2 experiments in junior high school daises compared overt, covert, and reading response modes. In Experiment I, 63 Ss completed a program of independent facts at 1 of 3 levels of difficulty. An analysis of covariance of test scores showed an interaction between response mode and difficulty (p < .05), the overt group performing below the other groups at the low difficulty level and above the other groups at the intermediate difficulty level. In Experiment II, 62 Ss completed a continuous discourse program on light. The 3 response modes plus a 4th option mode were used in a simple randomized design. The reading group surpassed the other groups on both immediate (NS) and 10-week retention (p < .05) tests. In both experiments the reading groups learned most per time spent (p < .01).

A self-instruction program on set theory was prepared in 3 forms. The bypass form allowed S to skip up to 85% of the learning material as a consequence of correct responses to IS required basic steps. The long linear form permitted no bypassing and the short linear form presented only the basic steps. 780 Ss in 4th-12th grade classrooms were assigned 1 of the 3 learning methods and given a test of amount learned the next day. Test score and learning time means were highest for the long groups and lowest for the short groups. Amount learned and time spent corresponded closely to number of program pages studied. Bypassing was thus no more efficient than the linear methods, regardless of mathematical ability level.Encountered casually, individual differences in personality and behavior are the spice of life. But to the educator or psychologist who confronts them on duty, they are a force to be reckoned with. In trying to cause the same change in many persons, or a difference between groups, he often finds that individual differences remain the largest source of variance in the outcome. Nowhere has this been more evident than in schoolroom learning. Ability testing, now almost universal in schools, is based on the premise that these individual differences will persist.The present research is also based on this premise. Our purpose has been to ascertain whether programed self-in-1 The research reported herein was conducted under a grant from the Office of Education, United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, L. J. Briggs being the principal investigator. We are greatly indebted to the following school districts for their cooperation and assistance with the research reported here: Hillsborough Elemen-

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