Suggests that the three articles on pretend play in this journal expand knowledge of pretend and social pretend play. Notes that the ultimate value of these articles lies in their exploration of the integration of affective, communicative, and cognitive processes as children construct shared social reality in pretend play. (MM)

This article traces the origin of the James-Lange theory of emotion, considers differences in their thinking, and assesses early criticisms and debate. Research on physiological patterns in emotion is reviewed. New paths for emotion research are outlined and homage is paid to the inspiration of William James. (SLD)

Investigates the writing experience of 40 eleventh graders and examines the social and pedagogical circumstances contributing to their limited concentration and motivation. Finds that emotion disrupts sustained and thoughtful attention to writing. Demonstrates the psychological toll of limited concentration, negative self-view, and limited…

Discusses affective behaviors as complex sets of mental processes and actions that are affected by current context, past learning, and present need state. Highlights include motivation, emotion, and cognition; relationships between the affective and cognitive domain; and ways to achieve desired affective outcomes. (LRW)

The goal was to study the impact of a teacher-directed and a child-directed pretend play on cognitive performance in a mixed-age environment. Twenty-six observations were performed on fifty-one kindergarten children with a mean age of 4.6 years (age span from three to six years) in two mixed-aged classrooms. Data were collected regarding…

Seven-year-olds completed a Posner cued attention task, under both neutral and affectively charged conditions. Compared to the traditional (affect-neutral) Posner task, performance in the affective Posner task was marked by dramatic decreases in reaction times (RTs), an increase in errors, an increased validity effect (difference in RTs to the…

The skin-potential responses of six college students were monitored while each was seen for 10 counseling sessions. Negative skin-potential responses were accompanied by feelings described as pleasant and released; positive responses were associated with unpleasant and inhibited feelings; and neutral responses were often associated with unpleasant…

This paper, which analyzes the evaluative aspect of affectivity, argues that the functional internalization of organic evolution for the formation of the intellectual system of human beings required that some means of selecting behavioral variations be devised, and that the selective mechanism devised was the affective system. From this…

This paper reports on secondary analyses of data collected in March 1978 by the Pennsylvania Educational Quality Assessment Program, which was designed to examine television viewing and the amount of school assigned homework in relation to student cognitive and noncognitive outcomes. Also examined were television viewing and homework patterns for…

Eighty-eight males and females participated in one of three affect inducing conditions which involved reading neutral, depression, or elation statements. Subjects in the depression condition, in contrast to the elation group, reported themselves to be more depressed, anxious, and hostile, were less expansive in graphic expression and less likely…

This paper comments on the thesis that cognitive style and affective reaction variables ought to be taken into account in the evaluation of instruction. Observations are expressed as questions relating to cognitive style: Which style is it better for an individual to have? Can cognitive style be adapted to fit a particular learning task? Can it be…

A cognitive explanation of achievement-related behavior is developed. It is suggested that high and low achievers diverge behaviorally in the achievement situation because they conceptualize the causes of success and failure in different ways. The results of a study are presented which show that subjects high in achievement needs tend to attribute…

This theoretical paper deals with a comparison of the structure and content of primary and secondary thought processes. While secondary processes (cognitive thinking) are effectively dealt with and taught in schools, there is little or no relating to the primary processes (affective thinking). This is due in part to teachers' own difficulties in…