bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
EXTRAVERSION, NEUROTICISM AND ACADEMIC ATTAINMENT IN UGANDA
Authors: HONESS T. , KLINE P.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This study examines a neglected area: the relationship between personality and academic achievement for school children in a non‐Western culture. EPI or JEPI scores for black Ugandans of three different age groups were correlated with exam, results from several school subjects. The pattern of results was remarkably similar to that found in Britain.
ATTITUDES TO SCHOOL SUBJECTS: A REPERTORY GRID TECHNIQUE
Authors: DUCKWORTH D. , ENTWISTLE N. J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The attitudes of 600 second‐year and fifth‐year grammar school pupils towards their school subjects were investigated using a repertory grid developed specifically for this purpose. Attitude dimensions of ‘interest,’ ‘difficulty,’ ‘freedom,’ and ‘social benefit’ were isolated. Rank orders of mean scores of pupils on these four scales were produced together with inter‐correlations indicating the extent to which attitudes were specific to particular school subjects.
THE EFFECT OF REGIME ON DIVERGENT THINKING SCORES
Authors: CHANNON C. E.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Parallel groups of pupils were subjected to ‘relaxed’ and ‘test’ regimes when completing two convergent tests and six divergent thinking tests. The subjects, 48 boys and 68 girls, covered the full ability range of a large comprehensive school. Results indicated that the imposition of mild stress (‘test’) generally increased pupils' scores on these tests compared with those obtained under a relaxed or informal regime.
TEACHERS' RATINGS OF CLASSROOM BEHAVIOUR: FACTORIAL STRUCTURE
Authors: HERBERT G. W.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A five‐factor structure in ratings by teachers is proposed as useful and theoretically justifiable, comprising stable and unstable aspects of extra‐version‐introversion, and a dimension of Competence or the Good Pupil. The construction of a scale to test this structure is described. The resultant factor analysis supports the five‐factor structure at the first‐order level, and at the second‐order level there is a parallel with broad dimensions identified by other workers.
SUCCESS AND FAILURE AMONG ENGINEERS, PHYSICAL SCIENTISTS AND LINGUISTS AT A TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Authors: SMITHERS A. G. , DANN SHEILA
Published: May 2011

Summary. Academic performance in three fields of study, engineering, physical sciences and languages, has been analysed by comparing the characteristics of successful students with those of the less successful and those who failed to graduate. The students obtaining the better degrees generally had the better entry qualifications, and in engineering and the sciences, had reacted less against the industrial training element of sandwich courses. No strong relationship between social class and academic performance was found in engineering and the sciences, but, in languages, the successful students tended to come from non‐manual backgrounds, and it is speculated that their acknowledged greater flexibility in their native language may have generalised to foreign languages. In a study of student worries it was found that those who were to go on to do less well or not graduate at all, were apparently aware of their difficulties at an early stage, and able to articulate them.
TRANSITION TO SECONDARY — AN EXPERIMENT IN A SCOTTISH COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL
Authors: DUTCH R. D. , McCALL J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The attainments, attitudes, personality characteristics and friendship relations of three successive year groups of children (N=254, 252 and 234) were assessed towards the end of their first term in secondary school, the first group having transferred direct to the secondary school from their various primary schools whereas the other two groups had spent one year in a transition department. The children from the transition department were found to be better adjusted in the social and emotional domains than those who had not had this experience. These differences were more pronounced in the case of girls, children of average and low VRQ and children coming from small primary schools.
A COMPARISON OF THE DEGREE RESULTS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS FROM CO‐EDUCATIONAL AND SINGLE‐SEX SCHOOLS
Authors: MILLER P. McC. , DALE R. R.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The university degree results of students from co‐educational and single‐sex schools were compared and found to be closely similar except that more first year drop‐outs may occur among the single‐sex educated students. The sample consisted of 221 matched pairs and was drawn from those who took the WJEC examination in a three‐year entry to Welsh university colleges, well before the students sat their finals. Variables matched or separated were Arts/Science, sex, population of school area, social class, university institution and various aspects of A‐level attainment.
RECOGNITION AND INFERENCE IN THE CO‐ORDINATION OF PERSPECTIVES
Authors: EISER CHRISTINE
Published: May 2011

Summary. Previous research on the child's ability to predict the viewpoint of another has typically used either (a) a recognition procedure, in which the subject views the model from different perspectives prior to selecting the viewpoint required, or (b) an inference procedure, in which the subject makes his choice after viewing the model from one position only. An experiment is reported which directly compares the effects of these two procedures, and demonstrates less egocentrism in a recognition than in an inference condition. It is suggested that this distinction can help explain some apparent anomalies in the results of earlier research.
TEACHER‐PUPIL CONTACT IN JUNIOR CLASSROOMS
Authors: BOYDELL DEANNE
Published: May 2011

