bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
AGE STANDARDISATION AND SEASONAL EFFECTS IN MENTAL TESTING
Authors: GOLDSTEIN H. , FOGELMAN K.
Published: May 2011

Summary. It is pointed out that there are two distinct types of age standardisations for tests of school attainment. One is concerned with allowing for differences in age between children tested at the same time, and the other is concerned with allowing for average changes in test scores with time of year. Standardisation procedures do not normally take account of this distinction. It is also shown that there is no increase in attainment scores between April and July among 11‐year‐olds in the last year of primary school. This ‘seasonal’ effect creates further difficulties in providing satisfactory age standardisations and it is suggested that full age‐time standardisations should be carried out by selecting standardising samples over whole age ranges at different times of year.
SITUATIONAL VARIATION IN LEVEL OF MORAL JUDGMENT
Authors: McGEORGE C.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Reports of research on Kohlberg's stages of moral judgment have assumed that level is general across situations and that a single major factor underlies responses. A partial replication of Kohlberg's research indicated significant variation from situation to situation in the responses of 40 12‐year‐old boys and 23 university students to the moral judgment interview. A factor analysis indicated two factors underlying responses to the interview: an empathic or role‐taking factor and one involving concepts of social rules and structures. The results emphasise the need for more detailed descriptions ofmoral development and more detailed scoring systems.
THE TEACHING OF SERIAL TASKS USING CHAINING STRATEGIES
Authors: WILCOX B.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The experiment was concerned with teaching two types of chain or serial task. The chain types were paper‐folding, regarded as a motor assembly task, and numerical procedures.

The aim of the experiment was to investigate the effect of chain length (short, medium and long) and teaching strategy (backward chaining, forward chaining and whole method) on the acquisition and retention of the two types of chain. 176 women students were randomly assigned to nine groups (3 × 3) defined by chain length and teaching strategy. Within each group a motor and a number chain were taught by means of self‐instructional programmes and followed by practice to a criterion of one promptless trial. One week later the tasks were relearned to the same criterion.

No advantage was found for backward chaining in the case of the motor chains and the short and medium number chains. However, for the long number chain there was some indication that backward chaining was superior to forward chaining. Both methods were in general inferior to the whole method.
SKILLS OF ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS IN THE EARLY STAGES OF READING
Authors: ROBERTS TESSA
Published: May 2011

Summary. An examination was made of the ‘actions’ of early reading—analysis and synthesis—within the modalities of sound alone and sound with sight. The relative difficulty of these skills for a sample of forty 5 and 6‐year‐old children was established through an assessment of their performance of four different tasks of analysis or synthesis involving four word lists of equal difficulty. Purely auditory synthesis was found to be considerably easier than any other skill; analysis involving both sound and sight was found to be by far the most difficult.
THE EDUCATIONAL PRIORITY SCHOOL
Authors: WILSON J. A. , TREW KAREN J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The study was designed to establish, on a regional basis, the validity of a set of measures of social handicap as predictive of educational backwardness and to identify the characteristics of those schools which are most effectively compensatory in adverse social conditions. Backwardness was defined in relation to scores on standardised intellectual tests for 7‐year‐old and 10‐year‐old children attending 115 Northern Ireland primary schools. The proportion of backwardness was then predicted from thirteen demographic variables, commonly used in describing educational priority areas, by the application of step‐wise multiple regression analysis.

Parental unemployment and the occupational status of the school neighbourhood emerged as the strongest pointers to educational backwardness. The social variables predicted backwardness least accurately in smaller, less well equipped and rural schools. The schools which were most effectively compensatory tended to be urban, to have less physically adequate classrooms, female principals, and a higher proportion of graduate‐trained teachers.
TEACHING SPELLING
Authors: SMITH HAZEL A.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The effectiveness of five presentation methods were compared for the teaching of spelling to 359 children in 10 third‐year junior classes. The learning method involved the study of the whole word, the ‘hard spot,’ or the individual letters of each spelling; the presentation of the words being in either list form or in context. Analyses of variance results indicated that the most effective approach to use with a class was one which used a whole word method of learning where the words were presented in context.
THE PERCEPTION OF ADOLESCENT PROBLEMS BY THEIR PARENTS
Authors: COLLINS J. K. , CASSEL A. J. , HARPER J. F.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The Mooney Problem Checklist was administered to a sample of 109 adolescents and both of their parents drawn from metropolitan Sydney. Product‐moment correlation coefficients showed that the same sex parents had greater awareness of the adolescents' problems than the opposite sex parents. All parents were ill‐informed in the area of courtship, sex and marriage but they had more insights into problems in the home. Both parents were more aware of problems associated with health and physical development in the girl than in the boy.
MUSIC AND TEST ANXIETY: FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR AN INTERACTION
Authors: STANTON H. E.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This study investigated the existence of an interaction between music and anxiety, with the hypothesis that highly test anxious subjects would perform better in a test‐like situation when background music was present than when the more usual condition of silence prevailed. 162 final year Diploma of Education and third year B.Ed, students completed Sarason's Test Anxiety Scale. Three experimental conditions were used in which students were required to study a 1,500‐word passage for 10 minutes. The conditions were silence, music as the students entered and music throughout. The second group showed the highest scores on a test of the material learned.
THE OTHER OBSERVER IN A PERSPECTIVES TASK
Authors: COX M. V.
Published: May 2011

