Developmental differences in the acquisition of information about strategy efficiency gleaned from observation of a peer model were assessed among 60 second and 60 seventh graders and 60 undergraduate students. At each age level, 20 subjects were randomly assigned to each of 3 experimental conditions. Developmental differences were considerable.…

In recent years a growing body of evidence has implicated deficits in the automaticity of fundamental facts such as word and number recognition in a range of disorders: including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, apraxia and autism. Variously described as habits, fluency, chunking and over learning, automatic processes are best…

This study investigated the role of knowledge base organization in elementary school students' memory performance. In a preliminary study, students in grades 2, 6, and 10 rated words from three semantic categories for their category representativeness. Results disclosed age-related changes in how children rate words for high and low typicality.…

This curriculum guide provides a variety of activities to develop perceptual skills in young children. Activities in the following areas are provided: (1) motor skills--awareness of self, gross motor, fine motor, orientation in space, eye motor; (2) auditory skills--attention, listening, discrimination, imitation and articulation, auditory…

Presents a model of instructional design which links cognitive learning theory and instructional prescriptions. Topics discussed include knowledge types and knowledge acquisition; memory system components; learning time; learning objectives, including skills, cognitive strategies, and creative processes; instructional methods that relate to…

Intensive scheduling has been shown to be an effective educational medium. The Institute for Personal and Career Development at Central Michigan University has developed an external degree program for adults that uses various innovative approaches including intensive scheduling. Several scheduling patterns are offered. A number of studies have…

Recall lists were presented to 40 black lower class and 40 white middle class children in this experiment. The purpose of the study was to examine a possible explanation of the relatively poor performance of black and lower class children on tasks requiring abstract learning abilities. It was reasoned that the threshold for the production of…

Presented for teachers, clinicians, and parents is a manual describing approximately 700 activities to be used for language and cognitive development of culturally-deprived, mentally-retarded, hearing-impaired, and learning-disabled preschool or primary grade children. The communication processes in the manual are said to have been derived from…

The working memory hypothesis that the development of span in children is related to increasing proficiency in the use of an articulatory loop was tested in two studies with 120 Canadian children in grades 5 and 6 and 11 and 12. Some support was found for the hypothesis. (SLD)

Presents a series of pictures drawn by an autistic adult over a period of years. The pictures represent recollections of a day in his childhood. This representation is notable because of its consistent theme, as well as its reflection of the ability to reexperience and enjoy pleasant past memories. (MJP)

Discovered that the introduction of piano keyboarding into elementary school music instruction produced a positive effect regarding children's sentiment towards school. No discernible effect was revealed concerning memory skills. Includes statistical data and description of survey questionnaires. (MJP)

A total of 168 fourth and sixth grade students participated in a study to examine two aspects of children's ability to apply structure while reading. The first part of the study investigated the amount of detail that must be provided in order for students to apply successfully a desired perspective (schema). Students were identified as either good…

Free recall, cued recall, and clustering performance of fourth grade lower socioeconomic black and white children is studied under four conditions of teaching: random presentation, random presentation plus instruction, blocked presentation, and blocked presentation with instruction of categorically related list. Results indicate that both recall…

The elements of an instructional system are discussed and some literature bearing on these is reviewed. The discussion is intended to stimulate thought about an instructional system as a computer-assisted instructional (CAI) test-bed and to point out some noteworthy laboratory research results, particularly in cognitive psychology. Following this,…

New knowledge of the perceptual, discriminative, and memory capabilities of very young infants has opened the door to further evaluation of these abilities in infants who have risk factors for cognitive impairments. A neurophysiologic technique that has been very useful in this regard is the recording of event-related potentials (ERPs). The…