Examined empathy and conservation abilities of nonretarded children with autism and compared their performance to that of normally developing children. Autistic children performed surprising well, but not as well as normal children. There was a closer association between cognitive abilities and affective understanding among the autistic children…

Considers the unique cognitive and intellectual factors that influence the learning and education of older adults. Reviews research on patterns of intellectual and cognitive aging and the implications of patterns in attention, memory, information retrieval, and tolerance for interference in the development of cognitive training programs for older…

Examines the use of educational indicators to serve educational policy ends, the potential benefits and dangers of various uses, and how to forge guidelines for appropriate relationships between indicators and policy. Indicators should not be used as administrative controls or policy levers, but to illuminate educational activities and processes…

This article concludes that the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition is poorly suited for assessment of children less than five years old with possible mild mental retardation and for persons of any age with possible severe mental retardation. The continued use of Form L-M is recommended for these populations. (Author/DB)

Descriptive information was gathered about 790 students with learning disabilities in primary, intermediate, and secondary grades. Results included identification of learning disabilities peaked in first grade; 76 percent of these students were identified by the end of grade 5; and students with more severe discrepancies tended to be identified at…

Describes SHRIF, a System for Heuristic Retrieval of Information and Facts, and the medical knowledge base that was used in its development. Highlights include design decisions; the user-machine interface, including the language processor; and the organization of the knowledge base in an artificial intelligence (AI) project like this one. (57…

This assessment of the usefulness of the "Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised" and the "Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition" for gifted children found that both are technically superior instruments with sensitive items, exceptional standardization, strong construct validity, and…

Discusses instructional design methods used in intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) and describes the application of instructional systems design to the creation of an ITS called Piano Tutor, a multimedia workstation that is designed to provide first-year piano lessons. The ITS curriculum is analyzed, including critical lessons and skill groups.…

This study of 46 women with the fragile X gene and 56 controls found that performance on emotion perception and perspective-taking tasks was related to full-scale IQ scores but not to fragile X group status when effects of IQ were removed. Results represent a differentiation between fragile X and autism. (Author/JDD)

Describes the student model of an intelligent computer-assisted language learning (CALL) system that is based on current theories in the field of second-language acquisition. Highlights include acquisition order of the target rules; language learning strategies; language transfer; language awareness; and student reactions. (Contains seven…

Genetic effects on specific cognitive abilities as distinct from those on general cognitive ability were studied in 302 pairs of twins (some reared together, some apart) from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging. Overall, results showed significant genetic influence on specific abilities independent of influence on general ability. (SLD)

Discusses the artificial-intelligence-based microworld DiBi and MULEDS, a multilevel diagnosis system. Developed to adapt tutoring style to the individual learner. Explains that DiBi sets up a learning environment, and simulates elastic impacts as a subtopic of classical mechanics, and supporting reasoning on different levels of mental domain…

Implications of the term "gifted," including that of unjustified and unearned privilege, are considered in the context of findings on intelligence development, self-efficacy, education, prevalence, and the importance of labels. Five policy options are considered including abandoning the term and using performance rather than aptitude to organize…

Misconceptions about thinking skills instruction are that it will make students "smarter," raise achievement levels, and create better citizens. Reasonable expectations are that thinking skills instruction should be measured by short-term goals, a changed classroom atmosphere, concrete behavioral criteria, and the improvement of specific task…

This article reviews Piagetian theory on formal operational thought, the relationship of psychometric intelligence and formal operational thought, the development of formal operational thought in gifted children, problems encountered with Piagetian theory and attempts to modify it, and implications of the post-Piagetian perspective for education…