A discussion of whether there has been any progress in the discipline of historical linguistics focuses on the theories and recent publications of David Lightfoot and Roger Lass. The author's approaches to language change and language study are examined and compared. (MSE)

Undertaken within the framework of the best example theory of categorization, this study investigates category acquisition as a function of initial exposure to only good exemplars and as a function of exposure to single as opposed to multiple exemplars. Six severely handicapped children, ranging in age from 8 to 18 years, participated. (Author/MP)

Modeling, prompting, and feedback techniques increased correct use of prompts and praise by parents as well as decreases in tangential statements during structured imitation training with their children in an experimental preschool. Instruction in usng the skills at home were also effective. (Author/CL)

Tests the degree of generalization from attributions of "overweight" to other personality attributions made by college students (N=223). Students were asked to write stories about male and female stimulus characters who varied only in body image. (CM)

Results indicated that socially unskilled, learning disabled children (8 to 10 years old) can be taught to respond appropriately to role-play situations. However, improved performance did not generalize to the natural school setting and treatment did not affect ratings of peer acceptance. (Author)

Preschool children divided into three age groups were trained in a stimulus-specific and response-specific seriation-of-length behavior in a typical observational learning paradigm. In three treatment conditions information given to subjects was varied; the fourth served as control. Assessment attempted to determine whether rule learning would be…

When subgoal location was appropriate to the serial pattern, subjects were likely to use a strategy resulting in enhanced rule induction and transfer with increased subgoal density. When subgoal location was not appropriate, subjects tended to use a strategy resulting in considerably reduced role induction and transfer. (Author/PN)

The operation of means-ends analysis (MEA) involves attempts at reducing differences between problem states and the goal state. It was paradoxically found that the more problem solvers knew of the goal state, the less they learned of the problem structure during the solution process. (PN)

Study examined the relationship between comprehension and production of lexical items when children are taught to both comprehend and produce new lexical items and when children are taught either to comprehend or produce new lexical items. Study involved teaching 12 adults and 12 children a miniature language. Results indicate production training…

Argues that there has been a tendency to limit claims of generalizability to educational research studies which could demonstrate an appropriate use of sampling theory. The results of field studies based on precise consistent observation can be used to interpret more general social behavior. (AM)

In a series of three experiments involving eight mentally retarded adults, the effectiveness of social skills training in a therapy room and self monitoring and reinforcement in a natural setting were compared as methods of promoting generalization to the ward. (Author/SB)

Worksheets are provided for use by students in grades 8 and above when sectioning a tetrahedron. Lesson objectives include the discovery of generalizations regarding the cross-sections of a tetrahedron. (MK)

Tests the effects of stimulus variability on overgeneralization and overdiscrimination errors in children and adults. The subjects (n=64), adults and five-, seven-, and nine-year-old children, participated in a visual discrimination task. (CM)

The results indicated that the visual feedback was used very effectively by five of the 12 Ss in reducing their excessively nasal voice quality, and somewhat effectively by four others. (Author/DLS)