A battery of 10 intelligence tests was administered to 22 subjects under standard conditions. After the testing session the degree of perceived similarity between 5 tests of the battery was to be estimated with regard to: (1) the kind of intellectual activity required by the tests, and (b) difficulty. Estimated qualitative similarity, according to…

The purpose of the effort was to determine the benefits to be derived from the adaptive training technique of automatically adjusting task difficulty as a function of a student skill during early learning of a complex perceptual motor task. A digital computer provided the task dynamics, scoring, and adaptive control of a second-order, two-axis,…

The objective of this study is to identify some of the structural features of an elementary logic curriculum which affect logic problem difficulty. The system under review is a computer-based logic instructional system (LIS) at Stanford University. Four modes of problem presentation--multiple-choice, truth-analysis, counterexample, and derive--are…

A sample of scientists and engineers participated in a study designed to assess moderating influences of facets of perceived cohesiveness and collaborative problem-solving on the task characteristics-individual performance relationship between task difficulty and individual performance. (Author)

Two studies analyzed the complexity of structural organization in stories told spontaneously by 220 children ranging from 3 to 12 years of age. Results indicated that structural complexity increases with chronological age. (Author/JMB)

First-, third-, fifth-, and sixth-grade children were administered 20 relational reasoning problems in which they had to deduce the possible sizes of one item relative to two others on the basis of a visual comparison and a written clue. Dramatic differences were observed between fifth- and sixth-grade children. Corrective feedback improved…

Examined the pattern of higher level versus lower level deficits in brain-impaired children compared with normal children. Higher level functions included general neuropsychological functioning and verbal/academic skills; lower level functions included sensory and motor skills. Showed the brain-impaired group to be significantly poorer in each…

Discusses a longitudinal study of young children's acquisition of complex sentences for expressing their beliefs about causally related events, in the transition in language development from simple to complex syntax. While most of the children's statements expressed subjective meaning overall, the acquisition of syntactic connectives was…

This study explored the relationship between college student achievement and two other dimensions: cognitive complexity and the concreteness or abstractness of selected concepts. Although the level of abstractness alone did not influence achievement, the cognitive complexity of the item and the interaction of the two main effects was significant.…

Five elementary level males with learning disabilities read material at two levels of difficulty in a multi-element design. Findings suggested that oral reading rate and reading comprehension performance are more strongly linked than previously suggested. (CL)

The linearly ordered content domain (LOCD) concept is discussed. A logistic analysis of the occurrence of first introduction of spelling words into the curriculum is presented, the results, along with word length, number of neutralized vowels, and an index of word familiarity are used to predict word location on the spelling LOCD. (Author/DWH)

Kindergarten through eighth-grade children were presented with two revisions (luck and skill) of the Matching Familiar Figures Test. Questioning about performance of hypothetical others revealed four levels of differentiation of luck and skill. These levels showed parallels with age-related changes in conceptions of difficulty, effort, and…

Using a complex, computerized decision-making task, 56 university students participated in a six-week, repeated measures, goal-setting project, involving different payment systems. Results indicated that goal-contingent payment is superior to hourly payment in influencing performance, even though the perceived valence of payment and the actual…

Two factors, language difficulty and option set convergence, were experimentally manipulated and their effects on item difficulty assessed. Option convergence was found to have a significant effect on item difficulty while the effect of language difficulty was not significant. (Author/BW)

The Math Lab is a creative approach to teaching math concepts. Students are introduced to skills through several conceptual levels. Concrete level activities are followed by semiconcrete, semiabstract, and abstract levels of instruction. Examples of teaching methods for each level are offered. (DF)