Conducted with fourth, eighth, and twelfth graders, this study was designed to extend investigation of the contradictory training paradigm of the O'Brien and Overton study (1980) to include performances with conditional syllogisms and to bring this effect to bear on the controversies of false positive and negative assessments at different ages.…

A total of 48 subjects were assigned to training conditions involving opportunities for either individual or group practice on materials either identical to or different from those used during a pretest. Posttest evaluations revealed improvements for subjects trained individually or in groups, but significant improvement was found only among…

Reports two studies examining the age/generosity relationship in children five to ten years old. With data gathered both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, studies demonstrated the existence of a nonlinear as well as a linear trend. (Author/MP)

Infants 9 to 10 months of age were presented with a series of visible displacement hiding trials at two locations. Infants had to choose among three, five, or six alternative locations on each trial. Search attempts tended to cluster around the currently correct location during both trials on all apparati, providing evidence for a memory…

Describes the wilderness adventure experience for offenders at Santa Fe Mountain Center. The experience can reveal a composite picture of a client's global personality in the way s/he responds to tasks, demands, and stimuli. An example of a client evaluation is provided. (ERB)

Describes a study that was the first stage of a project to evaluate a management training course designed especially for a group of research scientists and senior technical staff employed by several government and quasi-government organizations engaged in scientific and industrial research. (NRJ)

Two studies investigated the effects of administration modifications on subtest scaled scores of the Wechsler-Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). Performance scale rated different groups of 57 severely/profoundly hearing-impaired children. Total communication was found to result in higher scores on all subtests in the genetic and…

A chronometric mental rotation paradigm was applied to examine manipulation of visual imagery in early adolescents in relation to age, sex, mental rotation ability, and socioeconomic background. Subjects were fifth- and seventh-grade boys and girls from a middle and lower socioeconomic background. (Author/MP)

Investigated hand preference using a questionnaire. Respondents were divided into: right-handers (N=523), left-handers (N=412), and impossible to classify (N=42). Items were subjected to a cluster analysis. Results show a clear grouping of items for left-handers and a vaguely similar grouping for right-handers, characterized by the muscle groups…

The accuracy and rate of correctly completed math problems increased when three educable retarded adolescents were required to do the assignment in a shorter than usual period of time. Findings differed from previous studies which revealed that abrupt shifts produce a decline in response rate and undesirable emotional side effects. (Author/CL)

Forty-eight female university students participated in a reaction-time experiment in which challenging goal instructions were manipulated under conditions of minimal feedback. Findings extend Locke's views of the effects of personal goals on subsequent performance to applications involving minimal implicit knowlege of results. (Author/MP)

Investigates age differences in the impact of play on subsequent tool-use, the influences of task characteristics on the impact of play on tool-use, the ways play aids tool-use, and the effect of play richness on tool-use among 30 children in each of three age groups (from four to five, six to seven, and eight to ten years of age). (RH)

Twenty gifted learners (11 years old) demonstrated performance superior to 20 average age matched learners on problem solving tasks related to memory and attention, but not on all measures related to performance efficiency and strategy selection. Average Ss used significantly more advanced strategies when continued access to feedback was…

An interactional approach to attention problems in learning disabled children takes into account the degree of voluntary attention required by the task, the degree of structure in the setting, and the characteristics of the child. (CL)

Evaluated effects of perceived freedom of choice on behavior change. Subjects were assigned to groups that varied in amount of perceived choice in determining training procedures. Subjects who perceived that they were given choice in training procedures improved significantly more than subjects who lost freedom of choice. (Author/BEF)