Empirically describes the relative development of perceptual and conceptual understanding of left-right, back-front, up-down projective relationships between objects and provides a heuristic model of the cognitive processes involved in coordination of perspectives tasks. (Author/ED)

This paper presents four major features of L. S. Vygotsky's theory of creative imagination. The first feature discussed is that imagination is the internalization of children's play. It is explained that the development of imagination parallels the development of speech which originates in the child's social dialogue with adults, passes through an…

Schemata, as defined recently by reading researchers, represent generic concepts which are stored in memory. They include underlying objects, situations, events, actions, and sequences of actions for use in interpreting new experiences. Research on schemata suggests that teachers need to pay attention to the types of questions they ask when…

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate methods for developing cognitive processes in adult students. It discusses concept formation and concept attainment, problem solving (which involves concept formation and concept attainment), Bruner's three stages of learning (enactive, iconic, and symbolic modes), and visual thinking. A curriculum for…

The world presented to our senses is essentially continuous in space and time. The simplest observations of children have shown that we are not born with ways of "breaking up" the world. The structures of our knowledge must be developed, and the major issue this paper considers is how those structures develop. The discussion focuses on Jean…

A central theoretical issue is that of the cognitive status of imagery. Detractors emphasize the merely-sensory aspects while proponents emphasize the also-symbolic aspects. Examined with reference to this issue are the theories of Piaget and Bruner, recent studies of concept learning and representation, and studies related to the Craik and…

A theory for representation of concepts in memory is proposed which emphasizes the association of salient exemplars with the concept. Previous theories dealing with the classification processes involved in acquiring new concepts have shown that clear category boundaries do not exist. It is proposed that present theory must account for the…

Results of a study which measured two complementary forms of political thinking, conceptual differentiation and conceptual integration, are reported. Conceptual differentiation is a person's ability to identify individual political issues, acts, and events which compete for attention in the news media. Conceptual integration is a persons ability…

THE NATURE OF A CONCEPT WAS EXPLICATED IN TERMS OF FOUR CHARACTERISTICS--DEFINABILITY, STRUCTURE, PSYCHOLOGICAL MEANINGFULNESS AND UTILITY. A CONCEPT LEARNING STRATEGY WAS SEEN TO BE COMPRISED OF THREE SETS OF COGNITIVE PROCESSES--(1) ANALYZING SITUATION, (2) SECURING INFORMATION, AND (3) PROCESSING INFORMATION. A SERIES OF 19 CONTROLLED…

Studied was the effect of advance organizers, as defined by Ausubel, on the learning of concepts in science. Sixth grade classes studied two sequences of major concept-centered learning tasks developed by the investigator. The first had 12 lessons about energy forms and transformations; the second had five about photosynthesis and respiration as…

The Soviet position on vocabulary and the relationships among intelligence, language, and culture holds that thoughts and words have different developmental roots and that there are more differences than likenesses between them. In this United States study, 105 students grouped by their having parents in three different employment categories were…

This study examines the differences in classificatory performance of children from middle class (MC) and from culturally deprived (CD) backgrounds at kindergarten and second grade levels. It was hypothesized that: (a) the ability to classify increases with age (b) CD children would score lower on talks of classification than children in MC groups…