To investigate the effects of task difficulty level and control over the level of difficulty on children's intrinsic motivation to play, attempts and successes were recorded as 80 four-year-old children played a bean bag game. The object of the game was to hit a target from one of five distances. Each of the distances constituted a different level…

This study proposed that performing a low-demand secondary task would improve a subject's control of attentional processes on a primary task of importance. Subjects were 60 public elementary school students 9, 10, or 11 years of age. Of these, 30 had been identified as learning disabled and 30 had been identified as non-learning-disabled. Each…

Manipulation of bureaucratic structure could be a way to increase the achievement of students, particularly those from lower social class backgrounds. (Author)

Reviews the literature on the relationships between academic performance in higher education and motivation and study habits. (Editor/PG)

Competency based education is particularly suited to adult education programs because adults often possess practical experience which may enable them to demonstrate sufficient specific competencies without taking formal coursework. While this approach to adult education programs has several advantages, seven problem areas should be carefully…

This study investigates the relationship between high school size and the incidence of college completion. Particular attention is given to very small rural high schools. Results indicated that graduates of the smallest high schools withdraw from college in significantly greater numbers than do graduates of larger high schools. (Author)

Reported are five studies on the use of delayed auditory feedback (DAF) with stutterers. The first study indicates that sex differences and age differences in temporal reaction were found when subjects (5-, 7-, 9-, 11-, and 13-years-old) recited a nursery rhyme under DAF and NAF (normal auditory feedback) conditions. The second study is reported…

The relationship between linguistic awareness (assessed by the Surface Structure Utilization Test and Word Usage Recovery Test) and reading comprehension (assessed by a fifth-word deletion cloze test and by the Metropolitan Reading Subtest Form F, 1970) was examined among 153 fourth graders, 174 sixth graders, and 132 eighth graders. The…

The findings provided no evidence that learning-to-learn effects exist with prose materials and suggested that repeated use of the multiple-choice test produces interference at the higher levels of learning. (Author/BJG)

The University of Wisconsin at Madison offers free counseling sessions to help take the trauma out of taking tests. (Author/MLF)

Discrepancies between real-self and ideal-self performances on a personality inventory, the Pensacola Z-Survey, were compared in two groups of high school seniors who were born and raised in one community and a group who had moved from an Appalachian environment to Dayton. (Author)