This study investigated whether computer science educational background makes secondary students more adept at using word processing capabilities, and compared computer science and non-computer science students' writing improvement with word processing use. Computer science students used more sophisticated program features but student writing did…

Describes two experiments that investigated the effects of two thematic retrieval cues on the types of information recalled from short stories by elementary school children and adults. Shows adults and fourth graders, but not younger children, spontaneously generated thematic retrieval plans which enabled them to remember information from both…

Compares kindergartners' and third and sixth graders' understanding of an illusion reported by the philosopher John Locke, in which two hands simultaneously experience two different temperatures from a container of water at one temperature. (HOD)

The hypothesis for this study assumed that subjects who received a diagram representing the structural relationships of a story would be more likely to solve a new and analogous problem than subjects who received two analogs without a diagram. The 151 graduate students who acted as subjects were randomly assigned to one of four treatments: one or…

This study of college students in business administration classes compares attitudes toward office computer use of students with typing or word processing skills to those of students without those skills. Results show typing and/or word processing skills were associated with greater degree of conceptual understanding of future office computer use.…

With the use of verbal report strategies, a study was conducted to examine (1) the types of comprehension strategies readers use to process familiar and less familiar texts and (2) the differential use of think aloud strategies by average and below average readers. Subjects were 15 tenth grade male students in upstate New York. Two weeks prior to…

Examines the role of experience in the use of orthographic structure by good and poor sixth-grade readers. Results showed that poor sixth-grade readers used orthographic structure to speed their matching judgments just as effectively as good sixth-grade readers. (HOD)

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 28 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) abled and disabled sixth grade readers' knowledge of story structure under three conditions, (2) the impact of typographical factors on the visual information…