Sex differences in the latent general and broad cognitive abilities underlying the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities were investigated for children, youth, and adults ages 6 through 59. A developmental, multiple indicator-multiple cause, structural equation model was used to investigate sex differences in latent cognitive abilities as…

The author offers clinical examples of ways in which the attainment of formal operations in adolescents both exacerbates chronic disabilities and contributes to the etiology of new disabilities (such as in teenage obesity, anorexia nervosa, and depression). He suggests treatment guidelines. (CL)

The potential of chemistry to improve one's learning capacity is discussed. (CK)

Comments on Van Kleeck's proposal that a link exists between cognitive development as viewed by Piaget and metalinguistic development (Merrill-Palmer Quarterly; v28 n2 p237-65 Apr 1982). Suggests that information-processing theories of cognitive development provide an attractive alternative to Piaget's theory, particularly in their account of task…

Replies to "Structures, Doctrines, and Polemical Ghosts," by Carl Bereiter. Holds that Bereiter's proposal, which claims that Piagetian stages are a prerequisite to more specific cognitive processes, violates a basic assumption of stage-developmental views. (Author/GC)

Research to date has demonstrated that networking can be an effective strategy for supporting meaningful learning. However, studies have shown that learners encounter difficulties using it. In an attempt to understand and thus reduce these difficulties, this study examined learners' underlying cognitive processes and activities while networking.…

The article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" in last Summer's "Atlantic Monthly," raised a number of provocative, and indeed worrisome, questions about computer usage and cognitive development. For instance, persons with considerable experience of reading for the sake of pleasure report that, after a couple of years using computers a great deal, they…

Music learning and music performance involve all aspects of the individual: cognitive, emotional, social, and psychomotor. John Feierabend shows that music requires a special kind of intellectual process that is unique to the discipline. Brain density reaches its peak in a child's first few years of life; hence, as with language, music learning…

Background: Down syndrome (DS) has been the focus of much cognitive and developmental research; however, there is a gap in knowledge regarding sustained attention, particularly across different sensory domains. This research examined the hypothesis that children with DS would demonstrate superior visual rather than auditory performance on a…

Despite many disagreements on the utility of neuropsychological applications in schools, executive function measures have been found to be useful across a variety of areas and ages. In addition, many disagreements are extant in discussions of the maturational course of the development of executive functioning abilities that are dependent on…

To examine the neurobiological consequences of early institutionalization, the authors recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from 3 groups of Romanian children--currently institutionalized, previously institutionalized but randomly assigned to foster care, and family-reared children--in response to pictures of happy, angry, fearful, and sad…

Kail responds to Stigler and others' criticisms of Kail's 1986 article and maintains that their criticisms are incorrect or implausible. He agrees with their conclusion that theories of cognitive development must include both domain-specific and general processes. (RJC)

Twelve nondisabled adolescents were superior to 12 learning disabled students in performance on all types of strategy transformations presented on simple arithmetic computation tasks. Significant ability-group differences emerged on reduction to answer, saving partial results, unit building, and alternative method transformations. Results…

Reviews and discusses Piaget's recent work on abstract reasoning. Piaget's distinction between empirical and reflective abstraction is presented; his hypotheses are considered to be metaphorical. (Author/DB)