Summary. In Piaget and Inhelder's ‘three‐mountains’ task a doll is used as ‘the other observer.’ The present experiment was conducted to investigate whether children's performance in this perspectives task would be improved if the observer was a person. Two matched groups of 20 children (mean age 6:10) were asked to select the views of another observer from a number of vantage points. A doll was used as the observer for one group and the experimenter for the other. In the experimenter group the mean correct response score was significantly higher and the mean egocentrism score significantly lower than in the doll group. This result suggests that egocentrism is not necessarily a fundamental characteristic of the young child's thinking but may result from, or be increased by, experimental design.
DEVELOPMENTAL AND SOCIAL INTERACTION IN CATEGORIES OF WORD‐DEFINITION
Authors: WILSON J. A.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Responses to the Terman‐Merrill Vocabulary Test, Form L‐M, of 100 children at each of five age‐levels from 6 to 14 years in a judgment sample of 65 Northern Ireland schools were scored for 10 categories of definition. Factor analysis confirmed that two categories, Synonym and Explanation, might be combined as Abstract responses. Ordered stepwise regression confirmed the significance, as hypothesised, of age, occupation and joint age‐by‐occupation effects, in that order, for Abstract and Total responses. The joint effect was greater for Abstract responses, and showed that children of non‐manual fathers differ progressively with age from children of manual fathers for those forms of definition, such as synonyms and explanations, that showed the strongest pattern of development with age.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND COURSE PERFORMANCE
Authors: GAYNOR JESSICA , MILLHAM J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The relationship of several individual difference variables to achievement in college courses was investigated, using a sample of 500 freshmen and sophomores taking introductory psychology. Previous grades, degree of concordance between student preference and actual course conditions, and facilitating anxiety were found to explain 82 per cent of the variance in test performance. The importance of assessing student preferences in academic planning is discussed.
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS OF READING AND WRITING
Authors: DOWNING J. , OLLILA L. , OLIVER P.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Previous research has indicated that children enter the task of learning to read in a state of cognitive confusion regarding the function and nature of the task. The present investigation was addressed to the hypothesis that cultural differences in home background are an important influence in the development of children's understanding of the purpose of writing and their concepts of the language units employed in the written code. 92 non‐Indian Canadian children at kindergarten were compared with 72 kindergarten pupils from two Indian bands in which there is no tradition of literacy and a poverty of experiences of writing and formal concern with language analysis. On all five measures used the Indian children scored significantly lower. They were less able to recognise literacy activities, less cognisant of their purpose, and had poorer technical knowledge of units of speech and writing.
LATERALITY AND READING ATTAINMENT
Authors: THOMSON M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. 60 children with reading ages 18 months or more below their chronological ages, were compared with a control group of the same size who had average or above average reading ages. Both groups completed a laterality questionnaire relating to different aspects of perception and handedness. Inconsistencies in the different aspects of laterality were found, making connections between laterality and attainment more complex than has previously been assumed. However, showing a complete set of unilateral characteristics was still the best predictor of reading attainment, while using either hand, being ‘left eared’ and mixtures of eye and hand usage were associated with retarded reading.
CREATIVITY AND ACHIEVEMENT IN NUFFIELD PHYSICS
Authors: STARR J. W. , NICHOLL CARROLL
Published: May 2011

Summary. Tests of creativity, intelligence and attitude towards science were administered to a group of 110 pupils who were also candidates for the Nuffield ordinary level physics examination. No support was found for the hypothesis that creativity would be related to performance in Nuffield Physics of which the most important correlate was general intelligence. Verbal and figural creativity emerged as separate factors and verbal creativity was found to be weakly related to verbal intelligence.
INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT IN ADOLESCENCE
Authors: LANGFORD P. E. , GEORGE SANDRA
Published: May 2011

Summary. 65 girls between 12 and 15 years of age were presented with four of Kohlberg's ‘moral dilemma’ stories and Inhelder and Piaget's ‘floating bodies' problem. The relation between level of moral judgment and formal operations was found to change from negative in Kohlberg's earlier stages to positive for the later stages of moral judgment. It was concluded that reasoning at the stage of formal operations is a precondition for progress to Kohlberg's Types 5 and 6 in moral judgment.
THE CONTRAST EFFECT IN THE SELECTION INTERVIEW
Authors: KOPELMAN M. D.
Published: May 2011

