This report capsulizes the problems of defining the meaning of social competency in young children in relation to a panel discussion held in January 1973. Four approaches are discussed: (1) the "bag of virtues" approach, (2) the "industrial psychology" approach, (3) the normative-expectation approach, and (4) the theory-guided approach. Seven…

This study investigated individual differences in mathematical performance among secondary school students, and differences between boys and girls and between students of high and low socioeconomic status. A sample of 335 ninth-grade students from two secondary schools was administered tests of personality, mathematics attitude, numerical ability,…

The Learning Booth, an educational product developed and tested by the Far West Laboratory, was designed to offer a young child (at kindergarten or first-grade level) an experience which enables the child to learn to solve problems and find answers independently. Other training materials enable users to set up and operate a learning booth for…

This study--a follow-up to one conducted by Giles in 1965-- compared the written compositions of fourth grade pupils who had been in Project Head Start in the summer of 1965 with those of comparable pupils not in the program to determine possible differences in their written language development. Seventy Negro students were divided by sex and…

This study examines at the elementary school level four different types of instruments in order to assess their capability to measure the attitudes toward arithmetic of third and fifth grade children. The four arithmetic attitude instruments were administered using a Latin Square model and included: the Dutton-Thurstone Scale, the Dutton-Likert…

A basic unsolved problem in science is that of understanding learning, the process by which people and machines use their experience in a situation to guide future action in similar situations. The ideas of Piaget, Pavlov, Hull, and other learning theorists, as well as previous heuristic programing models of human intelligence, stimulated this…

The investigation examined the "Wide Range Achievement Test" (WRAT) and its subtests (spelling, reading, and arithmetic), as well as possible differences attributable to the factors of sex, with the "Chicago Non-Verbal" (CNV) as a criterion variable. The 1970 study encompassed 72 Indian students (with a mean chronological age…

The stated aim of "Outside the Net" is to analyze and reveal the dominant educational system from a radical perspective and to work to create a new one. To that end it publishes articles critical of the present educational system, such as a critique of the "cult of I.Q." and an expose of racism in Nancy Drew mysteries. The…

A series of five interdisciplinary conferences held over a two-year period explored new teaching and training concepts and methodologies which offer powerful, symbiotic means of augmenting human cognition. The basic discussion points of the conferences are summarized. It was felt that the conferences were significant in that they brought together…

Certain concepts that are sometimes confused in discussions on testing socially disadvantaged children are clarified and a history of testing, beginning with Binet, is presented. Finally, five problems in using tests to evaluate educational programs for the disadvantaged are considered. (AG)

The purpose of this study was to attempt to determine if score gains obtained upon repeated testing with an intelligence test result from a practice effect, from students remembering specific items, or from a combination of both. The verbal and nonverbal batteries of an I.Q. test were administered to 860 sixth graders on three occasions with…

This report considers the problem of constructing an abstract model of story comprehension. The use of questions that go beyond the story as a test of understanding the story raises a methodological problem which is discussed in detail. (Author)

A question answering system which permits a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) student greater initiative in the variety of questions he can ask is described. A method is presented to represent the dynamic processes of a subject matter area by augmented finite state automata, which permits efficient inferencing about dynamic processes and…

Three third-grade, three sixth-grade, and three adult female examiners tested 108 kindergarten and third-grade girls, half of whom were familiar to them, on three individually administered measures. No differences in performance on any measure as a function of familiarity were found at either grade level. No differences by examiners of different…

Psychological testing has recently fallen into disrepute because psychoanalysts have perpetuated a fraudulent theory of personality and because psychometrists have become overly concerned with psychometric esthetics to the neglect of validity. The theory subscribed to by psychoanalysts holds behavior as relatively independent of the situation the…