Summary. The nature of teacher contact with children in six informal junior school classrooms was examined using a specially designed observation instrument. This focused on three methods of addressing children (as a class, in a small group and privately on their own) and 19 types of teacher conversation. Private, work‐oriented contact predominated, but this was mainly task supervision with relatively little on the substantive content of children's activities. Most substantive contact was low‐level and factual.
RESEARCH ON TEACHER EFFECTS: CRITIQUE OF A TRADITIONAL PARADIGM
Authors: GARDNER P. L.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Process‐product studies of the effects of teacher behaviours upon pupil outcomes often employ class mean scores as measures of the outcome variable. Assuming that all the measures used are reliable, a zero correlation between the teacher measure and the pupil outcome implies that the teacher behaviour being studied does not affect pupils in any lawful way. However, such a conclusion may be faulty. This article argues that research on teacher effects should consider pupil variables; teacher behaviours and pupil outcomes may enter into lawful relationships with one another, the nature of the relationship being different for different kinds of pupils. Data from a study of pupils' attitudes to physics are used to support this position.
LECTURERS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE INFLUENCE OF IDEAS ON THE CURRICULUM OF COLLEGES OF EDUCATION*
Authors: TAYLOR P. H.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Using data arising from ratings by lecturers in seven colleges of education for ‘actual,’ ‘ideal’ and ‘change in’ influence, this article explores the degree of influence which 20 relevant ideas are considered to have on the operational curriculum of the college; on what in fact, students are taught. It also attempts tentatively an analysis of the structure of the influences and a description of the media which each sub‐system of influences employs. Results suggest that progressive, child‐centred ideas are most influential both actually and ideally, and are likely to remain so, and that the ideas fall into discernible groupings each of which may play some part in influencing courses of study in colleges.
THE CHECKING OF PRIMARY ABILITY STRUCTURE ON A BROADER BASIS OF PERFORMANCES
Authors: HAKSTIAN A. R. , CATTELL R. B.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A battery of 57 ability tests, spanning the full range of the ability domain, was administered to 343 young adults. The aims were to confirm the differentiability of the better‐known primary mental abilities and to assess the differentiability of the more recently hypothesised abilities, along with their relationships with the better‐established constructs. A common‐factor analysis of the 57 variables revealed 19 correlated primary abilities, ranging from such established factors as Verbal and Numerical ability to less well‐understood primaries in the memory and fluency‐originality areas. The conceptual nature of the factors and their interrelationships are discussed, and the results are placed in the context of earlier research on abilities.
COGNITIVE DEMAND AND DIFFICULTY OF GCE O‐LEVEL MATHEMATICS PRETEST ITEMS
Authors: MALPAS A. J. , BROWN MARGARET
Published: May 2011

Summary. 720 mathematics O‐level items from pretests written for two different syllabuses were assessed for ‘concrete’ or ‘formal’ demands by two judges, using criteria derived from Piaget's theory of cognitive development. The mean difficulty indices for items placed in concrete and formal categories were compared in order to test the hypothesis that items classified as making higher demands would be found more difficult. Results showed that, while there was some variability, there was significant agreement between the judges (P < ·001) in the placing of the items and a significant correlation (P < ·001) between classification category and the difficulty index of the items. An unexpected difference between the two syllabuses in the distribution of items over concrete and formal categories was also discovered.

Several possible interpretations of these results are briefly discussed, and also ways of making criteria for formal and concrete operations more rapidly applicable to such mathematical activities as the solution of multiple choice examination items.
THE EFFECT OF VERBAL TEACHING STYLE ON THE ATTAINMENT OF EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES IN PHYSICS
Authors: HOUSTON J. G. , PILLINER A. E. G.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Analyses of variance and covariance were used in this longitudinal study of the effects, cognitive and affective, of different teaching styles (as identified by Flanders' interaction analysis technique) on the learning of physics by 14–16‐year‐old pupils following an O‐grade course for the Scottish Certificate of Education. The ‘open‐ended’ style achieved the more complex cognitive educational objectives more successfully than did either the ‘intermediate’ or ‘expository’ styles. On the whole, the ‘open‐ended’ procedure was the most successful in developing favourable attitudes towards physics.
A TYPOLOGY OF TEACHING STYLES IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Authors: BENNETT S. N. , JORDAN JOYCE
Published: May 2011

Summary. Differences in teaching styles have conventionally been described in terms of ill‐defined dichotomies. The aim of the present study was to provide a more adequate representation of teaching practices by creating a typology based on the self‐reported strategies of primary school teachers. 1,258 third and fourth year teachers completed a questionnaire, and the resultant information was cluster analysed. Twelve teaching styles were extracted. Although the usual poles of informal and formal styles were apparent, most teachers appeared to adopt intermediate styles, incorporating elements of both informal and formal strategies. Evidence regarding the validity of the clusters is presented.
PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF SYLLABUS‐BOUND AND SYLLABUS‐FREE SIXTH‐FORMERS
Authors: JOSEPHS A. P. , SMITHERS A. G.
Published: May 2011