Summary. An experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of preceding interviewees' performance on the assessment of a third candidate's interview. Mock interviews of candidates applying for medical school were recorded on video‐tape, and were rated by 60 subjects. A highly significant contrast effect was obtained, but it accounted for only 11 per cent of total decision variance. A candidate's own standard of performance is by far the most important factor determining his rating. The contrast effect is most influential in the assessment of candidates of intermediate performance, but it is suggested that one group of researchers may have over‐estimated its importance.
EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY: ITS SCOPE AND LIMITS
Authors: KALLOS D. , LUNDGREN U. P.
Published: May 2011

Summary. An examination of current textbooks of educational psychology and educational research suggests that the scientific paradigm has been accepted too readily. This article explores the way in which the ‘territory’ of educational research has been defined and limited, by assumptions about scientific methods of enquiry and objective forms of measurement. It is argued that the reductionism found in current psychological explanations of the teaching‐learning process has prevented fuller, and more realistic, descriptions in which the whole social context of teaching is considered, in terms of rules which govern what happens in classrooms.
PUPIL BEHAVIOUR IN JUNIOR CLASSROOMS
Authors: BOYDELL DEANNE
Published: May 2011

Summary. The nature of children's behaviour in six informal junior school classrooms was examined using an observation schedule modelled on Medley's Personal Record of School Experiences. The classes were unstreamed, the children sat in small groups and there was a high incidence of private teacher talk to small groups and individual children. The observer focused on children one at a time using a time sampling procedure and recorded his observations by multiple coding. Children spent about a third of their time interacting with other children and rather more than half the lesson out of contact with everyone. Despite a low incidence of teacher contact children were predominantly involved in their work.
BOREDOM AT SCHOOL
Authors: ROBINSON W. P.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The absence of theories of boredom is argued to be a gap both in psychology and education. A model of boredom is put forward as a basis for specifying predisposing factors and possible consequences. For the child in school, the model has the character of a positive feedback loop that is maintained in unstable equilibrium by external forces until such time as he can leave school. A secondary analysis of data from the national sample of Young School Leavers (Morton‐Williams and Finch, 1968) provides support for almost all the hypotheses tested.
PREDILECTION FOR GENERALISING AND ABSTRACTING
Authors: PEEL E. A.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This study reports the development of a sentence preference test designed to contrast tendencies to abstract, generalise and particularise in thinking. Certain terms carry both general and abstract meanings. Using such words in sentences bringing out these differing meanings provides an indication of readiness to use abstractions and generalisations. A variety of samples of secondary school pupils in the age range 11+ to 16 years were used to provide evidence of reliability and validity, and also to trace changes with age of responses to the sentences. The results confirm earlier work with a word test which showed that tendencies both to generalise and abstract increase during adolescence.

The potentialities of the technique are discussed in relation to language usage and comprehension and to higher level thinking processes required during secondary school and afterwards in higher education.
VERNACULAR TEST INSTRUCTIONS IN RELATION TO COGNITIVE TASK BEHAVIOUR AMONG HIGHLAND CHILDREN OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Authors: KELLY M. , PHILP HUGH
Published: May 2011

