Investigations into job preference have as their underlying premise the belief that congruity between individual and institutional values leads to career choice/job satisfaction. In an attempt to replicate a recent study (Blumenfeld, 1982) on the job preferences of a group of potential psychologists, 66 graduate psychology students at a large…

An assessment analysis was performed to determine whether sets of items designed to measure three different subskills of reading comprehension of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBSs) did, in fact, distinguish among these subskills. The three major skills objectives were: (1) facts; (2) generalizations; and (3) inferences. Data from…

Community-referenced activities, which involve combinations of skills used in routine tasks of daily living, are critical for the independent functioning of moderately and severely handicapped persons. The paper examines the characteristics of these activities in order to extract implications for enhancing instruction. The tasks involved in such…

The current state of usage of regression models in analysis of variance (ANOVA) designs is empirically examined, and examples of several statistical errors made in usage are presented. The assumptions of the general linear model are that all predictors are known without error of measurement and are fixed with no replication or sample variation; in…

Authors of childrearing texts suggest that punishment is a horrifying experience having no positive influence on human relations. Authors of psychology texts are not as opposed but indicate that punishment is not appropriate when one attempts to help children. While some researchers denounce the use of punishment, they also invite further…

This article assimilates and critically reviews 10 reports between 1960 and 1980 in which hypnosis was used with non-retarded children, aged 6 to 17, who had learning problems. Studies are reviewed in terms of the major deficit focused on by the researchers, i.e., reading deficits, self-concept and academic achievement, academic behavior problems,…

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate two hierarchically related measures of concept generalizability. The two concepts were "Insect" and "Animal." The tests were organized in a novel format consisting of three degrees of stimulus complexity. The three degrees of complexity contained sets of pictures of each…

Linguistic and cognitive competencies of preschoolers were revealed by interviewing them about routine activities. It was found that freeing preschoolers' speech from constraints inherent in talking about the immediate context results in their demonstrating control over a variety of language-related skills that are generally assumed to be beyond…

Junior high school students (N=104) were given instruction using programed booklets on modular addition. Twelve conditions of verbal mediation were randomly assigned to students. Conditions were defined by presence or absence of introductory discussion (2 levels), number of worked examples (2 levels), and type of rule (3 levels: specific, general,…

A group of 105 lower-lower middle class kindergarten children were tested on a set of single variable classification tasks and related-component tasks dealing with color and number. Children who failed to reach criterion on the classification test were randomly assigned to one of five experimental groups, stratified on the basis of performance on…

The effects of modeling and corrective feedback on conceptual rule acquisition and retention were studied with a total of 48 3- and 4-year-old children. Equal numbers of children from each age group were randomly assigned to one of four training groups: modeling, corrective feedback, modeling and corrective feedback, and a no modeling/no…

The effects of live and symbolic modeling on the conservation of equalities and inequalities were studied with items spanning three stimulus dimensions (length, number, and two dimensional space). A total of 48 kindergarten children, who had failed to conserve on any equality items in baseline measures, were randomly assigned, in equal groups, to…

While previous research has demonstrated a correspondence between measures of instructional content and psychological structure due to learning, this research report examines whether individual learner differences affect this correspondence. Individuals of the field independence psychological structure were expected to impose greater structure and…

Cognitive effects in children's learning of altruistic behavior were tested with an adaptation of Aronfreed's test design and machine. Children in grades 1-4 were presented with a machine with 2 levers. One lever, when pressed, released bubble gum, and the other turned on a light. For two of the three groups the experimenter exclaimed delightedly…

The present research was designed to answer two basic questions: (1) Do children who are referred for treatment of behavior problems in one setting also exhibit such behavioral problems in the others? (2) Does behavior modification in the primary setting have any systematic effect on children's behavior in the other (secondary) setting?…