We present a new software, called Goluca (Godinho, Luengo, and Casas, 2007), based on the technique of Pathfinder Associative Networks (Schvaneveldt, 1989), which produces graphical representations of the cognitive structure of individuals in a given field knowledge. In this case, we studied the strategies used by teachers and its relationship…

In this paper we examine the development of children's metamemory and provide practical implications of research findings for the classroom. In the first part of the paper we define and discuss the global concept of metacognition, the component processes of metacognition and the importance of each component to children's learning. We…

Explores 96 preschool children's utilization of complementary and taxonomic relations under varying task demands. Results indicated that, as task demands increased, (1) complementary intrusions produced systematic error in the taxonomic condition and (2) performance decreased in both conditions. Complementary pairs were maintained at progressively…

Contrasts interpretive and cognitive approaches to explaining teachers' thoughts and actions, exploring epistemological and ontological assumptions that underlie research on teaching. Cognition is discussed as individual mental processing versus a social event in which thinking is shared, intersubjective, and practical. The influence of the place…

Examined three- to four-month-old infants' ability to form perceptually based categorical representation in the domains of natural kinds and artifacts. By showing the availability of perceptually driven basic and superordinate-like representations in early infancy that closely correspond to adult conceptual categories, findings underscored the…

Studied children's transitive inference where representation of premises provided contradictory information depending on position of two elements in a A, B, C series. Eight-year olds did significantly better on the more complex problems than did six-year olds, suggesting the presence of a developmental sequence of algorithms that enable children…

Newell and Simon's new theory of thinking is summarized and some educational implications developed. The enaction theory implies that thinking is a skill and should be taught like other skills, by teaching methods of how to perform it. The traditional theory of thinking and its influence are briefly discussed. (Author/MH)

A constructivist analysis of the concepts of communication and environment may go against the traditional ideas of realists. Both concepts are treated as subjective constructs of a cognizing agent. It is held that the basis of the constructivist theory of knowing as the idea that knowledge is a mapping of ways of acting and thinking and the result…

Describes two studies investigating the development of recursive thinking in 60 Dutch children five, seven, and nine years of age. The first study replicated earlier research employing a verbal production procedure. The second study used verbal comprehension procedures and concluded that development appears two years earlier than indicated by the…

The pursuit of a science of mind has been marked by persistent conceptual tension. At one pole, exemplified by Piaget, the mind is characterized in terms of overarching principles. At the other end of the continuum, theory is more concerned with modeling particulars, as represented by the information processing model. This paper explores the…

Describes three studies that examined how young children distinguish between the real, physical world and the mental world; between objects and thoughts; and between doing something and imagining it. (HOD)

Research on propositional reasoning is summarized. Retrieval of facts and concepts, linkages, short-term memory limitations, and the processing advantages are discussed. Suggestions for maximizing teaching are presented. (CW)

The pamphlet reviews cognitive and developmental psychology research in which skilled and less skilled performance patterns and mechanisms have been compared. Knowledge has been described, in theory, in terms of an associative network in which concepts are represented as the nodes of the net, and relations between concepts serve as associative…

Research has revealed distinct differences in the problem-solving approaches of high- and low-aptitude students. As a consequence, content area teachers can focus on thinking skills by having students describe their mental processes and giving them feedback on erroneous or incomplete reasoning. (TE)

Compared and contrasted are the concepts intuition and logic. The ideas of conceptual thought and algorithmic thought are discussed in terms of the world as a labyrinth, intuition and time, and the structure of knowledge. (KR)