Investigates the convergence of three measures on a representation of cognitive structure and examines the correspondence between these representations and the representation of subject matter structure. (Author/DEP)

Research supported by the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity grant 1492.

Part of the monthly Saturday Review supplement, "Education in America," sponsored by the Charles F. Kettering Foundation.

INDIVIDUAL STYLES OF LEARNING VARY CONSIDERABLY, AND NOT ENOUGH ATTENTION HAS BEEN PAID TO THIS FACT BY TEACHERS AND EDUCATORS. IF A BRIGHT CHILD MAKES VERY POOR PROGRESS IN SCHOOL, THE IMMEDIATE ASSUMPTION TODAY IS LIKELY TO BE THAT HE HAS AN EMOTIONAL PROBLEM. ACTUALLY, HE MAY SIMPLY TAKE A LONG TIME TO "WARM UP," AND HAS BECOME SO…

THREE PSYCHOLOGICAL DISCIPLINES OFFER APPROACHES TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF INTELLIGENCE. AN ATTEMPT IS MADE TO UNCOVER THE COMMON FEATURES OF THE PSYCHOMETRIC SCHOOL, LEARNING, AND MENTAL DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES. A STRUCTURAL CONCEPT IS SELECTED FROM EACH PSYCHOLOGICAL DISCIPLINE FOR COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS--THE CONCEPT OF FACTOR FROM THE PSYCHOMETRIC…

This study examined the ability of preschool children to process and use conceptual category information in a disrcimination learning task. A total of 60 boys and girls between the ages of 2 1/2 and 4 years completed a 3-choice discrimination learning task. On each of 12 trials, a child was presented with three magazine photographs: one of an…

Three research studies were performed to assess patterns of memory organization with respect to complementary and similarity dimensions, referring to associations based on functional relatedness and grammatical relatedness, respectively. The first study failed to replicate the results of a study by Denney and Ziobrowski (1972), indicating that…

The primary purpose of this study was to determine empirically whether an individual's cognitive style differentially influences his hypothesizing behavior within a relatively simple information processing task. A characteristic of cognitive style explored is the manner in which an individual perceives and analyzes a stimulus configuration;…

This study investigated the extent to which certain aspects of the structure of a learner's memory following instruction corresponded with the structure of the instructional material. Content structure was represented using digraph theory. The digraph analysis revealed a formal structure built substantially on six specific concepts. Cognitive…

To the question of whether Chomsky's hypothesized Language Acquisition Device (LAD) in young children is an adequate and feasible model of language acquisition, this paper answers that LAD should be reformulated so as to include semantics; that "informant presentation" rather than "text presentation" is responsible for language…

The present study was conducted to demonstrate the power of imagery instructional sets to improve the recall of units more complex than in the traditional paired associate (P-A) paradigm and to evaluate imagery as a memory organizer. Forty-eight sixth grade children were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions, defined by the…

This study assessed the value of teaching young children the relevant attributes of a concept and the conceptual rule by which the attributes are organized. It was hypothesized that only if children had prior knowledge of both components could they follow instructions designed to teach a new concept. It was further hypothesized that children who…

This paper examines recent research for differences on rate of conservation achievement between the subcultures: (1) rural vs. urban-suburban, (2) white vs. black, (3) subculture of poverty vs. middle class WASP, and (4) lower vs. middle socioeconomic status. The author concluded from his examination of research that: (1) among middle-class whites…

This is a followup study of second and third grade children who experienced differential treatment during their kindergarten year. A total of 72 disadvantaged black children comprised the sample which was divided into three groups. Group A received a special sequential Learning to Learn Program. Group B participated in a traditional kindergarten…