Young children have been taught simple sequences of alternating shapes and colors, referred to as "patterning", for the past half century in the hope that their understanding of pre-algebra and their mathematics achievement would be improved. The evidence that such patterning instruction actually improves children's academic achievement…

Investigates whether elementary school children can successfully execute a mental rotation on Marmor's state-comparison task without knowledge of logical sequence relations, whereas such knowledge is required to construct or evaluate external representations of the successive states in a rotation movement. (HOD)

Two experiments investigated the process by which children encode briefly presented spatial positions. First, third, and fifth graders were asked to judge whether a test dot occupied the same position on a card as any one of a number of dots which had been presented tachistoscopically. (JMB)

Children are asked to describe the subtraction process or to describe a context in which subtraction may be used. (JLH)

This study examines the role of verbal labels in picture recognition by 5-year-olds and adults to find out if recognition accuracy and time of recognition choice is influenced by the use of labels. (GO)

Described are activities for thinking through patterns using toothpicks, paper strips, wooden cubes, and people patterns; thinking with attribute items such as geocards, namestrips, and treasures; and thinking with geometric materials such as geoboards and dot paper, cubes, and simple puzzle pieces. (MNS)

The differences between learning disabled (LD) and non-LD children's problem-solving protocols were analyzed during a picture arrangement task. Although the groups of 29 LD and 27 non-LD children were comparable in global mental processing and task performance, LD children had difficulty with representing problems and deleting irrelevant…

This study investigated the effects of combining interactive microcomputer simulations and concrete activities on the development of abstract thinking in elementary school mathematics. Students in grades 2-4 were assessed on tasks involving designs and patterns. (MNS)

A total of 72 children, 36 each from first and sixth grades, were given a 70-item study list followed by a recognition test list of equal length. To indicate the relative dominance of features encoded at both ages, labels, pictures, and referents were recombined to form visual, semantic and acoustic distractors. (MS)

Two experiments evaluated the effects of mnemonic training upon 5- and 10-year-old children's learning and retention of patterns at varying intervals. Subjects were 172 middle class children evenly distributed across the two age groups. Experiment I investigated the effects of individual strategies (perceptual exploration, organization of…

The problem-solving strategy "look for a pattern" is explored. The staircase problem and the region problem are discussed in detail, with varying solution procedures, and three other problem activities are outlined. (MNS)

Games and activities which involve problem solving are presented in order to help teachers develop the numeric, geometric, and logical thought processes of elementary school students. The activities and games (many of which are pencil-and-paper) require using logic, plan-ahead strategies, spatial reasoning, strategies based on prior patterns or…

This paper discusses the memory abilities of children during the preschool and elementary school years, and states that successful remembering does not come naturally to children. Techniques parents and teachers can use to help children improve recall memory skills are described. Differences between recognition memory and recall memory are…

Described is a project in a third grade class in which problem-solving skills are developed through activities with patterns. Activities for growing picture patterns, making number tables, and developing open sentences or formulas are discussed and illustrated. (MNS)

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…