Self-concept in social and academic domains, as well as global self-worth (GSW) were assessed among 4th, 5th, and 6 th graders, in children with learning disabilities (LD, n = 49) and a matched sample of children without LD (NLD, n = 49). Mean differences between LD and NLD groups and the relative importance of social versus academic self-concept in the prediction of GSW were examined. Children with LD evidenced significantly lower self-concept in academic and social domains; however, the two groups did not differ in terms of global self-worth. In addition, academic and social self-concepts were significant predictors of GSW in children with LD, although there was a high degree of overlap between the two variables in their predictive ability. In the NLD group, social and academic self-concept areas were significant predictors of global self-worth yet there was minimal overlap between the two self-concept areas. Implications are discussed.

A computer animated learning environment, INFECTRON, was developed to teach learning disabled (LD) and non learning disabled (NLD) students a biology lesson, INFECTRON uses two different modalities, auditory (narration) and visual (animation), exposing students to dual information processing codes (verbal, spatial), allowing them the flexibility to use a learning style they prefer. INFECTRON teaches students how the body protects itself from invading germs. Students were presented the animation and oral narration concurrently, successively and compared to a control group. Subjects were 30 LD and 30 NLD in grades 7 and 8 attending a large comprehensive high school in Montreal. Measures included a pretest, posttest, reasoning tasks, and a retention test. Results indicated that students (LD and NLD) in the computer conditions (concurrent and successive) outperformed students (LD and NLD) in the control condition on the pre, post and reasoning tasks. No significant differences were found between students (LD and NLD) in the concurrent group and students (LD and NLD) in the successive group on the post test and reasoning tasks. No group differences were found between the LD and NLD students in the computer conditions. It was confirmed that INFECTRON benefits both LD students and NLD students, allowing LD students to perform at par with NLD students on these biology measures.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation. / Department of Educational Psychology

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of two different methods of teaching learning disabled middle school students (6th, 7th, and 8th grades) how to solve one-step addition and subtraction mathematics story problems. This study also compared the generalization of the two instructional methods to problems written in simple syntax which required the performance of two mathematics operations, addition and subtraction, in order to obtain the correct written solution.Teachers were randomly assigned to one of the two instructional methods. The students in the experimental and control classrooms were administered the The Mathematics Computation Screeninq Test, the One-step Story Problem-Solving Test of Mathematics Reasoninq and the Two-step Story Problem-Solving Test of Mathematics Reasoninq. Students who obtained above 80% mastery on the The Mathematics Computation Screening Test and at or below 67% mastery on the pretest of the One-step Story Problem-Solving Test of Mathematics Reasoning were included in the experimental and control groups. Students in the experimental and control groups who meet the above criteria and were at or below the 60% mastery level on the pretest of the Two-step Storv Problem Solving Test of, Mathematics Reasoning were included in the analysis of two-step problems. There were 70 students who meet these criteria. Following administration of the tests, students received 17 days of instruction in one of the two instructional methods.Previous research has shown that good problem-solvers initially have a mental representation of a story problem prior to solving the problem and that accurate performance may be increased by teaching students to generate diagrammatic representations of the problems. Based on this research it was hypothesized that learning disabled students who receive instruction in generating diagrammatic representations would have a higher mean performance on a linear composite of writing number sentences and solving one-step addition and subtraction story problems than learning disabled students who did not receive this instruction when pretest performance on one-step written solutions was held constant. It was also hypothezied that when presented with two-step addition and subtraction story problems learning disabled students who receive instruction in how to generate diagrammatic representations for various one-step addition and subtraction story problems would have a higher mean performance than learning disabled students who do not receive this instruction when pretest one-step and two-step written solutions were held constant.A 2 X 2 X 2 X 2 hierarchical multivariate analysis of covariance mixed effects design followed by examination of step down F ratios was used to test the one-step hypotheses. Analysis of the data indicated no significant difference between the groups on number sentence writing and on solving one-step addition and subtraction story problems varying in syntactic complexity and position of the unknown term. The data did indicate a significant interaction between the within subject factors of syntax, position of the unknown term, and mathematics operation.A 2 X 2 hierarchical analysis of covariance design was used to test the hypotheses regarding generalization of the two instructional methods to two-step story problems of addition and subtraction. Analysis of the data indicated no significant difference between the problem-solving performance of students taught with the diagrammatic instructional method and those taught in the control group. / Department of Special Education