Summary. 218 upper sixth‐formers at three West Riding schools were given a battery of tests and questionnaires designed to investigate relationships between personality and syllabus‐boundness/syllabus‐freedom. A 20‐item inventory was developed and used to isolate groups of 28 sylbs and 31 sylfs. In terms of Cattell's 16PF, the sylbs were found to be significantly more conservative, controlled, conscientious and persistent, shy and cautious, and practical, and somewhat more sober, apprehensive, and group dependent. The sylbs were also found to be more dogmatic on Rokeach's scale and the suggestion is made that sylbism may be an aspect of dogmatism. In contrast to previous research, no evidence was found to link syllabus‐orientation to convergence/divergence. Sylbs were found to be more conscientious in their study habits and to do better in O‐level examinations.
REPLICATIVE STUDIES IN HIERARCHICAL LEARNING OF GRAPHICAL INTERPRETATION SKILLS
Authors: LINKE R. D.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Three important deficiencies of learning hierarchy validation studies—inadequate scope, inappropriate validation technique and lack of replicative data—were identified, and substantially resolved in the construction and replicate validation of a comprehensive network of graphical interpretation skills. The two parallel validation studies involved 204 grade 8 students in Queensland and 212 grade 8 students in South Australia, both groups containing approximately equal numbers of male and female students. The results in both validation studies were relatively consistent, substantiating the postulated learning hierarchy and thus providing further supportive evidence for Gagné's model of hierarchical learning.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF STIMULI ON CONSERVATION OF NUMBER WITH EDUCABLE MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN
Authors: KAHN J. V. , REID D. K.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This investigation studied the differential effects of the significance of stimuli on educable mentally retarded (EMR) children in a conservation of number experiment. The sample consisted of 30 low and 30 middle SES children attending classes for the EMR. The effect of using candies or paper‐clips was investigated in Piaget's one‐to‐one correspondence task. A significant interaction between SES and the significance of stimuli was found. This was discussed in terms of the possible misdiagnosis of lower class children, multiple criteria diagnostic procedures, and the relevance of cues.
INTERACTION ANALYSIS IN INFORMAL CLASSROOMS: A CRITICAL COMMENT ON THE FLANDERS' SYSTEM
Authors: WALKER R. , ADELMAN C.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Recent attempts to use Flanders' FIAC system to observe teacher‐pupil interactions in primary school classrooms had indicated severe limitations in this approach. The method is useful in a formal situation, but it contains an implicit ‘Theory of instruction.’ If this technique is applied to those informal classrooms whether primary or secondary, in which the teaching‐learning situation is defined more in terms of interpersonal communication than of transmission of information, the coded observations will miss out the very processes which define informal methods. Alternative procedures of observation should be adopted to take account of the context within which teachers talk to pupils and hence to assess the meaning of an interaction, as well as recording its occurrence.
SUBJECT PREFERENCE AND CHOICE IN CO‐EDUCATIONAL AND SINGLE‐SEX SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Authors: ORMEROD M. B.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The subject preferences and subject choices of 1,204 pupils in 19 secondary schools were investigated. Sex‐linked polarisation of subject preferences were more marked in co‐educational than in single‐sex schools. An investigation of the effect of attitudes towards teachers showed a relationship between liking for teacher and subject preference, but not subject choice. The results are discussed in relation to the current reorganisation of secondary schools along co‐educational, as well as comprehensive, lines.
UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: ATTAINMENT AND SPORT
Authors: HENDRY L. B. , DOUGLASS LESLEY
Published: May 2011

Summary. The extent to which 230 university students following a one‐year psychology course were ‘active’ (i.e., competitively or recreatively involved) in sport or ‘non‐participant’ was compared with their scores on measures of personality, attitude, social class, sex, previous school involvement in sport, and attainment in university course work. Active students were, on average, more stable and extraverted, more likely to have been active in sport at school and were equally successful in course‐work as non‐participant students.
PRE‐SCHOOL MENTALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN
Authors: McCONKEY R. , JEFFREE DOROTHY M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Information was collected on 150 mentally handicapped children who were under 5. Many of the children had additional handicaps and all showed marked retardation in their physical, social, play and language development. The majority of parents expressed a willingness to take part in a parental involvement project. Their main concerns were with the child's speech and language development and in coping with management problems. The implications of these findings for services provided for these parents and children is discussed.
DECISION RULES FOR TEACHING STRATEGIES IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS: PERSONALITY‐TREATMENT INTERACTIONS
Authors: TROWN E. ANNE , LEITH G. O. M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A mathematical task was used among 432 junior school pupils in a search for personality‐teaching strategy interactions. Factors of sex, ability, anxiety, extraversion, model and teaching strategy were incorporated into a replicated design. An inductive, learner‐centred exploratory strategy and a deductive teacher‐centred supportive strategy each employed the same mathematical models. There was no evidence of strategy‐ability or strategy‐extraversion interactions but the strategy‐anxiety interaction was significant. Linear functions, relating the retained learning outcome to anxiety score, were used as the basis of decision rules for differential instruction. Pupils at the lower end of the anxiety range may be assigned to the exploratory strategy and those at the upper end of the range to the supportive strategy if advantage is taken of the disordinal nature of the observed interaction. The consistency of a negative linear relationship between outcome and anxiety for the exploratory strategy contrasted with the complex pattern associated with the supportive strategy. In the latter case, linear functions of differing sign afforded predictability for subgroups of introverts and extraverts and for subgroups of low ability and high ability children. When all data were combined for the supportive strategy, however, a non‐linear relationship was revealed.
CONFIRMATION OF A GENERAL FACTOR OF EFFECTIVENESS‐MOTIVATION BY INDIVIDUAL TESTS
Authors: STOTT D. H. , ALBIN J. B.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Following the finding of a general factor in the 11 areas of function covered by the Stott‐Sharp Effectiveness‐Motivation Scale for pre‐school children, five individual tests exploring various aspects of effectiveness motivation were devised. These were applied to two samples of 4‐year‐old children (N=82). All five tests correlated positively with the E‐M Scale, and all except one test correlated with the others at a generally satisfactory level of significance. These results were held to confirm the existence of a motivational factor which has been named effectiveness.
PERFORMANCE ON TWO REASONING TASKS IN RELATION TO INTELLIGENCE, DIVERGENCE AND INTERFERENCE PRONENESS
Authors: VALENTINE ELIZABETH R.
Published: May 2011

