A series of studies on young children's use of the terms "same" and "different" are reported. The work began from the observation that young children could respond correctly to instructions involving "same" but were often incorrect in response to "different". This finding was replicated under a variety of experimental conditions and found to be…

This experiment was designed to see if classroom instruction in the concept of water level and horizontality can improve students' knowledge of these concepts. The sample consisted of a kindergarten and a second grade class from one school and a first grade class from another school. Each class was divided into three groups. The first group was…

A Study was conducted to determine the effects of saliency, concept rule, and stimulus variety upon number of trials to solution and focusing strategy. A prediction of special interest was that there would be a concept rule x saliency interaction. A 2 x 2 x 3 design combined concept rule (conjunctive, inclusive disjunctive), saliency ("high" and…

Negation as a logical operation was studied in a block sorting task in which children aged three through seven had to identify the set of not-X and not-XY from a domain of 18 blocks varying in shape and color. Seven experiments were carried out in which number of correct responses, error types, and response latencies were analyzed. For negation…

Three main studies were conducted to determine the effects of certain independent variables (number of positive and negative instances, presence or absence of a concept definition specifying the defining attributes, and presence or absence of emphasis of relevant attributes) on the learning of environmental concepts. Sixth-grade children who…

An experiment replicated and extended a previous study on the value of negative instances in concept learning (i.e., an instance of something which does not exemplify the concept helps to make clear what the concept is). In this experiment, the concept to be learned was "adverb". The subjects were seventh grade students. Some groups of subjects…

A series of eleven concepts, eight of which were presented in a teacher training course, were rated by 252 undergraduate education majors on 15 semantic differential scales at the beginning and end of the course in an attempt to assess changes in the factor structure of semantic space and changes in the connotative meanings of the concepts. Scales…

A summary of current theoretical work in the area of concept formation is presented with emphasis on the presentation of thinking in theory. Examination of the logic relating thinking to behavior leads to criticism of the tendency to subordinate "behavior" to underlying processes. The difficulties inherent in analyses of this type are that…

Content and task dimensions of science items were studied using factor analytic techniques. These items were developed to measure concept attainment using a completely crossed design with 30 concepts and 12 tasks. Conventional factor analyses were performed, separately for boys and girls, for concept scores and for task scores. Three-mode factor…

Some of the assumptions, conditions, and parameters which deal with power structures and rural development are briefly specified in this paper. The definitions (conceptual and operational) for power, social power, authority, influence, power structure, development, and rural are discussed. The ideological orientation under which development…

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 study tested the hypotheses that, following training in concept learning strategies, subjects would tend to follow the strategy taught and would perform better than untrained subjects. A sample of 60 graduate students was randomly assigned to three groups. The experimental task, administered via a computer teletype terminal, required subjects…

The intent of this project was to utilize in a unique way some of the recent thinking and research on the teaching learning process so that the lecture method might be replaced by a more effective instructional model. The area of instruction was physical science for the non-science college student. At each meeting a single concept was presented as…

THE GENERAL PROBLEM UNDER INVESTIGATION CONCERNED TWO PROCESSES OF CONCEPT FORMATION - THE DEDUCTIVE REASONING PROCESS AND THE ASSOCIATIVE PROCESS - EMPLOYED BY CHILDREN OF ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL AGE. IT WAS ASSUMED THAT BOTH OF THESE PROCESSES ARE FOUND IN VARYING DEGREES AMONG CHILDREN OF DIFFERENT AGES AND MENTAL ABILITIES, DEPENDING UPON THE…

This report provides an overview of concept and principle-learning studies and traces the theoretical basis for schema theory, which asserts that all knowledge is assimilated into a general cognitive framework. The procedures of an original study are described, which was designed to test the hypothesis that the inclusion of a "domain…