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)

An instructional design theory, based on direct empirical validation from a programmatic line of instructional systems research, is presented. Concept learning is viewed as a two-phase process: (1) formation of conceptual knowledge and (2) development of procedural knowledge. (Author/LMO)

A structural model of emotions was used to reveal patterns in how children interpret the emotional facial expressions of others. Tests with young children and adults indicate that children organize the emotional domain in a systematic fashion, initially according to pleasure and arousal and later in terms of adult-like categories. (Author/AS)

A review of recent studies indicates that gifted learners spontaneously produce more effective learning strategies than comparison groups and benefit from the use of more complex, externally provided strategies. Implications include the use of slower presentation rates for new information, spatial organization of prose content, and…

Investigates effects of illustrations on 11-year-olds' comprehension of abstract and concrete passages. Reveals no significant effects due to the illustrations, although ability effects were found for literal, inferential, and total comprehension. (DF)

Misconceptions can be avoided by defining terms and concepts unambiguously, using them consistently with wide exemplification, and explaining their limits of applicability. Concepts used to illustrate these points include work, momentum change, bodies and experience, and bodies and particles. (JN)

Fourth-year students in eight classes were tested over a three-year period to determine the ease or difficulty with which they learned the conservation principle. A major focus was on ideas they held about the nature of energy before beginning the course. Results and implications for physics instruction are presented. (JN)

Describes main features of students' thinking about heat and temperature (developed before formal science teaching) and results of a study that shows that many notions about heat/temperature used by younger children are still apparent in the thinking of older students. The study involved interviews with 84 students in three age groups. (JN)

Presents and analyzes excerpts from an interview with one student to determine his conceptions of light (including the nature of light and of optical systems). Implications for instruction include taking students' initial beliefs seriously, approaching issues through actual experiences, and using intelligible, plausible, and fruitful…

Approximately 500 nonscience major university chemistry students were surveyed to record their interpretations of specific chemical symbolism before presenting modern concepts of atomic and molecular structure, in an attempt to understand the thought processes entering students use as they interpret symbolism. Results are reported and discussed.…

All counseling approaches presume a culturally learned conceptual framework and a culturally appropriate contextual preference for counseling. These systems emphasize the importance of complexity and balance in counseling relationships. (Author/ABB)

Considers two hypotheses about the association between equivalent words in a bilingual's two languages: (1) word association, which hypothesizes a direct association between words in the two languages and (2) concept mediation, which proposes the only connection between the two languages is via an underlying conceptual system. Reports on…

How secondary social studies teachers can teach concepts through the skills of categorizing and generalizing is discussed. (RM)