A total of 128 first- and second-graders participated in two sets of shift problems: (1) four extra-dimensional shifts; and (2) shift problems with two types of cue-reinforcement conditions (same and reversal). (ED)

Evidence from several controlled experiments is presented for the assertion that there is a fourth factor determining student achievement (in addition to ability and diligence, previous achievement, and teaching effectiveness) and that this factor (which may be associated with social interaction or emotional or physical state) is sometimes…

In order to test the hypothesis that middle-class subjects will spend more time on a difficult task than will working class subjects, 40 adult white married females were randomly selected from two small towns in north-central Oklahoma and given independently and in random order a logico-manipulative task and a motor-manipulative task. (Author/JM)

The problem of truancy in the elementary and junior high schools of California's Yolo County was investigated during the 1980-81 academic year by means of questionnaires completed by 16 school principals and interviews with 30 people representing schools, school district offices, law enforcement agencies, the Department of Social Services, and the…

A study was conducted to determine the characteristics shared by top rated high school newspapers. Questionnaires were mailed to the advisers for 100 winning and 100 nonwinning entrants in the annual high school newspaper rating contests conducted by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association from 1975 to 1978. The questionnaires surveyed such…

Age is often used to explain performances by older people that may be judged substandard in comparison with those of younger people. To explore age as a possible causal attribution, descriptions of task performances by young (aged 30) and old (aged 70) women were judged by young (N=352) and old (N=96) female subjects on four attributions, i.e.,…

The Job Characteristics Model proposed by Hackman and his associates postulates that positive personal and work outcomes are derived from five core job dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback from the job. The effects of the number of workers (work group size) and the number of tasks (task size) on…

This study investigated the relationship between physical performance tests and body fatness in young children, and the extent to which differences in performance between the sexes could be explained by differences in body fatness. Measurements of age, height, weight, skinfold thicknesses, and performance scores on the vertical jump, standing…

Research has shown that attributing failure to lack of ability leads to lower motivation than does attributing the failure to lack of effort. An attributional model of motivation and performance following failure was tested with college students (N=63), who were preselected on the basis of their attributional styles for interpersonal failures, as…

In this investigation of group problem solving in small groups, performance on a tower-building task was studied in same-sex triads of 141 third grade children exposed to four instructional conditions, each consisting of three phases of six trials each. Instructional conditions were either determinate (i.e., individualistic or contrient reward…