Simple observation of dance movement, while very useful, can lead to misconceptions, about the physical realities of dance movement, that make learning difficult. This gap between reality and understanding can be reduced by the application of biomechanical techniques such as cinematography, electromyography, and force-plate analysis. Biomechanical…

Previous research has found that males perform better than females on the pursuit rotor. To examine whether males and females with different sex role orientations would perform differently on a motor task, 120 students (classified as androgynous, traditional sex role, cross-sexed, or undifferentiated, based on scores on the Personal Attributes…

The study followed up 30 premature Hungarian infants of low birthweight (less than 2500 grams) but no other major perinatal complications. Subjects were tested at age 6 on the Budapest-Binet IQ test, the Goodenough's "Draw a Person" test, the Bender Gestalt test, and a school entry test battery. Test performances at age 6 found that the…

Conservation ability, spatial motor ability, age, and gender were used as predictive variables in a study of 26 kindergarten children's computer programming ability. A preliminary pilot study with first graders had suggested that programming success was related to the ability to reverse thought processes. In both studies, children were taught to…

This study compared the skills performance of 60 children, ages 3 to 5, with speech and language delays on the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (PDMS) with that of national norms on the PDMS. It found that the children with speech and language delays performed the PDMS gross motor skills significantly lower than the norm at each age level. The…

A study was conducted to investigate (1) the relationship between mothers' and fathers' attitudes about education at the time of their children's kindergarten entry, and (2) the relationship between these parent attitudes and children's kindergarten adjustment. Subjects were drawn from the kindergarten rosters of four suburban elementary schools…

This study assesses 7- to 12-year-old children's abilities to understand the figural and metrical aspects of rhythm. Tasks were developed to assess children's ability to (1) make figural and metrical descriptions, (2) interpret figural and metrical descriptions, (3) produce the metrical hierarchy through drumming, (4) describe the metrical…

The primary purpose of this study was to examine uneven early development in premature infants. A multiple regression analysis was performed in which birth weight, length of gestation, length of assisted feeding, and length of ventilation were used to predict the descrepancy between a child's Psychomotor and Mental Scale scores on the Bayley…

Of particular concern to educational psychologists when assessing hearing-impaired children is the identification of learning difficulties in addition to deafness which might hinder progress with language development. This study sought to replicate research which showed that some deaf children who have difficulty with fine motor movements and body…

Administrator development programs are multiplying, yet little is known of their effects. If instruction is meant to produce cognitive, affective, and psychomotor changes in participants, inservice programs should duplicate that process--and, by extension, improve schools. Two instruments in each of four areas (cognitive , affective, psychomotor,…

Four studies of the reliability and validity of needs assessment instruments developed by the Taylor Public Schools, Michigan, are described. The studies focused on the stability of student scores, classification stability, content validity, and concurrent validity. Consisting of separate tests for kindergarten, first and second grade, the…

The purpose of the study was to determine whether particular aspects of movement control influenced the performance of 2-year-old children on a standard developmental test, and thus influenced assessments of intellectual progress based on that test. Six cerebral-palsied (CP) children were compared with six children not suffering motor system…

Research was performed in lower grade technical schools in the Netherlands to study complex psychomotor tasks requiring integration of several task-dependent skills. In two studies, students were observed performing metal work. They were assigned to instructional conditions of high, intermediate or low structure. Students in the high-structure…