The presuppositions that favor firsthand experience over secondhand information, as pertaining to learning and education, are questioned. It is noted that, when education and firsthand experience are described as if equivalent, a presumption is made that a commonsense theory of knowledge and mind is valid. Research on the social psychology of…

Reports research demonstrating that fourth-grade subjects could not solve a basic transverse patterning problem involving pairs of geometric forms even after 90 trials. The addition of one nonspatial dimension, however, resulted in solution. Also, the greater the number of nonspatial dimensions present, the better the learning. (Author/SDH)

A theory of discrimination which assumes that subjects compare psychological values evoked by a stimulus to a subjective referent is proposed. For a related article, see TM 501 716. (Author/RC)

Presents a series of these experiments which examined cue function in trigram verbal discrimination learning by retarded subjects. The two variables of chief interest were: (1) trigram meaningfulness, and (2) reinforcement history. (Author/LLK)

Tries to unravel some of the problems concerning the previous finding that increasing the number of depth cues in pictures has a depressing effect on spatial accuracy of three dimensional reconstruction of pictures. Evidence does not support a deficiency in perceiving pictorial depth in African children. (AM)

Research supported by a predoctoral fellowship (MH-17, 605-02) from the National Institute of Mental Health.

This report describes a computer drill called the Corrective Feedback Paradigm (CFP) and summarizes a research study which examines the effects of the CFP on posttest and time to mastery achievement. The CFP, which embodies the use of such principles as mastery learning, increasing ratio review, and discrimination training, is capable of being…

Preschool children's association of the correct name with a clearly identified graphic form during an alphabet naming process is examined in this study. Subjects were 139 children (ages 2, 3, 4, and 5 years) who were asked individually to identify 52 cards, each with a single upper or lower case letter printed on it. Analysis of data was based on…

Nonsense forms with nonsense labels were utilized in a match to sample task to observe whether children's word extensions are based on static form characteristics or on functional action characteristics. The stimuli consisted of: (1) a single model object which performed an action; (2) a selection array consisting of one object similar in form to…

TWO GROUPS OF CHILDREN ATTENDED THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS NURSERY SCHOOL FOR EIGHT WEEKS. THE MORNING CLASS WAS HELD FOR 20 FOUR-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN OF MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILIES. THE AFTERNOON CLASS WAS FOR 24 FIVE-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN OF LOW-INCOME FAMILIES. THREE COMPARATIVE STUDIES WERE MADE. IN STUDY I NO CHANGE WAS FOUND ON THE PEABODY PICTURE…

The ability of infants to recognize their mothers as distinct from others was investigated by presenting 6 boys and 6 girls at two age levels (5 weeks and 13 weeks) with the following six sequential stimulus conditions: (1) mother's face (MO); (2) stranger's face (SO); (3) mother's face with stranger's voice (MS); (4) stranger's face with mother's…