Responding to recent advances in developmental and cognitive science research on knowledge acquisition, this report presents a theoretical framework for analyzing cognitive development as a process of learning. The first section summarizes three developmental characteristics recognized in both the Piagetian and the quantita experimental tradition:…

This study attempted to explain the findings of classical studies about young children's classification ability, namely that young children: (1) categorize on the basis of perceptual or concrete properties, (2) classify in a linear, nonhierarchical manner, and (3) use inconsistent criteria for classification. The study further proposed that…

The purpose of this study was to determine the types of research methods used to study cognitive processing development in gifted learners, from 1975-1986. Of 870 research publications identified on giftedness, 522 publications (60 percent) dealt with cognitive processing development. Research designs used most frequently were causal-comparative,…

The theoretical foundations of thinking skills models differ. One category of thinking skills programs uses the cognitive process approach on the premise that thinking abilities depend upon certain fundamental processes. Thinking skills programs that present a strategic approach to thinking are called heuristics-oriented programs, and focus on an…

In order to study children's strategies for solving geometric matrices similar to those in the Raven's Progressive Matrices, ninety 7-, 10-, and 13-year-old boys and girls were administered tests of auditory and visual memory, the Raven's, and geometric matrices. The matrices varied in number of elements (1 to 3) and number of transformations (0…

The paper reviews research in the area of cognition, specifically cognitive controls (information processing habits which tend to function across a variety of content areas). The review addresses information on three research questions: (1) What cognitive factors can reliably measure and describe the differences in levels of academic achievement…

Explanations for memory development have tended to focus on acquistion of general strategies and metaknowledge. Recently, emphasis has been given to the knowledge base as a whole, including general world-knowledge and domain-specific knowledge and procedures. Evidence is presented from the memory development literature showing why strategies and…

This book is intended to give teachers and student teachers a better understanding of the thinking of adolescent students in science lessons and to indicate the difficulties such students have in understanding the more abstract or formal ideas with which they are presented. It is practical in its orientation as the issues discussed are illustrated…

A study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the intellectual maturity of college students and evidence of rhetorical maturity in their writing--specifically, why some students write better than others, since general language abilities cannot account for all the differences between good and poor writing. By focusing on college…

Provides some background from the biological and behavioral sciences relevant to the education of young children. The author concludes that experience gained by age 8 (particularly during the years 0 to 5) matters for the rest of an individual's life. (PEB)

This paper describes two studies which investigated the development in elementary school children of the ability to derive inferences about the subjective states (physiological and psychological) of others. A cued recall procedure was utilized to assess the relative effectiveness of implicitly or explicitly stated emotional states as cues for…

The conference papers in this collection emphasize the theoretical significance of their authors' work in the areas of mathematical and cognitive psychology. Major topics considered include facilitation of problem solving; psychological differences among problem isomorphs; the process of understanding in problem solving; processing information for…

Research supported by a grant form the U.S. Office of Education, Bureau of Research