Richard L. Luftig

Assessing the Social Status of Gifted Students by Their Age Peers

This study investigated the social status of gifted children enrolled in an educational pull-out program with same-aged peers not identified as gifted. Both groups completed a sociometric nomination instrument in which they rated classmates. Results were analyzed in terms of the percentage of students assigned to popular, rejected, or neglected categories by peers. A 2 (gifted) x 2 (gender) analysis was used. Gifted boys were most popular while gifted girls were least popular. Boys and girls not identified as gifted were rejected more than gifted pupils, and boys were more rejected than girls.

Manual Sign Translucency and Referential Concreteness in the Learning of Signs

The transmission and interpretation of manual signs consist of the sign productions and the comprehension of the referents which the signs represent. Signs are translucent to the degree that an observer can perceive a relationship between a sign and its referent. Likewise, a referent is said to be concrete or abstract, depending on whether the referent can be envisioned in a psychological image. The present study investigated sign learning as a function of sign translucency and referential concreteness. Translucency and concreteness levels were varied, and naive sign language learners attempted to learn a list of signreferent pairs. The results indicated that signs high in translucency and referents high in concreteness facilitated learning, while low levels of each variable inhibited list learning. Mixed conditions led to intermediate learning performance. Implications for choosing initial sign lexicons for severely language-impaired, non-deaf populations (e.g. the mentally retarded) are discussed.

An Investigation of an Arts Infusion Program on Creative Thinking, Academic Achievement, Affective Functioning, and Arts Appreciation of Children at Three Grade Levels

The effects of an arts infusion program (SPECTRA+) on the creative thinking, academic achievement, self-esteem, locus of control, and appreciation for the arts of school children were investigated. Participants were 615 children in four schools in two school districts, in either an arts infusion, modified control, or full control condition for one year in a pre-and post-test design. Childrens scores were compared on standardized tests on the indices mentioned above. Children in the SPECTRA+ program scored significantly better than their control group peers in the areas of creativity, social and parental self-esteem, and appreciation for the arts. Data regarding academic achievement were mixed. SPECTRA+ boys scored higher in math than all other groups but SPECTRA+ girls scores lowest. In one of the school districts, the SPECTRA+ students achieved higher scores in reading than their control group counterparts. Results, implications, and cautions regarding the generalization of results are discussed, as are plans for future studies.

An investigation of two variables influencing Blissymbol learnability with nonhandicapped adults

Two variables, perceived translucency and component complexity, were hypothesized to influence the learnability of Blissymbols. Translucency was posited to facilitate symbol learning while component complexity was posited to retard learning. Results indicated that both of these hypotheses were confirmed. Additionally, results indicated that, for Bliss naive learners, translucency may be a more potent learnability variable than component complexity. Finally, translucency was found to most greatly affect Blissymbol learning in early rather than late learning trials. Results are discussed in terms of teaching Blissymbols to handicapped learners.

An Assessment of the Social Status and Perceived Personality and School Traits of Gifted Students by Non-Gifted Peers.

This study investigated the social status of gifted elementary pupils enrolled in an educational pull‐out program with their non‐gifted peers. In addition, the perceived personality, physical, and school attributes of the gifted students were assessed by their non‐gifted peers. Strong gender differences were found in that while gifted boys were the most popular of the four gifted x gender groups, gifted girls were the least popular. Girls overall were perceived as generally moody or sad, while boys were perceived as being funny and having a good sense of humor. Gifted boys were perceived to be more physically attractive than non‐gifted boys and were found to be less aggressive, more creative, and smarter than children in the other groups. Results are discussed in terms of differing behavioral attributes and cultural expectations of gifted boys and girls.

When a little bit means a lot: The effects of a short‐term reading program on economically disadvantaged elementary schoolers

Abstract The effect of two short‐term summer school intervention programs on the reading achievement of elementary school children at‐risk for academic failure was investigated. Children entering second through fourth grades in the fall were given short (three week) reading intervention programs in either a school‐ based program or one designed and implemented by a for‐profit company specializing in enhancing student academic achievement. Children entering grade one in the fall did not receive the for‐profit condition. For children entering grade one, significant reading improvement was found for the summer based program over a control group which received no intervention. For children in grades two through four, children in both the school based and the for‐profit groups made significant reading improvement over the control group. The findings are discussed in terms of the relative costs and contact hours of the two intervention programs and the implications of the power of a short‐term relatively inexpensive school based program on the reading achievement of students seriously at‐risk for reading failure.

An Initial Investigation of Translucency, Transparency, and Component Complexity of Blissymbolics.

Blissymbols are currently being used by a variety of special education programs for children and adults with communication impairments. However, there is little available research on the learnability of such systems in general, and the Bliss system in particular. The present study was designed to answer some basic questions about the psycholinguistic and learning characteristics of blissymbols. Two hundred symbols (14% of all existing symbols) were rated by college students for their inherent guessability (transparency) and also for the amount of perceived relationship between the symbol (translucency) and the symbols meaning (gloss). The results indicate that the blissymbols are low in iconicity but that they are relatively translucent, and that translucency is related to component complexity. These findings are related to the learnability of the symbols and represent the first steps toward the development of a primary lexicon based on learnability characteristics in conjunction with other features.

Increasing probability of sign language learning by severely mentally retarded individuals: a discussion of learner, sign production, and linguistic variables

A pervasive problem for educators of the severely mentally retarded is language training. In spite of extensive oral language training, many severely mentally retarded individuals never acquire functional oral language. Many of these clients, however, are able to acquire sign language communication skills. The present article discusses sign language learning in terms of learner attributes, production variables in sign, and the referential concepts which the signs represent. More specifically, it is hypothesized that by taking into account variables such as sign translucency, referential concreteness, learning readiness, and by externally organizing the signs to be learned along visual continuums, the probability of sign learning by severely mentally retarded individuals can be increased.

Variables influencing the learnability of individual signs and sign lexicons: A review of the literature

The last decade has seen an increase in investigations of the psycholinguistic and production attributes of sign and the features of sign which influence learning and memory. However, these investigations usually have not adequately delineated between the learning of individual signs as opposed to the learning of sign lexicons or sign strings and have not discussed features which might differentially influence the learning and recall of single signs and sign lexicons. The current paper reviews existing literature in the area of sign learning and identifies psycholinguistic, psychological, and production features which may influence learning and recall of individual signs as well as sign lexicons. Included in the discussion of features which are hypothesized to influence the learning of individual signs are sign translucency (rather than sign iconicity) and referential concreteness of the sign gloss. Varibles hypothesized to influence sign lexicon learning are cheremic similarity, acoustical confusion, and their relationship to proactive and retroactive interference. Implications of the effects of these variables on the learning of individual signs and on the learning of sign lexicons are discussed.

Modality Preference and Facilitation of Learning Using Mixed and Pure Sign, Oral, and Graphic Inputs.

Research interest has recently been generated concerning modality preference and advantages in learning via modality combination rather than via a single modality. Recent results supporting a visual preference as well as modality combination advantages may be confounded. The current experiment, utilizing a dual stimuli methodology, presented manual sign, graphic, and oral stimuli to normal adults with no signing experience. Subjects participated in one of six conditions of a paired associate task. Stimuli were presented either in a repeated single modality condition or in a combination modality condition. Sign-Sign condition performance learning was best, followed by Auditory-Auditory, Graphic-Sign, and Auditory-Sign. Graphic-Auditory and Graphic-Graphic were least facilitative of learning. Results are discussed in terms of facilitative effects of spaced repetition and the mediational properties of Sign.