Summary. Analysis of results of tests of cognitive development in Papua New Guinea children indicated that membership of different language/culture groups was an important source of variance. Three groups each of 48 children were selected from one language culture group and equated for age and sex. Two groups weremade up of school children, equated for school experience; the third group had no school experience. One group of school children was tested in English, the language of the school; the other two groups were tested in the vernacular common to all three groups. Three tasks were used: an equivalence grouping of pictures, a class inclusion test, and conservation of length. All three tests were chosen because there were language differences between English and the vernacular in labelling the components of the task. Significant differences were found between the groups in their performance on the tasks. These differences were related both to amount of school experience and language of testing but the latter was, by far, the more significant.
GUESSING THE ANSWER ON OBJECTIVE TESTS
Authors: CHOPPIN B.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Using data obtained as part of the cross‐cultural IEA study on academic standards, the tendency of particular pupils to guess on multiple‐choice tests was measured using an index proposed by Ziller. The amount of guessing was found to increase with the amount of reading material each item contained. English school pupils appear to be more inclined to guess than are pupils in most other Western countries. Guessing is more frequent in the public sector of education than in the independent sector. Among 14‐year‐olds, boys were slightly, but consistently, more likely to guess than girls. This sex difference was not apparent among children aged 10.
STYLES AND STRATEGIES OF LEARNING
Authors: PASK G.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Previous results are reviewed and two series of experiments on learning are described, one carried out in the laboratory, and the other in educational institutions. Both series use ‘conversational’ systems which allow mental activities to be described in terms of dialogue and behaviour. Several types of result are reported: (a) the significance of understanding; (b) the existence of, and variations in, learning strategies; (c) the effect of matching and mismatching a teaching strategy to an individual's learning strategy; (d) the nature and classification of cognitive style; and (e) transfer effects and ‘learning to learn.’ A theoretical basis is developed for a classification of learning styles.
STRUCTURE OF THE SKILL ACQUISITION PHASE OF A MICROTEACHING PROGRAMME
Authors: CLIFT J. C. , BATTEN H. , BURKE G. , MALLEY J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The main hypothesis tested concerns the effects of differing modes of feedback and number of ‘teach’ cycles in a microteaching programme aimed at improving student teachers' use of specific teaching skills. The experimental design used a 3 × 2 × 2 factorial design with a sample of 72 students. The criteria of performance was the students' score on rating scales developed specifically for the task. Multiple regression analysis yielded no significant differences in performance in relation to type of skill practised or number of teaching cycles. However, while there was a significant increase in the mean performance, audio and video feedback had a differential effect upon low and high performances.
INTEREST, MENTAL HEALTH, AND ATTITUDINAL CORRELATES OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Authors: BANRETI‐FUCHS K. M. , MEADOWS W. M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The relationships between three levels of academic achievement and various interest, mental health, and attitudinal variables were examined. Using the regression equation method, a sample of 239 students enrolled in introductory psychology 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 score. All subjects completed the Strong Vocational Interest Blank for Men/Women, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, and the Student Interest and Attitude Study II. Two separate factor analyses, one for men and one for women, were carried out on all variables which differentiated significantly and systematically between the high‐, average‐, and low‐achieving groups. For men seven factors were identified, for women only two factors. Especially noteworthy was the small number of interest variables which differentiated between the high‐, average‐, and low‐achieving women.
PERSONALITY AND ACADEMIC ATTAINMENT: A CROSS‐CULTURAL STUDY
Authors: ORPEN C.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This study examines the ‘age effect’ hypothesis from British and American studies, that academic success at primary school is linked to stable extraversion while success at university is associated with introversion, with black and white school children (age 14) and black and white university students (age 20), brought up in non‐Western and Western cultures, respectively. The extraversion and neuroticism scores of the subjects on the JEPI or the EPI were compared to their academic success, given by their performance in school or university examinations. The results supported the ‘age effect’ hypothesis in both white and black groups.
THE DISTINCTIVENESS OF OPERATIVITY AS A MEASURE OF COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING IN FIVE‐YEAR‐OLD CHILDREN
Authors: LUNZER E. A. , WILKINSON J. E. , DOLAN T.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A battery of 28 individually administered tests, comprised of measures derived from the work of Piaget, of simple and complex learning, of language, STM, LTM and intelligence were given to 210 children aged 5.6 to 6.0 during their first year of schooling. The children were drawn from 21 schools: seven schools from each of three areas rated as privileged, average and underprivileged. Factor analysis revealed seven significant factors amongst which were separate ones for language and operativity. The latter is defined and the usefulness of the Piagetian measures is discussed as is their relationship with the other measures, and the sensitivity of all measures to influences associated with socio‐economic status.
A NOTE ON THE USE OF PEEL'S LOGICAL GAME FOR STUDYING CONDITIONAL REASONING IN CHILDREN
Authors: WARD J. , KNOWLES D.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Peel's logical game was used with six groups of elementary school children (N = 300). The method was used to study rules of implication and incompatibility. The implication rule mainly generated conjunctive or matching responses; the incompatibility rule evoked greater variety of response deriving from simple contrapositive strategies. Omission of the connective ‘if’ in a second experiment did not affect the pattern of responses. Overall there was little evidence of developmental trends in the data.
ON QUALITATIVE DIFFERENCES IN LEARNING: I—OUTCOME AND PROCESS*
Authors: MARTON F. , SÄLJÖ R.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This paper describes an attempt to identify different levels of processing of information among groups of Swedish university students who were asked to read substantial passages of prose. Students were asked questions about the meaning of the passages and also about how they set about reading the passages. This approach allows processes and strategies of learning to be examined, as well as the outcomes in terms of what is understood and remembered. The starting point of this research was that learning has to be described in terms of its content. From this point differences in what is learned, rather than differences in how much is learned, are described. It was found that in each study a number of categories (levels of outcome) containing basically different conceptions of the content of the learning task could be identified. The corresponding differences in level of processing are described in terms of whether the learner is engaged in surface‐level or deep‐level processing.
CONVERSATIONAL TECHNIQUES IN THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF EDUCATION
Authors: PASK G.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Conversational theory is an attempt to investigate the learning of realistically complex subject matter under controlled conditions. To do this it is necessary to insist on restricted definitions of common terms such as understanding and to demand more stringent conditions before accepting that it has been demonstrated. These conditions can be achieved if the subject matter is structured and the student follows certain rules in demonstrating understanding. Computer linked systems have been developed which control and record student learning. The systems provide the experimenter with detailed records of the learning strategies used by students and the student with learning experiences which normally ensure understanding.
RETROACTIVE INTERFERENCE IN MEANINGFUL LEARNING
Authors: HOWE M. J. A. , COLLEY LORNA
Published: May 2011

