The Negative Year in School Effect (NYiSE) claims that grade-relative-to-age influences academic self-concept. Being young for your grade is associated with lower self-concept, whereas being old for your grade is associated with higher self-concept. We extend this research in several ways. First, we aim to improve causal claims for the NYiSE by…

In both cued and noncued conditions, young adult and middle aged females were presented with immediate and delayed free recall tasks using historical prose passages. Results indicated there were no significant age differences and that having lived through an era helped slightly recall of that era's events. (Author/RD)

Students' interest in comparing their work to their peers' work was studied at different grade levels and in different motivating situations. The importance of the situational variables differed in two experiments on social comparison interest; awareness of the situational influences on motivation appear to increase with age. (GDC)

The cognitive determinants of number series completion performance were studied by presenting a systematic set of problems to college adults and to average- and high-IQ elementary school children. In each group, a combination of process and content-knowledge variables accounted for more than 70 percent of the variance in solution difficulty.…

Students rated photographs of teachers on seven factors of teacher performance. Across all developmental levels and all factors, ratings of unattractive teachers were lower. At all developmental levels, older teachers received lower ratings than younger teachers. Sex of teacher was a more influential factor at grades 11 and 13. (Author/RD)

An educational psychology course was taught to four classes of undergraduates according to four treatments that varied in the amount of teacher structuring and student participation. Aptitude, achievement, and attitude measures were administered. Generalized regression analysis indicated significant aptitude-treatment interactions for achievement…

Six experiments investigated the informational value of praise and criticism. Praise after success and neutral feedback after failure led to perceptions that an acting person's ability was viewed as low. Neutral feedback after success and criticism after failure led to perceptions that an acting person's ability was viewed as high. (Author/RD)

Two experiments involving 46 seventh graders, 28 undergraduates and 28 seventh graders examined developmental and individual differences in students' revising for meaning. Results of both experiments suggested that knowing error location (having it pointed out) may focus less sophisticated writers, like middle school students, too narrowly and may…

A study with 28 fourth graders, 30 eighth graders, and 30 college students demonstrates that the relationship between knowledge of the requirements of a globally coherent essay and the ability to produce such an essay generally remains statistically significant when the effect of grade level is removed. (SLD)