This study examined the joint effects of teachers' expectations about students and vice versa on the performance and attitudes of both participants. Results showed that student performance was a function of the teacher's expectations. (Author/GK)

Sources of misconceptions and learning difficulties were identified by interviewing academically sound A-level students (N=10) who were having difficulties with genetics. Indicates misconceptions were related to nature of concepts used in genetics, such as frequent representation of meiosis by fixed inanimate stage diagrams and to instructional…

Discusses problem-solving styles in environmental management and the specific deficiencies in these styles that might be grouped under the label "tunnel vision," a form of selective attention contributing to inadequate problem-formulation, partial solutions to complex problems, and generation of additional problems. Includes educational…

Evaluates the effects of various maintenance-of-behavior activities as experienced by supervisors of an industrial organization. Includes lists of activities, conclusions, and recommendations. (Author/JOW)

In two experiments, college students wrote preliminary and final drafts of a persuasive document. Elimination of sentence-formation and sequence operations produced corresponding increments in persuasive argument production, with average-ability writers benefiting more than low-ability writers. Comparatively few new arguments were constructed…

Describes a study which explored how sixth grade students' beliefs about their competence, relative to other students, affected rates of participation in small groups. Results confirmed theoretical predictions that information about relative ability in a given skill will generalize to novel situations and is an accurate predictor of performance.…

If human cognitive development advances through a series of broad and general stages, then the child's mind at any developmental point should seem consistent and similar across situations in its maturity level and general style. However, there appear to be factors and conditions that promote homogeneity and heterogeneity in the child's cognitive…

This study investigated the effects of sex and athletic status on reaction latencies and movement time. Four variables were studied: reaction time mean, reaction time consistency, movement time mean, and movement time consistency. (CJ)

The purpose of this research was to examine developmental changes in the knowledge about what variables affect performance on the incidental learning task. Kindergarteners, second graders, fifth graders, and college students indicated on a rating scale how many animals a hypothetical person would remember under easy and difficult levels of each…

Investigated the effects of experimenter status and sex and instructional set on the size of "sexy" and "average" human figure drawings by students. Results showed no effects for experimenter status or sex. "Sexy" drawings were consistently drawn larger than "average" drawings and male figures were drawn…

Kindergarten children were pretested on attention and conservation tasks. Natural conservers performed better than nonconservers on attention tasks during the pretest. Training in attention led experimental groups to perform better than a control group on both attention and conservation tasks. Younger children seemed to benefit from attention…

Eighty-four undergraduate students were randomly placed into one of three treatment groups to test the effects of high, medium, and low teacher clarity (vagueness terms and mazes) on student achievement and student perception. Results indicate that clarity significantly effects achievement and perception with the medium clarity groups displaying…

Seven-year-olds and university students were questioned about hidden or visible colored counters. Under certain testing conditions, the children were able to demonstrate one of the major characteristics of formal operational thought, namely the ability to reason in terms of verbally stated hypotheses without reliance on direct, physical…

Class inclusion problems differing in size of the array and in superordinate class were given to 84 boys and girls in grades 1 through 4 in a first experiment, and 41 boys and girls in grades 3 and 4 in a second experiment. The experiments sought to determine performance variables explaining the developmentally late appearance of class-inclusion…

Female high school students participated in a motor task to assess the effects of success/failure feedback and extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. It was found that a significant change in intrinsic motivation was due to the effects of success/failure feedback, but not to the effect of a tangible reward. (Authors/FG)