The paper describes a prevocational training program for primary age trainable and severely retarded students. Three goals were established: to improve fine motor skills, visual perception and cognitive skills, and work habits and attitudes. Ten tasks (including stuffing envelopes and toy car assembly) were chosen and task analyzed. Results of a 7…

The backward chaining instructional method, based on behavioral learning principles, offers swimming instructors an alternative to traditional methods of teaching swimming skills by breaking down the skill into a number of tasks or steps and teaching them in reverse sequence. (CB)

A case study illustrates the development and monitoring of daily instructional objectives and activities based on five components: the Individualized Education Program (IEP), an objectives list, a task analysis and instructional sequence worksheet, a daily monitoring sheet, and a IEP performance chart. (CL)

Contrasts the "ability training" and "task-analytic" approaches in teaching learning disabled children. Describes the use of the task-analytic behavioral model in Project EXCEL, a Child Service Demonstration Center. Summarizes guiding principles of this approach, and indicates that participating students have shown dramatic…

Examines three distinct approaches to developing competency models: the modified task analysis approach, the critical trait approach, and the situational approach. Figures illustrate each model. (CT)

Discussion of the role of small group performance focuses on solving problems to improve performance. Types of tasks and their effects on groups are described; group resources are discussed; factors affecting group process are explained; and a flowchart for solving group performance problems is presented. (LRW)

Describes two exploratory studies of undergraduate and postgraduate students concerning the difficulties of learning to perform HTA (hierarchical task analysis) and how those difficulties might be overcome through proper training. Errors occurred with respect to all HTA criteria, suggesting that carrying out HTR itself is a complex cognitive task.…

Defines organizational capacity as the level of an organization's capability to deliver services and products that satisfy customer expectations and anticipate future marketplace opportunities. Considers the organization's past performance record; product and process capabilities; issues in capacity analysis; and tasks that are recommended for…

Describes electronic performance support systems (EPSSs) that can enhance performance and reduce training times and costs. Provides examples of EPSSs; explains why instructional designers and trainers should be interested in EPSSs; and discusses design considerations, including part task/whole task support, embedded versus linked, and user…

In order to investigate whether addressees can make immediate use of speaker-based constraints during reference resolution, participant addressees' eye movements were monitored as they helped a confederate cook follow a recipe. Objects were located in the helper's area, which the cook could not reach, and the cook's area, which both could reach.…

This paper presents three experiments which show syntactic priming effects in four- and five-year-old children. The experiments are modeled after priming studies with adults involving transitive and dative constructions. In Study 1 children were presented with a picture that was described by an experimenter. They repeated the experimenter's…

Role congruity theory predicts that women will be less likely than men to emerge as leaders when expectations for the leader role are incongruent with gender stereotypes. A 2 x 2 x 3 design that crossed the sex of the dominant partner, mixed- and same-sex dyads, and masculine, feminine, and neutral tasks involved 120 dyads of unacquainted college…

A forced-choice reaction-time (RT) task was used to examine voluntary visual orienting among children and adolescents with trisomy 21 Down syndrome and typically developing children matched at an MA of approximately 5.6 years, an age when the development of orienting abilities reaches optimal adult-like efficiency. Both groups displayed faster…

Under baseline conditions warehouse stockers (n = 23) could earn incentives if their team performed above the team quota of 18 cases stocked per hour. They were also subject to disciplinary action if they failed to regularly meet individual stocking quotas. In spite of these contingencies the stockers failed to receive bonus payments most of the…

There is a common predicament faced by educational designers, that is, the lack of learning design tools for nontraditional pedagogies of learning. Because of this lack of alternatives, educational designers often use traditional design tools (such as task analysis) in contexts where nontraditional learning activities (such as collaborative…