Suggests that while doubting that the dichotomy introduced by Subbotsky can cover the entire domain of motivation, he should applaud the emphasis on the neglected but critical importance of motivation in developmental psychology, and the attempt to distinguish different types of motivation, even as contributors to a single behavior. (AA)

A study investigated the relationship between formal and conversational logic. Thirty-two male and 32 female college students evaluated the conclusions of conditional syllogism and participated in an interview adapted from Deanna Kuhn's (1991) monograph, "The Skills of Argument." Students were asked to provide explanations for several…

Transfer of learning is one of the major purposes of education. Theories and research have tried hard to answer questions such as: how does transfer occur? and how is transfer enhanced? Situated cognitive theory and research about anchored instruction together bring some positive findings. Anchored instruction provides the learner with a situated,…

Hypothesizing that severely language delayed children lack sufficient understanding of causal structure to comprehend stories, a reading program concentrated on developing the causal reasoning of 10 children between the ages of 10 and 12 with a verbal intelligence quotient two to three years below average. Instructional activities in the…

This paper discusses ways that students can better be taught to think. It argues that poor/low-achieving students served by Chapter 1 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 could genuinely profit from instruction on thinking and that, for maximum impact, such instruction should be introduced as a course in itself, separate from…

Assumptions have been made about the growth and development of reasoning and communicating skills in college. This study describes a standardized set of assessments of reasoning, writing and speaking with norms for freshmen and seniors and multiple equated forms. The study provides evidence of the validity and reliability of these assessments.…

Research indicates that people have two distinct information processing modalities, one for verbal material and one for nonverbal material. The nonverbal mode is used for visual images and is characterized by creative and relatively undisciplined associations. The verbal mode deals with abstract stimuli and is restrained by logic and the need to…

Problems were presented to 13 university students in which letters were to be added or subtracted (e.g., B + D = ? or F - ? = D). After each problem, each subject gave a retrospective protocol indicating the way in which the problem was solved. Models of performance by each subject in each experimental session shared major properties; choices by…

In order to directly relate research on children's thinking to curriculum development in the social studies, this study approximates the conditions and substances of daily classroom life and examines the levels of abstraction in children's thinking about complex social problems. The subjects include 210 boys and girls in equal numbers in grades…

The paper endeavors to delineate more clearly the special reading comprehension problem of the Alaskan Eskimo and Indian. Reading comprehension is essentially a cognitive process -- the ability to engage in rigorous abstract thinking. A number of formal anthropological reports indicate that Alaskan natives, especially the Eskimo, are deficient in…

Investigated changes that occurred in sixth- and seventh-grade teacher and student discourse when teachers endeavored to implement extended teacher wait-time in a sequence of seven lessons related to probabilistic reasoning. Results indicated that teacher wait-time increased from an average of 1.9 to 4.4 seconds during the lesson sequence. (JN)

Current studies of cognition emphasize the contrast between two approaches to analysis of individual differences. It is concluded that the cognitive components approach incorporates the cognitive correlates approach, avoids the inadequacy of correlational methods, and models individual differences on various dimensions of cognitive functioning.…

Reports three experiments to test age-related difFerences in sentence memory arising from sources other than noncognitive factors. Age-related differences are discussed in terms of deficiencies at encoding and retrieval. (PMJ)

Investigates target language variability between speaking and writing in the second language acquisition of non-native English speakers. Results reveal that as narrators advance in English proficiency, they develop more abstract content and reported style in speech and writing and that speech and writing become more interactive. (28 references)…

Compared and contrasted are the concepts intuition and logic. The ideas of conceptual thought and algorithmic thought are discussed in terms of the world as a labyrinth, intuition and time, and the structure of knowledge. (KR)