Achievement differences in structured versus unstructured instructional geometry programs

This study investigated the effect of students' ability and type of instructional program, structured and unstructured, on easy and difficult posttest items. Seventh-grade students worked through 14 instructional activities in The Geometer Sketchpad, a dynamic geometry program, and accessed a Geometry tutorial developed to parallel the state geometry standards. Low-ability students scored higher in the less structured program, whereas high- and medium-ability learners performed better in the structured program. High- and medium-ability students outscored low-ability learners by a greater margin on the difficult items than on the easy items. Although their overall performance was poor in both programs, that low-ability learners performed relatively better in the less structured, less traditional, mathematics activities is an encouraging finding for mathematics educators and designers of open-ended learning environments.     

The use of think-aloud protocols to compare inferencing abilities in average and below-average readers

In this study, we examined whether think-aloud procedures would uncover differences in the kinds of inferences generated by average and below-average readers. Participants were 40 third-grade children who were divided into groups of average and below-average readers. All participants completed measures of nonverbal IQ, reading, language, and working memory, and a story comprehension task that consisted of two conditions: listen through and think aloud. The major findings in this study were that (a) average readers generated significantly more explanatory inferences than below-average readers, and (b) comprehension performance as measured by story recall was significantly better for both groups in the think-aloud condition than in the listen-through condition. The discussion addresses the implications of these findings.     

Effects of processing instructions on the usefulness of a graphic organizer and structural cueing in text

This study assessed two adjuncts to instructional text, structural cueing and graphic organizer processing instructions. Previous research has shown that cueing is a useful indicator of textual structure and that graphic organizers can be enhanced by providing learners with an indication of how they can be used. Results indicated the presence of a three-way interaction among reading ability groups, structural cueing and graphic organizer processing instructions. Analysis of this interaction revealed that high level readers were the only subjects who profited from processing instructions, and only in the presence of cueing. Middle level readers benefited from cueing in both conditions of processing instructions while low level readers were able to take advantage of cueing only in the absence of processing instructions. The results are interpreted in light of previous graphic organizer research.     

Earned-secure attachment status in retrospect and prospect

Past research with the Berkeley Adult Attachment Interview demonstrates that retrospectively defined earned-secures (who coherently describe negative childhood experiences) parent as effectively as do continuous-secures (who coherently describe positive childhood experiences), but manifest liabilities in the form of depressive symptomatology. This article presents data from a 23-year longitudinal study that replicate and extend prior research, testing a key premise that earned-secures so defined actually have a history of insecure attachments that change over time and/or endure consistently harsh or ineffective parenting in their youth. Discrepant with assumptions, retrospective earned-secures were not more likely than continuous-secures to have been anxiously attached in infancy and were observed in childhood and adolescence to have encountered among the most supportive and structured maternal parenting in a high-risk sample. Prospectively defined earned-secures (operationalized using participants' infant attachment classifications) did indeed go on to have success in their close relationships, many without reporting relatively high levels of internalizing distress in adulthood.     

Discrimination and generalization of leaf damage by blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata)

Blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) responded to projected black-and-white silhouettes of cherry leaves that were either undamaged or were damaged by either cryptic caterpillars that disguise leaf damage due to their feeding or by noncryptic caterpillars that do not disguise leaf damage due to their feeding. Pecks to the key on which the images were projected were reinforced only if interresponse times fell within specified temporal boundaries. These boundaries were different in the presence of the two types of leaf damage. Following training with one exemplar of each damage type, the jays correctly categorized novel instances of both types. They categorized novel undamaged leaves as if they were examples of leaves showing damage by cryptic caterpillars. Results suggest that the jays can readily discriminate and generalize to new members of a polymorphous stimulus class. The results suggest that techniques for the study of concept formation in animals can be applied to an animal’s ability to categorize stimuli that are involved in a potential prey-predator relationship.     

Savings test for associations between neutral stimuli

Three experiments showed a savings procedure to be an effective and sensitive alternative to sensory preconditioning procedures as a measure of associations among neutral stimuli. Experiment 1 showed that within-compound associations developed more rapidly in reinforced appetitive serial compound conditioning when nonreinforced preexposure to the serial compound was given than when separate element or no preexposure was given. Experiment 2 showed the savings effect to be highly stimulus specific. Experiment 3 examined the facilitation of serial compound conditioning after either simultaneous or serial nonreinforced preexposure to the elements of the compound. The results of that experiment were consistent with those of analogous sensory preconditioning experiments. When preexposure involved only the two elements of the subsequently reinforced compound, serial preexposure produced more savings than simultaneous preexposure. But when preexposure involved a three-stimulus procedure like that used by Rescorla (1980b), simultaneous preexposure resulted in more savings. Advantages of the savings procedure over sensory preconditioning as a measure of association among neutral stimuli are discussed.