This study investigated taxonomic clustering and use of frequency associations as features in the semantic memory of children (n=30 in grades two and six) with learning disabilities (LD). Results suggested that, when individual child-generated word lists (i.e., meaningful) are used, children with LD may not be impaired in their ability to utilize…

Presents study results examining conditions in which children can apply a previously learned memorization strategy to new but analogous tasks. Concludes that strategy mastery during training is not sufficient. Reports that only subjects who use information about relations between procedures and results to construct generalizable knowledge are able…

Applies to the inclined-plane task Siegler's (1981) observation that performance on Piagetian tasks is governed by similar rule structures. Also replicates Siegler's original observations about the development on the balance-scale task and determines the consistency in children's rule usage across tasks. (Author/AS)

Examines the differences between concrete and abstract concepts and their implications for instructional design and teaching. How specific concepts are stored in and retrieved from memory is described, analogies are discussed as an instructional tool in abstract concept learning, and a possible instructional strategy for teaching abstract concepts…

Developmental changes leading to mature judgments of the relative effectiveness of verbal memory strategies were examined in 60 subjects (20 each from second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade classrooms). Subjects viewed videotapes of a female child who was given the task of remembering a set of categorizable pictures. Demonstrations of four memory…

Arguing that an explicit representation of the problem-solving method of an expert system shell as abstract control knowledge provides a powerful foundation for learning, this paper describes the abstract control knowledge of the Heracles expert system shell for heuristic classification problems, and describes how the Odysseus apprenticeship…

The feasibility of guiding students of moderate aptitude to select appropriate learning strategies while they are learning an imaginary classification system was investigated in a study that contrasted the effect of system-assigned strategies for learning concepts with strategies selected by students. Subject-matter content was based on a set of…

Tested 32 4-year-olds and 32 6-year-olds for free and cued recall following either play-and-remember or sort-and-remember instructions and assessed them for their metamemory of the efficacy of conceptual and perceptual sorting strategies. Younger children recalled more items under sort-and-remember, whereas no recall differences were found for the…

The nature of cluster analysis and dendograms, subjects, tasks, and results of this study are described. Categories for problems were based on assumptions about the methods used by novice and expert problem solvers in a physics context. (CW)

Sixteen sixth and seventh grade students with language disorders were taught 20 vocabulary items by means of categorization and verbal rehearsal, with half of the students encouraged to use a visual imagery learning strategy. Results suggest that visual imagery may enhance verbal encoding strategies. (Author/DB)

Summarizes strategies and recommendations included in various prominent instructional theories (behaviorism, Gagne and Briggs' events of instruction, component display theory, cognitive research, and Keller's motivational-design) to provide guidelines for designing the practice component of instruction. (MBR)

Describes functions comprising task analysis process--inventory, description, selection, sequencing, and analysis--and reviews distinctions between the micro/macro level, top-down/bottom-up, and job/learning task analysis processes. These functions and distinctions are combined into a quasi-algorithm suggesting which of 30 task analysis procedures…

To control for interactions in learning research due to subjects' prior knowledge of the instructional material presented, an imaginary curriculum was presented with a computer assisted technique based on Carl Berieter's imaginary science of Xenograde systems. The curriculum consisted of a classification system for ten conceptual classes of…

Discussed is whether embedding generative cognitive strategies in microcomputer courseware improves student performance on cognitive assessment measures and on insect classification tasks. The effects of transactional software on students' knowledge of insect anatomy and principles of insect classification were also investigated. (KR)

Self-directed, or independent study activities were studied in adolescents, as well as their antecedents and consequences. The interrelationships, across age and grade, of several variables were described; i.e.: course requirements and conditions, student characteristics, study activities, and school achievement. First, autonomous learning…