Summary. It has been suggested that the phenomenon of retroactive interference, by which retention of verbal materials is decreased by the subsequent presentation of similar interpolated items, occurs only in unstructured items, and not in the meaningful and connected information more commonly encountered in educational learning circumstances. An experiment was undertaken to investigate the possibility of retroactive interference occurring in a structured and meaningful prose learning situation. The sample consisted of 18 university students allocated randomly to two groups. The experimental group studied an original prose passage, followed by two very similar interpolated passages. Their final cued recall scores were significantly lower than the scores of a control group, who learned the identical original prose passage, followed by the dissimilar passages.
SIZE OF SCHOOL, SOCIO‐ECONOMIC HARDSHIP, SUSPENSION RATES AND PERSISTENT UNJUSTIFIED ABSENCE FROM SCHOOL
Authors: GALLOWAY D.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Information was obtained from 30 comprehensive schools and their feeding primary schools about all children who missed at least 50 per cent of possible attendances in the first half of the 1973 autumn term. Results showed no major differences in persistent absentee rates between the reception year at first schools and the final year at middle schools. In contrast, the figures for comprehensive schools showed a sharp rise, with a peak in the fifth year. Truancy accounted for only a small proportion of unjustified absence in all age groups. No association was found between the size of a comprehensive school and the number of persistent absentees. On the other hand, persistent absenteeism was closely associated with socio‐economic hardship in the school's catchment area though there is reason to suppose that variables within individual schools also influence the figures. The number of children suspended from a school was associated neither with a high incidence of socio‐economic hardship, nor with large schools, nor with high persistent absentee rates. In contrast, high suspension rates were associated with former selective schools. It is concluded that suspension rates may not reflect the amount or the degree of deviant behaviour in a school.
ARE COMMON SENSE DECISIONS DETERRING LEARNING?
Authors: CLIFFORD MARGARET M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The comparison of data from two vocabulary‐learning studies involving a total of 2,483 males and females in the fifth and sixth grades suggests that ‘common sense’ decisions regarding the selection and assignment of learning materials may be inefficient if not detrimental. There is evidence to postulate that low ability pupils are the primary recipients or victims of the less effective materials. The data suggest that oversimplified learning materials may yield negative transfer and thus actually deter learning.
THE PROCESSING OF DIGITS BY CHILDREN WITH SPECIFIC READING DISABILITY (DYSLEXIA)
Authors: STANLEY G.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The present study compared the processing of single digits by two groups of 20 dyslexic children with a control group. A single digit (0 through 9) was presented for 20 msec followed by a mask for 20 msec at ISIs of 8, 16, 24, 32 or 40 msec. Both dyslexic groups had significantly more correct identifications than the control group, but did not differ from the control group in their reaction time. Analysis of error patterns showed that a large number of the dyslexics consistently confused the digits having curved features.
INTERVIEWS AS AN AID TO SELECTION OF PSYCHOLOGY UNDERGRADUATES
Authors: WEIR C.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The relationships between class of degree in psychology from one department and (a) interview ratings, (b) two adult intelligence tests, and (c) advanced‐level examinations were examined in a sample of 145 students from four year‐groups. Roughly the same amount of variance of degree class could be accounted for by using the interviewer rating and intelligence test scores as by using prior academic performance. The best prediction combination included both interviewer ratings and A‐level performance.
SYMPOSIUM: READING ABILITIES AND DISABILITIES
Authors: FRANCIS HAZEL
Published: May 2011

Summary. Sentences taken from a particular first ‘reader’ in a well‐known school reading scheme, together with variants of these sentences, were read by a sample of 5‐year‐old children whose reading skills enabled them to attempt the task. Twenty‐four children, 12 of each sex, were selected from each of two very different schools using the reading scheme. The results of planned comparisons between error scores in different forms of the sentences, together with analysis of types of error showed a strong tendency to revert to familiar sentences in the face of novel versions. There were also signs of early steps in perceiving the letter/word coding of written language. Knowledge of spoken language and of the elements of a phonic approach seemed of little relevance at this very early stage of reading. Reading strategies suggested by this study have already been reported with limited samples of children and learning contexts, and this study tends to show their relative independence of both materials and methods of teaching. Implications for an understanding of early reading and for approaches to instruction are discussed.
ICONIC MEMORY AND READING PERFORMANCE IN NINE‐YEAR‐OLD CHILDREN
Authors: RIDING R. J. , PUGH J. C.
Published: May 2011