Summary. In this study performance on reasoning tasks commonly used in psychological experiments was compared with scores on tests of convergent and divergent thinking. The relations between performance on a deductive and an inductive task, and scores on the AH5, Uses of Objects and Stroop tests were investigated in 38 first‐year undergraduates. The results showed a positive correlation between performance on the deductive task and AH5 scores, a negative correlation between performance on the inductive task and scores on the Uses of Objects test, and a negative correlation between AH5 and Stroop scores. Implications for an analysis of the two reasoning tasks were discussed.
THE FACTORIAL STRUCTURE OF WECHSLER'S PRESCHOOL AND PRIMARY SCALE OF INTELLIGENCE AT SUCCESSIVE AGE LEVELS
Authors: MUKHERJEE B. N.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A factor analysis of the correlation matrix for the subtests of WPPSI was carried out for each of the age groups between 4 and 6½ years. The data were obtained from the WPPSI standardisation samples. In each analysis, three factors were extracted and two of these, after equimax rotation, were found to give patterns of loadings which were similar for all age groups. The rotated factors were identified as verbal intelligence, space performance and comprehension. Order analysis of the same data tended to support the notion that these factors could be also arranged into a circular order along with various tests of WPPSI. Using a likelihood ratio test for the Guttman ‘circumplex’ structure, the correlation matrix for the 4‐year age group was analysed and the result provides clear support for the postulated circular arrangement of the tests. The circumplex ordering of WPPSI suggests a systematic ordering according to the law of neighbouring variables and is found to be more parsimonious and less subjective in interpreting than the results emerging from the traditional factor analysis.
ATTITUDINAL, SITUATIONAL AND MENTAL HEALTH CORRELATES OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AT THE UNDERGRADUATE UNIVERSITY LEVEL
Authors: BANRETI‐FUCHS K. M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The relationship between levels of academic achievement of first‐year university students and various attitudinal, situational and mental health factors was examined. Using the regression equation method a sample of 222 first‐year students were assigned to a high‐achieving, average‐achieving, or low‐achieving group. The classification of each student was based on the relationship between his actual grade point average (GPA) in introductory psychology and the GPA which would be expected on account of his IQ. All subjects completed the Student Interest and Attitude Study II and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. The items which discriminated between the three groups were subjected to factor analysis and eight factors were identified. The results of this study were compared with a similar project carried out at the high school level, and the similarities and differences in outcome were discussed.
PERSONALITY, MODE OF ASSESSMENT AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
Authors: ROWELL J. A. , RENNER V. J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The EPI was administered to 136 full‐time postgraduate Diploma in Education students. The relationships between personality, choice of method of assessment and achievement in four theory courses were investigated. Significant differences were found in each course favouring assessment totally by essay work (P < .05). In Theory of Education a significant interaction was found between neuroticism and assessment option, and in Educational Sociology extraverts achieved more highly than their relatively introverted peers. The hypotheses that introverts are more successful in structured courses and extraverts more so in relatively unstructured ones were tested and found to be supported.
ON QUALITATIVE DIFFERENCES IN LEARNING—II OUTCOME AS A FUNCTION OF THE LEARNER'S CONCEPTION OF THE TASK
Authors: MARTON F. , SÄALJÖ R.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Two groups of 20 first‐year students were asked to read three sections of a textbook. After the first two sections the groups received different types of question. One group received questions which demanded a thorough understanding of the meaning of the passage. The other group was given detailed factual questions. After the final section of reading a common set of questions of both types was asked. Besides providing further evidence of qualitative differences in learning, the experiment showed that students did adapt their way of learning to their conception of what was required of them.
THE INFLUENCE OF QUESTIONS ENCOUNTERED EARLIER ON LEARNING FROM PROSE
Authors: HOWE M. J. A. , COLLEY LORNA
Published: May 2011

