Six research studies involving computer assisted instruction (CAI) are reported. "Gradient and Full-Response Feedback in Computer-Assisted Instructions" did not substantiate the hypothesized advantages of gradient-response over full response feedback on the basis of amount learned (n=24). "Relative Effectiveness of Various Modes of Stimulus…

PLANIT (Programming Language for Interactive Teaching) is a general purpose teaching system that allows a lesson designer to enter course content into the computer for use as a teaching device. The user (lesson designer or student) communicates with the system via a keyboard. Interacting with PLANIT, he can build and edit lessons, present lessons,…

This paper presents research into the characteristics of low-income families in the Portland, Oregon area. The contention is made that the learning behavior of children from these families is affected by their pre-school and early school experiences, which may be unsatisfactory in preparing them to learn. Three types of aberrations may affect…

Under the subject contract, a program was undertaken with the object of identifying the effectiveness of equivalent response learning techniques in the human learning process, with special attention to the potentialities for training and retraining of unemployed youths, older workers, and disadvantaged sections of the population. The experiment…

Psychological researchers should deal with the concrete stimulus-response principles of learning on which behavior is based, and study behaviors that are representative of real life behaviors. The present research strategy has come from two faulty ideas: first, a concern with underlying, inferred mental processes, rather than with actual tasks or…

Four selected scales from the Learning Environment Inventory (LEI) were rewritten to measure the students' individual perceptions of their classroom environment, rather than their estimates of the opinions of the class as a whole. Both scales were then administered to 10 7th grade math classes and 4 10th grade social studies classes. The rewritten…

This study investigated attribute by treatment interactions between prior familiarity and response mode to programmed materials for college level subjects by manipulating subjects' familiarity. The programs were a revised version of Diagnosis of Myocardial Infraction in standard format and in a reading version. Materials to familiarize subjects…

An examinee is required to express his confidence in the correctness of each choice of a multiple-choice item in a probabilistic test. For the responses to be valid indicators the confidence expressed in each choice should be determined by an examinees' knowledge. This study assessed the relationship of the certainty of examinees' responses to…

Second- and fourth-grade children learned two 25-item, paired-associate mixed lists under three experimental conditions: instructed imagery, imposed imagery, and control. Four specific transfer paradigms and a reference paradigm were represented in the lists. The specific transfer paradigms were constructed such that a first list stimulus term (a…

Confrontation, or aggressive verbal behavior, has been defended as a rhetorical tactic by some communication theorists on five bases: biological, psychological, sociological, rhetorical, and intellectual. Proponents of "rhetorical sensitivity," however, differ from those who would accept confrontation uncritically. Confrontation is not…

Theories of mass communication have sought to explain how the media function internally and affect society. Rather than additional "response" studies, which investigate the impact of media on behavior or a society's impact on its media, more research should center on the functions of mass media within the overall framework of communication theory.…

In this comparison of the political "images" of Richard Nixon and George McGovern, public opinion data were collected on President Nixon in 1968 and 1972 and on Senator McGovern in 1972 just before and just after the television broadcast of the biography of McGovern. Changes in political attitudes toward Nixon and McGovern as a result of…

Visual fixation on one of two blank targets was reinforced with either visual or auditory stimuli in one of 3 intensity sequences: (1) low, medium, high; (2) medium, high, low; and (3) high, low, medium. An analysis of variance of learning scores for the 48 14-week-old infants resulted in a significant interaction of intensity and order and in a…

This study investigated whether various kinds of preschool programs have differential cognitive effects on different kinds of children. Relevant literature was reviewed and data, generated in the first 2 years of the Head Start Planned Variations Study (PVS), were analyzed. The eight preschool programs associated with the PVS were considered.…

Fifty two Negro and 52 white second graders were asked to associate to each of 18 nonsense syllables verbally presented by one of two Negro or one of two white examiners. No examiner race differences were obtained. While significant subject race differences occurred in six of 15 response categories, each resulted from either the idiosyncratic…