Journal of Educational Psychology

Allen, D. Ian

doi: 10.1037/h0029909pmid: N/A

Used 1-way analysis of variance with post hoc comparisons to study the effects on learning and retention of advance organizers and memory level or higher order questions for 212 9th graders in 12 classes in 2 junior high schools. Tests measuring retention of question-specific learning and generalized higher order learning of narrative and descriptive material were administered the day following the completion of 4 learning sessions and equivalent forms were administered 3 wk. later. Ss at or above the 60th IQ percentile were compared, as were those between the 20th and 59th percentiles. On the 1st test there were differences between the groups at both ability levels which were attributable to the effects of specific questions but there appeared to be no differences due to advance organizers. On the 2nd test question-specific facilitation was apparent for lower ability Ss who had received advance organizers. On this test, advance organizers resulted in general facilitation for higher ability Ss only. (17 ref.)

Achenbach, Thomas M.

doi: 10.1037/h0029898pmid: N/A

308 5th graders took the Children's Associative Responding Test (CART), a previously standardized and validated multiple-choice analogy test designed to identify children who rely on free association rather than on reasoning processes which may be available to them. 2 experiments replicated previous findings that the correlations between classroom performance and ability measures (Otis and Binet IQ, mental age) were lower for children who, on the CART, relied excessively upon free association (high Ds) than for children who did not (low Ds). High Ds were significantly poorer than low Ds on an individual paired-associate task, but not on content-free problem-solving tasks. Unlike the Otis and Binet, total errors on the CART had consistently high correlations with classroom performance for all groups.

Bormuth, John R.; Manning, John; Carr, Julian; Pearson, David

doi: 10.1037/h0029817pmid: 5474295

Conceptualized and operationally defined 3 classes of the skills by which knowledge is acquired from written language and made a preliminary determination of whether the skills defined represent homogeneous classes of behaviors and are hierarchically related. The test was administered to 240 4th graders. Question transformations which derive questions and their correct responses from the various types of syntactic-structures studies were used to operationally define each skill. It seemed from the analyses of the Ss' responses that the skills defined represented homogeneous response classes which may be hierarchically related. However, the Ss showed an unexpectedly low level of performance on these seemingly simple and basic skills.

Guthrie, John T.; Baldwin, Thelma L.

doi: 10.1037/h0029818pmid: 5474296

Shows the occurrence of the indefinite article to be a concept similar to those studied in the general concept-formation paradigm. The acquisition of this grammatical concept was examined using 80 inner-city, Negro 5th graders. Learning an auditory discrimination of instances and noninstances of the concept did not affect the acquisition of the ability to produce instances of the concept orally. Likewise, learning to verbalize the grammatical rule which governs the concept did not facilitate concept formation. However, training on the application of the verbalized rule strongly facilitated concept formation (p < .001). The application training was superior to rule learning for low- but not high-IQ Ss. Performance on a concept-transfer task was not facilitated by the acquisition of the concept. (17 ref.)

Brophy, Jere E.; Good, Thomas L.

doi: 10.1037/h0029908pmid: N/A

Investigated the processes by which teachers communicate differential performance expectations to different children through observational study of dyadic contacts between teachers and individual students in 4 1st grade classrooms. Differential teacher expectations for different children were associated with a variety of interaction measures, although many of these relationships are attributable to objective differences. However, other differential teacher behavior was observed which is not attributable to objective differences among the children and which is consistent with the hypothesis that differential teacher expectations function as self-fulfilling prophecies. Teachers demanded better performance from those children for whom they had higher expectations and were more likely to praise such performance when it was elicited. In contrast, they were more likely to accept poor performance from students for whom they held low expectations and were less likely to praise good performance from these students when it occurred, even though it occurred less frequently. Findings support the hypotheses of R. Rosenthal and L. Jacobson concerning teacher-expectation effects and as indicative of the behavioral mechanisms involved when teacher expectations function as self-fulfilling prophecies.

Egeland, Byron; Hunt, David E.; Hardt, Robert H.

doi: 10.1037/h0029913pmid: N/A

Studied the relation of Upward Bound students' scores on a variety of attitude, motivational, and demographic measures to the likelihood of their enrolling in college by forming a college (N = 304) and noncollege (N = 108) group, individually matched on GPA, high school curriculum, and Upward Bound program attended. The Upward Bound Ss who later went on to college were superior to a noncollege group on the following measures: interpersonal flexibility, self-evaluated intelligence, possibility of college graduation, and importance of college graduation. Comparisons on demographic measures indicate a relationship between peer groups and students post high school interests. A large proportion of the college group came from larger high schools, did not fall in the lowest income level, and had mothers who remained at home.

Phye, Gary; Baller, William

doi: 10.1037/h0029798pmid: N/A

In a replication of P. T. Sturges' study, undergraduates learned course-related material, were given an initial retention test, and received information feedback under 1 of 3 answer conditions: no distractors, 3 distractors, or 7 distractors. Informative feedback was either immediate or given after 48 hr. Retention was measured either immediately after informative feedback presentation or after 7 days. Insufficient support was found for the assertion that increase in knowledge of alternatives within the delayed informative feedback condition results in better retention performance over time.

Resnick, Lauren B.

doi: 10.1037/h0029814pmid: 5474297

Conducted a study of the relations between perceptual and syntactic factors in reading using the eye-voice span technique. Each S read aloud 54 passages projected on a screen. At a fixed point in the text the screen was blacked out, but S continued to read as far as he could. Measures of average number of words read after light-out (eye-voice span) and number of times S stopped at a phrase boundary (stops) were used. There were 4 groups of Ss: 3rd and 5th graders, undergraduates under standard conditions, and undergraduates under a perceptual strain condition created by projecting the slide upside down. Both eye-voice span and stops increased from 3rd grade-college under standard conditions, but college Ss under perceptual strain performed like 3rd graders. For college strain Ss there was a high correlation between eye-voice span and stops; for the other groups there was no significant correlation. Results are consonant with the theory that perceptual control is necessary for syntactic control to develop, but that the latter is learned independently and does not develop automatically as perceptual skill increases.

Gaudry, Eric; Spielberger, Charles D.

doi: 10.1037/h0029796pmid: 5474298

Investigated the effects of anxiety and intelligence on paired-associate learning in a factorial design with 2 levels of anxiety and 2 levels of intelligence. Ss were 72 undergraduates, 17-26 yr. old. Latency measures were obtained over 15 anticipation trials; separate analyses were made for early and later stages of learning. Results show that (a) early in learning, high anxiety facilitated performance for high-IQ Ss and impaired performance for low-IQ Ss relative to their low-anxiety counterparts; (b) later in learning, high anxiety tended to facilitate performance for both high- and low-IQ Ss; and (c) in both stages of learning, the performance of high-IQ Ss was superior to that of low-IQ Ss. Results are discussed in terms of C. D. Spielberger's extension of Spence-Taylor Drive Theory. (26 ref.)

Merrill, M. David

doi: 10.1037/h0029916pmid: N/A

Gave 45 undergraduates a programed presentation of an Imaginary Science using Autotutor teaching machines attached to a Techni-rite recorder. Ss were randomly divided into 6 experimental conditions as follows: Group 1 received no knowledge of results on criterion frame performance; Group 2 received right-wrong information; Group 3 repeated previous presentation once when performance on criterion frame was incorrect; Group 4 repeated previous presentation as many times as necessary; Group 5 received a specific review once; and Group 6 received specific review until criterion frame performance was correct. Results show Group 6 to be the most efficient procedure, with Group 4 being least efficient. No error differences were observed.