Most theories of learning would predict a gradual acquisition and refinement of skills as learning progresses, and while some highlight exponential growth, this fails to explain why natural cognitive development typically progresses in stages. Models that do span multiple developmental stages typically have parameters to "switch" between…

The double-deficit hypothesis (DDH) of developmental dyslexia was investigated in seven to twelve year old Spanish children. It was observed that the double deficit (DD) group had the greatest difficulty with reading.

The work of two theorists are compared by focusing on a limited number of central issues for a language-based theory of learning (LTL), including long-term goals and a genetic approach; language and social activity; appropriating culture; thinking in school; sociosemantic variation; enculturation; and intellectual consequences. The combined…

Suggests that the ability to process narrative information is fundamental to understanding human psychological development. Notes that a culture's system of understanding and interpreting the world is carried mostly by stories and texts. Explores how narrative understanding can be modeled in Fuzzy Trace Theory by using the principles of this…

Models of conceptual and language development by Orwell, Piaget, Whorf and Sapir, Vygotsky, and Bruner are reviewed. Their implications for teaching and some individual problem-solving experiments are discussed. (CP)

Scholars from varied disciplines--first language (L1) acquisition, second language (L2) acquisition, composition research, and cognitive psychology--have found a high level of permeability in their search for more effective classroom models of writing instruction. Among the most influential work in this area has been Stephen Krashen's theory of L2…

Examines the development of students' writing competence in English, their second language. Explores Lev S. Vygotsky's perspective of the dialectal relationship between language and cognition. Discusses Vygotskyan concepts of mediation, higher mental functions, interaction, internalization, proximal development, and problem solving. (KEH)

Supported is the argument that cognitive development should not be studied alone, in isolation from wider questions about the history of thought in the scientific community. Interest in the topic resulted from dissatisfaction with British secondary school Language-for-Learning movement assertions that learners' active use of their own speech and…

Focusing on the acquisition of semantic features and the relation between semantic and perceptual features, this study further tests the "semantic feature hypothesis," where a child acquires full adult word meaning component by component, and its complementary "correlation hypothesis," which claims that the source of these semantic features lies…

A theory of how people learn certain procedural skills is presented. It is based on the idea that the teaching and learning that goes on in a classroom is like an ordinary conversation. The speaker (teacher) compresses a non-linear knowledge structure (the target procedure) into a linear sequence of utterances (lessons). The listener (student)…

This paper proposes a broad outline of a variable model of language development and explores several particulars of such a model in the language behavior of four two-year-old children. The process by which information about language is progressively transformed and integrated rather than merely being added together can be seen in the shifting…