The idea of semantic features has taken some force within psychology and a number of research workers have suggested that semantic acquisition is, in some manner, determined by semantic components. This notion has come to be called the "semantic feature hypothesis". An examination of the semantic feature hypothesis was made by testing 80…

Stampe's (1969, 1973) hypotheses regarding innate mental phonological processes are tested against some of the extant data on speech perception. (AM)

Investigates whether an experimentally imposed 80dB (A) noise affected psychomotor, serial memory words and pictures, incidental memory, visual recall, paired associates, perceptual learning, and coding performance of five-year-old Black children attending day care centers near and far from elevated subways. (HOD)

Reviews bases for contemporary discontinuity theories of mental development, presents findings that support alternative proposition of continuity and scrutinizes assessment methods from which these continuity results derive. Also offers several models that help explain the continuity findings, and argues that individual differences in mental…

Investigates age differences in selective attention in a coded visual search task where subjects were given different types of information about target location before trial onset. (Author/SS)

Three experiments obtained same-different judgments from children and adults to trace normal development of local and global processing of hierarchical visual forms. Findings indicated that reaction time was faster on global trials than local trials; bias was stronger in children and diminished to adult levels between ages 10 and 14. Reaction time…

Tested three competing structural equation models concerning auditory inspection time (AIT) and cognitive ability. Found that auditory inspection times near age 11 correlate most strongly with later high IQ. (ET)

Reviews the literature on the relationship between schooling, IQ, and the cognitive processes presumed to underpin IQ. The data suggest the importance of quantity of schooling for IQ. Schooling fosters the development of cognitive processes that underpin performance on IQ tests. This development is unrelated to the quality of schools. (BC)

THE RELATIONSHIP OF PATTERNS OF COGNITIVE PROCESSES AND PERSONALITY TRAITS WERE INVESTIGATED IN THIS STUDY OF 6 GROUPS OF CHILDREN (120) IN GRADE 5. SCORES ON THE PRIMARY MENTAL ABILITIES TEST, IOWA ACHIEVEMENT TEST, AND CALIFORNIA TEST OF MENTAL MATURITY WERE USED AS MEASURES OF COGNITIVE PROCESSES. (JK)

INFANT SCRIBBLING ACTIVITY IS NOT SIMPLY PLAY. IT CONTRIBUTES TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF VISUAL ATTENTION AND PERCEPTION. YET, SCRIBBLING, UNLIKE WRITING IN THE COMMUNICATION SENSE, IS NOT MOTIVATED BY THE DESIRE TO INFORM, NOR TO SET DOWN THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS. THE EXPERIMENTAL HYPOTHESIS OF THIS STUDY WAS THAT THE MOTIVATIONS FOR SCRIBBLING ARE (1)…

RECENTLY MUCH ATTENTION HAS BEEN FOCUSED ON THE SUBJECT OF CONCEPT FORMATION IN CHILDREN. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPATIAL PERCEPTION IS AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF THIS, AND ONE IMPORTANT PART OF SPATIAL PERCEPTION IS HAPTIC PERCEPTION--THE RECOGNITION OF OBJECTS BY TOUCH. THIS STUDY IS A LONGITUDINAL INVESTIGATION OF THE RETENTION OF HAPTIC ABILITIES…

This paper reviews nine studies which report conflicting results in assessing the relationship between children's role-taking ability and communication skills. The studies included satisfy three criteria: (1) role-taking and communication efficiency are measured independently; (2) tasks used to measure the two skills are significantly different in…

A child whose behavior reflects only perception of a stimulus and reaction to it is considered more perceptually bound than an adult whose behavior is also directed by theories, values, and ideas. Based on this analysis three testable hypotheses emrege: (1) stimulus complexity is a better predictor of attention for the more perceptually bound, (2)…

These three papers are from a symposium on individual learning issues. "A Quantitative Examination of the Feelings and Cognitive Processes of a Group of Adults Undertaking a Tertiary HRD [Human Resource Development] Program" (Bryan W. Smith) examines mental and emotional states of adults in a tertiary HRD learning situation by using stimulated…

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.…