Two studies involving learning disabled elementary students examined two procedures shown to facilitate concept acquisition among normal children: selection and sequence of positive and negative examples and analytic assistance during concept learning. Examples did not facilitate concept acquisition, and exposure to a simple strategy actually…

In three experiments, a multiple habituation paradigm was used to examine the ability of 7- and 9-month-old prelinguistic infants to form a natural, basic-level object category. Findings constitute independent evidence for the existence of a linguistically relevant nonlinguistic category prior to the onset of word comprehension. (SED)

A series of six experiments compares young children's competence in attributing absence of knowledge (ignorance) to their competence in attributing a false belief to the other. (HOD)

Examines developmental change in 4- 7- and 10-month-old infants' perceptions of correlations among attributes to determine whether relational information plays a role in abilities ranging from the perception and recognition of a simple pattern to the formation of a category. (HOD)

Reports two experiments in which eight patients with organic memory disorders exhibited a pattern of search behavior that resembled mnemonmic precedence--the ability to retrieve an object at an initial location, but not at a new location. (HOD)

Subjects, who were pretested for levels of cognitive complexity and occupational positivity, participated in one of four self-administered vocational interventions. Results indicated subjects decreased in levels of complexity but increased in levels of occupational positivity over time. Effects were qualified by the differential impact of various…

Tests children for the effects of prior knowledge on the amount of learning that occurs after a training period focusing on either number skills or logical operations. No relationship existed between the amount children learned and their pretraining knowledge or the amount learned and their developmental level. (Author/BB)

This article reviews the research applications of Dr. Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development and moral education. Included are studies conducted in both juvenile and adult correctional settings. (Author/CT)

Three experiments demonstrate that children four to ten years old, when presented with a series recall task with pictures of common objects having short or long names, showed consistently better recall of pictures with short names. (HOD)

Using recent research in linguistics and developmental psychology, this study suggests that English spelling can be taught systematically and that its mastery is central to literacy. Examines the levels at which spelling represents information about the English language and presents five stages of spelling knowledge through which achieving…

Examines kindergartners' and second graders' knowledge of concept attribute importance and the children's use of this knowledge to categorize. (HOD)

Describes four experiments that examined the ability of second- and fifth-grade children and college adults to use "extra-list" cues to retrieve episodic information from memory. Shows that effective cue use varied with both the "match" of cue and event classification, and with the associative structure of permanent memory.…

A longitudinal investigation on development of conservation skills in 31 learning disabled (LD) children suggested that delayed transition between preoperational and concrete operational thought may be an important factor in understanding the continued school failure of learning disabled children. (Author/CL)

Results of two experiments involving four severely handicapped preschoolers suggested that Ss could be taught rudimentary communication skills prior to the attainment of J. Piaget's sensorimotor stage 5. It was further suggested that establishment of initial labeling in an elicited training format will not necessarily generalize to either…

Assessed developmental trends in competency to stand trial in a study of incarcerated and nonincarcerated adolescents (N=52) and adults (N=19). Results indicated that competency to stand trial does increase through the adolescent years, but even older adolescents received lower scores on a competency measure than did adults. (JAC)