Teachers have tried many "keys," some misused or ineffective, and should continue to search for effective keys to open the doors of reading for their students. Results of recent student testing programs indicate that student knowledge is on the decline, suggesting in turn that reading is a declining art. Television may be a major culprit; recent…

This study investigated whether the stimulant methylphenidate (Ritalin) would differentially affect performance on a test of cognitive style by hyperactive children. Subjects were 55 children, (ages 7 to 15) referred to the Learning Clinic at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada for hyperactivity and/or learning problems. A paired…

Measuring student writing skills can be done holistically, by ranking compositions without enumerating their linguistic, rhetorical, or information features, or atomistically, by viewing compositions as collections of these features. A variety of holistic approaches, including primary score testing, exist. Though their reliability has been…

The "cognitive clarity theory of reading" represents a resolution of the controversies about the relation between speech, writing, and reading. The work of M.A.K. Halliday suggests that learning to read and write is a natural extension of the "mathetic" speech functions, which consist of speech related to children's attempts to understand…

The relationship between placement of adjunct questions in instructional material and incidental and intentional learning was investigated. A total of 150 undergraduate students assigned to five experimental groups studied ten paragraphs with questions interspersed at different locations in the text. Performance on incidental items was…

Using methods employed by Chaikin et al (1974) and Chaikin and Derlega (1978) to determine when tutors are susceptible to expectancy effects and whether expectancies lead to discrimination against low ability students, black undergraduates (N=76) taught a lesson on fire safety at home to a 10-year-old boy. Two black male and two white male…

The differences in types of information-processing skills developed by different instructional backgrounds affect, negatively or positively, the learning of further advanced instructional materials. If prior and subsequent instructional methods are different, a proactive inhibition effect produces low achievement scores on a post test. This poses…

THE MAJOR PURPOSE OF THIS RESEARCH WAS TO DETERMINE WHETHER TRAINING IN SPECIFIC COGNITIVE PROCESSES IS EFFECTIVE IN INCREASING THE COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING OF RETARDED CHILDREN. IN PHASE I OF THE PROJECT, 51 EDUCABLE RETARDED AND 18 NORMAL SUBJECTS RECEIVED A 20-DAY PROGRAM IN SIMILARITIES-DIFFERENCES CONCEPT FORMATION AND WERE COMPARED WITH 42…

A REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH ON THE COMPREHENSION OF RAPID SPEECH BY THE BLIND IDENTIFIES FIVE METHODS OF SPEECH COMPRESSION--SPEECH CHANGING, ELECTROMECHANICAL SAMPLING, COMPUTER SAMPLING, SPEECH SYNTHESIS, AND FREQUENCY DIVIDING WITH THE HARMONIC COMPRESSOR. THE SPEECH CHANGING AND ELECTROMECHANICAL SAMPLING METHODS AND THE NECESSARY APPARATUS HAVE…

The cognitive determinants of number analogy performance were studied by systematically manipulating the processing demands imposed by the items. To explore sources of developmental differences in analogical reasoning, subjects were included from two age levels, grades 4 and 5 and college. To allow the investigation of individual differences in…

Minority cultures develop homogeneous customs, language, and thought patterns that affect the writing of individuals from these cultures. Once a student moves outside this homogeneous environment--for example, from an ethnic ghetto to white, middle class classrooms--ideas that seem to the writer to relate clearly to one another do not seem logical…

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between the level of conservation of displaced volume and the degree to which sixth-grade children learn the volume algorithm of a cuboid, namely, volume equals weight times length times height. The problem chosen is based on an apparent discrepancy between the present school programs and…

The looseleaf binder contains a series of 268 learning packages for gifted and talented elementary school students, divided into 13 subject area sections, including art, chess, general, health, language arts, literature, mathematics, perception, reading, science, social studies, study skills, and thinking skills. Two additional sections include…

Although the diagnostic testing of writing is still quite primitive, error analysis and protocol analysis hold promise for writing diagnosis. True diagnostic testing does more than aid in placing students; it identifies the nature of needed instruction. Tests in writing have not been developed to reflect approaches used in diagnostic testing in…

The nature of the cognitive style of field articulation and its relationship to differentiation of personality are discussed. A short historical summary of research on field dependence-independence is presented, and problems of measurement, stability, and evolution of the dimension of field articulation are discussed. The connections between field…