To test the hypothesis that learning depends on the influence and interaction of three primary variables--instruction, learner aptitude, and learning environment--an explanatory model was tested during the 1967-68 school year in an experiment conducted with the cooperation of a simple random sample of 56 teachers drawn from the National Science…

This study tested whether the word association employed by individual students could be used to predict their performance in a particular course. It was designed to explore a new method for describing the various models used in thinking and to determine whether this approach would yield results that were consonant with current cognitive theory. At…

The problem of using a domain-referenced system of achievement tests is discussed as it relates to the design of instruction. Testing problems are discussed from the point of view that the teacher, pupil, and/or automation needs certain kinds of information in order to make instructional decisions that are adaptive to the individual learner. The…

The author conceives of the human emotional system as being composed of three functions of motivational stimuli: (a) the attitudinal or emotional, (b) the reinforcing, and (c) the discriminative controlling function which the stimuli acquire. He defines and describes each of these functions and their effect on integrated learning principles. He…

The authors describe a program of research in the application of scalogram analysis to the validation of learning hierarchies, together with the development of an alternative method for assessing hierarchical relationships among tests of instructional objectives. The relationship between scalability of tests and positive transfer between…

In this study, 48 third-grade children learned a successive, two-choice discrimination under one of three conditions: (1) immediate reinforcement (IM), (2) 10-second empty delay (ED), and (3) 10-second delay with the discriminative stimuli in view of S (FD). The performances of groups IM and FD were only marginally different, and were both…

The purpose of this experiment was to provide further information on how an individual's strategy and his performance are affected by increasing the amount of relevant or irrelevant information he receives. The subjects were sixty volunteers from an undergraduate course in educational psychology who were randomly assigned to one of six treatment…

Three experiments were run using the SCHOLAR CAI (computer assisted instruction) system to teach geography to high school students. The experiments compared a method of teaching derived from analysis of human tutors (Tutorial Mode) vs. a method derived from programed instruction (Block-Test Mode). In the three experiments, Block-Test Mode was…

Discussed is the theoretical and practical importance of the development of learning and transfer taxonomies with psychometric relevance and of the building of psychometric classificatory systems with implications for learning and instruction. Psychometric classifications of human performances most often are based on the covariation of individual…

This paper discusses cognitive learning in terms of reinforcement theory and presents arguments suggesting that a viable theory of cognition based on reinforcement principles is not out of the question. This position is supported by a discussion of the weaknesses of theories based entirely on contiguity and of considerations that are more positive…

Using a deliberately confusing and frustrating game exercise, the author attempts to present the student's perception of the conflicting demands that the school system places upon him. Despite the dearth of literature on behavior therapy as it relates to the adolescent, the author believes that the behavior therapist can help the adolescent. After…

The various chapters in the text provide details of factual situations and teaching practices in the school environment. The authors convey their conviction that the field of experimental pedagogy must remain autonomous while utilizing the findings of psychology and that all hypotheses derived from psychology must be verified through actual…

The paper identified some of the major elements of political learning and suggests some of the conceptual links among these. The basic assumption of this paper is that the several existing approaches to learning and development can account for a significant portion of political learning. A selective picture of concepts and empirical knowledge…

An aspect of problem solving ability was identified by the investigator as "mathelation" and was defined to be the ability to translate and to fit idealized real-world problem situations into appropriate mathematical expressions or models. The study involved three phases: (1) the construction and validation of an instrument to measure mathelation;…

At its national convention, NCTE questioned whether composition can be taught at all. A synthesis of some recent research and theory offers a new perspective from which to analyze the problem and to propose some solutions to it. It suggests that the composing process can be analyzed into its component skills and that these skills can be taught…