Negative attitudes toward older adults are thought to be prevalent within the American culture. However, research on attitudes presents conflicting results. In this study, 2 factors were hypothesized to influence reported attitudes toward older adutts: the attitudinal instrument used (a rating task vs. an open-ended task) and the types of attributes assessed (cognitive, personal-expressive, and physical ) . The results confirmed that attitudes toward older adults were negative relative to attitudes toward younger and middle-aged adults, but the pattern of negativity differed by task and attribute category. Negativity was most apparent in the open-ended task and in the physical category. These results indicate that although general, negative stereotypes may exist, older adults are viewed as multidimensional people with both positive and negative attributes.

Bloom (1956) pioneered the measurement of learning outcomes with a taxonomy of educational objectives, but educators often ignore affective learning objectives and focus on attaining cognitive objectives. This study examined student journals as a way to correct the overemphasis on cognitive objectives. Results suggested that course expectations and affective journal outcomes were important correlates of student evaluations of course outcomes even after controlling for the instructor, student gender, and student achievement. These findings have important implications for the use of student journals and for interventions aimed at increasing student evaluations of course outcomes.

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Differences between WISC-III and WISC-R IQs of 257 children (1 18 with Specific Learning Disability, 79 with Mental Retardation, and 60 who were not classified as disabled) were examined. As anticipated, the WISC-III and WISC-R IQs were highly correlated, ranging from .84 for the Full Scale IQs to .80 for the Performance IQs. The WISC-III Full Scale, Verbal, and Performance IQs were 7.2, 5.8, and 7.5 points lower than corresponding WISC-R values. The size of the difference between WISC-III and WISC-R IQs was correlated significantly with WISC-R (r = .34) and WISC-III (r = -.23) IQs. Differences in the size of the IQ drop were in part a function of disability group membership: Students with learning disabilities differed in the likelihood of increases and decreases in IQs in comparison to students with mental retardation. Sex was unrelated to the size of the IQ drop. Amount and direction of change were predicted by subtest scores. Importantly, high Object Assembly and Coding scores were primary factors in predicting increases in IQ, and higher Vocabulary scores predicted decreases in IQ.

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This paper summarizes some of the major findings from a research project at the University of Michigan on children's reading Comprehension. The basis for the research is the observation that many young or unskilled readers do not use erective strategies to roster comprehension. The instructional studies were designed to promote children's metacognition about reading by informing them how. when and why to use various comprehension strategies. Third-and fifth-grade students received periodic instruction in their classrooms during the year about strategies such as skimming. locating main ideas. making inferences. monitoring comprehension and summarizing information in texts. Their performance on a battery of tests administered before and after instruction was compared to children in other classes who received their customary reading instruction. Children who received the metacognitive curriculum increased their awareness about reading and their use of comprehension strategies. Although the instruction helped children with a wide range of reading abilities. metacognition about reading varies with age and ability. The implications of these findings for cognitive development and reading instruction are discussed.Academic learning often requires deliberate problem-solving behaviour such as selective attending, planning, remembering and self-monitoring. In order to orchestrate these cognitive strategies students need to observe and guide their own thinking to ensure that they are approaching designated goals. Because these thoughts serve an executive function for students' learning they have been labelled meracognition (Brown, Bransford. Ferrara, & Campione, 1983;Flavell, 1978). Children in elementary grades typically d o not use metacognition effectively to direct their own thinking. They are often unaware of the existence We gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Institute of Education in the conduct of this research (Grants NIE 80-0148 and NIE 82-0019) and the cooperation of teachers and students in public schools in Ann Arbor, Farmington and Waterford. Michigan. This project was a team effort over many years and could not have been accomplished wiihout the help of Marjorie Lipson, and benefits of cognitive strategies required by academic tasks (Paris & Lindauer, 1982). Thus educational and instructional psychologists have tcrned their attention to what children understand about their own reading, writing, and thinking skills in order to promote children's learning.Reading is a particularly important ability because it is the vehicle for much of academic learning. Good readers make inferences while reading. pause to check their own understanding, summarize what they read and know how to resolve comprehension dificulties. Such strategies are essential for learning and studying. Students who cannot read effectively are at a disadvantage for learning science, social studies, mathematics and other content areas. The inability to read successfully has motivational as well as cognitive consequences. Students who...

This research examined the relationship between domain-specific knowledge and memory in 3 and 4-year-old children. Schematic knowledge of a farm and a living room was assessed by asking children to (a) decide what objects belonged in a given scene, and (b) place objects on scenes. Both recall and location memory were assessed for objects in scenes. General memory skills were assessed for recall and location memory using unrelated objects, and general knowledge was measured with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. For location memory, schematic knowledge and memory were unrelated for 3-year-olds but were significantly correlated for 4-year-olds. Recall performance was not reliably predicted by schematic knowledge. Three-year-olds' location memory in scenes, but not 4-year-olds', was predicted by location memory for unrelated objects. Vocabulary scores were related to schematic knowledge, but not scene memory. Domain-specific knowledge was differentially related to memory as a function of age, suggesting that the relative importance of predictors for memory may vary with age. Supplementary analyses indicated that object typicality for scenes did not predict memory, but that the size of objects did predict what objects would be remembered.

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