Two studies explored the relation of task understanding to performance in the Wason selection tasks, in which subjects successfully solve tasks involving either social exchange situations or cheating detection content and perspective. Findings indicate that previous results (Gigerenzer and Hug, 1992) could be attributed to three general properties…

Examined the accuracy of performance estimates by preschool and early grade school children to determine whether age-related improvements in accuracy may be attributed to better predictions or better performance. Found that older children's improved predictive accuracy on an academic task was due to improved performance, whereas their improved…

Adolescents identified letters presented to them on the basis of color. Subjects (n=20) with mental retardation exhibited facilitation when the target was identical to the target on the preceding trial but did not exhibit inhibition when it had been a distractor on the preceding trial. Inefficient suppression processes may result in performance…

Twenty preschool children with specific language impairment (SLI) were compared to matched peers on counting abilities. SLI children demonstrated knowledge of rules associated with counting but exhibited marked difficulty in counting objects. They showed difficulty with rote counting, displayed a limited repertoire of number terms, miscounted…

This paper presents results of 2 experiments examining effects of signal and masker uncertainty on 17 preschoolers' and 13 adults' detection of tonal signals in noise maskers. Effects of masker uncertainty significantly exceeded those of signal uncertainty. For most adults and some children, distracters produced higher thresholds and shallower…

Investigates factors that members of organizational work teams (school administrators and personnel who volunteered to work with students with ongoing drug and alcohol problems) believe facilitate and inhibit group performance effectiveness. Finds that compatible work schedules, motivated group members, adequate informational resources, competent…

Tested 160 children on a Stroop-like day-night test that involved 2 rules. Also tested for whether remembering two rules alone was sufficient to cause difficulty. Concludes that the requirement to learn and remember two rules is not in itself sufficient to account for the poor performance of younger children (under five) in the experiment. (DR)

Discussion of index construction for large text collections highlights a new indexing algorithm designed to create large compressed inverted indexes "in situ." Topics include a computational model, inversion, index compression, merging, experimental test results, effect on retrieval performance, memory restrictions, and dynamic…

Three groups of judges (n=18) differing in stuttering judgment experience identified stuttering events in repeated speech samples, to investigate a measurement methodology based on time-interval analyses. Results showed interjudge agreement was affected by the particular speech sample, the judges' previous experience, and the length of the…

Twenty-one normal hearing college students were presented with non-time-gated and time-gated speech stimuli. Findings indicated that poorer accuracy and longer isolation points were observed at lower signal presentation levels, listener confidence at isolation point was only indirectly influenced by presentation level, and monosyllabic word…

Defines school-based management as a decentralization of school supervision from the district to the individual school level and discusses the limited effect that has been found to date of this type of management on student performance. Some ways to encourage student achievement through school-based management are suggested. (13 references) (LAE)

This study examined the effects of structured conversational turn-taking on disfluencies and speech rate of a boy (age 5) who stuttered, based on dinner-time conversations in the subject's home. Results indicated that disfluencies decreased when structured conversational turn-taking was instituted and increased when turn-taking conditions were not…

Seven 5-minute, straight-copy timed writings administered to 87 college students revealed that (1) use of the print and return features of electronic typewriters does not automatically heighten speed or accuracy; and (2) students do not necessarily choose the best combination of features for enhancing performance. (SK)

Effects of goal setting and feedback on creative productivity (as measured by both creativity emphasis and quantity emphasis) of 54 subjects found that feedback improved creativity performance of subjects with creativity goals, creativity feedback was more valued than feedback relating to quantity goals, goal commitment was increased by feedback,…

Eleven male triathletes were studied to determine the relationships between selected metabolic measurements and triathalon performance. Oxygen uptake, pulmonary ventilation, and heart rate were measured during freestyle swimming, cycling, and treadmill running. Economy of effort was an important determinant of performance. (JD)