Tested in two studies 4- to 7-year-olds' face recognition by manipulating the faces' configural and featural information. Found that even with only a single 5-second exposure, most children could use configural and featural cues to make identity judgments. Repeated exposure and feedback improved others' performance. Even proficient memories were…

This article describes how children build increasingly abstract knowledge of linear measurement, emphasizing ways they relate space and number. Assessments indicate children struggle to understand measurement, especially concepts related to complex paths as in perimeter tasks. This article draws on developmental accounts of children's knowledge of…

When asked to recall their earliest personal memories, most children and adults have virtually no recollection of their infancy or early childhood. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as childhood amnesia. The fate of our earliest memories has puzzled psychologists for over 50 years, particularly in light of the importance of early experience…

Learning invariably proceeds by relating new facts to the already familiar and present in the conceptual structure. In the context of FL study the familiar is, of course, the student's mother tongue. Drawing on the learner's L[subscript 1] (or another mastered tongue) and showing comparisons and contrasts between the languages mirrors, facilitates…

The number of children and adolescents accessing the Internet as well as the amount of time online are steadily increasing. The most common online activities include playing video games, navigating web sites, and communicating via chat rooms, email, and instant messaging. A theoretical framework for understanding the effects of Internet use on…

Two samples of kindergarten children's representation and understanding of written number symbols were examined in two time points in one academic year. About 85% of Chinese five year olds (mean = 5 years 10 months) were able to use conventional number symbols to represent the quantity of 30 or larger. At the end of the kindergarten year, 94% of…

Two studies were conducted to investigate the specificity of the relationship between preschoolers' emerging executive functioning skills and false belief understanding. Study 1 (N=44) showed that 3- to 5-year-olds' performance on an executive functioning task that required selective suppression of actions predicted performance on false belief…

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) negatively affects the cognitive and psychomotoric spheres of the pupil's social behavior and social adaptation. The review of many studies states that pupils with AD/HD achieve worse learning results because of insufficiently functioning cognitive processes, such as attention, (work) memory,…

This Yugoslavian study aimed to describe the ways in which mothers are (or are not) using the opportunity, created by interacting with their children on tasks which are in the child's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), to foster the child's metacognitive development. The underlying assumption of this study on metacognition is derived from the…

At present, there are no formal tests to assess adequately the ways in which a child processes information. Furthermore, scores on current measures cannot be directly interpreted, with few exceptions, as direct measures of cognitive processes, and results are difficult to translate directly into remediation goals or instructional objectives.…

This report aims to characterize, in greater detail, the delicate psychological processes children go through when facing two languages and two cultures. In doing so, it is suggested that bilingualism can play an important role in cognitive and linguistic growth. Data used in this study is taken from a larger study involving 30 Italian bilingual…

Evidence from children's performance in a variety of tasks suggests a change in the kinds of similarities children notice and use. Children tend to focus on literal similarity and then shift to the use of common objects, followed by common relations between objects, and finally relations between relations. Research from a variety of different…

Briefly explains Piaget's theory of intellectual development and its implications for teachers. (LS)

The author examines current techniques used to teach elementary school children how to analyze and compare. Emphasis is placed upon developing these modes of mental activity while teaching biological concepts. (DE)