This study was designed to select and explore a research battery which, when administered at the beginning of the school year, more adequately predicts end of year reading achievement than have previously-used tests and test batteries. The tests used were perceptual-motor and cognitive-intellectual, with the most adequate predictor tests…

Investigates the influence of linguistic structure on non-linguistic cognition by comparing Russian and English behavior on tasks involving the color blue. Russians, who differentiate this region into "dark blue" and "light blue," were expected to separate blues more often than English subjects for whom the colors belong to one lexical category.…

A major challenge to developing therapeutic interventions for cognitive loss and dementia in aging individuals with Down syndrome (DS) is the selection of appropriate outcome measures. This report describes the adaptation of the Brief Praxis Test (a nonverbal cognitive test) as a primary outcome measure, as well as the selection of secondary…

This assessment guide represents a method for evaluating visual arts achievement by third graders. The artwork presented can be used to determine whether students have met learning objectives and are ready to advance, and also as a diagnostic tool for school improvement. The guide is based on selected sample learning objectives from "State…

Results of a case study of an exhibit of art and artifacts designed for children are presented. The focus of the study was to apply the principles of instructional-message design to the evaluation of the exhibit. The exhibit, "Art Inside Out: Exploring Art and Culture through Time," was displayed at the Art Institute of Chicago. Textual…

A rationale and procedures are presented for occupational therapy evaluation of the preschooler whose problems suggest dyspraxia. Two evaluative domains are examined: sensory processing (assessment of tactile, proprioceptive, vestibular, auditory and visual functions) and praxis (ideation, motor planning and execution). Procedures include…

The implications of Soviet psychoeducational research on learning disabilities (LD) and its relevance to American research and practice are discussed. The first section provides an overview of the general perspective of Soviet special education, with particular reference to LD and its relationship to Soviet psychology and philosophy. The second…

A project to design and evaluate instructional techniques to be used with emotionally disturbed adolescents compared two groups of emotionally disturbed adolescents with normal high school students. Objectives were to evaluate experimental curriculum units and to obtain data to determine to what extent learning difficulties characterize…

This book describes the major differences between men and women in cognitive or problem-solving abilities and discusses the possible biological contributions to such differences. The book argues that sex differences in cognitive patterns and in motor skills arose out of complementary evolutionary histories of men and women and that evidence for…

Based on the more general principle that all thinking (including reasoning) is basically perceptual in nature, the author proposes that visual perception is not a passive recording of stimulus material but an active concern of the mind. He delineates the task of visually distinguishing changes in size, shape, and position and points out the…

This report describes an experiment concerned with a possible relationship between the inability to learn basic educational skills, such as reading and writing, and the inability to organize incoming stimuli for communication purposes, in spite of adequate intellectual potential. The study had three main tasks. The first problem was to develop a…

Socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly associated with cognitive ability and achievement during childhood and beyond. Little is known about the developmental relationships between SES and specific brain systems or their associated cognitive functions. In this study we assessed neurocognitive functioning of kindergarteners from different…

This guide for parents of children with dyslexia begins with case summaries of several children who exhibited reading and other academic problems that were later diagnosed as dyslexia. Misconceptions about dyslexia are refuted, and developmental problems in the areas of auditory perception, visual perception, and language processing are discussed.…

Theoretical tools from cognitive science were used to put together a framework for a fine-grained theory of how students learn elementary algebra in the classroom. Developing the framework included assessing the shortcomings of current models, evaluating whether unified theories of cognition can be adapted for learning mathematics in the…

The longitudinal interrelations among age, visual and auditory short-term memory, and the concrete operational tasks of class inclusion and combinatorial reasoning were investigated over four testing occasions in a sample of 134 students, initially ranging from 5 to 12 years in age. The Piagetian task battery involved placement of colored…