Selective attention of impulsive and reflective children

Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test was used to select 36 impulsive and 36 reflective children at each of three grade levels: kindergarten, second, and fifth. An incidental learning paradigm was used to assess the child's recall of central and incidental information. Reflective subjects recalled more central and incidental information than impulsives, suggesting that impulsives have difficulty encoding information for storage. Central recall increased with grade level but incidental learning remained constant, a finding consistent with the developmental trend found in previous investigations. A task order effect was found in the recall of central information with more errors made when the central recall task was presented after the incidental. This order effect may account for the higher central recall scores found in previous investigations. Other problems with the incidental learning paradigms raise questions about the validity of the task for inferring selective attention. Despite the problems associated with the task, the results offer further evidence to support the notion that impulsive and reflective children differ on dimensions other than response latency.     

The developmental consequence of different patterns of maltreatment

From a longitudinal study of 267 high risk families, four different patterns of maltreatment were identified. The mothers have been tested, interviewed and observed in a number of situations starting during the last trimester of pregnancy and continuing at regularly scheduled intervals through the preschool period. The four maltreatment groups were: physical abuse; hostile/verbally abusive; psychologically unavailable; and neglecting. A control group of mothers who provided adequate care was selected from the remaining high risk sample. In an earlier follow-up, among the maltreated children a disproportionately large number of infants were found to be anxiously attached to their mothers at 12 and 18 months, and their performance in a problem-solving situation at age two was poor. In the current follow-up, the children were videotaped at 42 months in a "barrier box" and teaching situation, and at 56 months they were observed in a preschool situation. The physically abused children were distractible, lacked persistence, ego control and enthusiasm, and experienced considerable negative emotion. The children whose mothers were psychologically unavailable showed marked increases in maladaptive patterns of functioning from infancy through preschool. As expected, they were avoidant of their mother, angry, noncompliant, and they were highly dependent. The neglected children had the most difficulty pulling themselves together to deal with various tasks. They lacked self-esteem and agency necessary to cope with their environment.     

The effect of cooperative and individualistic learning experiences on positive and negative cross-handicap relationships

The effects of cooperative and individualistic learning contingencies on interpersonal attraction, social acceptability, and self-esteem between handicapped and nonhandicapped fourth-grade students were tracked and compared. Sixty-nine students were assigned to conditions on a stratified random basis controlling for handicap, sex, and age. They participated in the study for 45 min a day for 54 instructional days during science class. Nonhandicapped peer ratings of the social acceptability of each handicapped student and several attitude measures were obtained four separate times at 18-day intervals. The results indicate that continued use of cooperative learning contingencies promote positive growth in interpersonal attraction, social acceptability, and self-esteem between handicapped and nonhandicapped students. The results also indicate that when cooperative learning contingencies are replaced with individualized learning contingencies, decay in the above-mentioned variables occurs.     

Structuring academic conflicts between majority and minority students: Hindrance or help to integration

The effects of two types of structured academic conflict, controversy and debate, were compared with individual study in a study on desegregation. Seventy-two sixth grade students were assigned to conditions on a stratified random basis controlling for sex, reading ability, and ethnic membership. In all three conditions students studied a controversial issue with materials representing both pro and con views. In the controversy condition each learning group was divided into two pairs representing the pro and con sides. In the debate condition each member of a learning group was assigned a pro or con position to represent in a debate with the other three members. In the individualistic condition subjects were told to learn the material without interacting with other students and each student was given all the pro and con materials. The results indicate that controversy promotes the most cross-ethnic verbal rehearsal and exchange of the assigned material, the most concern that all students master the assigned material, the most active search for more information about the topic being studied, the most reevaluation of one's position and incorporation of opponents' arguments, the most liking for the subject matter and the instructional experience, the highest self-esteem, and the most accepting and supportive relationships among minority and majority students. The debate condition generated higher levels of these dependent variables than did individualistic study.     

Abused, neglected, and nonmaltreated preschoolers'' ability to discriminate emotions in others: The effects of IQ

Sixty children between the ages of 3 and 5 participated in this study of children's ability to discriminate emotions in others. Twelve children were identified as neglected, and eight were identified as abused. Two additional groups of nonmaltreated children included one comparable on IQ and one with significantly higher intelligence. All children were given three tests: The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the Borke Interpersonal Awareness Test and the Rothenberg Social Sensitivity Test. The results showed that normal children with the higher IQ were significantly better able to identify and discriminate other people's emotions from picture stories than were the other groups of children, who were not different from one another on any of the measures. Furthermore, when IQ was covaried in the ANOVAS, all group-differences disappeared. It was suggested that previous studies demonstrating inferior performance on measures of social cognition by maltreated children may have been due to the failure to control for IQ.     

