A study undertaken to examine the effects on students of participation in a limited experiential learning program yielded no definitive conclusions but suggested several directions for further study. Dartmouth College undergraduate students who enrolled in an intermediate psychology course in 1973 and 1974 had the opportunity to be selected to…

In the study of perception during reading, the use of eye movement contingent control of the stimulus display has proved to be a useful research technique. With such a system, it is possible to experimentally manipulate, in real time, the characteristics of the stimulus display that is present on selected fixations as reading is in progress and to…

This report describes research that focused on the comprehension and composition of simple texts. The first section reviews the overall goals and theoretical perspectives of the project. The second section describes the following studies carried out during the project: analysis and extension of prior thinking-out-loud (TOL) data, TOL and reading…

The Adult Performance Level (APL) project, which developed and validated a series of objectives for adult functional competency free from school-based notions of literacy, is the most widely accepted approach to adult literacy and adult literacy education in the United States today. Yet a review of the project and its impact reveals that the APL…

A tool was devised to measure the perceived reality of television, an important variable in understanding how television influences an individual's perception of social reality. This was accomplished by using a research plan that allowed university subjects to generate the measures used for tapping the "reality" of television content.…

A study investigated the cognitive and grammatical activities carried out during writing by 22 incoming freshmen and 20 upperclass college students. It was hypothesized that the upperclassmen's compositions would be judged better in quality than those of the freshmen, and that the upperclassmen would show fewer pauses in which they were…

This paper questions both what was being tested in prior instructional media research on the educational value of film and television and the value of some of those findings. An alternative way of conceptualizing the communication process that occurs when students view an instructional film or television program is proposed, which places viewers…

The history of the study of human mental ability is an example of the dialectic in social science between those who interpret data within the framework of existing social inequities and those who look for perspectives that might eventually dissolve inequities. The dedication of Henry Herbert Goddard to a belief in the scientific proof of…

A study examined the length and characteristics of women's lifetime work experience. The principal data source for the survey was a set of detailed work, educational, marital, and fertility histories that were collected in the fall of 1979 from 314 couples in the Detroit metropolitan area. While prior researchers had relied upon measures of the…

An instrument for measuring telephone apprehension was developed to facilitate research into hypothesized relationships between communication apprehension and telephone apprehension. A set of 92 Likert-type items was adapted from previous communication apprehension scales and administered to 81 undergraduate students in a speech communication…

Intended for researchers, policy makers, and planners, the studies in this volume examine issues in communication policy and planning in developing nations. The five studies discuss the following: (1) the organizational and methodological aspects of communication planning, including structure and organization, methods and models; (2) the economics…

This study examines the application of the marginal maximum likelihood (MML) EM algorithm to the parameter estimation problem of the three-parameter normal ogive and logistic polychotomous item response models. A three-parameter normal ogive model, the Graded Response model, has been developed on the basis of Samejima's two-parameter graded…

Concerned with the validity of the audience data reported by two major syndicated magazine readership services--Mediamark Research Inc. (MRI) and Simmons Market Research Bureau (SMRB)--a study examined the differences in MRI and SMRB calculations of reader turnover rates, which form the basis for estimating audience accumulation. Results indicated…

The concept of language transfer as discussed in Dulay, Burt, and Krashen's book, "Language Two," is critically examined. It is suggested that the work's major thesis, that language transfer, or interference, is relatively low for second language acquisition, is unproven. A survey of the research reports cited to support this claim showed that the…

Microcomputer versions of three commonly used cognitive style measurement instruments are described and demonstrated: the Leveling-Sharpening House Test (LSHT) (Santostefano, 1964); Lowenfeld's Successive Impressions Test I (SIT-I) (1945); and the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) (Witkin, Oltman, Ruskin, and Karp, 1971). At present, many…