The ability to make relational discriminations, i.e., to solve problems by responding to the relationships between cues rather than to the absolute properties of individual cues, is examined. The laboratory analogy of this type of problem is referred to as a conditional discrimination problem. Mr. Grogg empirically demonstrates the difference…

The study undertakes to clarify and redefine some of the concepts underlying the relations between visual perception and thinking. A sample bibliography suggests sources for future research. Psychological and psysiological theory is shown historically to have separated the two mental functions in principle. Correspondingly, present-day education,…

The development of concept usage was studied in 120 normal, mildly retarded, and moderately retarded children. A forced-choice match-to-standard task was used, with the equivalence matches compared with the Ss' explanations of their choices. Among the findings were that performance was related to the stimulus condition (competing versus…

The specification of a lexicon, centering on the referential base concept and compiled for primary education, is explored in this paper. Classification of a sample of 518 entries from a desk dictionary into one of five categories is discussed, and analysis of the 266 entries in the fourth category (base concept-naming entries) according to the…

This bibliography is included in the fourth series of general bibliographies developed to disseminate information on documents analyzed at the ERIC Information Analysis Center for Science and Mathematics Education. Reported are 71 citations of selected documents related to science and mathematics achievement. The documents include research…

A tri-level structure of cognitive operations in concept learning is proposed, based on results of controlled experimentation and factor analytic studies. Global strategies in concept attainment are hypothesized to consist of three phases: attending to the situation, searching for information, and processing and using the information. Further,…

Reading is defined operationally as the cognitive process of perceiving and ordering our environment. As such it is a psychomotor process involving the reorganization of experiences evoked by some stimulus. Thus defined, reading is equated with perception and has several primary functions, including concept building, which begins with perception…

Based on the hypothesis that the construction of number is closely related to the development of logic, this book records a series of experiments investigating classes, relations, and numbers as cognitive domains. The author finds that number is organized, stage after stage, in close connection with the gradual elaboration of systems of inclusions…

This paper, using the concept of method as a unit of analysis, constructs an analog model for analysis of small units or entire programs in the classroom instruction situation (CIS). The author formulates a series of conceptualizations, translated into diagrams, of the CIS based on viewing teaching and learning as (a) cases of intellect activity…

This document contains lesson plans for teaching the left-right relational concept to preschool children. Procedures were designed from a Piagetian framework, so that cognitive conflict was considered a necessary condition for the evolution of transpositional skills. Conflicting viewpoints were instituted through teacher initiated peer…

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the learning and retention of concepts formed from novel visual stimulus materials (wave-form patterns). The purpose of the first experiment was to scale sets of wave forms as a function of difficulty, i.e., subjects were shown a prototype wave form and were asked to give same-different judgments for…

The purpose of the study was to determine whether kindergarten children could perform successfully on Piagetian class inclusion tasks and whether their performance was a function of the types of conditions under which the task was presented. Children were asked to classify items based on a physical attribute not visually perceptible (painted…

An act of rhetoric has attitudinal significance; that is, a part of rhetoric involves persuasion. Further, attitudinal frames of reference relate to and result from the retrieval of stored information (memory, etc.) and the generation of arguments. By studying the relative strength that subjects use in arguing an "issue-concept," the…

Three studies were conducted to assess the abstraction processes involved in the development of the ability to associate numerals with sets of the appropriate size (numeration). Experiment 1 examined the sequence of the ability to discriminate relative numerical magnitude, numerical equivalence, Arabic numerals, absolute size of a set, and…

Instructional development should be based on theory rather than raw empiricism. The dimensions and possible form of an instructional theory are outlined in three premises. It was presumed that a limited set of behavior categories exist and that all behaviors can be calssed into one or more of these categories. It was also presumed that for each…