used, the procedures for data analysis, and the results and findings of…

The focus of this paper is on improving the measurement of test anxiety. Background information is given about the role of motivation and the importance of testing. The present research is directed at developing a shorter, more reliable and valid measure of test anxiety, thus furthering the predictive, diagnostic, and test program uses of test…