Student achievement and differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior: Hand raising

Workbook reading achievement of five second-grade girls was assessed under two teacher-contact contingencies. Under one contingency, teacher contacts were made during on-task behavior. Under the other contingency, differential reinforcement of an incompatible behavior (DRI) was in effect, with teacher contacts contingent on students' hand-raising behavior. Both reading achievement and time on task were greater under the on-task contingency than under DRI for hand raising.     

Individual differences in children's ability to profit from picture adjunct aids

A paired-associate memory task with pictures and words as items was used to categorize fourth graders into four learner types: HH, high picture-high word; HL, high picture-low word; LH, low picture-high word; LL, low picture-low word. Some children in each classification read prose passages with picture adjunct aids; other children read the passages without adjunct aids. Although free recall for the prose passage yielded inconclusive data, a constructed response test for facts in the prose passages revealed significant Aptitude × Treatment interactions, such that poor paired-associate learners (i.e., LLs) profited more than did good paired-associate learners (i.e., HHs) from picture aids on the prose task. The children's standardized reading scores were positively related to memory performance, but good and poor readers did not differ in their ability to profit from picture aids. It was suggested that less-strategic learners, such as those who perform poorly on paired-associate tasks, are more likely to be helped by externally provided mediational aids, while more-strategic learners are more likely to be helped by instructions to generate their own mediational aids.     

General Media and Society

Atwan, Robert, Barry Orton, and Alliam Vesterman. American Mass Media: Industries and Issues (New York: Random House, 1978—$8.95, paper)

Dennis, Everette E., Arnold H. Ismach, and Donald M. Gillmor, eds. Enduring Issues in Mass Communication (St. Paul, Minn.: West P.' _fishing Co., 1978—price not given, paper)

White, David Manning, and John Pendleton, eds. Popular Culture: Mirror of American Life (Del Mar, Calif.: Publisher's Inc., 1977—$11.95/6.25)

Charlene J. Brown, Trevor R. Brown, and William L. Rivers' The Media and the People (New York: Holt, Rinehart a Winston, 1978 —price not given, paper)

Malcolm Muggeridge's Christ and the Media (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1977— $5.95)