Evaluation of instructional programs involves the process of ascertaining the decisions to be made. The decision maker, not the evaluator, determines the questions to be asked or the decisions to be made. A second task of evaluation deals with the specification of required information in light of system objectives. The task of the evaluator…

This paper describes two studies conducted to investigate young children's manipulative responses to materials in a free play situation and to examine the resultant learning. Study I: Each child played with either a simple or a complex set of materials during three play sessions. Learning was measured on a posttest of classification ability.…

The three purposes of this study were (1) to examine the effect of the frequency of Latin-suffixed words on the cloze performance of readers, (2) to examine the effect of reading materials in different content areas on cloze performance, and (3) to determine whether general reading ability differentially affected cloze scores in various content…

Two aspects of motivation were investigated in this study: the use of individual incentives to enhance learning, and the effect of different levels of task difficulty on the effectiveness of these individualized incentives. One hundred-forty-two fourth and fifth grade students were subjects. Individual preferences for rewards that would serve as…

The article describes a research project which tried to determine if dogmatic students take less than average time to study non-complex tests, and if they do, whether this is because of a "know-it-all" attitude or to avoid decision-making anxiety. (CD)

In secondary-task reading experiments, easy text filled cognitive capacity more completely than difficult text. A cognitive interpretation is that, in reading easy passages, the cognitive processors are full. But in difficult passages, frequent breakdowns in comprehension temporarily empty processor spaces, leaving cognitive capacity for the…

Good, normal, and poor third grade readers were required to read easy, moderate, and difficult one-syllable nouns under three conditions: control condition with no pictures, identifying-picture condition, and unrelated-picture condition. Reading performance of poor readers was influenced by pictures under all conditions. Individual differences…

Two experiments investigated the effects of four teaching treatments on sixth graders' learning of an ecology curriculum. Recitation was more significant in improving learning than the other treatments--probing or followup questioning; redirection of a question to another student; and higher cognitive questioning. (Author/CP)

Providing examinees with advanced knowledge of the difficulty of an item led to an increase in test performance with no loss of reliability. This finding was consistent across several test formats. ( Author/JKS)

Describes a study which revealed that teachers scoring high on a test of complexity contributed more positively than did low-complexity teachers to student written ability to interpret literature. (DD)

Attempts to provide an empirical basis for conducting present and future research into communication structure emphasizing the analysis of the complexity of the communication structure. (MH)

Argues that three tenets of the traditional wisdom about teacher questioning are based on inadequate research: (1) it is useful to classify questions as fact (lower level) or reason (higher level); (2) higher level questions are better; and (3) questions are good in general because they stimulate thought. (MBR)

The contribution of passage variables, question types, and format variables to reading comprehension was assessed for 50 successful and 50 unsuccessful readers. A three-stage conditional regression assessed the predictability of 20 predictor features on item difficulty scores. The location of response information and stem length accounted for…

Despite the complexity of current financial aid application forms, federal officials want to stabilize the process of assessing financial need and are not likely to simplify the forms soon. (MSE)

In comparison with full-term infants, seven-month-old high-risk preterm infants exhibited deficits in visual recognition memory and in the ability to recruit, sustain, and shift attention. (RH)