Summary. 36 9‐year‐old children were given a test of image persistence in visual sensory (iconic) memory, and the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability. In the iconic memory test the subjects viewed a white disc in a tachistoscope and were required to state whether or not the disc disappeared for a short interval which ranged from 10 ms to 800 ms. The shortest disappearance perceived was taken as a measure of icon persistence. The reading test gave scores for fluency, accuracy and comprehension. All three measures of reading performance were found to be significantly related to icon persistence. Short and long image persistence resulted in a reading age on the accuracy score that was on average 1.75 years below that for moderate persistence.
SYMBOLIC PLAY: THE ROLE OF SUBSTITUTIONS IN PRETENCE AND PUZZLE GAMES
Authors: GOLOMB CLAIRE
Published: May 2011

Summary. In a study of play activities, 60 middle‐class children, ages 2.8–5.8 were tested on six object substitution tasks. Of these, three dealt with puzzle games and three with pretence games. On both sets of tasks the substitute objects ranged from suitable to highly unsuitable ones. The results indicated that object substitution on the pretence games was more extensive than the substitution of parts on the puzzle games. The selections on both games, however, were rule‐governed and orderly in terms of the sequence and type of object selection, beginning with the most suitable ones and declining when only unsuitable ones were available.
THE EFFECTS OF CHRONOLOGICAL AGE ON THE RELATIONSHIP OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT WITH EXTRAVERSION AND NEUROTICISM: A FOLLOW‐UP STUDY
Authors: SEDDON G. M.
Published: May 2011

Summary. A sample of 741 students worked through a self‐instructional chemistry programme after completing tests of extraversion, neuroticism, verbal intelligence, non‐verbal intelligence and background knowledge in chemistry. The existence of significant interactions involving extra‐version and neuroticism with the measures of chronological age, intelligence and background knowledge in determining post‐test performance was then investigated. The results showed that none of the interactions involving neuroticism was significant, and indicated that the significant interaction involving extraversion and chronological age was not due to the parallel effects of verbal intelligence, non‐verbal intelligence or background knowledge.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXTRAVERSION AND ABILITY: AN ANALYSIS OF RUSHTON'S LONGITUDINAL DATA
Authors: ANTHONY W. S.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Correlations between extraversion and ability typically change from positive to negative at about 13–14 years. A method for analysing this change is developed and applied to Rushton's (1969) data from his longitudinal study of 266 children of above‐average intelligence, whom he tested at 10–11 years and again at 15–16 years of age. Correlations between extraversion and relative decrease in English and in mathematics are found and attributed to an association between introversion and study. A correlation between intelligence and relative decrease in extraversion is found and attributed to a persistent earliness versus lateness of development. An appendix indicates a statistical proof and provides convenient formulae.
THE RELIABILITY OF THE MATCHING FAMILIAR FIGURES TEST
Authors: CAIRNS E.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Despite the large amount of interest shown in Kagan's conceptual tempo dimension only limited evidence is available regarding the reliability of the principal test, the Matching Familiar Figures test. The present study examined the split‐half reliability of the MFF in 50 9‐year‐old boys and 50 12‐year‐old boys. Response time reliabilities were adequate, but error score reliabilities were less than satisfactory.
TREATMENT OF ENCOPRESIS IN A CLASSROOM SETTING: A CASE STUDY
Authors: SCOTT ELIZABETH A.
Published: May 2011

Summary. This study describes the procedure and results of a behaviour modification programme carried out in the classroom and aimed at eliminating encopresis in an 8‐year‐old boy. Initially, when the teacher assumed the role of therapist, the programme failed. A nursery nurse was then taught the use of differential reinforcement paired with a time‐out contingency and within one week frequency of soiling decreased dramatically. This level of eliminative behaviour was maintained throughout the rest of the programme.
CANDIDATE FATIGUE AND PERFORMANCE ON GCE OBJECTIVE TESTS
Authors: MASSEY A. J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Four multiple choice tests were set to groups of between 80 and 103 Advanced level chemistry students in their original form or with the items in reversed order. Analysis of the pattern of responses showed that the students seemed able to complete these tests in the time available. Analysis of covariance, using level of achievement (as measured by score in an A‐level multiple choice test) as the covariate, of scores on items in original and reversed order forms, showed no evidence of differences in the proportions of students choosing the correct response which might be attributed to the effects of candidate fatigue or time limitations.
THE ROLE OF INTERVIEWS IN CHOICE OF UNIVERSITY BY PSYCHOLOGY UNDERGRADUATES
Authors: NEWMAN C. V. , COCHRANE R. , BLACKMAN D. E.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Undergraduate applicants for a university degree course in psychology received conditional offers of places having undergone one of four different introductions to the department ranging from a group open day to a stressful individual interview with two admissions tutors. The prediction that as interviews became more stressful so the acceptance rate of conditional offers would increase was not confirmed. Instead, evidence suggested that an applicant's initial preference ranking of the five universities to which he had applied remained the salient factor influencing his subsequent decisions about accepting offers of places.
SYMPOSIUM: LEARNING PROCESSES AND STRATEGIES—III
Authors: SVENSSON L.
Published: May 2011

