Contextual cuing refers to the facilitation of performance in visual search due to the repetition of the same displays. Whereas previous studies have focused on contextual cuing within single-search trials, this study tested whether 1 trial facilitates visual search of the next trial. Participants searched for a T among Ls. In the training phase,…

Group time discussions help children make their own choices about the activities and centers they would like to visit throughout the day. It is easy when visual reminders are used. Children can make choices about learning centers, receive center tags or "play passes," and be inspired to try new activities. The only thing needed is a system. This…

The authors examined the effect of sound-to-spelling regularity on written spelling latencies and writing durations in a dictation task in which participants had to write each target word 3 times in succession. The authors found that irregular words (i.e., those containing low-probability phoneme-to-grapheme mappings) were slower both to…

This document presents the proceedings of 16th Annual Research Forum held June 15, 2011, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included herein are the following 25 action research papers: (1) The Effects of Prompted Math Journaling on Algebra 1 Students' Achievement and Attitudes (Heidi I. Arnold); (2) Group Work and Attitude…

This report describes the development of grade norms for timed-writing performance in two modes of writing: persuasive and descriptive. These norms are based on objective and automatically computed measures of writing quality in grammar, usage, mechanics, style, vocabulary, organization, and development. These measures are also used in the…

Studying worked examples and engaging in self-explanation are well supported strategies for developing self-regulated learning and improving student performance. Our efforts involve a design theory approach to creating a Web-based learning tool that uses the notion of a weekly quiz to draw students into an environment that supports the development…

The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of using email prompts to attenuate the decrease of physical activity in adults during a winter season. In addition, the secondary purposes were (1) to evaluate the effectiveness of email prompts at increasing motivation towards physical activity and (2) to evaluate the awareness…

Presents a study designed to replicate the phenomenon of age-related increases in the efficacy of pictorial media, relative to verbal, for presenting paired-associate items and elaborate prompts to young children. Also evaluated two hypotheses which involved semantic encoding and verbal decoding. (Author/SDH)

Mentally retarded adults (N=180) were asked 30 yes/no questions, to determine if their acquiescence is explained by indiscriminant yea-saying in response to the yes/no question format or due to subjects submitting to the influence of the interviewer. After selected questions, the interviewer either nodded his head "yes" or shook his head…

The study examined an approach to train three adolescents with moderate mental handicaps to use the conversational skills of initiating a topic and continuing the conversation by cueing an adult listener to speak. The instructional techniques of modeling, prompting, delay, and social reinforcement were used in intervention. A single subject…

Research based on author's doctoral dissertation, submitted to the Graduate School of the University of California at Los Angeles.

SIX SEPARATE STUDIES, ALL CONCERNED WITH GUIDED TRIALS DURING THE LEARNING PROCESS, WERE REPORTED. SPECIFIC ASPECTS COVERED BY THE RESEARCH INCLUDE--(1) GUIDANCE AND SYMBOLIC LEARNING AND (2) GUIDANCE AND SEQUENTIAL LEARNING. VARYING NUMBERS OF COLLEGE UNDERGRADUATES WERE USED AS SUBJECTS IN THE SIX EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES. THESE INCLUDED--(1)…

VERBAL CUEING UNDER CONDITIONS COMPARABLE TO THE CLASSROOM WAS STUDIED TO TEST THE HYPOTHESES THAT THE SPECIFICITY OF VERBAL CUES DURING TRAINING IS INVERSELY RELATED TO BREADTH OF TRANSFER OF THE ABILITY TO DISCOVER A PROBLEM SOLUTION IN THE ABSENCE OF CUES. THREE DIFFERENT EXPERIMENTS WERE CARRIED OUT, EACH UTILIZING 50 TO 150 CHILDREN AS…

While a low error rate is considered desirable in programed instruction, it does not necessarily indicate an adequate program since the answer may be highly cued in ways unrelated to the major content of the items. A 377-item section of a psychology program was altered by choosing different words or phrases to leave blank for the subject to…

Prompts in concept classification normally occur on the stimulus, while in memorization tasks prompts customarily are given on the response. Opposite results have been obtained for these two tasks with excessive prompting. This study used English-Russian word pairs to compare stimulus prompts (underlining the English word) with response prompts in…