In earlier studies with rats, the effectiveness of the auditory element of a tone--light discriminative stimulus was enhanced when the conditioned incentive value of the compound was negative rather than positive. The present experiment systematically replicated these results in pigeons trained to press a treadle in the presence of a tone--light…

This study compared the effects of two different listening while reading (LWR) rates on words correct per minute, accuracy, generalization, and comprehension for four 4th- and 5th-graders. It was hypothesized the effects of LWR would increase as the rate of LWR more closely approximated the reader's actual oral reading rate. An alternating…

In this article the use of case studies for investigating undergraduate students? and Ph.D. students? interpretations of environmental course content and environmental research is critically examined. The case studies were carried out with the intention of exploring students? meanings, as well as elaborating learning theories. The qualitative data…

Language, as is known, is acquired under certain conditions: rapid and sequential brain maturation and cognitive development, the need to exchange information and to control others' actions, and an exposure to appropriate speech input. This research aims at analyzing preschoolers' overgeneralizations of the object labeling process in different…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of most to least prompting on teaching pedestrian skills to individuals with developmental disabilities. Five individuals with developmental disabilities were taught three different pedestrian skills, all related to crossing the streets, using simulation activities on a road model…

Basic and applied research related to the effects of interspersing trials of maintenance (i.e., review) tasks among trials of acquisition tasks on academic skill development is reviewed. In general, empirical research suggests that interspersing procedures are effective in facilitating acquisition, learning rate, and maintenance. However, some…

The present study examines whether reading fluency benefits more from repeated reading of a limited set of words or from practicing reading with many different words. A group of 37 reading delayed Dutch children repeatedly read the same 20 words with limited exposure duration, whereas another group of 37 poor readers received the same reading…

This study demonstrates that the learning channel intervention, utilizing a continuous assessment system, enabled 3 students with special needs to build and generalize fluency in multiplication facts. This study contrasts generalization of 2 learning channels--"see-say" and "hear-say"--to see if either of the 2 channels has an advantage over the…

The present study tests a model of category effects upon stimulus estimation in children. Prior work with adults suggests that people inductively generalize distributional information about a category of stimuli and use this information to adjust their estimates of individual stimuli in a way that maximizes average accuracy in estimation (see…

Rats were trained to search for a food reward hidden under sawdust in the center of a square-shaped enclosure designed to force orientation on the basis of the overall geometry of the environment. They were then tested in a number of enclosures differing in shape and in size (rectangular-, double-side square-, and equilateral triangle-shaped…

The purpose of this study was to assess phonological and morphosyntactic change in children with co-occurring speech and language impairments using different goal attack strategies. Participants included 47 preschoolers, ages 3;0 (years;months) to 5;11, with impairments in both speech and language: 40 children in the experimental group and 7 in a…

A single-subject reversal design with counterbalanced phases across two classrooms was used to measure the effects of peer tutoring on the retention and generalization of spelling words in two third-grade general education classrooms. The results revealed that the mean pretest-posttest gain scores during all the peer tutoring phases of the two…

Background: Debates about the modifiability of cognitive ability have been largely resolved by reports of successful "thinking skills" interventions. However, such interventions are very diverse and generalization of effects relatively little explored. Aims: This study investigated whether a thinking skills intervention involving…

Findings from an on-going design experiment within a year-long graduate course for middle school teachers of mathematics are reported. The purpose of the course was to help teachers assist students in transitioning from arithmetic to algebraic reasoning. Goals included developing teachers' ability to interpret, compare, and generalize across…

This study reports on a new instrument, the Academic Rational Beliefs Scale, designed to measure college students' academic beliefs along a rational-irrational continuum. The new instrument is potentially useful when working with students experiencing academic difficulties. Information about test construction, reliability, validity, and…