This study to determine effects of preschool training of mentally retarded children from low-income families asks three major questions: 1. Does preschool training displace the rate of development of such children? 2. Does rate of growth continue at an accelerated rate, or does it return to the original rate of development during primary school…

The purpose of this sequence of a working paper intended for inclusion in a curriculum manual to be published in the future, is to provide the child with concrete experience, opportunities to represent things symbolically, and to learn the nature of symbols and how to read them. Examining objects, acting them out, and experimenting with them, the…

The second part of a working copy in preparation for inclusion into a curriculum manual to aid teachers of preschool children, this paper is devoted to questions, answers and discussions on Experience with Representation: 1. The Symbol Level, and 2. The Sign Level. It is noted that children cannot read or work with concepts they have not yet…

A test was designed to measure whether or not the child's conceptualization of space would demand that two topological properties of figures (connectedness, and openness and closedness) remain invariant when the figures were subjected to transformations. Ninety children, 30 from each of ages four, six, and eight, were tested. Six items were given…

Using ordering theory, a boolean algebraic measurement model in which item response patterns are viewed as atoms in a boolean algebra with as many generators as there are items being considered, a hierarchy-generative procedure is developed. This procedure relates to the determination of prerequisite relationships between pairs of items. An…

The primary objective of this study was to compare problem solving performance among formal operational, transitional, and concrete operational individuals with the effect of relative field independence taken into account within each of these three cognitive developmental levels. Secondarily, the study explored whether a developmental relationship…

As the first step in curriculum development, 12 educational programs for young deaf children with learning disabilities and communication problems were studied in order to identify the atypical deaf child. Subjects were 193 children (age range 6 to 14 years) selected from 12 schools for the deaf in New York State. Data was obtained from school…

The development of role concepts, as revealed in the ways in which children of different ages conceptualize specific occupational roles, is presented. The conceptualization of roles was studied in groups of 10 boys and 10 girls each from the first, third, and sixth grades. The mean ges of the groups were 6.9, 8.9, and 11.9 years, respectively.…

This report is a review of Olson's "Cognitive Development." Unlike a typical book review it does not compare and contrast the author's theoretical framework and methodological practices with those of others in the field, but rather it extensively describes and critiques the reported empirical work. The reasons given for this approach are that…

HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY UNIT TESTS AND A PRETEST DESIGNED TO PREDICT STUDENT SUCCESS ON A STATE CHEMISTRY EXAMINATION WERE CONSTRUCTED. HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHERS AND UNIVERSITY SCIENCE EDUCATORS USED BLOOM'S TAXONOMY OF EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES TO CLASSIFY TEST QUESTIONS ACCORDING TO THE DEGREE THAT THEY INVOLVED RECALL, COMPREHENSION, APPLICATION,…

This research was based on the assumption that the teaching of broadly generalizable cognitive skills should be a primary goal of education--that students can be taught to be better insight problem solvers outside of school by training in school and that they can be given the skills necessary for efficient discovery learning. The subjects were 116…

The proposal that young children's communicative intentions stem from prelinguistic cognitive abilities is examined in detail. The most developed available formulation of this proposal, that provided by Brown (1973), is evaluated, and the evidence in support of it is found to be insufficient. Three crucial problems, which must be solved before an…

This study investigated children's conceptions of death from a developmental perspective. Subjects were 170 children from grades K-4. Children were tested for conservation and interviewed, following story presentations about an elderly woman's death, to assess their understanding of three concepts concerning death: irrevocability, cessation of…

The task of this chapter is to explore the relationship that exists between individuals and society in the American culture. A special emphasis is placed on the experience of growing up in America and attention is given to those portions of everyday life that create the varying images of self and humankind that young people accept as real.…

The article describes research which attempted to discover whether emotionally disturbed children functioned at Piagetian levels of abstract thought similar to normal children. (CD)