The article reports two phases of a study that, through use of Piagetian reasoning assessments, indicated significant delays in the cognitive development of 75 congenitally blind students (6 to 18 years) compared to 75 sighted Ss. Developmentally appropriate reasoning experiences produced equivalent performance of blind Ss to that of the sighted…

Discusses how elementary school children perceive abstract art and describes activities used to increase their appreciation of abstract art. Students draw dinosaurs and discuss the variations in their drawings. Two movement activities which reinforce concepts about abstraction are described. (AM)

Results indicated that 8 of the 36 adolescents fell into the strategy-absent category, characterized by a large discrepancy (in either direction) between their verbal and nonverbal abilities. Ss whose disabilities were limited primarily to reading and written language were largely spontaneous strategy users (17 out of 20). (Author)

Attempted to determine whether children from grades two and six generate inferences while they read or only later in response to tasks which require inferences. (Author/DB)

Preschool and kindergarten children were shown carnival-game sequences which pictured an actor's outcome at four game trials. At one session, children summarized the game outcome after every sequence; at another session, subjects judged the actor's ability after viewing the trials. Results suggest that accurate summary information is a necessary…

This study investigated the relationship between the attainment of a Piagetian formal operational concept (proportion) and personal characteristics in 117 children 10 to 12 years old. (SB)

Piaget's and Marx's cognitive theories of development are briefly compared and contrasted. This provides background for a critical look at Buck-Morss' interpretation of cross-cultural differences in performance on Piagetian abstract formal reasoning tests. (MS)

Attempts to identify variables for predicting academic success in electronics and find a model for predicting success in each of three main types of electronics programs. Results indicate that student's success in math and science in high school is a good predictor of their success and abstract learning preference is a valid discriminator between…

Argues the benefits of introducing S. I. Hayakawa's "abstraction ladder" to students. Discusses its implications for developing good writing and thinking skills and ways to use it with students. (RAE)

Outlines the elements of a revised epistemological approach to thinking about library and information science. Hermeneutical phenomenology seeks an understanding of the essence of things (such as the library) and takes into account, among other things, the intentional stances of the human actors within the realm of library and information science.…

Traces the decline of rhetoric and the underlying social changes that hastened its fall from grace. Argues the need for a reconstructed rhetoric. Creates a context for considering a visual rhetoric. Suggests that abstraction and scientific reductionism fail to address issues of human agency. Cites five examples of social or cultural problems that…

Includes a dandelion poem that is designed to stimulate elementary students' creativity and abstract-thinking skills. Offers several exercises to go with the poem: creating mental pictures, drawing first images, and performing for better understanding. A reproducible for creating a dandelion-shaped poem is included. (SM)

Describes an earlier study on the main characteristics and background of undergraduate students' difficulties when trying to solve mathematical tasks. Focuses on and extends part of an earlier study that concerned task solving strategies. Indicates that focusing on what is familiar and remembered at a superficial level is dominant over reasoning…

Describes a framework for identifying and classifying students' alternative conceptions and unscientific patterns of reasoning within a particular scientific domain. Provides a basic system for indicating how much researchers know about students' non-scientific conceptions and reasoning. Suggests how the framework may prove useful for…

Interviews 120 children in kindergarten and grades 2, 4, and 6 with five Piagetian tasks to determine the grade level at which most have constructed transitive reasoning, unit iteration, and conservation of speed. Indicates that construction of the logic necessary to make sense of the measurement of time is generally not complete before sixth…