Defines the concept of autonomous learning. Presents the Strategies Program for Effective Learning/Thinking (SPELT), including its underlying assumptions, instructional model, teacher training procedures, research findings, and anticipated future development. Research results include implications for learning-disabled and gifted students. (KS)

Describes a classroom activity featuring a simple stay-switch probability game. Contends that the exercise helps students see the importance of empirically validating beliefs. Includes full instructions for conducting and discussing the exercise. (CFR)

This paper discusses links among the process of creativity, symbolization, and learning. The importance of symbolization in thinking, in school learning, in child development, and in the behavior of creative learners is stressed. (DB)

Forty young adults with mental retardation (MR) were compared to 40 young adults without mental retardation in tests examining postpractice interference effects in naming colors of Stroop words. The study concluded that practice developed automatized reading suppression responses which held greater cognitive inertia for longer periods among MR…

Suggests that social interaction of a child in the role of tutor in guided environments allows the building of geometrical concepts in nursery school based on strategies formed in natural settings. Shows a systemic improvement in students' performances when different contexts of guidance were used. (DSK)

Introduces the topic of the journal issue--how college students learn--linking traditional educational research and contextual classroom research. The cognitive-mediation model of college student learning is briefly described in combination with some research that supports it. The article presents some implications for faculty development within…

Many deaf children and adults show lags in mathematical abilities. The current study examines the basic number representations that allow individuals to perform higher-level arithmetical procedures. These representations are normally present in the earliest stages of development, but they may be affected by cultural, developmental, and educational…

Between 5% and 8% of school-age children have some form of memory or cognitive deficit that interferes with their ability to learn concepts or procedures in one or more mathematical domains. A review of the arithmetical competencies of these children is provided, along with discussion of underlying memory and cognitive deficits and potential…

Synapses formed by the olfactory nerve (ON) provide the source of excitatory synaptic input onto mitral cells (MC) in the olfactory bulb. These synapses, which relay odor-specific inputs, are confined to the distally tufted single primary dendrites of MCs, the first stage of central olfactory processing. Beta-adrenergic modulation of electrical…

Although Robert M. Gagne's work is often thought of as learning theory, his contributions can most appropriately be considered as an "instructional theory." This denotes an integrated set of principles based upon learning theory, other relevant theories, and sound replicable research, that permits one to predict the effects of specific…

Examines experimental studies in which learning procedures such as reinforcement, direct instruction, and modeling are applied in an attempt to alter characteristics of children's information processing behaviors. Discusses whether the studies have demonstrated acquisition of generalized cognitive functions or merely elicitation of task specific…

Eleven kindergarten children, nine of whom had been identified at risk, were administered tasks involving word and sentence reading with and without pictures, writing of words and a sentence, print awareness, and book handling skills. Results suggested that children expect words to be a label for pictures, that articles and prepositions are not…

In the context of the currently developing theory of procedural knowledge and cognitive skill, the task of learning procedures from written instructions must involve the formation of production rules from the information available in the text. Since this process has not been explored in great depth, a study examined the relation of the production…

Two major areas of educational research are addressed in this book. The first explores recent theories and findings on the cognitive aspects of education. The second focuses upon research that examines education as a social institution. The following articles are presented: (1) "The History of Literacy and the History of Readers" (Carl F.…

What children do in play is simultaneously influenced by the properties of the play object and the skills of the child. Properties of objects lend themselves to re-engagement in investigative play or support for shared action. Repeated play with particular objects increases the number of actions possible with these objects. The process of…