Combinatorial and implicative operations were studied with tasks which eliminated many complexities found in Piagetian tasks, but which did not alter the logical strategies required by Piaget's task. Task difficulty in relation to information-processing demands of tasks and processing capacities of subjects at three age levels (8.0-10.1 and…

A battery of 10 intelligence tests was administered to 22 subjects under standard conditions. After the testing session the degree of perceived similarity between 5 tests of the battery was to be estimated with regard to: (1) the kind of intellectual activity required by the tests, and (b) difficulty. Estimated qualitative similarity, according to…

Research supported in part by U.S. Public Health Service, National Institute of Mental Health. (DD)

The present study, and the development of the instrument for the measurement of conservation, arose in the context of wishing to demonstrate finely discriminating individual differences in this cognitive capacity. (Author)

The performance of children ages three through eight years on a series of class-inclusion problems was examined in two studies. Three patterns of performance were observed: three- and four-year-olds responded in an approximately haphazard pattern, five- and six-year-olds tended to be consistently wrong, and seven- and eight-year-olds showed a…

An anagram task administered to high and low test-anxious subjects under varied levels of external distraction showed a significant main effect of test anxiety for the "hard" anagrams which also interacted with the subjects' sex and distraction. The effects of increments of anxiety arousal produced by distraction are discussed.…

Examined effects of cognitive focusing training in early and late concrete operational children. Focusing was manifested by the late concrete operational children regardless of whether or not they had been trained. The amount of negative feedback and the nature of the probe techniques affected the manifestation of focusing. (Author/DB)

Item level differences between a type of constructed response item (figural response) and comparable multiple choice items in the domain of architecture were studied. Data from 120 architects and architecture students show that item level differences in difficulty correspond to differences in cognitive processing requirements and that relations…

Reviews procedures followed during traditional organizational change and identifies factors that lead to increased intrinsic motivation. Topics discussed include problem solving, level of challenge, competence, people as information processors, curiosity, task complexity, the need for organization, and choice in degree of control. (17 references)…

An instructional design model defining instruction as creation of a learning environment that supports learners' construction of knowledge was tested with 32 learners. Findings suggested that the learning environment was effective in supporting learners' construction of complex knowledge structures. (SK)

This study explored the perceptions of 304 teacher education students regarding how effectively and meaningfully their instructors use the "Microsoft PowerPoint" presentation software program in their teaching and compared graduate and undergraduate students' perceptions to determine the extent to which graduate and undergraduate teacher educators…

Two studies compared the effects of spontaneous and controlled imagery on reality monitoring decisions. Reality monitoring refers to the decision processes involved in discriminating perceptual memories from imaginal ones. In Experiment 1, 6-year-olds and adults were shown pictures and words and they responded to one of two questions: (1)…

To investigate developmental differences, preschoolers' performance on four tasks frequently used to measure their understanding of causal and temporal relationships was studied. Based on an analysis of cognitive processes involved in recognition, completion, construction/seriation, and verbal explanation tasks, the prediction was made that…

Instructional time to high proficiency or response time to high proficiency performance can be viewed as linearly related to the effective complexity of the task/display combination which is the essence of instruction or of performance. This proposition is concretely illustrated for bar graph-using performance of 4th and 6th graders who under most…