This study addressed predictors of the development of word problem solving (WPS) across the intermediate grades. At beginning of 3rd grade, 4 cohorts of students (N = 261) were measured on computation, language, nonverbal reasoning skills, and attentive behavior and were assessed 4 times from beginning of 3rd through end of 5th grade on 2 measures…

Investigates the relation between comprehension skill and the ability to locate information. Results reveal that good comprehenders were more efficient than poor comprehenders when they were required to locate specific pieces of information in a text. Findings suggest that good comprehenders' superior search strategy may arise because of their…

Links between reading and short memory span, slow naming time, and slow speech rate were investigated for 140 fifth and sixth grade students given a reading test and tests of the 3 variables. Reading was best predicted by naming time, followed by speech rate; prediction from memory span was weak. (SLD)

A study assessed whether young readers might be induced to use a memory strategy. Subjects were an intact class of 25 fifth grade students taught to use text structure as an organizational strategy, and 29 students in a second class who received no instructional intervention. On three occasions, the 54 students were required to read a test…

Providing contextual aids to help students reduce mutual interference between two sentences was studied. When students were presented sentences in distinctive contexts, no interference was observed. An interference effect was obtained when sentences were given in either no context or a nondistinctive context. (MH)

Ninety-six fifth-grade students studied a map of a fictitious island while twice listening to a related narrative with target feature and nonfeature items, cued by varying iconic and verbal stimuli in four map cue conditions. Memory for feature information and pictorial retrieval cues appeared to activate memory for nonfeature information. (SLD)

A common error in children's attempts to solve verbal analogies is to respond with a word strongly associated with the third term in the analogy. This is known as associative response. A study was conducted to investigate the cognitive processes underlying this response. Subjects, 112 fifth grade students, were administered a battery of tests…

An experimental group of fourth and fifth graders received training in Logo computer programming. This group and a control group that did not receive training completed a posttest that involved drawing of designs. No differences were found in posttest design production between the groups. (LB)

A study examined whether previous knowledge facilitates the acquisition of a reading comprehension strategy by children who are poor readers. Subjects, 54 fourth- and fifth-grade boys in Palm Beach County, Florida, who were poor readers and baseball experts, were trained in the use of a reading strategy (asking "why" questions), with…

An experiment was designed to compare the speed with which normal and disabled readers in two age groups retrieved semantic information from memory. Results indicate that disabled readers need more time to retrieve categorical information from memory than normal readers. (Author/LMO)

A study investigated the role of visual imagery in the comprehension and retention of prose. Subjects were 48 fifth grade students who orally read a story and then completed three comprehension tasks directly related to the story: a retelling, an oral reading cloze test, and a multiple choice question test comprised of items demonstrated to be…

A study examined the efficacy of using various types of worksheets (representative of those typically used in instruction) that had been specifically designed to elicit differing achievement effects and to promote cognitive processing at the semantic level. Fifth grade students from five classrooms were divided into groups of high, middle, and low…

Subjects were immediately tested on a reading passage, and received feedback after 30 minutes or one day, or no feedback. After a week, subjects identified their original responses to three types of test items. One-day delay of feedback gave better results than the 30-minute delay. (GDC)

Two experiments with 42 second graders, 55 fourth graders, and 36 fifth graders investigated previous findings of a lack of strategic advantage for expert children dealing with information in their area of expertise. Results from using an expert-novice paradigm suggest that expert children's task advantage is mediated primarily by nonstrategic…

Successful and least successful fifth graders read and studied difficult or easily understood stories. For both groups, cued recall was higher on stories which made sense. Only the successful students were aware of having difficulty with the less-understandable stories, and allowed themselves more time to study them. (Author/GDC)