Nine trainable mentally retarded students (mean age 14.6 years) showed significant achievement gains over a control group in the skill areas of spatial perception, communication, welfare, health, and rules after participating in a behavioristic task analysis curriculum encouraging student decision making. (CL)

Evaluation of two methods, Stimulus Manipulation and Delay Feedback Only, for teaching four mildly handicapped students (ages 9-13) to solve missing minuend problems found both methods to be effective. However, systematic differences in error rate and long-term retention were observed, favoring the Stimulus Manipulation procedure. (Author/DB)

The study investigated the cognitive processes underlying differences in computer competency between 29 intellectually gifted and 14 nongifted children. Findings are analyzed. (Author/MT)

The Sequential Prompt Reduction Technique (SPRT) was used with a 5-year-old severely retarded boy to develop his play skills. The SPRT has four components: identification of a desired terminal behavior, establishment of task sequences, delineation of prompts, and establishment of a prompt sequence. (DB)

Presents a situation by response model that enables trainers to organize and simplify the planning, training, and application of making appropriate response choices. The discussion covers the possible uses of the model and the necessary steps involved in the creation of the model. (CLB)

Three studies involving groups of four- to five-year-old children examined whether the discriminative properties of prompts are critical for establishing a difficult (septagon, octagon) discrimination through time delay. Results confirm superiority of multiple-stimulus, distinctive-feature prompts, implying that stimulus dimensions of prompts are…

Significant differences were found favoring skill-deficient second-graders (N=10) provided with repeated preteaching trials on a selected component skill of a subtraction algorithm before they worked the entire algorithm over students (N=10) who, from the beginning of training, received systematic instruction on working the entire algorithm.…

Investigates the problem young children have in constructing diagonals, noting that, on the whole, they can not make diagonals in the horizontal/vertical configuration. (HOD)

Two teachers were taught positioning and handling techniques using written task analyses, demonstrations by an occupational therapist, verbal and modeling prompts, corrective feedback, and praise. Training took place in the natural school environment, during school hours, and with students that the teachers taught. A functional relationship…

Data from 2,100 two-parent, two-child households were analyzed to determine the relationships of demographic variables, ownership of 11 appliances, and time spent in four categories of household tasks. Little evidence was found that appliance ownership is related to less time being spent in household tasks. (Author/CT)

Three specific skill areas in a training package to teach menstrual care skills to five mild to severely mentally retarded women were task analyzed and taught in a sequential manner. Results indicated that the package was successful; Ss continued to perform the skills up to five months after the study. (Author)

A study was conducted to determine the major factors related to organizational commitment among 108 county extension agents in the Ohio Cooperative Extension Service. Objectives included determining agent commitment, differences in the level of commitment among agents, and relationship between organizational commitment and (1) personal…

The paper describes procedures to test, revise, and test again a program to teach feminine hygiene skills to moderately retarded females. During year 1, one of four subjects had acquired the skills taught in the program. Following program revision, all eight subjects acquired the skills taught. (Author/CL)

Discusses the relationship between the problems involved in the creation of expert systems by knowledge engineers, i.e., experts at translating human abilities and knowledge into computer programs, and the major issues dealt with in the planning/analysis phases of instructional development. (MBR)

A computer program utilized to generate detailed reports of labor requirements saved almost $700,000 in custodial labor costs for the Facilities Maintenance and Operations Division of Oakland County, Michigan. The program also is used for a quality-control audit system during inspections to evaluate cleaned rooms. (MLF)