Discussion of the role of small group performance focuses on solving problems to improve performance. Types of tasks and their effects on groups are described; group resources are discussed; factors affecting group process are explained; and a flowchart for solving group performance problems is presented. (LRW)

A total of 80 Israeli 5, 7, and 10 year olds working in either a match-the-standard or a competitive condition copied a drawing and then evaluated their copies. Competing 5 year olds overestimated the quality of their copies. With age, self-assessments became less positive and better correlated with adult judgments. (RH)

Assessed preschoolers' strategic knowledge concerning the relative effectiveness of increasing memory performance by marking, touching, looking, and ignoring. Ignoring was judged the least effective behavior by children of three-five years. A preference for looking, touching, and marking was found for five-year-olds in both experiments and for…

Children between the ages of three and six years were asked to predict their success or failure in two tasks, each of which had five difficulty levels. Tasks were presented either simultaneously or successively. Results indicated that children made realistic assessments of their chances for success at the difficulty levels. Performance factors are…

Responses from 195 staff nurses indicated that impact of leader's behavior was neutralized among low self-monitoring nurses, but intensified among high self-monitors. Correlations between staff nurses' job performance and their ratings of head nurses' leadership behaviors were not significant for low self-monitoring nurses but were significant for…

Lists the training themes and levels of intervention of a psychological orienteering project for Swiss athletes. Presents an outline for preparation and evaluation of team or individual performance over time on technical, physical, mental, and environmental aspects of orienteering. (SV)

The speechreading performance of 50 adults (ages 20-69) with normal hearing and vision was evaluated. Findings indicated that females showed significantly higher speechreading scores than males, that females improved their performance significantly over the 2 trials (unlike males), and that females in their 30s had the best performance and males…

Review of studies on age effects on cognitive functioning concluded that much research does not explore functional significance of negative effects of aging. Some skills improve, remain stable, or decline, at different points for different people. Older people tend to perform better with practical tasks and/or realistic contexts. (SK)

Materials from the Northwestern University Auditory Test Number 6, spoken by a female speaker, were passed through a low-frequency notch filter, reducing the amplitude range within the spectrum. Data obtained from 12 normal-hearing listeners in filtered and unfiltered conditions demonstrated that alterations to words spoken by the same speaker…

Twenty-five normal young adult speakers tracked sinusoidal and unpredictable target signals using lower lip and jaw movement and fundamental frequency modulation. Tracking accuracy varied as a function of target frequency and articulator used to track. Results show the potential of visuomotor tracking tasks in the assessment of speech articulatory…

This study investigated the effect on repetition performance of one previously uncontrolled characteristic of multisyllabic nonsense words: the lexical status (word or nonword) of their stressed syllables. Eleven normally achieving boys (ages 9-12) repeated nonsense words with lexical stressed syllables more accurately than nonsense words with…

Discusses rewards and performance incentives for employees, including types of rewards; how rewards help in managing; dysfunctional awards; selecting the right reward; how to find rewards that fit; and delivering rewards effectively. Examples are included. (three references) (LRW)

Explains how to create an organizational system that will result in good performance. Topics discussed include process versus system; two views of a system, i.e., mechanistic and organic; and components of a system, including performance guides, measurement of results, feedback, and training. (LRW)

Discusses the role of feedback in performance technology and suggests ways to improve both the accuracy and the effectiveness of the feedback. Desirable characteristics of feedback are described, including promptness, directness, reliability, and usability; and the need for assessment and assimilation following feedback is explained. (LRW)

In a study of four-, six-, and eight-year olds, communication about the left-right dimension proved to be particularly difficult for four-year olds. Frames of reference that children incorporated into their directions changed with age and differed for directions about front-back and left-right dimensions. (RH)