In relation to teaching and learning approaches that improve student learning outcomes, threshold concepts have generated substantial interest in higher education. They have been described as "portals" that lead to a transformed way of understanding or thinking, enabling learners to progress, and have been enthusiastically adopted to…

Four new military training systems offer the opportunity for the application of cognitive science. They are the following: (1) a family of memorization games; (2) a simulator with a graphic, schematic student interface; (3) a system for solving problems of relative motion; and (4) a method of building cognitive skills for air-intercept control.…

One of the major trends occurring in the area of task analysis methodology is the development of better methods to analyze cognitive tasks, including new methodologies for analyzing the ways in which knowledge should be structured within a student's head to facilitate given types of performance. The most important trend is the integration of task…

Prepared as part of a larger work on human intelligence, this report examines basic attentional and perceptual contributions to intelligence. The report is organized into two sections: the first summarizes and evaluates research that has tried to uncover basic information processing skills that account for individual differences in intelligence;…

Reviews synthesis as an important task of evaluation, putting evidence together for a coherent assessment. Types of synthesis are described from the case of two variables to more complex situations, ending with metanalysis. Syntheses help identify common patterns and regularities and can help progress toward positive social change. (SLD)

The literary field offers an especially rich array of examples of the insight phenomenon and demonstrates that insight experiences occur outside the problem-solving paradigm of cognitive science. Analysis shows that the seemingly unitary moment of insight is actually a microgenetic sequence (a rapid sequence of developmental change) deeply…

The second of three articles on the ways in which people formulate their observations, this paper begins with a discussion of the assumptions underlying analytical and class-based models of cognition. The analytical approach to the measurement of cognition is found to be inappropriate because human cognition, and consequently language processing…

Computer based instruction (CBI) is composed of individual frames viewed one at a time. Compared to a typical textbook, CBI restricts the adult learner's capacity to access information from different parts of the lesson and to view complex presentations. Designers of CBI must compensate for these limitations by making a concerted effort to…

This review of two distinct areas of research--brain research and psycho-epistemology--indicates a possible link between the two which may potentially help to identify an as yet unknown molar trait which could be responsible for divergent opinions regarding teaching and learning theories, and may help to explain differential achievement when these…

Recent advances in theory and research provide a basis for defining higher-order thinking skills and for designing tests of such skills. (MCG)

Examines the similarities and differences between instructional theory and learning theory. Suggests that a unified theory of both instructional theory and learning theory needs to exist so that all aspects of human behavior within the instructional situation can be placed in perspective. (Author)

The teaching of decision-making, problem-solving, and higher-order thinking skills is necessary to ensure adaptability to our world of accelerated change. Living skills in the technology and information age will include the understanding and application of higher level thinking skills, which will be the educational "basics" of tomorrow.…

Instructional research is synthesized, using categories specific and functional enough to provide guidance for classroom practice. The opening chapter presents a theory for conducting a theory-based meta-analysis of the research on instruction, outlining a theory that involves four elements of human information processing: the self-system, the…

Ways in which children learn about race and form attitudes towards groups other than their own are described and the processes underlying the development of racial awareness and racial attitudes are delineated. The first three sections of the paper discuss the age at which racial attitudes begin to form, the developmental antecedents of racial…