Research supported by Grant HD-01570 and by USPHS Post-doctoral Fellowship Grant 1-F2-MH-29, 557-01, and reported at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association (Boston, April 1967).

THIS PAPER PRESENTS A SUMMARY OF BERLYNE'S THOUGHT ABOUT CURIOSITY AND COGNITIVE CONFLICT AS MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS IN KNOWLEDGE-SEEKING BEHAVIOR. THE SUMMARY IS BASED UPON FOUR OF BERLYNE'S WORKS THAT WERE SELECTED AS "CORE" TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIS THOUGHT. THIS PAPER CONCENTRATES UPON BRINGING OUT THE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES OF THE SELECTED…

Discussed are the relationship between learning and divergent production and implications for the development of academic abilities. (Author/JYC)

The algo-heuristic theory is concerned with identifying unobservable cognitive processes and their unconscious component cognitive operations, including learning how to describe them algorithmically and heuristically, and how to devise specific instructional tools (algorithmic and heuristic) to develop cognitive processes much faster. (BW)

Decisions about whether pairs of letter strings are both words or not are faster for semantically related words than unrelated words. Two experiments showed the semantic relatedness effect is greatly reduced when orthographically illegal, unpronounceable strings were used as negative items. Lexical decisions involve options on codes representing…

Investigated the role of physiological self-regulation (cardiac vagal tone) in information processing (habituation) in infants. Found that decreases in vagal tone consistently related to habituation efficiency at 2 and 5 months. Within- and between- age suppression of vagal tone predicted accumulated looking time (ALT), but ALT did not predict…

Reviews evidence of the way the maturation of the brain may structure the plasticity that is available for the construction of the mind. Presents evidence taken from non-invasive imaging techniques that makes use of electrode potentials, magnetic resonance, or positron emission. Discusses the development of the brain in terms of grey and white…

"It is imagination, above all, that drives learning forward." With the eloquence and insight always associated with his work, Michael Armstrong considers how to recognise children's imaginative achievement: how to observe it, interpret it, value it and promote it. The child's exemplification of the power of the imagination demands our respect, but…

We are pleased with the commentators' thoughtful reactions to our study, as they make it clear that the study met its major goal--identifying age differences that suggest developmental changes in the learning process and the strengthening of executive processes in the second decade of life.

This research examined the nature of classroom decision making among three elementary teachers (the first in her 8th year, the second in her 3rd year, and the third in her 1st year). We were interested in understanding how teachers experience the complexity of classroom decision making and how they manage the cognitive load while teaching. The…

A learner-centered approach is a central feature of instruction based on a constructivist learning model. However, there is some confusion regarding the requirement for behavioral activity as a prerequisite for a learner-centered environment. We offer evidence in this article that some types of behavioral activity can interfere with cognitive…

Individuals diagnosed with autism suffer from numerous social, affective and linguistic impairments. It has also been suggested that they have a global imitation deficit. That hypothesis, however, is compromised by the fact that individuals with autism suffer from various motor impairments. Here we describe an experiment on cognitive imitation, a…

This article discusses cognitive development as a primary educational objective and focuses on three cognitive processes: the prepared mind, the attending mind, and the processing mind. (PD)

Psychological research indicates that rote learning involves a good deal of what is commonly called conceptualizing, and conceptual learning demands a large amount of what is often considered rote repetition. (HMD)