Summary. 24 undergraduate students each studied three similar meaningful prose passages on quasi‐geographical material, and their learning was measured by subsequent recall tests. Subjects who received test questions asking about parallel and similar contents of each passage performed considerably better on the third passage than subjects who were then given a test including questions about ideas in the prose text that did not parallel those tested following study of the earlier passages. This rinding indicates one powerful influence upon students' learning.
SOUND BLENDING AND LEARNING TO READ: AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION
Authors: FARMER A. R. , NIXON MARY , WHITE R. T.
Published: May 2011

Summary. 60 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children were involved in two experiments, carried out to determine whether training in sound blending facilitates subsequent learning to read. Results showed (i) that children of these ages improved their performance on a sound blending post‐test, (ii) that 5‐ 6‐year‐olds performed better on a subsequent reading task than children not given sound blending training, and (iii) that 4‐ 5‐year‐old girls trained in sound blending performed better on the reading task than similarly trained boys of the same age. Rather than an overall superiority of girls on sound blending and reading, there appeared to be a specific difference between the sexes in response to training.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF PIAGETIAN STAGES OF THINKING IN BRITISH MIDDLE AND SECONDARY SCHOOL CHILDREN
Authors: SHAYER M. , KÜCHEMANN D. E. , WYLAM H.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The proportion of children showing early and late concrete operational thinking, and early and late formal operational thinking was measured in a sample of 10,000 children between the ages of 9 and 14. The test instruments were a form of group test called Class Tasks, derived from the individual interview situations described by Piaget. These tests indicated that most children in early adolescence showed rapid development in concrete thinking, but that only one‐fifth of the children showed the further development of formal operational thought. The representativeness of these findings was ensured by relating the distribution of Piagetian stages at each age‐level to the norms of a standardised non‐verbal reasoning test.
QUESTIONS CHILDREN ASK ABOUT SPATIAL ARRAYS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESSES INVOLVED IN CO‐ORDINATING PERSPECTIVES
Authors: EISER CHRISTINE
Published: May 2011

Summary. Strategies used to co‐ordinate perspectives were investigated using a modification of Mosher and Hornby's ‘twenty questions’ technique. By asking ‘yes/no’ questions, children (N=75) attempted to predict the viewpoint of another, in order to match it to their own perspective of a duplicate array. In coding these questions, it was found that most children asked about the orientation of objects, rather than their positions. Although those asking position questions performed better than those asking orientation at grade 3, there was no relation between strategy and success at grade 7. The results are discussed in relation to inconsistencies in the literature regarding age differences in the co‐ordination of perspectives.
EFFECTS OF STIMULI, ORDER OF PRESENTATION AND SEQUENCE ON CONSERVATION OF NUMBER: A METHODOLOGICAL NOTE
Authors: ROBERGE J. J. , CLARK K. S.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Errors in the analysis of data in Experiment 1 of a paper by Kahn and Garrison (1973) are reported. Appropriate strategies for analysing order and sequence effects are described and the Kahn and Garrison data are reanalysed using these methods.
THE ATTITUDES OF PRIMARY SCHOOL HEADS AND DEPUTY HEADS TO DEPUTY HEADSHIP
Authors: COULSON A. A.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A 40‐item Likert‐type attitude inventory was completed by a sample of 478 primary school heads and deputy heads. The instrument consisted of items relating to attitudes to deputy headship obtained from interviews and a pilot study. A first order factor analysis yielded 10 factors, eight of which were interpreted as bureaucratic organisation, control of teaching, interpersonal relations with staff, career orientation, man‐in‐the‐middle, collegiality, status in school, and allegiance to the head. A second order analysis indicated that the deputy head may fulfil three major functions: co‐leader of the school on a par with the head, facilitating foreman, and expressive leader of teachers. Because these aspects may represent incompatible demands, it is suggested that deputy heads are especially vulnerable to role conflict.
PREDICTION OF FAILURE AT UNIVERSITY—OR FAILURE OF PREDICTION?
Authors: NISBET J. D. , WELSH JENNIFER
Published: May 2011

