Comments on Lewis's ideas about reconciling stage and specificity in neo-Piagetian theory in this issue. Focuses on whether general stages, domain specificity, and individual diversity are compatible from a nonlinear, dynamic perspective. Suggests that, by using catastrophe theory, intra- and interindividual diversity and domain specificity can be…

Discusses helping students understand cases and classes through knowledge modeling. Discusses classification and human cognition, and classification and pictorial knowledge models. Provides classroom extension activities. (SR)

Discusses the role of abstraction in the development of mathematical concepts among young children. (MDH)

Studies the role of intuitive rules in science and mathematics education. Describes the effect of two intuitive rules on students in grades 7-12 as they perform tasks related to mathematical and physical objects. Contains 28 references. (DDR)

Reports on a study of a small group of girls in Australia that investigated how older adolescents cognitively utilize information on heroin. The study sought to establish the perceived effects of exposures to information and to establish how the perceived effects are associated with changes to the girls' knowledge structures. (Author/LRW)

Explores the development of understanding of the concept of average with students from grades 3 to 9 through interviews. Observed six levels of response based on an hierarchical model of cognitive functioning. Documents usage of ideas associated with the three standard measures of central tendency and representation as strategies for problem…

Illustrates "hard" and "soft" theoretical constraints of cognitive structures and examines ways in which the learning mechanism feature of the Soar architecture places hard constraints on all models that use the feature. The relationship between architecture and model in terms of the degree to which a model is compliant with constraints set by the…

Assessed preschoolers' perceptions of and attitudes toward time out discipline. Found that children were isolated for noncompliance more often than for aggression. Children expressed largely negative self-attributions, such as feeling alone, disliked by the teacher, and ignored by peers, indicating perception of punishment. As they were usually…

Reports on (n=11) student attempts at 3 combinatorial questions focusing mainly on 3 aspects of strategy: (1) listing; (2) subdivision into cases; and (3) use or misuse of 4 standard formulas. (MKR)

Discusses research on classroom-type settings and applications. Results indicate an association between knowledge and affect along with prominent sex differences. Cites the need for further research to determine how knowledge and attitudes influence each other. Contains 27 references. (DDR)

Describes background literature associated with learning styles, the biological basis for learning styles and problems associated with using learning styles in education. Identifies four problems associated with learning styles research. Describes the results of a comparison of four learning styles instruments. (NH)

Teachers need to assist students in understanding what they read in science textbooks. Presents effective reading as a basis for good problem solving skills. (DDR)

The relationships between cognitive and affective attitudes toward the body, body experiences, and suicidal tendencies were examined as a derivative of the hypothesis that bodily attitudes and experiences may facilitate suicidal acting out. Results show that the suicidal group differed from the two nonsuicidal groups in feelings toward the body,…

Compared with object word learning, young children typically find learning color terms to be a difficult linguistic task. In this reflections article, I consider two questions that are fundamental to investigations into the developmental acquisition of color terms. First, I consider what constrains color term acquisition and how stable these…

We hypothesize that cultural narratives such as myths and folktales are more likely to achieve cultural stability if they correspond to a minimally counterintuitive (MCI) cognitive template that includes mostly intuitive concepts combined with a minority of counterintuitive ones. Two studies tested this hypothesis, examining whether this template…