The comprehensibility, interestingness, familiarity, and memorability of concrete and abstract instructional texts were studied in 4 experiments involving 221 college students. Results indicate that concreteness (ease of imagery) is the variable overwhelmingly most related to comprehensibility and recall. Dual coding theory and schema theory are…

Comparison of performance in 3 practical problem-solving tasks by eighth graders in Singapore (170 boys, 107 girls matched for aptitude, attitude, and prior knowledge) indicated that girls distinctly preferred content familiarity and outperformed boys in several processes/skills when familiar with content. (SK)

Observed 12-month olds, with their mothers and independently, acting on objects from home and objects brought by the experimenter as new exemplars of previous toys. Found that conventional actions were more frequent in joint than in independent activity. In independent activity, conventional actions were more frequent with customary than with…

Two experiments tested predictions of dual-route-cascaded and triangle frameworks regarding effect among first-graders of having a word in oral vocabulary prior to reading that same word. Results suggest that word-specific phonological information is represented in the reading system independently of semantic or articulatory influences. Results…

Establishes a suitable composite index which combines speed and accuracy in the measurement of decoding skill. Examines whether speed acts as a confounding factor in the measurement of decoding ability. Sees whether familiarity with the word acts as a confounding factor in the assessment of spelling skills. Indicates that including word-naming…

Examined effect of familiarization on 3.5-month-olds' retention of visual stimuli with varying delay times. Found support for retention models in which direction of attentional preferences (novel, familiar, or null) depends on memory accessibility. Short lookers showed better retention over time than long lookers, indicating that much of the…

Background: People are better at recognizing faces of their own race than faces of another race. Such race specificity may be due to differential expertise in the two races. Method: In order to find out whether this other-race effect develops as early as face-recognition skills or whether it is a long-term effect of acquired expertise, we tested…

During the first year of life, infants' perception of speech becomes tuned to the phonology of the native language, as revealed in laboratory discrimination and categorization tasks using syllable stimuli. However, the implications of these results for the development of the early vocabulary remain controversial, with some results suggesting that…

Negative priming refers to slowed down reactions when the distractor on one trial becomes the target on the next. Following two popular accounts, the effect might be due either to inhibitory processes associated with the frontal cortex, or to an ambiguity in the retrieval of episodic information. We used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to…

It has been well established that young children with communication disorders (CD) have considerable difficulties interacting socially with peers in free-play settings. The central purpose of this study was to determine whether behavioral adaptations of children with CD could contribute to their peer interaction problems. To accomplish this, the…

The primary purpose of THE CAMPUS INFORMATION GAME is to help to induct new students into their unfamiliar study environment. Typically it forms an early element of an overall induction program for their course of study. THE CAMPUS INFORMATION GAME has a key secondary theme of information quality that is particularly appropriate for students of…

Elementary school staff requested and were provided with strategies for helping students and a resource guide to services for students living with substance-abusing adults.

This paper focuses on one approach to making research students more reflexive in their writing. It is argued that the development of the ability to be reflexive in regard to their own qualitative research does not come easily to a significant number of students. A range of possibilities which supervisors might present to their research students as…

"Tumaqcat" in the Yupiaq language literally means putting the pieces together. This case demonstrates how Ms. Nancy Sharp, a Yupiaq immersion teacher, seamlessly creates a classroom space that honors and adapts her home culture while she simultaneously meets school-based mathematical standards. Ms. Sharp's Yupiaq immersion class makes patterns…

A survey of conservatoire students is reported in which information was gathered regarding their awareness and incidence of physical and mental health problems resulting from performing music, as well as places and/or people they would turn to for advice in the event of a future problem. Pain and discomfort relating to posture and excessive…