Summary. The validity of a procedure for identifying students at risk of failure on the basis of first term examination results was checked by following up 188 students at risk, from a total of 1902 in Aberdeen University Arts Faculty in session 1974–5. 76 per cent of the students at risk recovered successfully, and 40 per cent of failing students were missed by the procedure. Comparison of students who fail and those who recover, and of failing students identified as at risk and those not identified, and other attempts to find a means of improving the early warning system, were unproductive. The value of the system may lie not in prediction but in demonstrating awareness and concern.
THE IDENTIFICATION OF SOME CREATIVE THINKING PARAMETERS COMMON TO THE ARTISTIC AND MUSICAL PERSONALITY
Authors: LANG R. J. , RYBA K. A.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The intent of this study was to explore several segments of divergent intelligence, visual stimulus complexity as a cognitive style, and auditory acuity, that presumably characterise the artistically expressive person. The sample population was comprised of 34 visual artists, 32 musical artists, and a normative group of 30 undergraduate university students. Between‐group differences were examined by way of ANOVA, multiple discriminant function analysis, and then by a principal components solution (with varimax rotation). Preference for visual stimulus complexity was upheld as a cognitive style dimension common to both artistic and musical personalities. Substantive evidence was found to confirm the ‘divergent auditory figural memory factor’ (DFS‐A) posited by Guilford in his SI model. As conjectured, visual artists displayed a superior propensity on the triadic divergent abilities subsumed under fluency, flexibility, and originality of thinking, while musical and control subjects were undifferentiated on these cognitive parameters. More importantly, the heightened auditory acuity and aesthetic judgment of visual artists over that of controls, as measured by the pilot auditory discrimination test, indicates the existence of a general intersensory factor among creative artists. Similarly, the musician's sensibility and attraction to complex abstract imagery beyond that of their non‐artistic peers further strengthens the notion of possible shared perceptual features by creative individuals across discretesensory modalities. Overall, the selected variables were shown to be reliable predictors for identifying the artistically gifted individual.
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MEASURES OF OPERATIVITY, LANGUAGE AND SHORT‐TERM MEMORY IN THE PREDICTION OF READING AND MATHEMATICAL UNDERSTANDING
Authors: LUNZER E. A. , DOLAN T. , WILKINSON J. E.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Tests of reading and mathematical understanding were administered to 210 children from three socio‐economic backgrounds who had been tested 12 months earlier during their first year at school. When first seen, the children were given 28 cognitive tests, the results of which have been discussed in a previous paper (Lunzer, et al., 1976). Measures of operativity were found to be superior to measures of language in predicting progress in mathematics for all socio‐economic groups. Operativity was also superior for socio‐economic Groups 1 and 3 in predicting success in reading of unrelated words, and was comparable with language in the case of Group 2. Operativity and language were found to have similar powers in the prediction of reading comprehension. Short‐term memory for the presentation of a visual sequence proved to be a highly significant and independent predictor for success in word recognition and, to a lesser degree, in mathematical understanding.
THE EFFECTS OF PICTURES ON LEARNING TO READ
Authors: HARZEM P. , LEE I. , MILES T. R.
Published: May 2011

Summary. 20 children learned to read single words that were presented together with (i) a picture of the object named by the word, (ii) a picture of an object unrelated to the word, (iii) a ‘nonsense’ picture not resembling any object, and (iv) no picture of any kind. Presence of an appropriate picture resulted in significantly fewer correct responses than any other condition. The no‐picture condition was the most favourable for learning to read, and it also resulted in largest number of correct responses after a retention interval of 28 days. Learning by massed or distributed practice over time did not affect these relationships although in all conditions distributed practice resulted in more correct responses. The results indicated that whether pictures adversely affect learning to read or not depends on the relationship between the picture and the printed word, a direct equivalence being the least favourable.
VISUAL PROCESSING OF STRAIGHT LINES IN DYSLEXIC AND NORMAL CHILDREN
Authors: O'NEILL G. , STANLEY G.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Separation thresholds for groups of 26 dyslexic and normal children attending the first year of secondary school were obtained with pairs of identically‐oriented and spatially‐overlapping straight lines presented at orientations varying from zero to 90 degrees. The dyslexics as a group had about 10 to 15 msec longer separation times than normals. In a second experiment single straight line contours were preceded by an homogeneous light mask. Dyslexics required longer stimulus exposures for detection than controls. It is suggested that the present results are compatible with the view of a developmental lag in the visual information processing of dyslexics.
WAYS OF MAKING NUMBER JUDGMENTS AND CHILDREN'S UNDERSTANDING OF QUANTITY RELATIONS
Authors: YOUNG A. W. , McPHERSON JULIE
Published: May 2011

Summary. 60 children, aged between 4 and 7 years were given problems designed to assess their understanding of number invariance involving numbers of objects within their subitizing range, numbers outside their subitizing range but within their counting range, and large numbers they were not allowed to count. The results indicate that number invariance is initially developed for small numbers and then extended into the counting range and beyond.
ASSESSING THE DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENT TEACHERS' ROLE CONCEPTIONS
Authors: ADAMS‐WEBBER J. , MTRC ERICKA
Published: May 2011