Models of the structure of some rule-governed mathematical behaviors

This study investigated the extent to which various latent class models adequately described some elementary rule-governed mathematical behaviors. Two hundred and eighty-three children were given a fraction concepts test in which they identified fractional parts of sets of objects. Results supported the adoption of a set of three-class models including a mastery class, a nonmastery class, and a transitional class to describe the data.     

Reprint requesting: A possible adjunct to citation analysis for judging research: Preliminary questions and findings

Interest in the quality of published research is evident across the range of disciplines including education. Several comprehensive studies either sponsored or published by the American Educational Research Association attest to this fact. In the sciences, citation analysis is attracting interest as a methodology for assessing research. The procedure has both theoretical and practical promise. The present study considers an overlooked source of information, reprint requesting, as a possible adjunct to citation analysis. The study stems from the questionnaire responses of 24 reprint requestors for an article by the authors. Requestor characteristics, motives, and reprint uses are considered. Implications for further research are advanced.     

Modification of attitudes of regular class children towards the handicapped for the purpose of achieving integration

Two experimental procedures for positively modifying the attitudes of regular classroom children towards the handicapped were conducted. In both studies, curriculum and/or experiences with the handicapped were introduced to randomly selected groups of regular class elementary children. The curriculum consisted of literature, filmstrips, and lectures about handicapped children, while the experiences consisted of controlled integrational activities. The results indicated that the procedures were partially successful in modifying the attitudes of regular class children towards the handicapped. It was concluded that techniques must be developed systematically for achieving more positive attitudes in regular class children if “mainstreaming” is to become an effective educational concept.     

Students' note-taking behaviors and the efficacy of providing the instructor's notes for review

College students viewed a videotaped lecture with or without taking notes. Average performance between the two groups did not differ on an immediate test. The encoding effect of note taking was therefore unsupported. Two days later, note takers reviewed their notes while listeners reviewed the instructor's notes in preparation for the delayed exam. Subjects who reviewed the instructor's notes achieved significantly more, on factual items, than did subjects who reviewed their own relatively brief and unorganized notes. Thus, listening to a lecture and subsequently reviewing the instructor's notes prior to a delayed exam leads to relatively higher achievement than does the traditional method of taking and reviewing personal lecture notes.     

Social-motivational development in first grade

Social-motivational changes during first grade were studied longitudinally on a population of 89 Caucasian middle- and lower-socioeconomic status (SES) children. Results revealed that children, on the average, had a more internal locus of control, were more optimistic, and scored higher on an effectance motivation measure at the end of first grade than at the beginning. Attitudes toward school and self-esteem did not change from the beginning to the end of first grade. Changes on some social-motivational dimensions appeared to be affected by children's SES and by their academic success in first grade.     

Determinants of foster care placement for the maltreated child

This study examined the records of the North Carolina Central Registry of Child Abuse and Neglect to determine which social, family, and child characteristics were most influential in the decision to place a child in foster care. These records contained all theoretically relevant factors as well as demographic data. Analysis included the computation of odds ratios for foster care for each of 250 variables. A maximum likelihood logistic regression model was constructed to obtain the independent and cumulative contribution of each factor. Some expected variables such as parental stress factors (substance abuse) and types of abuse (burns and scalds) placed a child at a significant risk for placement in foster care (p < 0.01). However, less obvious factors such as referral source (law enforcement agencies) or geographic area also placed children at risk. Overall, the model explained little of the variance of these decisions (R² = 0.168) and poorly predicted placement (sensitivity 66.3 per cent, specificity 74.6 per cent). Using existing data. we were unable to adequately describe the decision process in selecting foster care.     

A new perspective on emotions

This paper reviews the recent history of the study of human emotions in psychology and traces the factors that have been responsible for a remarkable increase of interest in emotions, especially in human development. In particular, it traces the rise of the study of emotions as regulators of human behavior. A particularly clear and powerful illustration of the regulatory role of emotional expressions on behavior is the phenomenon of social referencing. This concept deals with the use of emotional information in another's facial, vocal or gestural expression to clarify uncertain situations. Research on social referencing is reviewed, showing the importance of social referencing with infants as young as 8.5 months. The clinical implications of the concept are briefly explored.     

