Describes an empirical method of developing learning hierarchies by comparing success on each tested behavior with all other behaviors. Advantages, compared with validation of a particular logical hierarchy, are illustrated by application of density principles to prediction of flotation. (AL)

Contained in this monograph is a review and synthesis of developmental psychology and learning theory, with major emphasis upon applications of the developmental perspective to environmental education curriculum and instruction. Based upon a summary of the work of Piaget and his followers, a learning readiness axis is proposed. Also examined are…

Notes that developmental theories are a resource for developing early-childhood curricula; reviews a variety of current theories and research, including maturationist, behaviorist and psychoanalytic theories, and constructivist theories of cognitive development. Presents suggestions for translating theory into curriculum, as well as conceptions of…

In this paper it is shown that one's conception of intelligence and its development profoundly affects the formulation of educational objectives. A mechanistic conception of intelligence leads to the definition of objectives as a collection of fragmented "cognitive skills" that have little to do with children's development of intelligence. A…

Research indicates that the brain grows in spurts occurring every two years or so and alternating with plateau periods in which the gains due to growth are consolidated. While the number of brain cells no longer increases after the age of about 18 months, substantial increases in the complexity of neural networks occur generally between the ages…

The effects of two or three years of a sequential educational intervention program on culturally deprived children were studied with two groups of four-year-olds and two groups of five-year-olds. They were matched on several developmental variables, with one group at each age level entering the experimental Learning to Learn Program. The other…

This review of early childhood research examines what has been accomplished in the field and what questions now need to be answered. Project Head Start has had the effect of helping developmental psychology to become more comprehensive and less ethnocentric than previously. Developmental psychologists are now studying infants and toddlers and the…