Four stages in the development of tactual perception are described (awareness of tactual quality, shape conception and recognition, graphic representation, and symbology systems). Educational applications for blind infants and children are given for each stage. (CL)

Normal-hearing elementary school-age children (N=180) performed rote sequencing language tasks, named colors, and told their birthday. For the six automatic and semiautomatic expressive language tasks, maturational trends were noted for all observations. Central tendency values and standard deviations by grades for the six tasks are reported.…

A nonverbal assessment procedure was designed to characterize cognition using a Piagetian framework with six autistic children, five echolalic and one nonverbal, ranging in age from 4.8 to 15.2. All six children evidenced competence beyond sensorimotor Stage VI, and demonstrated cognitive functioning between the periods of early preoperational and…

Explored questions about the power of family life-cycle categories to predict marital quality, the trend of marital quality over the family life-cycle, and relationships between perceived marital quality and family life-cycle categories. Results indicated family life-cycle and total number of children were significant predictors of marital…

The authors question the American Psychiatric Association position that the criteria for adult and childhood depression are the same and emphasize the developmental aspects of depressive symptoms providing diagnostic guidelines for depression at five different stages from infancy through adolescence. Journal availability: see EC 143 201.…

Two sets of letters, those subject to reversal/rotation and others, were tachistoscopically presented singly to normal readers and dyslexic children. The data support the hypothesis that letters subject to reversal have no special relation to dyslexia. The view that dyslexia is a developmental anomaly was supported. (Author/AL)

The cognitive development of 125 gifted 10-to 15-year-old students was compared to that of 98 normal Ss. Results supported the invariance of stage progression but revealed that gifted Ss progress more quickly and demonstrate earlier transition to succeeding developmental stages. (CL)

A nonverbal assessment procedure designed to characterize cognition using a Piagetian framework was administered to six autistic children, (4.8 to 15.2 years old). All six children evidenced competence beyond sensorimotor Stage VI and demonstrated cognitive functioning between the periods of early preoperational and concrete operations. (Author)

Investigated the moderating effect of high and low anxiety on counselor perception of stages of dying. After completing the A-state scale, subjects observed a terminally ill speaker. Results indicated that high-anxious subjects, when compared with low-anxious, perceived the speakers as more denying, more angry, less accepting, and less hopeful.…

The author discusses applying J. Piaget's philosophy to the treatment of learning-related visual problems by first probing for the available knowledge in the person's ocular sensorimotor intelligence, visual thinking, and logical reasons. Then, through tasks, the individual is encouraged to engage in high-level thinking in the undeveloped areas.…

The middle years of life have been neglected by educational psychology. There is a need for more, better, and better-understood psychological data so that learning can be enhanced in this age group. This issue of "Contemporary Educational Psychology" addresses five relevant questions about adult learning. (Author/RD)

Various approaches to supervision can be grouped into three models categorized as nondirective, collaborative, and directive. Supervisors should recognize stages of professional development and treat teachers as individuals. (Author/MLF)

Focuses on assessing the effects of conflicting discussions within undergraduate dyads consisting of partners at the same or different levels of moral judgment. The experimental procedure consisted of: (1) an Opinion Questionnaire; (2) pretest Kohlberg interviews; (3) assignment to experimental and control conditions; (4) experimental discussion…

Provides an alternative conception of postconventional moral development which fits existing data on late adolescent and adult moral judgment better than Kohlberg's higher stage descriptions. Data is from a longitudinal study of 26 undergraduates at Harvard. (Author/SS)

Critically discusses the premise of Piagetian theory that cognition is based developmentally on sensorimotor coordination, exemplified in circular reactions. (Author/SS)