Eight reading-disordered and 9 nondisabled males (age 10) performed a skilled motor-perceptual task. The children with reading disorders were slower, less accurate, and achieved a smaller number of target performances. Their brain macropotentials associated with motor programing, processing of sensory information, and evaluation of the results…

Four salient constructs in a contemporary motor learning theory were tested for validity using dental students' verbal self-reporting. Students were videotaped completing a preparation, then interviewed to stimulate recall of mental processes during the preparation. Results support application of the theory to dentistry and have implications for…

This first installment in a series of edited transcripts based on a conference held at Utah State University in 1987 reviews the main points of Gagne's Learning Theory. Categories of human performance that are discussed include verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, attitudes, and motor skills. (Three references) (LRW)

The purpose was to examine the effect of Brain Gym on learning the overhand throw among 42 first grade students. Participants from two intact classes were randomly assigned to an experimental or control condition. Students were tested before and after a 5-week intervention using the object control subtest from the Test of Gross Motor Development-2…

In this paper we report the results of an experiment in which subjects read syntactically unambiguous and ambiguous sentences which were disambiguated after several words to the less likely possibility. Understanding such sentences involves building an initial structure, inhibiting the non-preferred structure, detecting that later input is…

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…

Studies have suggested that field independent (FI) dental dents perform better in pre-clinical laboratory courses than field dependent (FD) students. A study was conducted to determine the relationship of cognitive learning style to academic performance with 66 second year dental students at Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond). A brief…

Cognitive aging research needs to clarify whether or not there are functional or ability declines with aging and, if so, to understand and mediate these declines. Recent research which has demonstrated declines in cognitive functioning with age has involved episodic memory and rehearsal-independent forms of such memory. It is not known how much of…

The motion variable in the learning process was investigated in three parallel experiments (science, motor skills, social studies), each designed to meet instructional objectives of fact learning, serial ordering, and concept learning. Stimulus sequences were shown as motion pictures, sequenced still pictures, or single still pictures to 582…

The study of verbal behavior has a long history in the Soviet Union, and some of the studies, especially those related to verbal conditioning and learning, have had considerable impact on Western research, particularly in the United States. The view set forth in this paper is that "voluntary behavior" is only that behavior which is…

A theoretical scheme classifies user behavior into three domains of library activity--affective, cognitive, and psychomotor--and three levels of learning--orientation, interaction, and internalization. Examples of library skills and errors in each of the nine major classes are given, and applications to library instruction are suggested.…

The task classification scheme suggests that motor skills be categorized as the processing demands placed on a learner, feedback availability, and pacing conditions. Potential learning strategies were identified and defined in relation to the classification scheme. (JN)

This research unites traditionally disparate developmental domains--cognition and locomotion--to examine the classic cognitive issue of the development of inhibition in infancy. In 2 locomotor A-not-B tasks, 13-month-old walking infants inhibited a prepotent response under low task demands (walking on flat ground), but perseverated under increased…

In 2 experiments, bimanual 1:1 rhythmic coordination was performed concurrently with encoding or retrieval of word lists. Effects of divided attention (DA) on coordination were indexed by changes in mean relative phase and recurrence measures of shared activity between the 2 limbs. Effects of DA on memory were indexed by deficits in recall…