Presents a three-component model of arithmetical development in young children. Applies this model as a basis for analysis of developmental processes in early mathematics learning that may be universal. (RJC)

The experience of the West Virginia University School of Pharmacy with a course in non-prescription drugs that emphasizes problem-solving through pattern recognition illustrates that when thinking skills are taught, students value, remember, and can use more of the concepts they study. (MSE)

Reviews controversies over different conceptions of critical thinking and its application to education. Discusses the relevance to and impact of critical thinking on bibliographic instruction. (JKP)

The roles of advice and feedback in the facilitation of online processing during acquisition and subsequent impact on memory-based processing during a delayed problem-solving task were studied in 2 experiments with 123 college students. Results indicate that corrective feedback improves online processing during training. (SLD)

Eight experiments examined whether certain human problem-solving mechanisms should be expected to represent probability information in terms of frequency. Findings are consistent with literature indicating that frequentist representations eliminate various cognitive biases, including overconfidence, the conjunction fallacy, and base rate neglect.…

Comments on the articles presented in this issue devoted to the Japanese perspectives on conceptual change. Discusses the overall conveyed message: The human cognitive system is a thematically organized knowledge base with agentive causality as the main mechanism for explain phenomena and analogy as the main mechanism for promoting conceptual…

Comments on the articles presented in this issue devoted to the Japanese perspectives on conceptual change. Suggests that different approaches to knowledge acquisition and conceptual change should be carefully examined in light of their implications for the teaching of science. Discusses critically the issues advanced from the Japanese…

Investigated effects of spatial and literacy content on learning through social interaction. Pairs of kindergarten children in three interaction episodes solved spatial and literacy problems. Gains were made in spatial understanding independent of the type of social interaction used. Spatial understanding appeared to be affected more by how…

Thirty-six children from grades 1, 3 and 6 observed and rewarded a peer who played an experimental game. Children experienced a developmental shift in the criteria they used to reward a peer's performance. References to intention-act matches increased with grade and with children's understanding of controllable and noncontrollable tasks and causal…

Twenty-two college students from each of three different epistemological groups--dualistic, multiplistic, and relativistic--completed both a syllogism and ink blot problem-solving task. Findings indicated that the three epistemological groups reliably differed in how they mentally organized the ink blot stimuli but not the syllogism problems.…

Estimated cognitive resources in nondemented older adults (n=165; ages 60-100+). Five clusters of results were found concerning age differences, the role of everyday experiences, influence of physical and mental health on cognitive performance, personality and cognitive factors, and levels of intelligence and affect. Concluded that cognitive…

The strength of collaborative learning is in involving students in intellectual problem solving. In a college-level U.S. literature course at East Stroudsburg University (Pennsylvania), traditional lecture and Socratic questioning establishes background; and collaborative learning is used to help students examine the central questions about the…

This article examines the relationship of cognitive processing and creativity and argues that educational interventions contribute to the development of creative thinking skills when they provide requisite knowledge structures and stress controlled application of these processes in solving progressively more complex problems. (DB)

Shares detailed episodes of children's work in repeatedly partitioning geometric shapes to highlight the process of recursion, which can lead to a deeper understanding of imagination and beauty in children's mathematics. (MKR)

Discusses reasons for the lack of mathematical problem-solving skills among students at all levels. Examines the complex cognitive processes required for problem solving. Reviews theories about the problem-solving process and lists the cognitive skills and steps necessary for successful mathematical problem solving. (PAA)