Describes four experiments in childhood autism used as research examples in areas of cognition and social skills. An hypothesis which attempts to connect various areas of impairment, nemely, lack of imaginative play, lack of expressive gestures, and inability to predict and understand behavior in others is explored through a specific cognitive…

Tiryakian's "school" approach is used to analyze the evolution of Kohlberg's study of moral development over the past 25 years. The first part of the paper contrasts the paradigm approach (Kuhn 1970) to the schools approach in defining the development of the social sciences. Specifically, Kuhn's definition of a paradigm…

This paper discusses questions pertinent to a definition of cognitive structure as the knowledge one possesses and the manner in which it is arranged, and considers how to select or devise methods of describing cognitive structure. The main purpose in describing cognitive structure is to see whether differences in memory (or cognitive structure)…

Delineates the current consensus regarding the nature and the development of intellectual ability. Examines when one would expect general abilities to moderate the relationship among domain-specific and other processes. Reviews recent studies in which general abilities were used as independent variables or covariates. Suggests that generally,…

Reviews research on (1) schemata acquisition while learning mathematics and techniques for detecting schema in mathematics learners; and (2) assessment of the distribution of cognitive resources while learning mathematics that lead to the design of instructional techniques to facilitate schema acquisition. (26 references) (MDH)

Research summarized here demonstrates how similarity thinking can be used in training programs to help ethnic minority children acquire basic skills. Current achievements are often attenuated by poor language skills, especially when English is not the first language of the child. Similarity thinking assesses the child's ability to learn without…