This guest editorial describes ways teachers can use guessing games about an unknown item in a "mystery box" to help children improve their abilities to listen to others, recall information, ask purposeful questions, classify items by class, make inferences, synthesize information, and draw conclusions. The author presents information…

This study extends previous research by examining whether maternal inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity are associated with different parenting behaviors. Ninety-six mother-son dyads participated in the study, and the boys ranged between 4 and 8 years of age. Maternal inattention was uniquely and positively associated with mothers' use of…

Modeling and attention-retention were examined in 20 boys (ages 9- to 14-years-old) attending a residential school for children with learning disabilities. (Author/DB)

In the issue-attention cycle identified by political scientists, the imagination and energy of public leaders progress from alarmed discovery of a problem, to euphoric resource mobilization and a search for solutions, to institutionalization of responses. Next come the harsh realities of expensive answers and slow progress, causing a hasty retreat…

A study was conducted to examine the effect of factors related to the format, presentation style, and order in which ideas are presented on students' recall of chemistry material. Data were obtained from students who viewed three different multi-image presentations in a large lecture hall setting. Following the presentations, students were…

Questions some of the techniques currently used in reading courses because they reinforce such poor reading skills as short attention span. (RB)

Findings were that students' attention-to-teacher and attention-to-class-activity scores, students' scores on a test of discrimination of the emotional content in a female's voice, and attention and adjustment scores are positively related to achievement. (RB)

Findings suggest that impairment in sustained attention is associated with difficulty in learning in second grade children and that such impairment can be identified at an earlier age, and in children with less marked academic underachievement than is commonly believed. (EVH)

Research conducted at Fels Research Institute and supported in part by grants HD-00868, FR-00222, and FR-05537 from the National Institute of Mental Health.

KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN WERE USED AS SUBJECTS IN AN ATTEMPT TO DISCOVER WHETHER CHILDREN WITH SHORT AND LONG MEMORY SPANS USE DIFFERENT CUES TO RECOGNIZE WORDS AND WHETHER MEMORY SPAN TESTS ARE EFFECTIVE PREDICTORS OF DIFFICULTY IN LEARNING TO READ. IT WAS HOPED THAT CHILDREN WOULD EXHIBIT A CONSISTENT PATTERN OF CHOICES OVER TRIALS, WHICH MIGHT…

Performances of 12 hyperactive learning disabled (LD) boys and 12 non-hyperactive LD boys were compared with two groups of 12 normal control boys (6-11 years old) on a visual search task. Ss were asked to locate a target letter appearing within an array of randomly selected letters during cued and non-cued trials. Results indicated that in the…

Studies of the infant's distribution of attention to stimuli of varying complexity, and of his differential attention to familiar versus novel stimuli (discrepancy), have attempted to shed light on the development of cognitive structures in the non-verbal infant. The subjects have typically been normal infants ages 4 to 6 months. For testing, the…

The experiment reported was designed to determine whether programed material low in response contingency, and thus yielding a high blackout ratio, is read less thoroughly than programed material heavily response contingent and yielding a low blackout ratio. Eye movements were compared for two parallel forms of the same program, differing only in…

This paper reports on two experiments conducted in an attempt to extend findings by Ellis which suggest a rehearsal deficit in mentally retarded subjects. In experiment one, mentally retarded subjects saw nine stimuli in a serial position probe task for either two, four, or six seconds each. Performances for the two and four second-per-item rates…