Varied sign language systems and their mediating effects on WISC-R Verbal subtests of profoundly deaf students: a replication.

This study replicated the 1984 work of Miller who reported a normal mean Verbal IQ of profoundly deaf students. To 27 profoundly deaf students the WISC--R Verbal Scale was administered using one of three signed language systems. The means do not support Miller's findings and raise some doubt about the mediating effects of language systems among profoundly deaf students.

Deaf students' self-appraisals, achievement outcomes, and teachers' inferences about social-emotional adjustment in academic settings.

35 deaf students completed the Self-description Questionnaire I and their teachers completed the Meadow/Kendall social-emotional inventory for deaf students. Significant positive but small correlations were found among reading scores, reading appraisals, and social-emotional adjustment inferences. Achievement, particularly reading, appears associated with concepts of self.

Moral reasoning and personality components in gifted and average students.

101 students, gifted and of average ability in Grades 5, 8, and 10, completed the Defining Issues Test and the Offer Self-image Questionnaire. Significant differences occurred between groups of gifted and average ability on the Defining Issues Test, between the average and gifted girls, and between the boys and girls on Offer's Social Relationships subscale. A regression analysis indicated that the Social Relationships subscale and being gifted were predictors of Rest's p index.

Efficacy of awareness of strategy and overt verbalization for recall by kindergarten students.

Two prevailing models for teaching memory strategies for remembering were compared for two kindergarten classes (45 boys, 30 girls). A third class provided a control. One class received instruction in specific and efficacious strategies for recall on three discrete tasks: sequential memory, paired-associate memory, and clustering recall. The second class received the same instruction embedded in an overt verbalization procedure adapted form Bash and Camp (1985). The control class received as much practice as the two instructional groups but no instruction on strategy or overt verbalization. Significant gains in memory were made on paired associates at posttest for both the strategy-only group and the overt-verbalization group. Overt verbalization inhibits recall on paired associates at delayed posttest and its effect on sequential memory at posttest remains equivocal.

Stressful events and coping responses among older adults in two sociocultural groups.

In this study of the way 32 men and women between the ages of 60 to 90 coped with stressful situations, two instruments were used: the Life Experiences Survey and the Ways of Coping Checklist. Overall, health-related concerns were more frequently reported by older adults than any other stressful event. When coping responses were categorized according to four modes--intrapsychic, inaction, direct action, and information seeking--the Appalachian group was found to use the information-seeking mode; the Cherokee group, the intrapsychic mode. Significant differences were found between males and females in coping modes and life-stress categories. When groups were combined, significant correlations were noted between life stress, particularly health-related stress, and the coping modes of intrapsychic and information seeking.