Presents a study to evaluate the cognitive level of questions in middle school science textbooks. Questions and their location were coded from six randomly selected chapters in eight middle school science textbooks. Results indicated that input level questions were the dominant question type, probably leading to students functioning at lower…

Offers a theoretical and methodological approach to study of children's socio-cognitive interaction. Observation of object-centered activities among three age groups of children showed different modes of collaboration. Processes were similar across age groups; roots of basic peer interaction patterns reach back into infancy. Similarities across…

Comments on Verba's ideas about collaboration in peer interaction in this issue. Praises Verba for setting new direction in the study and understanding of social processes in cognitive development and for establishing important continuities in how children communicate with peers. Notes that Verba's analyses suggest natural categories of…

A study asked 24 first grade children from 3 different classes to write number sentences and select appropriate alternative number sentences for addition and subtraction word problems. Results indicated that children could be characterized into five clusters according to their flexibility in accepting alternative number sentences and that…

Attempts to integrate recent models of social systems based on age and cognitive personality research with research on adolescence. Presents a conceptual model of how adolescents set personal goals, construct cognitive strategies, and evaluate their success in an age-graded sociocultural context. Discusses future directions for research based on…

Proposes helping students understand fractions by establishing connections between students' informal knowledge of fractions and the mathematical symbols used to represent fractions. Sample dialogues demonstrate how these connections can be made. (MDH)

Children and adults were tested on six speeded perceptual-motor and cognitive tasks, including a (1) response time task; (2) button tapping task; (3) pegboard task; (4) coding task; (5) picture matching task; and (6) mental addition task. Age-related change in processing time on most of these tasks was described by a single exponential function.…

Cognitive style is one factor that may influence individuals' preferences for different learning methods and activities related to continuous professional development. Explores the cognitive styles and learning preferences of personnel practitioners (n=127) in the United Kingdom. Finds that the relationship between cognitive style and preference…

A study explored working memory (WM) capacity, WM task requirements, as well as effects between WM, skills, knowledge base, and intelligence in adults with mental retardation and children aged 3-6 years. Adults were better on measures reflecting skills and knowledge base. Children performed better in phonological and visuo-spatial WM tasks.…

This study examined developmental changes in lexical comprehension in 100 bilingual individuals at five age levels, all of whom had learned Spanish as a first language and English beginning at age 5. Although skills improved in both languages over time, by middle childhood performance was better in English, with this transition occurring earlier…

Evaluated the PREG conceptual model of human question asking. Found the model was sufficient as it accounted for nearly all of the questions produced by students, and was discriminating in that it could identify the conditions in which particular classes of questions are or are not generated. (Author/SD)

This study investigates the role of basic elements of a learning context namely: the given tasks, the nature of the provided tools, and the pupils' gender in their choice of tools provided by an open problem-solving computer environment. Pupils' choice of tools is discussed through the description of an experiment involving the interaction of (30)…

This study investigated the effects of K. J. Klauer's (1989) inductive reasoning training program of teaching children. Effects of training and the range of transfer of the training were assessed. The subjects were 34 third-grade Dutch children of average ability, matched on age, sex, and IQ. Children from the training condition (N=17) received…

This paper focuses on the relationship between adult-child interactions and the developing cognitive competence of young children as rated by the Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) Scale. The scale was devised to reflect 10 criteria of adult-child interaction hypothesized to comprise an MLE and therefore to enhance children's cognitive…

New conceptions of learning, analogy, and capacity have fundamentally changed scientists' view of cognitive development. New conceptions of learning help to explain how representations of the world are acquired. New models of analogical reasoning have suggested that logical inferences are often made by mapping a problem into a mental model, or…