Summary. Repertory grids were used to monitor the development of student teachers' conceptions of their professional roles. The students rank‐ordered 10 role figures (e.g., teacher, pupil, principal) in terms of their degree of involvement in 19 different activities (e.g., instruction, testing, counselling) before any teaching experience and following each of three, two‐week sessions of practice teaching in local schools. There were significant increases in the level of integration of their role conceptions as they gained classroom experience. At first, these students exhibited less integration than did experienced teachers; however, there was no difference after the students had completed six weeks of practice teaching.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACHIEVEMENT IN BIOLOGY AND COGNITIVE PREFERENCE STYLES IN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
Authors: TAMIR P.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Tests of cognitive preference and achievement in high school biology were given to a stratified random sample of 989 Israeli twelfth grade students. Levels of cognitive preference and achievement were related to four independent variables namely sex, school environment, the nature of the curriculum and the attitudes of teachers, toward an inquiry oriented curriculum. A strong dependence of cognitive preference orientation on achievement was found. High achieving students exhibited a strong preference for critical questioning, a weak preference for fundamental principles as well as a strong dissatisfaction with recall. The ‘cognitive preference‐achievement’ relationship depended on the specific subject matter content, but was not related to Bloom's taxonomy levels. The ‘cognitive preference‐achievement’ relationship was found to be significantly affected by sex, the school environment, the curriculum and the curricular bias of the teachers. Certain interactions among these independent variables were also revealed.
THE PENDULUM PROBLEM
Authors: SHAYER M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Comparison is made between the very high proportion of adolescents found by Somerville to be formal operational thinkers, and the much lower proportion found by Lovell. Evidence about the representativeness of Somerville's sample is analysed suggesting that it is comparable with that of an average English selective school. When allowance is made for the difference in populations the results are shown to be not in conflict.
READING RETARDATION AND CROSS‐LATERALITY IN RELATION TO SHORT‐TERM INFORMATION PROCESSING TASKS
Authors: WHEELER T. J. , WATKINS E. J. , McLAUGHLIN S. P.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The performance of 10 cross‐lateral children was compared with a control group of 10 uni‐lateral children on short‐term information processing tasks using three types of units—digits, letters and symbols. The tasks consisted of presenting different numbers of units of information simultaneously by tachistoscopic exposure. The cross‐lateral group took significantly longer to identify accurately the information presented: their performance significantly deteriorated as the information load was increased from three to five units. The cross‐lateral group was also significantly inferior to the matched control group on reading age. It is contended that the reading retardation associated with cross‐laterality (which is indicative of ill‐established cerebral dominance) is a specific manifestation of a general limitation in any kind of information processing.
THE READING ABILITY OF DEAF SCHOOL‐LEAVERS
Authors: CONRAD R.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Almost every child aged 15–16 1/2 years being educated in schools for the deaf and partially hearing in England and Wales, was given Brimer's Wide‐Span Reading Test which assesses prose comprehension. After excluding certain categories of children, results were available for 355 children. With degree of hearing loss as the main independent variable, results are presented in terms of mean and median reading age, and in reading age percentile form. Reading is significantly affected by degree of deafness and by non‐verbal intelligence. Though the presented reading ages are with reference to hearing norms, other criteria for assessing the reading performance of deaf children are discussed.
THE EFFECTS OF PLAY ON MATHEMATICAL CONCEPT FORMATION
Authors: ZAMMARELLI J. , BOLTON N.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The aim of the study was to assess the effects of a previous play experience on a test of concept formation involving base four arithmetic. Twenty‐four children from 10 to 12 years of age were divided into three groups of eight subjects each, matched on teachers' ratings of mathematical ability. A concept formation task was given as an initial measure of ability. Members of group one were permitted total autonomy as to which buttons they pressed on a specially designed toy whose operation embodied base four rules; members of group two were yoked to members of group one so that they observed the same sequence of information; members of group three had no experience with the toy. Each subject was then administered a further concept formation task which involved the same rules existing in the ‘toy.’ The results showed that group one gained a greater insight into the task and remembered the information more effectively in the short‐term. Suggestions for further research are made.
A COMPARATIVE LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF SPECIAL EDUCATION GROUPS
Authors: GHODSIAN M. , CALNAN M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The reading and mathematics performance of five groups of primary school age children (four of which were receiving special education in various forms) were compared longitudinally using a nationally representative sample. The various educational provisions were evaluated taking into account the earlier placement and performance of the children. There was little difference in the reading progress of ESN(M) children in ordinary and special schools although the latter made more progress in mathematics. The results also suggested that children receiving some help within normal schools made most progress.
THE PROCESS OF TYPIFICATION IN CLASSROOM INTERACTION: MODELS AND METHODS
Authors: HARGREAVES D. H.
Published: May 2011

SUMMARY. Recent work on the process of typification and person perception in teacher‐pupil relations is subjected to critical scrutiny. The similarities between several models, based on different methods and disciplines, are examined and an amalgamation of the models is proposed. It is argued that current models exhibit a number of important defects, especially in relation to contextual variations in typification and the changes in typification over time. A number of theoretical and methodological suggestions are made to improve models of classroom typification and interaction for both psychologists and sociologists.
STRATEGIES CHILDREN USE TO CO‐ORDINATE PERSPECTIVES AS A FUNCTION OF TASK DEMANDS
Authors: EISER CHRISTINE
Published: May 2011

