The hypothesis of this study was that reading rate would be relatively constant (within a 15% range of the subject's mean reading rate) both within and across different difficulty levels of materials as long as the levels of difficulty remained at or below the subject's ability level. The subjects were 65 college students whose reading levels…

Three experiments investigated concept identification and recall of information as a function of four selected variables: concept complexity, method of instance presentation, stimulus exposure time, and conditions of recall. In all three experiments, retention was measured by the recall of instance values and the recall of instance categories. The…

THE EFFECT OF ADAPTIVE VERSUS NONADAPTIVE TRAINING UPON PEROFRMANCE IN A VISUAL TARGET DETECTION TASK WAS INVESTIGATED. ADAPTIVE TRAINING WAS NOT FOUND TO BE SUPERIOR TO NONADAPTIVE TRAINING. BUT INCREASING TASK DIFFICULTY IN AN ARBITRARY STEPWISE FASHION WAS MORE EFFECTIVE THAN MAINTAINING A CONSTANT LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY. THIS DOCUMENT, AD 634…

Three tests of intellectual performance capacity referring to factors V, S, and R, according to Thurstone's system of primary mental abilities were administered to a total number of 34 subjects. Immediately after finishing an individual item, subjects were asked to estimate the perceived difficulty of that item. The ratings were to be given on a…

Two procedures for the display of item analysis statistics are described. One procedure allows for investigation of difficulty; the second plots item difficulty against item discrimination. (Author/JKS)

The differential effects of delayed auditory feedback (DAF) upon four tasks varying in cognitive complexity were examined with undergraduates as subjects. The tasks were the construction or reading of a prose passage, and reading or naming, in a specified sequential order, word labels or pictorial representations of objects attached to a display…

Describes two studies which tested the hypothesis that short simple sentences addressed to children are the result of children signaling non-comprehension for longer, complex utterances. (JMB)

In order to determine the ability of children aged 3-8 years to reproduce patterns of different levels of complexity, 60 children were asked to reproduce checkerboard patterns at 3 levels of complexity, measured by code length as suggested by H. A. Simon. (Author/SB)

In order to meet the needs of researchers whose primary interest is in methods for training the retarded in domestic, vocational, or other nonacademic skills, a procedure is described for estimating equivalent difficulty for different vocational preparation tasks. (Author/DB)

Compares statistical techniques used in American Educational Research Journal (AERJ) articles with techniques described in graduate-level textbooks. Reports that most AERJ articles are comprehensible to students with at least an intermediate-level knowledge of statistics. Also compares types of AERJ techniques with those used in the Journal of…

Discusses the use of daily newspapers as both curriculum topic and instructional aid in teaching French as a second language and outlines class activities and techniques for use at all proficiency levels. (MSE)

Following a brief discussion of two facets of written material readability--reading ease and human interest--two reasons why written instructional material may be so difficult to read are considered: use of technical vocabulary and abstract language. Suggestions to make written instructional materials more readable are provided. (MBR)

Classification according to Bloom's taxonomy of 518 tests items from one dental school's predoctoral written examination revealed almost 84 percent to be at the knowledge level and the remainder at the comprehension level, with none at any higher cognitive level (application, analysis, synthesis, or evaluation). (MSE)

Concludes that more than 15 percent of the federal income tax law's complexity is attributable to the capital gains sections. Confirms the idea that the capital gain and loss provisions substantially complicate the law in both absolute and relative terms. (FL)

Studies 58 children ages eight to nine years who were classified as good and poor readers on the basis of their proofreading two passages varying in level of difficulty. Misspellings were introduced by transposing two adjacent letters in the word "the," other three-letter words, and longer words. (Author/CI)