This article used two studies to investigate sign and symbol mediation in children aged 8-11 years. In role play, children exist at one at the same time in objective reality and their representation of reality. We cannot observe their mental representation directly, but the issue of whether signs or symbols mediate early role play is an important…

The research concerned the association of neutral objects, such as nonsense syllables, with rewards, such as money and candy, in children. Thirty-six subjects were obtained from grades two through six of local public elementary schools in Nashville, Tennessee. Associations between neutral objects and rewards were formed in a task concerning…

In a study of mathematics learning, taking a rule-oriented approach, students were taught to trade objects of type A for objects of types B and C. Children ranging from ages 7 to 9 were given rules for converting A to B and B to C and were then presented with the task of converting A to C. Of the 30, 6 succeeded. Of the 24 who failed, half were…

The Cognitive Education Project centered at the University of Alberta undertook a 3-year longitudinal evaluation of two cognitive education programs aimed at teaching thinking skills. The critical difference between the two experimental programs was that one, Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment (IE) method was taught out of curricular content,…