SUMMARY. Previous research has suggested that children are aware of changes in orientation prior to changes in position of objects as a function of an observer's viewpoint. Two question‐asking studies are reported in which this finding was investigated in relation to (a) changes in the type of stimuli and (b) changes in the response mode. In a rotation task, 40 Canadian elementary school children anticipated perspective by determining the orientation of objects even where the stimuli were such as to make a focus on position more appropriate. However, where the response mode involved placing objects to match an observer's view with a sample of 30 similar children, they tended to ask questions about the position rather than the orientation of objects. Results in previous co‐ordination of perspective tasks are discussed in relation to these findings.
THE INFLUENCE OF CONTEXT ON REFERENTIAL DESCRIPTION IN CHILDREN
Authors: WATSON JUDITH M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Two experiments are described which are concerned with the development of referential ability in children. In the first, children of normal and of subnormal educational attainment, aged between 4 and 12 years, were asked to describe simple actions. Referential adequacy increased markedly with mental age. The inadequacy of descriptions given by the less mature subjects was largely due to their neglect of the immediate perceived context of the referent.

The second experiment, using children in the mental age range of 5 to 7 years, provided evidence that the less mature children's descriptions were significantly less affected by the context than were those of the 7‐year‐olds of normal intelligence. It is suggested that this aspect of referential ability results from general cognitive decentration.
REDUNDANCY IN THE CONCEPT ATTAINMENT OF ADOLESCENTS
Authors: SINGLETON C. H.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The production of informationally redundant choices in a selection concept attainment task was investigated in relation to age and intelligence, using 62 adolescents aged 12:7—15:6 drawn from the lower middle ability range of a comprehensive school. Subjects scoring below the 20th percentile on intelligence were found to make a significantly greater proportion of such choices when compared with subjects scoring above the 80th percentile, and the prediction of a discontinuity in the decrease in redundancy with increasing age was confirmed. Differences in redundancy due to age and intelligence were found to be of a type which is largely attributable to lack of confidence in reasoning ability, desire for verification of hypotheses, and preference for testing hypotheses directly rather than drawing inferences from information already available.
LIP‐READING BY DEAF AND HEARING CHILDREN
Authors: CONRAD R.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A group of profoundly deaf 15‐year‐old subjects with no other handicap and of average non‐verbal intelligence were given a lip‐reading test. The same test was given to comparable hearing subjects ‘deafened’ by white noise masking. The difference between the groups was not significant. Performance of the deaf subjects (and the hearing) was, however, significantly better when they read the test items from print. The implication is that the relatively poor lip‐reading ability of the deaf subjects was not because of linguistic impairment.
EFFECTS ON CHILDREN'S DIVERGENT THINKING ABILITIES OF A PERIOD OF DIRECT TEACHING FOR DIVERGENT PRODUCTION
Authors: FRANKLIN B. S. , RICHARDS P. N.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Teaching procedures designed to improve children's divergent thinking abilities were administered to two classes of 9‐ and 10‐year‐old children, one formal and one informal, for one morning per week over a period of six weeks. Parallel classes covered the same material but without the emphasis on divergent production. The results suggest that appropriate teaching procedures can play a significant part in enhancing children's divergent thinking abilities, particularly verbal abilities. Similar improvements were attained in both types of experimental class.
READING ATTAINMENT AND FAMILY SIZE: AN ANOMALY
Authors: RICHARDSON K.
Published: May 2011

Summary. An analysis of the written compositions of a national sample of 520 British school children was carried out using two measures: (i) writing productivity as measured by the composition length in words; (ii) the mean minimal terminable unit (T‐unit) length in words, a measure of syntactic maturity. Although this sample exhibited the typical association between family size and reading attainment, there were no family size differences with respect to writing productivity or syntactic maturity. The results were discussed with regard to the possibility of a syntactic differentiation among children from families of larger size such that the syntactic content of standardised reading comprehension tests would prejudice their test performance.
FURTHER INVESTIGATION OF THE EMERGENCE OF ABILITY FOR PARTIAL AND COMPLETE MULTIPLICATION OF CLASSES IN YOUNG SCHOOL CHILDREN
Authors: WONG BERNICE Y. L.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Piaget's theoretical position assumes that the ability to solve complete multiplication will be an earlier development in the child than partial multiplicative classification and his experimental findings support this hypothesis. The present experiment using 159 children aged 4:7 to 7:6 years re‐examined the issue and investigated children's performance in these two types of multiplication using a consistent response mode to measure performance. The results substantiate Piaget's hypothesis. Further investigations were suggested to determine which of Piaget's two explanations is more applicable to the later development of partial multiplication.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAUSAL AND LOGICAL CONNECTIVES IN CHILDREN
Authors: LAWTON J. T.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Children's use of causal and logical connectives was examined before and after treatments based on advance organisers with social studies lessons. In samples of 120 children from age‐levels 6 and 10 years a diminution in the use of syncretic reasoning and understanding followed the experimental treatment. The performance of the older group was generally better than that of the younger children, supporting Piaget's concept of stage‐invariant cognitive development.