THE EFFECTS OF TWO POSTULATED COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS ON GROUPS OF RELATIVELY SLOW LEARNERS WERE EXAMINED DURING THE REPORTED RESEARCH. THE TWO COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS WERE--(1) HOMOGENEOUS GROUPING, AS OPPOSED TO HETEROGENEOUS GROUPING AND (2) PUBLIC DISPLAY OF THE PERFORMANCE OF ALL MEMBERS OF A GROUP, AS OPPOSED TO INDIVIDUALIZED FEEDBACK. FOUR GROUPS OF 10 SUBJECTS FROM NINTH-GRADE ALGEBRA CLASSES USED PORTIONS OF "MODERN MATHEMATICS--A PROGRAMED TEXTBOOK, COURSE I" IN THIS STUDY. INSTRUCTION FOR ALL GROUPS WAS AUTOMATED BY SYSTEMS WHICH PRESENTED KNOWLEDGE OF RESULTS. IN TWO OF THE GROUPS, THIS KNOWLEDGE WAS PRESENTED ON A DISPLAY PANEL SO THAT ALL MEMBERS COULD SEE RESULTS FOR THEIR ENTIRE GROUP. IN TWO OTHER GROUPS, STUDENTS RECEIVED PERFORMANCE RESULTS PRIVATELY BY MEANS OF SIGNAL LIGHTS AT THEIR OWN STATIONS. AN ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE OF FIRST POST-TEST SCORES INDICATED THAT HOMOGENEOUS GROUPS SCORED HIGHER THAN THE HETEROGENEOUS GROUPS. THE SIGNIFICANT FINDING WAS THAT HETEROGENEOUS GROUPS RECEIVING PUBLIC DISPLAY OF PERFORMANCE SCORED SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER GAINS THAN ANY OF THE OTHER GROUPS. OBSERVATION OF THE SUBJECTS DURING THE EXPERIMENT INDICATED THAT GROUPS RECEIVING PUBLIC DISPLAY OF PERFORMANCE INTERACTED AND VERBALIZED CONSIDERABLY, WHILE THOSE RECEIVING PRIVATE KNOWLEDGE DEMONSTRATED VIRTUALLY NONE OF THIS BEHAVIOR. (WB)