A study of 228 undergraduate psychology students examined the effectiveness of a prototype of "heatlab," a laboratory simulation written in PCE-PROLOG, intended for remedying misconceptions of the concepts "heat" and "temperature." The effect of varying the amount of structure on students' understanding and the…

This study compared the effects of cooperative learning groups to traditional instruction in remediating students' misconceptions about temperature. Students from grades 3, 4, and 5 in two rural elementary schools participated in the study. Students completed a pretest, a cognitive conflict laboratory activity and a posttest that measured…

Intended to help professionals remain knowledgeable about current research in reading and to serve as a relatively accessible bibliographic source of research on a specific topic, this annual report summarizes approximately 800 reading research reports identified between July 1, 1985, and June 30, 1986. The summaries are arranged into six major…

Arguments for and against banning television commercials aimed at children under age 12, as well as the role of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the First Amendment, and parents in regulating such commercials, are explored in this paper. Following an introduction that describes the controversy, a second section of the paper details the…

Current issues in educational communications and technology are addressed in this collection of 47 conference papers in which research reports predominate. Topics discussed include factors related to the learner, e.g., learning strategies, information processing, spatial ability, cognitive style, and cognitive strategies. Presentation format and…

This research paper examines hidden cultural patterns establishing the expression of historical thought in Native Alaskan narratives which describe first contact with Russians. Historical consciousness in oral contact stories is always mythic in form, as well as in content. Native American oral cultures understood new events by…

This bibliography identifies reports of inferential research on problem solving in mathematics. The listing was developed for use in a synthesis of the research performed by meta-analysis. Guidelines for including studies were applied as follows: (1) the report provided product-moment correlation coefficients and their sample sizes or, in the case…

The argument is presented that good writing begins with adult inner speech that ignores audience and then gradually evolves into a form of communication adding the vital component of audience into its focus. It is suggested that when second language writers are not trained to go beyond the inner speech in their own language, they do not have the…

Six specific second language learning theories are presented and for each, an example of a practical, classroom application is provided. The theories include the following: (1) it is important to create a positive atmosphere in the classroom because cognitive learning increases when self-concept improves; (2) activities that employ multiple senses…

This two-volume document describes a study which focused on characterizing the elements involved in information seeking and retrieving, particularly in relation to the cognitive decisions and human interactions involved in online information retrieval. The study objectives were to conduct experiments and observations, under conditions as close to…

This report describes the first of three stages in a study in the domain of problem solving: the definition and explication of schema knowledge. One objective of this research is to understand how schema knowledge is acquired and used in the chosen domain. The focus is on ways in which instruction influences the development of specific knowledge…

Perspectives on a psychological approach to learning are offered in this paper. Specific emphasis is directed to the assumption that children possess "minitheories." Minitheories are defined as attempts to make sense of particular kinds of experiences and are explained and delimited by the domain of experience to which they currently apply. This…

Developed to explore how individuals receive and process sensory information, this paper describes a curriculum designed for elementary students concerning the brain and information processing. The course is entitled "Mind Adventuring: Learning about How We Learn" and is structured into eight units of study. Descriptive accounts are…

The present research addresses the issues of whether there exist certain cognitive skills that facilitate transfer, and whether such skills are themselves transferable across domains. Of primary concern is the instructability of such skills. The Systems Thinking and Curriculum Innovation Project (STACI) is a two-year research project testing the…

This study explored the hypothesis that Japanese children perform significantly better on simultaneous processing than on sequential processing. The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) served as the criterion of the two types of mental processing. Regression equations to predict Sequential and Simultaneous processing from McCarthy…