Symbolic objects are cognitive tools children must learn to master very early in life. A crucial factor in cognitive development is the instruction or informational support children receive in social contexts. While numerous studies have investigated the relation between instruction and development in various domains, like language or symbolic…

Children with congenital deafblindness are a population of learners who may need intervention in order to develop symbolic understanding. They experience a combination of vision and hearing impairments that can affect how they make sense of the world, develop relationships, and understand symbols. In this article, the author reviewed a…

In this study symbolic motor skill acquisition was best when mental imagery was used. In early stages of performance males were more skillful but this sex difference disappeared in later stages of performance. The findings support the hypothesis that sex-related differences may vanish after training and practice. (VM)

The objective of this research was to explore whether orthographic learning occurs as a result of phonological recoding, as expected from the self-teaching hypothesis. The participants were 32 fourth- and fifth-graders (mean age = 10 years 0 months, SD = 7 months) who performed lexical decisions for monosyllabic real words and pseudowords under…

Children's developing competence with symbolic representations was assessed in 3 studies. Study 1 examined the hypothesis that the production of imaginary symbolic objects in pantomime requires the simultaneous coordination of the dual representations of a dynamic action and a symbolic object. We explored this coordination of symbolic…

This study evaluated the recognition and retention of transparent and nontransparent manual signs by 50 sign-naive hearing college freshmen. There was a significant decrease in the number of nontransparent signs retained as the period of time after training increased. Implications for sign language training with nonverbal hearing persons are…

Studies the employment of collage by young children as a symbolic activity in organized educational settings. Establishes a taxonomy of collage types and observes their development in two kindergarten classes. Concludes that collage promotes the acquisition of a flexible sequence of skills and reflects a range of abilities and approaches. (DSK)

This study was conducted to determine whether the filmic coding elements of split screen, slow motion, generated line cues, the zoom of a camera, and rotation could aid in the development of the Euclidean space concepts of horizontality and verticality, and to explore presence and development of spatial skills involving these two concepts in…

This report reviews major theoretical and empirical studies concerning the process of creativity and the skills involved in creating art. Part I describes process studies with adult subjects engaged in activities such as poetry writing, editing, and critiquing a poem. Ten amateur and ten professional poets were subjects. These studies analyzed the…