Portions of interviews with children who are engaged in a problem solving activity are presented. The problem used is an "eel question" taken from the work of Piaget. The verbal responses of children are seen as a part of effective teaching, and this method of assessment is encouraged. (MP)

A study was done to determine the relationship between the cognitive profiles of children and the cognitive profiles of their mothers. Results indicate that the child's cognitive behavior at age six and under is similar to the mother's. However, as the child attends school and maternal influence lessens, the child's cognitive profile begins to…

Social-matching problems were verbally presented to children either with or without concrete models. In each condition, information was provided which was sufficient, superfluous, or irrelevant. Problems containing only irrelevant information were the most difficult, although models enhanced the performance of younger children but depressed the…

Many science curriculum development projects have the goal of increasing students' ability to employ scientific or formal reasoning strategies. Argues that longitudinal data of students who acquired formal reasoning strategies as a consequence of specific instruction are needed to provide evidence that these skills will help in other academic…

Discusses the use of the clinical interview in assessing cognitive structure and in investigating conceptual change. They caution much more work is needed to increase the applicability and validity of the clinical interview method and point out that there is a lack of systematization in the analysis of interview transcripts. (Author/PB)

Notes that little research has been undertaken into the effects of anthropomorphism on children's reading and presents questions concerning the use of this device in beginning reading materials. (FL)

Socially disadvantaged children who were tutored on a one-to-one basis twice a week did not show any significant achievement gain over nontutored children, although data from tutors, parents, children, and teachers indicate that the tutoring should have had an impact. (CJ)

Hypothesized that cognitively complex individuals would be more effective than cognitively simple individuals at accomplishing a communication-dependent task. Analysis revealed that messages (generated by an exercise with tinker toy models and a password game) of complex individuals were more effective than the messages of comparatively simple…

The article examines the reflective versus the impulsive cognitive styles and the implications of these styles for special education teachers. (PHR)

The author reviews the contributions of the previous authors (EC 124 952-960) who emphasized self-instruction, self-assessment, and the more complex problem solving cognitive skills in teaching exceptional children. (PHR)

The incidental learning paradigm supports two findings concerning selective attention: (1) the difference between central and incidental task performance increases with age, and (2) the correlation between central and incidental performance decreases with age. Neither of these findings clearly supports the view that attentional selectivity…

The paper presents a discussion of a theory of intelligence which postulates that intelligence develops rather than that intelligence is an innate ability possessed in full measure at birth. Discussion of unresolved issues surrounding their theory is presented. The effect of such a theory on science teaching is discussed. (RE)

The developing directional preferences in writing and drawing that were observed in subjects between four years of age and adulthood suggest that two semiindependent motor systems are involved in writing: one for rapid and nonfigurative tasks, the other--which occurs later--for precision and symbolic functions. (Author/GT)

Analyzes the meaning of Piaget's concept of abstraction and provides discussion of some of its shortcomings. (HM)