Research from four subareas of prose learning (advance organizers, response modes, objectives, and inserted questions) is considered and weaknesses in the studies conducted are noted. Suggestions are advanced as to how researchers might profitably spend their energies in the future. (RC)

FIVE STUDIES ARE REPORTED OF OPERANT CONDITIONING AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT PRINCIPLES IN READING. THE FIRST STUDY OUTLINED THE RATIONALE AND PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING THE PROJECT. THE SECOND STUDY INITIATED AND REFINED APPLICATIONS OF REINFORCEMENT PROCEDURES FOR STUDYING EFFECTS OF DISCRIMINATION TRAINING ON READING. STUDY NUMBER THREE DEMONSTRATED…

The author initially cites the associationistic position of Spiker and the perceptual learning position of E. Gibson and concludes that the existing data does not clearly support either hypothesis. He describes a new approach designed to test these explanations of the role of verbal pretraining on subsequent discrimination learning. It consists of…

Two experiments are described. One measured performance of subjects on pairs of concurrent verbal tasks, monitoring sentences for certain items while reading. Secondary task performance combined with a primary task is proportional to its performance in isolation. The second experiment checked certain results of the first. (CHK)

Results showed that kindergarten children remember best under conditions in which both verbal and nonverbal stimulus cues are available. (Author)

In an extension of an early social facilitation study, 80 female college students reproduced a partially learned Indian folktale before both large and small audiences. Subjects showed greater verbal production but less accuracy before the large audiences. (Author)

The bibliography on learning in mentally handicapped persons is divided into the following topic categories: applied behavior change, classical conditioning, discrimination, generalization, motor learning, reinforcement, verbal learning, and miscellaneous. An author index is included. (KW)

One of the focal points of this study is the investigation of the relationship between rates and types of imitative responding and responsiveness to social reinforcement (approval). Subjects were 96 children (5 to 6 years old) equally divided according to sex and race (Negro and white). Findings indicate that: (1) it seems tenable to assume that a…