Embodied cognition--the idea that mental states and processes should be understood in relation to one's bodily constitution and interactions with the world--remains a controversial topic within cognitive science. Recently, however, increasing interest in predictive processing theories among proponents and critics of embodiment alike has raised…

Categories are fundamental to everyday life and the ability to learn new categories is relevant across the lifespan. Categories are ubiquitous across modalities, supporting complex processes such as object recognition and speech perception. Prior work has proposed that different categories may engage learning systems with unique developmental…

Modern schoolchildren are the new digital generation and their preferences for working with information are based on of the dominant sensory modality which can be visual, auditory, and tactile/ kinesthetic. Therefore, to organize effective mathematics teaching it is necessary to use a personalized system of teaching techniques, instructional…

In two experiments, we investigated whether 4- to 5-year-old children's ability to demonstrate their understanding of aspectuality was influenced by how the test question was phrased. In Experiment 1, 60 children chose whether to look or feel to gain information about a hidden object (identifiable by sight or touch). Test questions referred either…

Research suggests that concepts are distributed across brain regions specialized for processing information from different sensorimotor modalities. Multimodal semantic models fall into one of two broad classes differentiated by the assumed hierarchy of convergence zones over which information is integrated. In shallow models, communication within-…

Discusses the nature of explanations and the nature of models and the relationship between them. Reviews the explanatory value of major models of change in science. Models the characteristics of everyday thinking and the effect of attempts to change that thinking on scientific thinking. (Author/CCM)

Educating for personal knowing requires an approach to learning that is based in direct sensory experience. Creative art activity nurtures the development of vital sensory experience at every stage of the life cycle. Through imagination, sensory experience is transformed into self-knowledge and conceptual thought; together they illuminate the…

Four studies examined 10- to 18-month-old infants' ability to detect and encode correlations among features in a motion event. Findings indicated that the youngest infants process static features in an event independently but do not process correlations among dynamic features; the oldest detect correlations between all three features when the…

The label "cognitive" has been used to designate five substantially different approaches to the study of learning disabilities: information processing, metacognition, genetic epistemology, cognitive behavior modification, and the specific abilities model. (Author)

A number of studies conducted during the last decade have found that students' achievement increases when teaching methods match their learning styles--biological and developmental characteristics that affect how they learn. Correlational studies and experimental research studies are reviewed on instructional environments, perceptual preferences,…

Reviews five books: (1) "Modularity and Constraints in Language and Cognition" (Gunnar and Maratsos); (2) "Beyond Modularity: A Developmental Perspective on Cognitive Science" (Karmiloff-Smith"; (3) "The Self-System: Developmental Changes between and within Self-Concepts" (Oosterwegel and Oppenheimer); (4)…

Babies and young children learn through extensive experimenting and by being encouraged, unknowingly, by parents to use their multiple intelligences. Later, children are forced to conform to the narrow intelligence valued by the formal education system; those who can not adapt drop out. By using multiple intelligences, we access a greater portion…

Reviews empirical studies of outdoor education's impact on cognitive development. Research findings are presented on the subject areas of environmental education, general science, and language development. A cautionary synthesis of research related to learning in the out-of-doors is also offered. (ML)

Proposes that offering students activities that exercise right-brain functions (nonverbal, nonrational, spatial, and intuitive) helps students become more fully developed human beings and better writers. (RL)

In a study of attending behavior during the crossover period (12-13 years), when preferences shift from auditory to visual stimuli, females switched their preferences significantly earlier than did males. Besides biological factors, these sex differenes were attributed to differential conditioning of attitudes, reinforcement, and discrimination…