In this introduction, Royer suggests that the major task facing both the developmental and educational psychologist is to establish a theoretical framework that can provide an account of the development of knowledge structures relevant to the reading process and that can suggest guidelines for translating the theory into educational practice.…

Free, spontaneous play provides the child with opportunities to practice problem-solving and language use. Nonetheless, results from laboratory observations of children's play indicate that adults and instructional materials can enrich the play of young children. (PP)

Describes growth in the number of studies of behavior development conducted in Japan during the last 20 years and identifies areas of development receiving attention by Japanese researchers. (RH)

Discusses children's acquisition of non-nominal, abstract words and argues that the use of these words parallels the child's cognitive development in trial-and-error problem solving and in development of insight. (EKN)

A view of cognitive development emphasizing the formal properties of cognitive structures and processes that remain invariant throughout development is described. Cognitive development is guided by complex sets of constraints, specific sets are tailored for particular cognitive domains, and constraints limit the class of naturally learnable…

Presents a study of the early vocabulary of young children, considering variables such as contextual flexibility, content, and composition of the lexicon in comprehension and production. Reports evidence for a relative independence between these two domains, and for an early version of the referential style observed at later stages of development.…

Children and adults were asked to place something "in front of" or "behind" a featured or nonfeatured object. Most subjects responded to the object's inherent features. A significant number of adults used the observer orientation cue. Children had more difficulty with the nonfeatured object but also used the observer…

Elaborates on cognitive/academic language proficiency and basic interpersonal communicative skills. Discusses assumptions regarding bilingual program exit and entry fallacies and implications for U.S. bilingual education. Argues that failure to adequately conceptualize the construes of language proficiency and its cross-language dimensions causes…

Two implications of best-example theory for category acquisition were tested using a set of artificial concrete object categories. Categories acquired from initial exposure to good exemplars were learned more easily and accurately. People learn the best exemplars are category members before learning the poor exemplars are category members.…