Suggests that a model of learned helplessness must give equal weight to motivational and cognitive components. Subjects were 102 female and 58 male college students in psychology classes. (MP)

The roles of advice and feedback in the facilitation of online processing during acquisition and subsequent impact on memory-based processing during a delayed problem-solving task were studied in 2 experiments with 123 college students. Results indicate that corrective feedback improves online processing during training. (SLD)

Examined the effects of tutoring on college students' ability to learn a computer programming language in order to characterize effective tutor behaviors. Found that successful tutors took a very active role in leading problem-solving by offering confirmatory feedback and additional guidance while students were on profitable paths and error…

Investigated the roles of successful task performance and achievement instructions on attitudes regarding the guided-design approach to instruction. Results revealed that students erroneously informed that they had done well on the task stated more positive attitudes. However, the achievement instructions did not have a statistically significant…

College students were classified as schematic (belief in being a good problem solver and importance of this ability to self-esteem) or aschematic (belief in moderate ability and low or moderate importance of ability). Results with 196 students indicate the importance of self-concept in development and maintenance of competence. (SLD)

Researchers have suggested two models of risk preference to account for subjects' preference for tasks of moderate difficulty. The affective model proposes that pride of success and shame of failure are responsible for the observed preference. The cognitive model suggests preference for tasks of moderate difficulty because they are the most…

Advice and feedback on analogical reasoning were manipulated to produce varying conditions for college-age subjects (228 college students). Subsequent testing indicated a general transfer effect for verbal analogy solution and a procedural transfer effect for cause-effect relationships. Results are discussed within the context of schema theory.…

This research describes a methodology for applying design- and management-based scaffolding techniques aimed to enhance cooperative behavior. Based on assumptions of how successful online learning groups act together, we developed feedback-based mechanisms that aimed at contributing to group functions of well-being, member support, and productive…

The authors investigated whether guidance and reflection would facilitate science learning in an interactive multimedia game. College students learned how to design plants to survive in different weather conditions. In Experiment 1, they learned with an agent that either guided them with corrective and explanatory feedback or corrective feedback…

Although conventional approaches to teaching psychology are probably effective to some degree, it is possible that psychology should be a "hands on" science, i.e., students of psychology should learn to apply the concepts and principles of the theoretical regions of psychology and to solve open-ended problems through the application of…

Use of a retention test in an investigation regarding the post-knowledge of results (KR) interval provides evidence suggesting that, while activity during the post-KR interval is detrimental to performance, no such assumption can be made about its effect on learning. Implications for motor learning and performance are discussed. (Author/PP)

This investigation compares overt judgments about tenable hypotheses to choices in a concept identification task, as a function of stimulus similarity on successive trials. Two mathematical models are tested: (a) A 1-element local consistency version of Restle's concept identification model and (b) the same model with two additional passive states…

Based on a workshop presented by Charles Wales, a guided design project was developed for a junior mechanical design class at California State University-Chico. This course involves lectures on the design process and an extension of the basic mechanics of materials concepts, particularly as related to design and prevention of failure. The…

Reports two studies that explored the uses of videotape in helping students identify desired interview behaviors and gain feedback about their personal competence in employment and problem-solving interviews. (PD)

Individualized instruction significantly improves students' pedagogical and motivational outcomes. The study described here sought to characterize tutorial behaviors that could lead to these benefits and to consider why these behaviors should be pedagogically useful. The experiment studied 16 undergraduate and graduate university students learning…