SUMMARY. Detailed information was collected by interview from a sample of 30 first‐year education students, who took part in a learning experiment and described their approaches to their normal studies. It was found that the distinction between holistic and atomistic cognitive approaches was consistent over different occasions when students were asked to read and to recall their knowledge of the two texts in the experiment. This concept of cognitive approach also had a functional relationship with academic attainment, helping to explain not only examination success, but also other aspects of the students' approaches to studying.
ON QUALITATIVE DIFFERENCES IN LEARNING: IV—EFFECTS OF INTRINSIC MOTIVATION AND EXTRINSIC TEST ANXIETY ON PROCESS AND OUTCOME
Authors: FRANSSON A.
Published: May 2011

SUMMARY. Eighty‐one students were asked to read an article under different conditions of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. The conditions were varied by choosing the sample so as to make the article relevant or irrelevant to contrasting subgroups, thus attempting to control the level of intrinsic motivation. The test conditions were varied to increase ego‐involvement and threat to self‐esteem in one situation, while providing a situation for other subgroups which was supportive and non‐demanding. The qualitative differences in learning process and outcomes and the quantitative differences in recall of factual knowledge were investigated in relation to the various experimental subgroups created. Self‐reports on trait and state test‐anxiety, and the extent to which the students had actually experienced the types of motivation intended to be produced by experimental manipulation, were also investigated in relation to qualitative and quantitative differences in learning. Lack of interest in the text, efforts to adapt to expected test demands, and high test anxiety, were all found to increase the tendency towards surface‐processing and ineffective, reproductive attempts at recall. However, an adaptive approach allied to strong interest and low anxiety produced a high proportion of deep‐level approaches with good factual recall.
LEXICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ADOLESCENT PROSE: WRITER AND TASK EFFECTS
Authors: MOORE E. MARGARET
Published: May 2011

SUMMARY. Eight hundred and nineteen essays were obtained from 14‐year‐old and 17‐year‐old pupils of five Northern Ireland grammar schools. Lexical analyses of the scripts are reported here. Measures were calculated for word productivity; lexical diversity; voice, modal and aspectual characteristics of finite verbs, and for various pronominal and negator usages. Subgroup differences were analysed for pairs of subsamples discriminable by discourse mode (narrative‐descriptive vs expository‐argumentative) or by the writers' age, sex, Cattell Exvia or Anxiety scores.
A STUDY OF ATTITUDES TOWARDS MATHEMATICS IN RELATION TO SELECTED STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS
Authors: KEMPA R. F. , McGOUGH J. M.
Published: May 2011

SUMMARY. Attitudes towards mathematics of over 300 first‐year sixth‐form students were studied in relation to the type of mathematics curriculum previously followed by them, to their choice of sixth‐form courses and the students' intelligence, personality and mathematical achievement. The main findings are that no significant differences in liking for mathematics and in views about the difficulty of learning mathematics were found between students who had followed a ‘modern’ or ‘traditional’ mathematics curriculum, but that attitudes to mathematics were strongly correlated with students' mathematical bias as inferred from their choice of sixth‐form subjects. As an additional aspect of the study, students' preferences for different modes of presenting mathematical information were examined, with three presentation modes being used: symbolic, graphical and verbal. Students' mathematical bias was found to be strongly associated with preference for the symbolic communication mode and anti‐preference for the verbal mode.
TEACHING PERSPECTIVE ABILITY TO FIVE‐YEAR‐OLDS
Authors: COX M. V.
Published: May 2011

SUMMARY. Five‐year‐olds were individually trained in a structured programme of perspective problems. Compared with a control group (N=6), the children in the experimental group (N = 12) transferred their learning to both ‘near’ transfer tasks involving perspective‐taking and ‘far’ transfer tasks (other concrete operational tasks). Children trained in a matrices task (N=6) transferred their learning to other ‘near’ transfer tasks (related matrices problems), but failed to achieve higher scores than controls in the perspectives tasks. Therefore, perspective ability requires not only an operational level of thought, but also the specific skill of adopting another's viewpoint.
PIAGETIAN PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION: TIME FOR REVISION
Authors: BROWN G. , DESFORGES C.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The relationships between Piaget's theory and education are discussed. The accumulated data from studies based upon the theory are examined in terms of (i) shared assumptions which govern the interpretation of replication studies, (ii) the extent to which a stage can be meaningfully defined, and (iii) the nature of the developmental process proposed by the theory.

