In most existing computer assisted instruction (CAI), the nature of the instruction would not actually require a computer. Text is presented and read, questions are asked, and then materials are presented or reviewed depending on students' answers. There are two problems with this approach: computer capabilities for interactive task simulation are…

The relative contributions of test anxiety and exam-taking skills to information-processing deficits were investigated in a dual-task paradigm comparing high and low test-anxious students with either good or poor exam-taking skills. Sixty-four undergraduate students (21 males, 43 females) were selected based upon pre-test scores on the Test…

Previous research has found that outside events seem to have little effect on happiness. Three studies in New Zealand were conducted to identify mental processes that give circumstances their favorable and unfavorable meanings. The first study examined the gap between aspiration and achievement in terms of income, education, physical fitness,…

This work is an attempt to explain the rationale and thinking that contributes to the "communication strategy" approach and to illustrate the practical applications of its ideas to second language teaching. It also proposes an approach to teaching based on two major goals: first, to incorporate the better features of audiolingual methods into a…

In the hope of filling in a missing link for experimental psychologists' research on reading, this paper provides a general review of research on the issue of orthography and its relation to reading. The traditional classification of logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic modes are examined to see how much orthographic variations affect the…

A study investigated the kinds of questions children ask as they encounter written language. Data were gathered over a 7-month period for two boys, one approximately 4, the other approximately 2 years of age. Two types of observation sessions were used: formal story reading times that were audiorecorded, and informal situations where the…

Children's attention to and comprehension of television programs were studied by comparing the effects of viewing continuous stories (i.e., those with meaningful plots brought to resolution) and magazine-format programs containing unrelated bits of entertainment. Effects of program pacing were also studied. Multiple programs, differing in content,…

To explain how writing is both cognitive and behavioral, this paper compares and contrasts behavioral and cognitive orientations within an instructional design. The first section addresses the weaknesses and strengths of a behavioral versus a cognitive orientation and relates them to Janet Emig's 1971 study, "The Composing Processes of Twelfth…

This document presents a first approximation for a model for student performance in solving linear equations. First, characteristics of a model of student performance for solving linear equations is discussed. It is noted that there is a need for some theoretical structure to support and organize the bits and pieces of information provided by…

Fundamental to any critical reading process is the ability of the child to recognize and identify assumptions concerning the world in which he or she lives and brings to the printed page. The unconscious and implicit understandings that a reader and an author hold can fill the slots of developing schemata and become embedded and subsumed in…

Students must develop self-monitoring abilities if they are to successfully transfer knowledge and strategies they are taught to their own reading. But first, teachers must know just what this knowledge and these strategies are and how they can be presented to students. Akin to model building, reading comprehension involves a variety of behaviors…

Relationships between media format, sensory channel, and cognitive information processing are not straightforward. Media format does not determine information processing and storage except when a deliberate attempt is made to model cognitive processes by manipulating the medium. Sensory channel only affects processing and learning for relatively…

In this paper, research on teachers' judgments, instructional planning, and decision making during classroom interaction is reviewed. Research studies chosen for this paper were selected on the basis of two fundamental assumptions: (1) Teachers behave reasonably in making judgments and decisions; and (2) Their behaviors are guided by their…

This report relates current attentional research and theory to the development of skilled performance, with emphasis on how performance changes with practice. Dual process attention theory is reviewed, and the distinction between automatic and controlled processing is examined. The changing interactions between automatic and controlled processing…

An exploratory study making use of ethnographic and grounded theory methods was carried out with two Hispanic and two Black American working-class families. Exploration focused on how cognitive processes taking place in the natural setting of the family can best be understood. In order to uncover the intellectual interactions that take place in…