Research was conducted to show that the computer can assist human beings in determining which words in a Navy training manual need further clarification. The computer scanned a chapter of a training manual (9800 words long) and separated all words of two or more syllables into an "assumed audience vocabulary" (i.e., words the audience would be…

Resources located in the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) Headquarters Library are inventoried in this library bulletin. Entries follow the IPPF classification scheme and are arranged by topics: (1) general office management and administration; (2) contraceptive methods; (3) family planning (general); (4) United Nations,…

Obsessive thoughts (intellectualization, obsessive ideation) were studied by S. Freud, as were compulsions. The former are related to isolation, fixed ideas, compartmentalization, and encapsulation but differ from intellectuality. Compulsions are related to obsessive acts, ritualizations, and undoing but differ from habit. Analagously, obsessive…

Structured Key-word Analysis is a computerizable technique for objectively analyzing the natural language responses to open-end questions. Key-words are frequently used content words. Pairs of key-words that appear together in protocols either extremely often or extremely seldom (compared with the probability of co-appearance) are termed conjoint…

Two studies (1) investigated memory strategies in subjects with different levels of classification skills, and (2) examined the role of early classification skills in memory. Subjects in Study 1 were 60 (kindergarten and first-grade) children. Classification skills were assessed by a pretest. Subjects were assigned to one of two conditions, free…

This paper describes studies which investigated the nature of the relationship between number of categories and recall performance in children, and attempted to determine whether the category-recall effect increases developmentally. A series of three studies was designed so that grade level and stimulus difficulty would not be confounded.…

A useful means for conceptualizing important differences in the way people actually perceive issues regarding truth and knowledge is discussed. An individual's attitudes and beliefs concerning the nature of truth and knowledge, termed "epistemological posture," is developed as a psychological variable and compared to other variables such as…

In response to J. Lerner's paper (EC 081 334) on differences between the fields of reading and learning disabilities, the author stresses the importance of a developmental view of reading based on the theories and findings of J. Piaget. (DB)

Secondary school students in a classification study spent more time in classifying plants in a seminatural environment than in classifying man-made geometrical objects in a classroom. No differences were found in these results with respect to race, sex, or age. (MLH)

Students in grades 4, 6, and 8 were required to indicate whether or not a stimulus word belonged in either of two semantic categories that were held in memory. Results indicated that even for the youngest children semantically similar categories required less search time than dissimilar categories. (GO)

This study examined the performance of middle aged and elderly adults on the Piagetian tests of class inclusion and multiple classification. (GO)

The latency to classify a test item as not being from a memorized list of category words is usually slower when the test items are categorically related to memorized words than when they are unrelated. This observation has been explained by four models of recognition, which are evaluated here. (Editor/RK)

Four experiments were conducted where words were recalled after presentation either in hierarchical fashion or in a matrix. The intention was to examine whether the original advantage for hierarchical retrieval systems could be duplicated for matrix systems, and if there was any particular advantage or disadvantage for either type of structure.…

Investigates three alternative explanations for why younger children benefit more than older children from the provision of category size information when recalling items from a categorized list. Subjects were 29 kindergarten and 30 third grade children. (MP)

Compares and contrasts three reading comprehension taxonomies and discusses possible uses. (MKM)