Argues that television, when used as a secondary activity, interferes with performance on otherwise intellectually demanding tasks. Examines performance on seven different cognitive processing tests for respondents in four television-viewing conditions and a no-TV control group. Finds significant performance decrements for measures of reading…

The long-term employment of 51 moderately mentally retarded clients who were placed into 64 supported employment positions was evaluated relative to 10 training and post-training components in a supported employment training package. Three components differentiated successful from unsuccessful employment: client advocate, collateral behavior, and…

The Connecticut Teacher Assessment Center Project has, since 1986, been developing a semistructured interview in the area of mathematics to evaluate beginning teacher competence. The strategy for validation of the project's performance tests, Connecticut's reform initiatives, and implications of systematic validity for traditional psychometric…

The hypothesis that student groups working under conditions of intergroup competition will adopt different motivational orientation than will groups not in competition was studied using 89 Israeli fourth graders (50 males and 39 females). The impact of prior socialization on group behaviors and implications for cooperative learning are discussed.…

Forty-nine day care center teachers rated the importance of certain behaviors/skills in the successful performance of handicapped young children in day care. Communication skills were rated as the most important, followed in order by independence, social interaction, compliance to rules/routines, and preacademic skills. (JDD)

Describes a performance engineering model used to design an effective implementation system for a supervisory training program. Highlights include a discussion of management participation, an implementation planning matrix, a flow chart of the implementation process, and a form for field trainer follow-up. (LRW)

Describes a study that identified both technical aptitudes and personality characteristics that are related to academic orientation variables previously found to predict information retrieval performance. It is argued that individual characteristics should be described so that they can be accommodated through design and training. (74 references)…

Compares student performances when reading printed text and text on a microcomputer screen. Reports that students have more difficulty locating information on-screen than in-print, particularly within prose passages. (MG)

Examines the attribution of achievement to ability and effort in low- and high-motivation groups. Randomly selected subjects are assigned to one of four feedback conditions that combine levels of consensus with success and failure. Suggests that attributional differences between motivational groups can be systematically enhanced or attenuated by…

Assesses the prevalence of self-related affects in achievement situations by asking basketball players to recall and indicate the importance of critical incidents in their sport careers. Examines the impact of success and failure, and the effects of situational factors on the prevalence of self-related affects. Self-related affects are linked to…

Two studies of the relationship between learner interest and advance organizers (AOs) with test performance were conducted: one with 33 and one with 66 undergraduates. Although the AO had no effect on test performance, student interest appeared affected by the presence of an AO. (SLD)

Describes the following prerequisites for successfully teaching writing, based on recent research in writing instruction: (1) knowing about writing process theory and practice; (2) adopting a radically revised view of the teacher's role as responder/marker/evaluator; and (3) mastering certain "technical knowledge" about the written…

Ninety-six children from a high-iodine Chinese village were found to have higher goiter incidence, thyroid gland volume, and urinary/creatinine ratio than 51 children from an iodine-normal village. All children from both villages were euthyroid. Excess iodine did not substantially affect the children's physical or intellectual growth. (Author/JDD)

This study assessed the differential effectiveness of two types of response delays on correct responding (with communicative gestures) by three individuals with severe mental handicaps to training instructions. Results showed that response delay was effective in increasing the number of correct responses in two of the three individuals. (DB)

A review of laboratory research estimating effects of mild hearing impairment on infant speech perception abilities, under conditions simulating mild hearing loss in normal hearing infants, suggests that even mild alterations of auditory input during infancy may have significant developmental consequences. Results support identification,…