Discusses the evolution and current status of cognitive research in music. Identifies the field's five research branches: (1) sensation; (2) perception; (3) concept formation and memory; (4) affect or emotions; and (5) psychomotor activity. Recommends five changes for the future of cognitive musicology. (CFR)

This article presents a rationale for emphasizing discovery instruction over guided instruction in teaching cane travel skills to people with severe visual impairments. Discovery instruction is seen to facilitate the use of intrinsic feedback in developing perceptual-cognitive skills as well as promoting problem solving, retention, and transfer of…

Reviews research on the development of academic skills in arithmetic and early reading, emphasizing the individual cognitive processes occurring during learning. Offers implications for the development of new methods of assessment that stress processes, rather than just products. Suggests that researchers in cognitive development and assessment…

A battery of questionnaires administered to 121 male and female high school freshmen, college freshmen, and college seniors provided evidence that the greater role conflict experienced by females fosters earlier relativistic and/or dialectical reasoning and more differentiated role articulation regarding family and career issues. (DM)

Examines three approaches to fostering higher level thinking in students: (1) the stand-alone approach; (2) the embedding approach; and (3) the immersion approach. The first two approaches teach thinking skills separately from or in the context of subject matter content; the immersion approach assigns an active role to perception and downplays…

Longitudinal data on conversations recorded from 1 child between 18 and 27 months of age and 3 children between 27 and 62 months were analyzed to chart acquisition of the word "if" and of conditional inference. Within six months of speaking their first "if," children produced "ifs" at the same rate and forms as…

Ties together the educational threads of teaching thinking skills and improving the intellectual performance in deaf learners. Identifies six criteria for curriculum or research decisions related to teaching for higher-level problem solving. Applications of these ideas to mathematics are left to the reader. (MDH)

This study compared the use by 6 gifted and 6 nongifted students (ages 10 and 11) of a software package designed to develop cognitive control strategies. Bright students more often used a plan in their strategy, offered suggestions for improving the software, and monitored their own performance. (Author/DB)

Addresses some criticisms of the Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE) project. Offers a different description of the CASE teaching method and presents evidence from the program. Contains 20 references. (Author/WRM)

Examined effects of storytelling and pretend play on short- and long-term narrative recall in preschoolers. Found that: (1) storytelling and pretend play affected cognitive variables; (2) differences between storytelling and pretend play in facilitating narrative recall were significant; (3) encoding ability exceeded ability to make inferences;…

Assessed the impact of elementary science experiences on the development of sixth-graders' epistemological views. Found that, compared to students in a traditional science classroom, those in a constructivist classroom developed an epistemological stance toward science that focused on the central role of ideas in the knowledge acquisition process.…

The functional play of children with autism (n=15) was compared to that of developmentally matched children with Down syndrome (n=15) and typical infants (n=15). The functional play of the children with autism was less elaborated, less varied, and less integrated than that of the controls. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Calls for a process-oriented approach to study of categorization in infancy. Maintains that further understanding of infant categorization and its changes with development requires a more direct assessment of infants' category formation. Argues that two research directions will enhance understanding of categorization: (1) contextual variations on…

Investigated the role of behavioral style and cognitive performance as predictors of cognitive development in extremely low-birth-weight children assessed at age 2 and again at age 4. Found stability of cognitive performance from 2 to 4 years of age; this as well as behavior style and orientation-engagement predicted subsequent cognitive…

Through examination of 613 students' narratives about self-selected important decisions, I investigated the student and situation characteristics related to provocation and use of self authored ways of knowing. The findings gesture toward both particular skills students may need to develop in order to self-author, as well as suggest that movement…