This article reports on some of the findings of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project that looks at the mark-making of children under three years old. The data were all collected in the children's homes, and multimodal transcription and analyses were used. The project focused on an investigation of the principles that…

Contrary to the conventional view of infancy as a sensorimotor period without conceptual thought, research over the past 20 years has shown that preverbal infants are capable of at least 3 conceptual functions: forming concepts with which to interpret the world, recall of the past, and engaging in conceptual generalization. Research is described…

This study examined the neuronal correlates of reading Roman numerals and the changes that occur with extensive practice. Subjects were scanned by functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) three times the first day of the experiment and once following two to three months of practice. This allowed comparison of brain activations with varying…

Single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to the hand area of the left primary motor cortex or, as a control, to the vertex (STIMULATION: TMS[subscript M1] vs. TMS[subscript vertex]) while right-handed volunteers silently read verbs related to hand actions. We examined three different tasks and time points for stimulation…

According to the mental-state reasoning model of suggestibility, 2 components of theory of mind mediate reductions in suggestibility across the preschool years. The authors examined whether theory-of-mind performance may be legitimately separated into 2 components and explored the memory processes underlying the associations between theory of mind…

Speed of information processing and recognition memory can be assessed in infants using a visual information processing (VIP) paradigm. In a sample of 100 infants 6-8 months of age from Southern Ethiopia, we assessed relations between growth and VIP. The 69 infants who completed the VIP protocol had a mean weight z score of -1.12 plus or minus…

Wertsch's clarification of Vygotsky's claims about the role of social interaction in the development of children's thinking made an important contribution to educational research. Revisiting that clarification, I suggest that "talk" instead of "speech" best describes Vygotsky's concern with the functional dynamics of dialogue rather than the…

The assumption of domain specificity has been invaluable to the study of the emergence of biological thought in young children. Yet, domains of thought must be understood within a broader context that explains how those domains relate to the surrounding cultures, to different kinds of cognitive constraints, to framing effects, to abilities to…

Children's thinking is highly variable at every level of analysis, from neural and associative levels to the level of strategies, theories, and other aspects of high-level cognition. This variability exists within people as well as between them; individual children often rely on different strategies or representations on closely related problems…

Neuroconstructivism is a theoretical framework focusing on the construction of representations in the developing brain. Cognitive development is explained as emerging from the experience-dependent development of neural structures supporting mental representations. Neural development occurs in the context of multiple interacting constraints acting…

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.…