The study explored ways in which congenitally blind children group objects and words, revealing their level of cognitive development. Differences in patterns of response as a function of age and type of tasks are presented, and the implications of these findings for the education of this population are discussed. (Author/CL)

Analyzes the assumptions of interpersonal listening based on empathy. Provides (1) a brief historical overview of the empathic tradition as it relates to interpersonal communication study and to listening; (2) a critique of presuppositions underlying the concept of empathic listening; and (3) some guidelines for developing alternatives to empathic…

Jean Piaget's cognitive theory was used to investigate the economic reasoning of children and adolescents. Findings indicate student reasoning becomes more abstract, other directed, and flexible with increasing age; five concepts are prerequisites to understanding other economic concepts; and the rate at which economic reasoning develops varies by…

Learning disabled children in three age groups were found deficient on binary conceptual rule tasks when compared to normal children. A modified reception paradigm using three bidimensional rules and two instructional conditions was used to test the hypothesis that deficient rule learning rather than inattention is responsible for poor learning in…

The study assessed object permanence construct performance in 20 severely handicapped students (4 to 14 years old) who were differentiated by treatment (prompt) condition and motor ability level. Results revealed a trait (motor ability) x treatment interaction. (Author/SB)

For textbook reading assignments to be effective, teachers must develop well-defined procedures for making the assignments clear and relevant to the students and their experiences. Guidelines are offered. (Author/WD)

Focuses on concept development as a major intellectual activity for elementary school children, and offers a structural sequence for teaching concepts which (1) involves children's experiences, (2) places the concept in a social, cultural, and historical context, and (3) treats the concept as complex and problematic rather than simple. (Author/CM)

Evaluates McLuhan's contribution to the theoretical literature on rhetoric and communication. Reviews some of the ontological and normative tenets of his early and late periods in order to place him within contemporary intellectual circles. (PD)

A model for teaching the concept of length to visually impaired students in grades K through 8 is provided, with additional suggestions on teaching children to understand the concepts of area, temperature, capacity, weight, volume, angles, and money or value. (Author/SW)

Conducted among children of three different age levels, Experiment I tested the hypothesis that categorization ability is acquired in the following order: basic, superordinate, subordinate. Experiments II and III tested among adults the hypothesis that the greater the differentiation of categories at a given hierarchical level, the earlier…

Seeks, in a reasoned analysis, to bring to the consciousness of home economists a model underlying thought and action in the home economics profession. (CT)

Two cognitive tasks (construction of space and recognition of space) were developed to test the emergence of three spatial concepts ("in", "on", and "under"). Subjects were 60 Israeli children between 18 and 30 months of age. Scalogram analysis and analysis of variance confirmed that "in" concepts developed…

Provides teachers with an understanding of how sighted children develop concepts about print and how blind children develop concepts about braille. Prereading activities designed to extend young children's concepts about print are adapted for blind children. (HTH)

Studied the development of the concepts of energy conservation and entropy in 5- to 15-year-old children. Energy conservation was not well understood until about age 15. Entropy was understood by 9- to 15-year-olds when the concept was illustrated by the gradual mixing of differently colored, rolling marbles. (Author/DB)

Maintains that concepts such as self-object mirroring are bridging humanistic psychology and psychoanalysis. Information is presented on the self-psychology of Chicago psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut. (Author/DB)