The study sought to determine if students (40 seventh-graders) who were given specific instruction in art vocabulary would receive significantly greater art project evaluations as compared to students receiving no such instruction. Results revealed significantly greater scores among students who had received instruction in art vocabulary. (JC)

Findings from the first round of evaluation of an afterschool youth development program are presented. This program, the 4H Afterschool Activity Program, incorporated a specific curriculum of aggression reduction, the BrainPower program, into its ongoing activities, which cover a wide range from homework assistance to arts and crafts. The…

Therapeutic techniques based on guided group interaction are being used widely in Kentucky institutions in the treatment of juvenile delinquents. The peer group plays a key role as the catalyst for change. (Author)

The counseling of parents of underachievers appears to be a logical and productive way to proceed with underachieving elementary school pupils. The success of the method is, however, related to the quality of participation by the parents." (Author)

Results indicated that children exposed to the aggressive program engaged in longer attacks against an ostensible child victim than subjects exposed to the nonaggressive program. (Authors)

Presents evidence suggesting that the difference between stuttering and normal nonfluency in young children is one of degree only. It hypothesizes that heavy pressure on the child to speak well increases nonfluency. Bibliography. (RW)

The use of analysis of variance was examined under the assumption that the treatment had been randomly assigned to students, when in fact, the class had been the unit. Data support the idea that if one can randomly assign treatments to intact classes, consideration should certainly be given to doing so. (Author/GK)

Discussed problems and deficiencies in past research on clinical diagnosis, pertaining to sampling problems with regard to clinical subjects studied, adequacy of control groups, base rates, clinical versus statistical significance, lack of cross-validation, and problems due to reliance on inadequate schemes of classification. Future research is…

An 18-week course on death and dying designed specifically for high school students significantly reduced participants' level of death anxiety. These results conflict with previous research on adolescents in which either increased anxiety or no significant differences in death anxiety were reported as a result of death education. (CM)

Is it ethical to select clients at random for a beneficial social service, then deny the benefits to a control group for the sake of science? Participation of control groups in planning, implementation and evaluation of social programs may resolve ethical issues. (Author/CP)

The effects of task-overlapping linguistic noise on activity and performance of hyperactive and control children were assessed. Results suggest that task difficulty may play a role in the effects of overlapping stimulation on both groups. (Author/GK)

Human relations development techniques, espoused by Carkhuff, fail to rest upon a sound empirical base, well illustrated by the research study reported by Wiggins. Comments aim at refuting the Wiggin's claim that his findings validate the Carkhuff paradigm as an effective model. (Author/BEF)

Recognition of radio and television antismoking messages was measured in 6 treatment and 4 control cities. A survey of 574 adolescents found high recognition of messages even in areas where they were not broadcast, reinforcing the need for true control groups and distinctive messages to ensure validity in mass media evaluation. (SK)

An evaluation of one therapeutic service offered to sexually abused children in the United Kingdom exposed the methodological issue of false negatives among the comparison group, suggesting that researchers cannot assume that nonreferred comparison subjects have not actually experienced sexual abuse. (DB)

Explores issues in evaluating exemplary programs, including the measurement of the degree to which the program is exemplary or promising. Suggests that comparison (control) group analysis can mislead researchers about the effectiveness of a program and suggests the use of gain scores to identify exemplary programs. (SLD)