Teaching experience and teachers' expectations for grades in academic subject areas

Seventy-nine subjects who had less than 1, 2, to 3, and more than 3 years of teaching experience were given either a favorable, neutral, or unfavorable fictitious psychological report to read, describing a kindergarten child. Subjects then watched a 5-year-old child in a videotaped testing session. Expectancies toward the child were evaluated using report card grades the subjects expected the child to receive at the end of first grade. A multivariate analysis of variance with five subject area grades as the dependent variables revealed significant multivariate main effects for experience and psychological report. Significant univariate interactions in science and social studies, and social and emotional development suggested that teachers with more than 3 years of experience may have reduced susceptibility to biasing influences in psychological reports.     

On inserting questions before or after segments of text

It has been concluded in all major reviews of adjunct question research that a group given questions after related text segments (postquestions) yields greater recall than a group given questions before related text segments (prequestions) or one not given any questions at all. However, closer examination of the earlier research and an analysis of recent research reveals that for certain types of verbatim questions and for certain high level questions, postquestions produce recall equivalent to or less than prequestions. Moreover, in many studies wherein postquestions exceed prequestions, the postquestion group equals the reading-only control group in recall of nonquestioned (incidental) material. Hence, despite frequent pronouncements to the contrary, no firm recommendation can be made regarding the optimal placement of adjunct questions in text material.     

Phonemic segmentation and blending skills of kindergarten children: Implications for beginning reading acquisition

This study explored the abilities of kindergarten children in segmenting and blending phonemic components of words and the relationship of these abilities to beginning reading acquisition measured by the word recognition subtest of the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) and to auditory discrimination defined by performance on the Wepman Test of Auditory Discrimination. Random assignment of 103 kindergarten children to six experimental groups was used to evaluate phonemic segmentation and blending skills and to one control group to assess the relationship of these skills to auditory discrimination. Each experimental group received training in one of three types of word division (either C-V-C, CV-C or C-VC) for phonemic segmentation and blending in one of two task sequences (either blending first or segmentation first). Results indicate that segmentation is significantly more difficult than blending and that C-V-C is the most difficult of the three types of word division for both segmentation and blending. There were no significant differential effects of the training and control procedures on a pretest and posttest of the Wepman. Follow-up with the WRAT 1 year later indicated that C-V-C segmentation is a highly useful predictor of beginning reading acquisition. Implications for teaching of reading and for the interpretation of Wepman results are included.     

The development of pattern recognition ability in children

Pattern recognition development was studied in high and low ability preschool, kindergarten, and first-grade youngsters. Pattern recognition was assessed by the administration of 96 pattern tasks which measured the ability of a youngster to find: (a) duplicate patterns and elements to a model; (b) the opposite pattern to a model; and (c) duplicate patterns but different elements than in the model. Aside from main effects for grade level, ability level, and pattern task, a significant three-way interaction was noted. This interaction was analyzed in terms of its component simple effects. The implication of these simple interaction effects for Piagetian theory and educational practice were discussed.     

The encoding versus the external storage hypothesis in note taking

College students (N = 85) read a passage in which each sentence had been normatively assessed as to its importance to the overall meaning of the passage. Students expecting an essay examination took notes on sentences of higher structural importance than those anticipating a multiple choice test, even though there was no difference in the number of notes taken or in total test performance. The students took notes on 31% of the passage sentences and such notes were of high structural importance value. Most importantly, note taking seemed to serve as both an encoding device and as an external storage mechanism, with the latter being the more important function. The external storage function not only led to enhanced recall of the notes, but also facilitated the reconstruction of other parts of the passage.     

Performance characteristics of retarded and normal students on pattern recognition tasks

The purpose was to compare the performance of normal and educable mentally retarded children on pattern recognition tasks. Pattern recognition was assessed by the administration of 96 pattern tasks which measured the ability of children to find: (a) duplicate patterns and same elements as presented in model pattern sequences; (b) opposite patterns and same elements as presented in model pattern sequences; and (c) duplicate patterns but different elements than presented in model pattern sequences. The normal and mentally retarded children were matched on mental age derived from individual and group intelligence tests. Results indicated significant differences in performance measures between groups and various pattern tasks. The data support the suppositions that: (a) mentally retarded children and normal children show the same type of progression through the hierarchical arrangement of pattern tasks; and (b) mentally retarded children show a slower progression through the hierarchy than normal children when matched on mental age. Educational implications from this study are discussed.