The purpose of this study was to investigate the stability of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (WISC-III) test scores in children with Learning Disabilities. Previous research has suggested that some children with Learning Disabilities do not demonstrate the same stability of performance, over time, on the Wechsler as many children in the general population.The sample utilized in this study consisted of 214 children who had been identified as having Learning Disabilities. WISC-III data was collected through archival review of education files.Test-retest stability for the WISC-III over a period of approximately three years was assessed using correlational and t-test data. For the total sample, three year test-retest correlations for the Verbal IQ, Performance IQ, and Full Scale IQ were .67, .73, and .74, respectively. However, Verbal IQ, Full Scale IQ, and Verbal Index scores were observed to drop significantly between testings. Mean score differences for the Verbal IQ and Verbal Comprehension scales were slightly over three points. The mean difference for the Full Scale IQ was slightly less than two points.Analysis of individual scores indicated considerable variability, with some students decreasing as much as 30 or increasing as much as 37 IQ points at the time of retesting. Analysis of distribution of score differences suggested that the children with Learning Disabilities in this sample demonstrated more variability in performance, overall, than might be anticipated in the general population. / Department of Educational Psychology

As increasing numbers of learning disabled (LD) students attend postsecondary institutions (McGuire, Norlander, & Shaw, 1990; Saracoglu, Minden, & Wilchesky, 1989), researchers and clinicians contend that these college students display a disproportionate amount of psychological distress as compared to their non-LD peers (Faigel, 1985; Kronick, 1976; Patton & Polloway, 1982). The LD college student's propensity to experience emotional distress has been attributed to the stressful nature of the college environment, the demands of coursework, and unresolved psychological and psychosocial conflicts from childhood and adolescence. This paper explored the contention that LD college students are at risk for developing emotional problems which may affect their chances of experiencing success both in academia and in their personal lives.This study included a sample of 40 learning disabled college freshmen and 46 non-learning disabled college freshmen from four state universities in Indiana. Due to the nature of the research questions, only multivariate statistics were included. Multivariate analysis of variance results from the MMPI-2 validity and clinical, supplementary, and content scales indicated that there were no general differences in adjustment between the LD and non-LD samples. However, cluster analyses which were based on MMPI-2 clinical and validity scale T-scores, supported the notion that there were varying levels of emotional adjustment among the college learningdisabled students.One cluster of learning disabled students, (LD cluster 2), exhibited a propensity to experience psychological difficulties, and they appeared to be undergoing distress at the time of testing. Students from this at-risk LD cluster also reported many more personal, familial, and academic problems in their past. In comparison to students from the well-functioning LD cluster, those in the at-risk group indicated being diagnosed with their learning disability much later in their schooling; consequently, they also reported receiving fewer opportunities to receive help for their difficulties.The author suggests that, although these findings are preliminary, it appears that some learning disabled college students may be at-risk for experiencing personal distress and, perhaps, academic failure. It is recommended that the MMPI2, along with other psychologically-based instruments be used with this population as a possible way of identifying college students who may be in need of receiving psychological support. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

This study investigated the effects of choice making on the on task behavior of two students with learning disabilities in the inclusionary setting. These participants were given choices from menus of academic tasks, all of which were pertinent to their educational objectives in this particular spelling class. A reversal design demonstrated that on-task behavior increased when students were given a choice of academic assignments. The acceptability of the treatment was also positive from the general education teacher and the students themselves. The findings show that choice does promote on-task behavior for students with learning disabilities in the inclusionary classroom. / Department of Special Education

