Examined how circumstances of a suicide victim's life may influence people's responses in college students (n=180) who read a fictitious newspaper article about a man who committed suicide following psychological pain, physical pain, or terminal illness. Results indicated that subjects were intolerant of suicide when the victim was suffering from…

P. Lewicki and others (1988) suggested that subjects unconsciously abstract tacit knowledge about a complex pattern of events in a situation that departs from the artificial grammar learning pattern. The present experiment with 40 third year university students offers an alternative framework that does not assume unconscious rule abstraction. (SLD)

Reviews the research literature related to nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and practices concerning acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), human immunodeficiency virus infection, and care of people with AIDS. Gaps in knowledge and negative, fearful attitudes were identified; negative fears and attitudes decreased with the gain in accurate…

Investigates the influence of content knowledge on topic choice in children's writing. Finds that children have significantly more knowledge about topics they want to write about than about unwanted or teacher topics. Emphasizes the importance of topic self-selection, and the role knowledge plays in topic choice. (MM)

Offers 20 multiple choice questions to test the reader's knowledge of characteristics of the ERIC online database. The levels of expertise indicated by scores obtained on the quiz are given and suggested further readings are provided. (CLB)

Examined the contributions of 4 individual difference predictors for recall of object names in 93 children of 3 and 4 years. Results suggest that motivational factors contribute directly to young children's recall proficiency and do not mediate strategic study behavior. (RJC)

Explores the development of drawing abilities in 185 children of 5-10 years and 27 adults. Even the youngest children were able to judge the correct age sequence of drawings at above chance levels. However, their rankings were more erroneous than those of older children and of adults. (RJC)

Criticizes the approach towards literacy taken by E. D. Hirsch, Jr. in "Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know." Compares Hirsch's list of "What Literate Americans Know" with lists in books on trivia. Expresses concern about the narrow sense in which Hirsch conceives context in relationship to literacy. (LS)

Data from 44 boys and 39 girls of 27-63 months of age indicated that children's gender schematization and other cognitive gender schema factors were significantly associated with accuracy in attributing gender-role stereotypes to males and females. (RH)

Explored the level of scientific knowledge regarding sexuality and contraception of Black and Hispanic inner-city adolescents. Results indicated that Hispanic males were the most knowledgeable, Hispanic females the least, and Black males and females were intermediate. A cultural basis for this difference is considered, and the need to design…

The article reports research supporting a view which sees learning disabilities as resulting from the interplay between a poorly elaborated knowledge base (especially in language related domains), the biologically determined efficiencies of such processes as encoding, and the physical and social meaning attached to performance (i.e. the context).…

A survey examining health and physical education teachers' physical activity levels, health and physical fitness knowledge, and lifestyle characteristics indicated that the subjects highly regarded positive lifestyle habits and good health practices, consistently demonstrated participation in physical activities on a regular basis, and appeared to…

Results of the comparison of metacomponential functioning and knowledge acquisition of adults with either mild mental retardation or learning disabilities found that (1) knowledge base is the best predictor of metacomponential skill, (2) metacomponential orchestration differentiates the two groups, and (3) IQ mediates metacognition, but does not…

Assessed students' (N=198) knowledge of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) specific facts, their attitudes toward people with AIDS, and their general attitudes toward homosexual men and lesbian women. Found most subjects accurately informed on the subject of AIDS. Most held neither negative views toward homosexuality nor punitive views…

Collected data from 189 adolescents applying for outpatient drug treatment, and separately from their mothers. Results indicated that mothers' information about adolescent's drug use was neither very complete not accurate. Adolescents reported significantly more use of alcohol, but significantly less problem with alcohol use than did mothers.…