An experiment was conducted to indentify and analyse any positive effects of lrlen lenses upon visual perceptual performance of children previously diagnosed as Scotopic Sensitive. Pupils performed a letter identification visual search task under lrlen lens, Untinted lens, Plain Grey lens and No lens conditions. No condition was associated with superior performance on the task. Nevertheless, several children reported that untinted or plain grey lenses helped them perform the task. The study provides no evidence to suggest that lrlen lenses improve visual performance.

Hyperactive children first diagnosed as toddlers were followed up into the early school years. When Compared with matched normal children the hyperactives showed clear problems in behaviour temperament, and cognitive development, at the time of first assessment. After two follow-up assessments at 5 and 6 years of age the only differences remaining between the groups were those involving hyperactive and conduct problem behaviour and a difficult temperament profile. Academic progress was normal although this may have been influenced by sample attrition where lower I.Q. children dropped out. Hyperactive children remained at risk for behavioural problems at home and at school.

A recent article in this Journal, Hudson et al. (1986) published age norms for adolescent autonomy. The reported norms were the same for boys and girls. In our research, reported in the present article, we found that the gender of the child is a significant variable in opinions about when adolescents ought be permitted autonomy. We suggest that null findings about gender effects may be due to the inadvertent evocation of an ideology of sex equality, masking the effects of gender. Except for the gender differences, our results strongly support the previously published norms and add to the fund of information available.

When the history of Applied Psychology and Education Services in the 20th Century comes to be written, it is probable that the 1981 Education Act will be seen as an important milestone. The inevitable hiatus between the publishing of the regulations and the establishing of new practice provides an opportunity for reflection on the stage which Educational Psychology has reached as a branch of Applied Psychology. In particular, it would seem a good point in time to attempt some consolidation following the innovative stampede which characterised the second half of the 1970s.

An attempt was made to standardise a High School version of the LAWSEQ self-esteem measure on a sample of High School students (N = 745). Similar norms were obtained to the original LAWSEQ standardised on a primary polulation (N = 15,000). No sex-differences were observed. Reliability coefficients indicate that the High School Version could be used reliably up to year 11.

In considering specific aspects of the transition from primary school to high school, children's expectations were sought prior to their making the transition. This paper examines the expectations 335 students had of five aspects of high school, elicited by means of a questionnaire. The five aspects were: (a) the high school building; (b) the rules and discipline at high school; (c) the work; (d) the teachers; and (e) the other, older, students. The attitudes and expectations were found to reflect the degree of contact the students had had with the high school, itself dependent on the policy of the high school with respect to induction programs for in-coming students. A call is made for greater liaison between educational institutions, in the form of greater continuity and sequencing of curricula and transition programs in order to allay the expressed anxieties and to dispel any misconceptions.

The aim of the present study is to investigate classroom communication by teachers of the deaf. A comparison will be made of the linguistic content of the communication of experienced and inexperienced teachers using total communication methods in a classroom teaching situation. The implications of the teachers' classroom communication methods for children's language development will be discussed.

The fourth edition of the Stanford-Binet lntelligence Scale is now available for sale and use in this country, from the Australian Council of Educational Research. Many of the individual items appear culturally suspect. Use of the test is not recommended until some clear guidelines on this important issue are established. Comment on the many individual items of concern is included as a first step towards the establishment of such guidelines.

Guidance Officers have traditionally been seen as having different aims, goals and outcomes to those of schools. In fact, guidance officers have been seen as having a vested interest in maintaining this separation. We propose that for guidance officers to become more potent in effecting change, and in order to derive maximum benefit for their clients they need to become much more closely asociated with the goals and programs of mainstream education.

The nature, frequency and effect of clerical errors in the scoring of the WISC-R were examined. The most frequent errors were those associated with addition tasks and in the calculation of the subject's age at the time of assessment. Some errors, whether occurring singly or in a compounding effect, significantly distorted Full Scale IQ.

While visiting Europe in 1986 I had the opportunity to observe an exciting educational experiment in Vienna. Dr. Guttmann, professor of biology and Dr. Vanecek, professor of psychology, worked together at the Boltzmann Institute for Learning Research to apply the latest psycho-biological findings to education. First they did this under laboratory conditions and later they proposed workable classroom procedures. In the laboratory they used “Cortical Evoked Potentials” to determine students’ activation levels and how they could alter these to improve their learning retention. From this they developed a model of classroom instruction.