Peer-tutorial programs are increasingly being employed in American classrooms. There have been several reports that tutors benefit from these programs even more than tutees. Despite these findings, we know little about the cognitive effects of teaching. This study explored possible reasons for their occurrence. In Experiment 1, one group of undergraduates studied verbal material to learn it themselves while another group studied the material to teach it to another person (N = 42). Subjects who were preparing to teach scored reliably higher than control subjects on a subsequent retention test. Experiment 2 was concerned with the actual teacher-student interaction. For both a verbal and a problem-solving task, subjects (N = 121) either worked alone, verbalized their thoughts aloud, or taught another person the task while performing. There were no reliable performance differences between conditions on either task. It is tentatively concluded that cognitive benefits of teaching do exist and result from the teacher's utilization of a different method of study.Tutorial programs in which children teach their peers are coming into increasing and widespread use in American elementary school, high school, and college classrooms, with many being funded by local and federal government agencies. Although there are very little data to accompany the anecdotal reports, these programs have largely been successful. Both cognitive and social adjustment gains have been obtained for the participants (

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Reports the results of the JOBS II randomized field experiment that included a sample of 1,801 recent job losers, 671 of which participated in a modified version of the JOBS I intervention for unemployed workers (Caplan, Vinokur, Price, & van Ryn, 1989). The intervention focused on enhancing the sense of mastery through the acquisition of job-search and problem-solving skills, and on inoculation against setbacks. JOBS II was intended to prevent poor mental health and to promote high quality reemployment. The study tested whether the efficacy of the intervention could be increased by screening and oversampling respondents who were at higher risk for a significant increase in depressive symptoms. Results demonstrated that the intervention primarily benefited the reemployment and mental health outcomes of the high-risk respondents. This suggests the feasibility of enhancing the efficacy of this preventive intervention by targeting it for high-risk unemployed workers who could be identified prospectively.

Earlier analyses of the JOBS II intervention for unemployed job seekers demonstrated that the intervention facilitated reemployment, reduced depressive symptoms, and improved role and emotional functioning (A. D. Vinokur, R. H. Price, & Y. Schul, 1995). The present study focuses on mediational processes of the active ingredients targeted by the intervention. Structural equation modeling analysis demonstrated that an enhanced sense of mastery had mediating effects of reemployment, financial strain, and reduction in depressive symptoms. Another active ingredient, inoculation against setbacks, was shown to protect those who suffered the setback of losing a job after temporarily regaining one. The inoculation protected them from experiencing the high level of depressive symptoms that was typical of their counterparts in the control group.

Past studies of strategic thinking have shown that the encoding of the message information becomes more complex under distrust. Receivers process the information as if they are trying to protect themselves from being misled by testing alternative potential interpretations. The present study investigates the possibility that when people are mistrustful they spontaneously activate associations that are incongruent with the given message. Findings from 3 experiments suggest that, even when the distrust is unrelated in any meaningful way to the message and even when receivers are unable to prepare a strategic response, the cognitive system reacts to distrust by automatically inducing the consideration of incongruent associations--it seems designed to ask, "and what if the information were false?" The theoretical implications of the results for theories of social perception and persuasion are discussed.