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the use of computers can modify the focus of attention of learning disabled students in a matching task. More specifically, this study examined learning disabled students' performance (correct answers and response time for correct answers) when completing a task consisting of matching Chinese characters when presented under three display conditions: traditional card, static computer, and animated computer display.This study involved 42 subjects who were children with ages 9 through 11 and were randomly selected from a list of learning disabled students in the Muncie Community School District, Muncie, Indiana. They were in regular classrooms with special education servicing for learning disabled students. Subjects were randomly assigned into one of the three presentation methods.Previous research has shown that microcomputers have been successfully used in special education. Microcomputers can not only motivate learning disabled students to learn but also control many focus of attention related stimulus characteristics including brightness, distance between stimuli, number of stimuli, and the stability of a stimulus. Based on this research it was hypothesized: (a) that learning disabled students who visually match Chinese characters presented via static or animated computer screens would have more correct answers and have less response time for correct answers than learning disabled students who visually match Chinese characters presented via traditional cards; (b) that learning disabled students' performance in the animated computer condition would be better than that in the static computer condition; and (c) that learning disabled students' performance in these two computerized conditions would be better than that in the traditional card condition at different stimulus difficulty levels.A 3 x 5 analysis of variance with repeated measures and a Scheffe Multiple Comparison Test on Main Effects were used to analyze the data. The results of this study indicated that: (a) learning disabled students who were presented the matching task via computer screens did not demonstrate an overall improvement in focus of attention; (b) learning disabled students who were presented with the matching task via animated computer screen presentation did better than students under the static computer presentation at the easiest level of task difficulty; and (c) learning disabled students who were presented the matching task under the static computer screen presentation condition performed worse than students completing the task under the traditional card presentation condition at the easiest task difficulty level when dealing with simple tasks; and (c) that learning disabled students who were presented with Chinese characters via static computer screen might perform worse than students with traditional card presentation when completing simple tasks.The results from this study failed to completely support the main hypothesis that computerized instruction methods could improve learning disabled students' focus of attention. The possible explanations for the general unsuccessfulness of the computer conditions are that the testing materials in this study were not programmed in the sense of individualized rate and that there was no feedback regarding correct or incorrect responding or contingent reinforcement for the correct answers. Future studies should include systematic feedback for correct answers as well as computer conditions. Replication studies which use different stimuli from those of the current study to determine the generalization of the results should also be conducted. / Department of Special Education

Previous empirical studies have been inconsistent in the identification of cognitive differences between LD and EH children on psychoeducational assessment batteries. Furthermore, studies using multivariate procedures such as discriminant analysis have failed to verify the basic underlying assumption of homogeneity of variance-covariance matrices of the groups. Homogeneity of covariance can be assessed by comparing factor structures of the two groups.The purpose of this study was to investigate the cognitive differences between LD and EH children on a psychoeducational assessment battery Including the WISC-R, WRAT, PIAT, PPVT, and DVMI, typically used to identify the two exceptionalities. Differences In factor structures were investigated in an effort to clarify group differences in cognitive functioning, and to investigate the utility of multivariate analyses such as discriminant analysis with these two groups of children.The subjects were 1165 public school children, aged 6 to 16, referred for assessment and subsequently classified and served in special LD and EH programs. Four and five factor solutions were compared using the congruence coefficient to determine statistical similarities. The first three factors of each solution, Verbal Concepts, Verbal Achievement, and Visual Perceptual Reasoning, were found to be statistically similar in construct and interpretation. These results suggest that If the use of multivariate procedures in studying LD and EH group differences is limited to cognitive performance in the areas of verbal concepts, reading and spelling achievement, and visual perceptual reasoning skills, the results can be accepted as valid. The discriminant analysis would not likely be violating the homogeneity assumption.Differences were found in factor structures Involving the order of the factors extracted in terms of importance In explaining variance. Also, statistically significant differences were found between the factors Involving Math, Visual Motor, and Sequential skills, suggesting that multivariate analyses using these factors would likely violate the homogeneity assumption.Results indicate the presence of heterogeneity in the matrices of LD and EH children, and suggest caution in the interpretation of multivariate statistical analyses with these children. Violation of the assumption of homogeneity can invalidate statistical findings and their application to the study of group differences.

The purpose of this study was to determine if distinct subgroups of learning disabled children could be identified using a single, recently developed, instrument--the Differential Ability Scales (DAS). Ward's method of cluster analysis was used to group 83 school-verified learning disabled children from the standardization sample.These children were classified using the core, diagnostic, and achievement subtests of the DAS. Achievement subtest scores were transformed into T-scores with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10 to provide scores on the same scale as the core and diagnostic subtests. Using similar units allowed all scores to contribute more equally during the clustering (Romesburg, 1984).The following six subgroups were identified: (a) generalized, (b) high functioning, (c) normal, (d) underachievement, (e) borderline, and (f) dyseidetic. Not all subgroups displayed the expected discrepancy between intelligence and achievement associated with the current definitions of LD. One subgroup had what might be described as a "normal" diagnostic profile on the DAS. These results were consistent with those of prior subtyping research (Lyon & Watson, 1981; Lyon et al., 1981) where "normal" subgroups were found. Another subgroup obtained General Conceptual Ability scores within the borderline range. Overall, children in this subgroup displayed consistently low scores on all the DAS subtests and achievement commensurate with general ability. In subsequent discriminant analyses, both achievement and diagnostic subtests were necessary for accuracy in classification.This study provided evidence as to the DAS's ability to differentially diagnose the learning disabled and provided distinct profiles for LD subgroups. Administration of the diagnostic subtests along with the score and achievement subtests can provide the clinician with valuable diagnostic information for LD. / Department of Educational Psychology