This book represents an attempt to summarize those ideas, opinions, and facts that are influential in education and to compare and evaluate them on the basis of present-day knowledge and the author's personal experiences in the classroom. Part 1 examines the causes of learning difficulties, applications of neurophysiologic research, and the…

Three environmental elements--messages, events, and perceived consequences of choices--cause varying amounts of stress on an individual and affect his capacity to deal with his environment. There is a nonmonotonic relationship between environmental pressures ("event press") and persuasibility in that the number and importance of…

One of the keys to economic behavior is decision making in production and the market place. Traditionally, economists have assumed decision making to be rational and based upon complete information, but this is not the case in actual situations. Actual problem solving is based upon communication behavior and availability of information. If, as is…

This study developed prototype diagnostic and teaching materials to test logical reasoning ability in second, third, and fourth grade pupils. The testing procedure attempted to find the most difficult levels, along several dimensions, at which a child can use a logical rule. The materials dealt with the rule for "or" elimination and the rule for…

A child whose behavior reflects only perception of a stimulus and reaction to it is considered more perceptually bound than an adult whose behavior is also directed by theories, values, and ideas. Based on this analysis three testable hypotheses emrege: (1) stimulus complexity is a better predictor of attention for the more perceptually bound, (2)…

Arguments for the use of sequential ordinal scales in the observation of infants and young children are based on the tendency of traditional psychometric assessment to distract investigators from discerning structural and hierarchical aspects of development. Norm-referenced testing focuses on interindividual comparisons rather than developmental…

This program, "Decisions and Outcomes", was developed as an extension of the junior high program, "Deciding". The new one is intended for senior high school students, college students, and adults and can be used as an extension of "Deciding" or as a substitute for it with older students. The program deals with typical real-life situations faced by…

This curriculum is designed primarily for use in individualized classrooms where the teacher is working with an assistant, but it has also been proven effective in traditional classrooms and in remedial situations. Program 1 focuses on the basic abilities children use to analyze and organize graphic and other spatial patterns--skills directly…

This curriculum is designed primarily for use in individualized classrooms where the teacher is working with an assistant, but it has also been proven effective in traditional classrooms and in remedial situations. Program 3 focuses on a variety of gross-and fine-motor functions--basic abilities that affect the way the child physically interacts…

New social studies materials are based on inquiry modes of learning and teaching; however, little is known as to what students actually learn from an inquiry model (except for cognitive knowledge). An inquiry model and test to measure the "unmeasurable" in the social studies--namely, a student's ability to use the scientific process,…

The results of a number of experiments with the memorizing of several different subject-matters are presented in such a way that the relationship between number of opportunities for error (word elements faded) and number of errors actually made can be observed for individuals and groups. The particular selection of word elements to be taught by…

Behavioristic, nativistic, and cognitive theories of language acquisition are discussed. Linguistically-oriented theories are compared with learning-oriented theories, and four controversial issues of frequency of stimuli, imitation expansion, and meaning are reviewed. The theories, according to the author, are rather unsubstantial at present. The…

Traditionally, studies investigating the relationship between mental abilities tests and performance on learning tasks have attempted to establish a direct relationship between these two domains by use of factor analytic techniques. It is suggested that an alternative approach can be formulated in terms of an information processing analysis of…

This booklet is intended to provide a number of experiments and demonstrations in each area of psychology which may be carried out in situations where the instructor wishes to provide class involvement and some understanding of experimental procedure, but does not have access to the apparatus generally used in experimental psychology. The 75…

Six alternative models of the ways in which individuals accept and organize information from potential sources are proposed. Parameter estimates were obtained from experiments testing the effect of evaluations of performance upon an individual's conception of his own, and others', ability to perform specific tasks. Then the models were tested…