Examines five general issues related to research on children's use of hypotheses during problem solving: (1) types of hypotheses and how they are detected, (2) the acquisition of hypotheses through cognitive or conditioning mechanisms, (3) learning, sampling assumptions, and rule-guided behavior, (4) feedback variables, and (5) subject variables.…

This investigation focused on the stage of formal operational reasoning in the acquisition of astronomy concepts, and on efficacy of different instructional experiences for facilitating cognitive change in college students. Included are selected results and directions for future research. (SK)

Several studies are presented which deal with more/less from a positive perspective based on what children can do, in the hope that results might be helpful to primary school teachers and to teacher educators who work with them. It is felt teacher awareness may help instructors. (MP)

Shows how a scale of questions can be used to develop and assess children's ability to comprehend information presented through different modalities and media. The scale's five levels, which indicate increasing difficulty in comprehension, are association, classification, seriation, integration, and extension. (Author/DB)

This study indicated that the dimensions of the configuration provided by INDSCAL multidimensional scaling are psychologically relevant to learning the concept of artistic style and that sensitivity to these dimensions, as measured by INDSCAL subject weights, can predict important individual differences in responses to another group of stimuli.…

Construct organization was inferred from subjects' responses to a specially modified implication grid. Both developmental predictions and the validity of grid measures received excellent support from the analysis of children's theories of their peers as a function of their own age, sex and verbal intelligence. (Author)

Designed to determine whether (1) children of middle socioeconomic status (SES) learn matrix completion rules more rapidly than lower-SES children; (2) feedback influences rate of rule acquisition; (3) rule shifting influences rate of rule acquisition; (4) SES is associated with transfer of training; and (5) effectiveness of rule acquisition and…

Reported is a study designed to determine conceptualizations of scientific concepts, laws and theories (linguistic structure of science) held by 80 Kwara State, Nigeria, secondary school science teachers relative to conceptualizations identified with seven philosophers of science. (Author/DS)

The study involving 54 children (10 to 15 years old) was concerned with identification of conceptual functioning as an avenue of differentiating between auditory processing problems and primary ego development difficulties within the context of appropriate instructional/remediation strategies. (Author/SBH)

The author demonstrates how schools reflect our cultural tradition by giving low status to forms of consciousness and intelligence related to the arts. He discusses forms of representation and modes of conceptualization, arguing for the adoption of a broader view of cognition, that values the full range of student aptitudes. (SJL)

It was concluded that repeated review is more beneficial to deaf than to hearing students, and that it selectively affects memory tasks (recall and recognition) more than tasks requiring higher level processing (concept acquisition and problem solving). (Author/DLS)

Discussed is research which shows, in contrast to the dominant impression given by Piaget's work, that before the onset of schooling the young child possesses several kinds of fundamental "intuitions" concerning numbers. (Author/TG)

Defines interpersonal communication competence, describes a competency-based course offered at the University of Cincinnati, and reports the results of research testing the effects of a skills approach to interpersonal communication instruction. Tests for specific skills of empathy, descriptiveness, owning thoughts and feelings, and…

Described is the use of analogy in teaching abstract chemical concepts. A foreign universe is postulated and nuts, bolts, and washers play the roles of atoms and molecules in this universe. (DS)

An examination of the effects of different types of review questions on the transfer skills of seventh grade math students indicates that relatively difficult review questions can effectively facilitate the retention of these skills. (JD)