When taught to link sorting to self-instruction ("I'm looking for blue triangles") children show perfect accuracy in sorting. This study investigated if this performance would generalize to new stimuli. One participant showed near-perfect generalization to all new stimulus sets (shapes, letters, pictures); two had difficulty with…

Three studies investigated whether anatomical measures could separate phonologically based reading disability (PD) from non-phonologically based learning disabilities such as specific language impairments (SLI) in children. Results indicate that PD and SLI are qualitatively different disorders associated with anatomical deviations in opposite…

Five young adult females with mild mental retardation were given match-to-sample training to develop four classes of equivalent stimuli. All subjects demonstrated development of all possible equivalence classes involving these stimuli. For four of five subjects, the classes that included auditory stimuli developed more rapidly than those that did…

Describes differences in the socialization setting provided by all-boy and all-girl play groups, and explores possible reasons for children's tendency to congregate in same-sex groups. Considers three classes of possible explanatory processes: biological factors, socialization pressures from adults, and gender cognitions. (RH)

Three experiments examined the exclusivity of perpetually defined categorical representations for animal categories in infants. Results indicated that infants have the capacity for making distinctions among high similar natural kinds but that such find distinctions cannot be made without appropriate exemplars. (SW)

Three studies involving 16 college students explored cognitive processes reflected by reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT). The hypothesis that correlations of RT and MT with measures of intelligence are due to effects on a common stage of information processing cannot be rejected on the basis of study findings. (SLD)

Two experiments investigated whether preschoolers attend to appearance instead of taxonomic relations in sorting sets of objects with conflicting appearances and taxonomic relations. Found that training and instructions have a significant effect on children's preference for sorting according to taxonomic relations or appearance, and that both…

One hundred students (ages 6-8) described similarities and differences among exemplars of different categories, identified the categories, and named the exemplars. Large performance differences were found between normally achieving and mildly retarded groups and between mildly retarded and learning-disabled groups, with small performance…

Children (ages 9-13) with language-learning disabilities were administered 5 types of verbal analogies: synonyms, antonyms, linear order, category membership, and functional relationship. Subjects performed worse than mental age-matched children on all types of analogies and performed worse than language age-matched children on all types except…

Hypothesized that, unlike second graders, most fourth graders are aware of the usefulness of category organization as a retrieval strategy and begin to deliberately activate category knowledge as a memory strategy during retrieval. Results of three experiments supported this theoretical view. Strategic competence is not mature among fourth…

Demonstrates the need for a process-oriented, constructivist approach to understanding infants' categorization abilities. Suggests that emphasizing the distinction between perceptual and conceptual categorization has been an obstacle to forging an approach. Proposes a more microanalytic consideration of features available to infants at different…

This article presents an analysis of patterns of giftedness based on the triarchic theory of intelligence. The analysis distinguishes among seven different patterns of giftedness and includes: the Analyzer, the Creator, the Practitioner, the Analytical Creator, the Analytical Practitioners, the Creative Practitioner, and the Consummate Balancer.…

Examined degree to which analytic and holistic modes of processing play a role in children's and adults' categorization of faces. Found a developmental trend from analytic to holistic processing and an effect of face inversion with increasing age. Seven-year-olds processed faces comparably to nonfacial visual stimuli, whereas a growing proportion…

Describes the creativity classification system, a taxonomy of creativity that integrates nine dimensions of creative activity (contact, conscience, interest, fantasy, incubation, creative contact, inspiration, production, and verification). The system is used to categorize measures of creativity to help practitioners apply test results to a…

Examined the role of the psychological process of comparison in young children's ability to extend a novel adjective to other objects sharing a salient property whether objects are of the same or different basic-level categories. Found that comparison operates in conjunction with naming to support extension of novel adjectives to properties of…