Investigated whether instructing children in the component skills underlying Piagetian transitivity tasks would increase their performance on both transitivity-related tasks and on reasoning tasks not directly related to transitivity. Results indicate that incorporating the quantification of certain abstract symbols, training can influence…

Research regarding cognitive strategies instruction is reviewed and implications for its use with mildly handicapped learners considered. Approaches to enhance performance in memory and attention; academic learning (mathematics, written language, and reading comprehension); and studying content material are described. (CL)

This study compared the validity of chronological age, a standardized algebra prognosis test, standardized verbal and quantitative scales derived from an achievement test battery, and an objective measure of formal or concrete stages of Piagetian cognitive development for predicting final examination scores and course grades in high school…

Using play-material scales, SES, age, and sex as predictor variables, this study employed regression against the subvariables of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities of verbal, perceptual-performance, quantitative, memory, and motor abilities. Findings suggest that SES is predictive of verbal, quantitative, memory, and motor, while age is…

Research on cognitive development of low-birthweight infants is reviewed. The study of high-risk populatons should include measures of psychological development. Detailed assessment of the children's daily life and behavior patterns can provide clues for causal linkages to account for the association between social economic status and cognitive…

Do stage-related patterns of early cognitive development reported for normally developing children also characterize at-risk and handicapped children when mental age organization of data is used? Mental age predicted Piagetian-based cognitive levels one to three but did not predict highest-level symbolic functioning in 95 handicapped children.…

Concludes that environmental effects on IQ are relatively modest within the normal range of environments, but circumstances are very substantial. Cognitive development is influenced by direct effect on cognition and indirect effects through alterations in self-concept, aspirations, attitudes to learning and styles of interaction with other people.…

Middle-level teachers can avoid passive seatwork and encourage students to think using a "guided thinking" approach, designed to help adolescents develop more sophisticated thinking and reasoning skills. Essential elements of guided thinking are described, along with an implementation strategy and the principal's role in fostering…

Investigates the development of communicative competence during preschool age by analyzing certain types of communicative acts and sequences of communicative acts in adult-child and child-child communication. Assumes there are certain phases in which a child is especially prepared for the acquisition of certain types of communicative acts. (SED)

This project sought to establish an affective concept exemplar variable called "exemplar intensity," a characteristic that would challenge the notion of equivalence by its impact on cognitive gain. The hypothesis that the high-intensity exemplars would increase cognitive achievement above learners receiving low-intensity exemplars was…

Studies the ways in which citizens rationalize their obedience or disobedience to the law. There is a clear correspondence between cognitive structure, or moral reasoning, and political-legal predispositions. Political involvement is the catalyst which converts moral development into political maturity. (Author/CS)

Describes recent developments in brain science with implications for persons whose research interests are in science education. Discusses new conceptual models, useful methods and techniques, and how neuroscience paradigms and technologies can be applied to teaching and learning. (JM)

Presents concerns from the literature relating to the effects of computer language learning, computer programing, and the cognitive consequences of computer assisted instruction. It is argued that further research is needed to address these issues if computers are to retain their place in education. Fifty-five references are listed. (MBR)

The Situation Scale for Adolescents, an extended version of the Imaginary Audience Scale, was administered to several hundred youngsters in the seventh, ninth, and twelfth grades. The scale, assessing self-consciousness in two types of social situations, proved to be reliable, but yielded confused results regarding age and sex differences.…

Reports research supporting the hypothesis that concrete-operational college students playing the game Master Mind with an observer where there is verbal interaction designed to stimulate thinking about the problem-solving situation will show greater cognitive growth than subjects not playing the game. Implications for science instruction are…