It is concluded that Piaget's search for generalities in cognitive development has been unsuccessful, and that an approach based upon a skill‐integration model might be more profitable.
THE MEASUREMENT OF SPEED OF PROBLEM SOLVING AND ITS RELATION TO CHILDREN'S AGE AND ABILITY
Authors: ELLIOTT C. D. , MURRAY D. J.
Published: May 2011

Summary. The times children take to reach correct solutions to seven easy Block Design items from the try‐out version of the British Intelligence Scale were analysed in terms of two regression models. The times were obtained from 395 children aged between 10 and 13 years, each of whom had a score of four or more on the full 16‐item test. The simpler of the two models was found to be the most satisfactory, the model specifying that the time to correct solution of a person on a test item is a proportional function of the difficulty of the item and a single parameter describing the speed of the person. Individual speed parameters were estimated for each child and were analysed in terms of an age X ability analysis of variance. This analysis indicated highly significant main effects, speed increasing with both age and ability. There was no interaction between age and ability. Results were related to previous findings and supported a view of mental speed as a major component of ability.
HEREDITY VS. ENVIRONMENT: THE EFFECTS OF GENETIC VARIATION WITH AGE
Authors: GOURLAY N.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Major problems in the field are presented through a brief review of Burt's work and a critical account of the Hawaiian and British schools of biometrical genetics. The need for a covariance term is stressed and an estimate, based on several studies, is given. The merits and demerits of Jencks' study are discussed. There follows an account of the principle of genetic variation with age, a new concept to the heredity‐environment field. The new solution, based largely on Jencks' approach and incorporating the genetic variation principle, is then outlined. Its results may be regarded as a compromise between Jencks and Burt in that it agrees with Jencks on the matter of covariance (about 18–19 per cent) but is closer to Burt as far as the relative importance of hereditary and environmental differences is concerned (about 75:25). The consistency of the solution with other studies in the field is demonstrated.
WHEN DO FIRST LETTER MNEMONICS AID RECALL?*
Authors: MORRIS P. E. , COOK N.
Published: May 2011

Summary. First letter mnemonics are popular but they have failed to improve recall in several studies. In Experiment I the effectiveness of experimenter and subject generated mnemonics and concrete and abstract mnemonic words were compared using a sample of 30 undergraduates. There was no improvement in recall. It was hypothesised that the general failure of experimental studies of the mnemonic may result from the use of unrelated words as learning material. The mnemonic may help retain order but not aid retrieval. In Experiment II, when a random ordering of the days of the week had to be retained, first letter mnemonics considerably improved recall among a sample of 36 undergraduates. The mnemonic does, therefore, aid recall when the items are known but their ordering presents problems.
GENERALISING THROUGH THE VERBAL MEDIUM
Authors: PEEL E. A.
Published: May 2011

Summary. When presented with abstract notions through the verbal media of books, newspapers, talks, TV and radio, people often produce quite erroneous generalisations. Thus the notion aggression can evoke, besides a true generalisation inhumanity, a particularisation imperialism, a transductive exploitation, and an associated but non‐essential attribute detestable, each of the last three being mistaken as a notion more general than the original concept. These aberrations may be more marked, the more persuasive the medium and the more emotionally involved the listener or recorder.

This paper describes a method of investigating such possible trends among young people and adults and reveals their extent in samples of graduates, undergraduates, further education students and secondary pupils. A test of generalising, embodying the alternatives set out above, revealed that whilst 90 per cent of students in all groups correctly responded to the concrete items, their responses to the abstract items ranged from some 80–60 per cent. The implications of these findings are discussed against the possible intellectual confusion arising in less sophisticated adults when they encounter ideas in verbal experience and discourse.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF PIAGETIAN STAGES OF THINKING IN BRITISH MIDDLE AND SECONDARY SCHOOL CHILDREN. II—14‐ to 16‐YEAR‐OLDS AND SEX DIFFERENTIALS
Authors: SHAYER M. , WYLAM H.
Published: May 2011

Summary. Continuing a previous study, the proportion of children in a representative sample of 1200 15‐ to 16‐ year‐olds showing different Piagetian levels of thinking was measured. No increase in the proportion showing formal operational thinking was found beyond the age of 15. On the three tests used a retrospective analysis of both surveys for sex differential showed no increase for girls after 14, while the boys continued for a further year. The pendulum problem showed no sex differential, and the boys indicated level was, on average, the same on all three tests. The girls' performance was substantially lower on the test on spatial relationships, and on the test on volume and density, throughout the age‐range 9 to 16.
DOES HOW YOU LEARN MATHS INFLUENCE HOW YOU FORM CONCEPTS?
Authors: CLAXTON G. , ACRES FRANCES
Published: May 2011

Summary. The performance of children who had experienced Dienes and Fletcher mathematics schemes was examined on abstract and real‐life concept‐formation tasks (N=16 per group). No overall difference was found between children taught mathematics under the different schemes, but those taught by the Dienes method formed real‐life concepts more successfully.