Persistence has proven to be a great challenge in online learning environments. Gaming and interactivity have been suggested as essential features in reducing dropout and increasing persistence in online learning. Yet in interactive game-based learning environments, persistence in moving forward in the game may come at the expense of investing in…

Visual appearance is one of the main cues children rely on when categorizing novel objects. In 3 studies, testing 128 3-year-olds and 192 5-year-olds, we investigated how various kinds of information may differentially lead children to overlook visual appearance in their categorization decisions across domains. Participants saw novel animals or…

Israeli participants (N=338) rated five time-related concepts (time, past, present, future, own life stage) on Semantic Differential Scales. Participants constituted six age-based groups, representing childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood, late adulthood, and old age. Results indicate that people of different ages differ significantly…

Concepts about and evaluations of the unequal distribution of personal possessions were examined in Americans and Israelis of various ages ranging from kindergarten to 50-year-old adults. A number of developmental and cultural differences are discussed, and the general pattern of results is interpreted as reflecting different experiential…

A total of 84 Israeli middle- and upper-middle-class nursery school, second and fifth grade children were subjects for a study investigating parallel shifts in dimensional salience and the dominance of these dimensions as organizing principles in memory. (MS)

The difficulties that younger students experience in understanding concepts related to the use of variables in computer programming are examined through descriptions of two studies: (1) detailed case studies of six highly intelligent children--three fourth graders and three sixth graders--who learned to program in BASIC during 60 hours of…

Developmental changes in the interaction between word order and structural cues were investigated. Hebrew-speaking children between 4 and 10 years old interpreted noun-verb-noun utterances. Both word order and structural cues affected interpretation by all subjects, though the role of structural cues increased with age. (Author/DB)

School students' conceptual frameworks in astronomy and students' levels of knowledge and conceptualization were examined for 130 students in grades 2 through 12. Knowledge and conceptualization increased with school age. A test administered to 892 students in 7 schools demonstrated that schools contributed little to education in astronomy. (SLD)