Responds to four commentaries on the article by Jones and Smith in this issue. Suggests that the comments derive from the possibility that stable concepts might not exist and from the difficulty of imagining what cognition could be without represented concepts. Discusses traditional approaches to stability and variability, and considers what…

Identifies the principle types of cognitive and affective influences which contribute to the development of an individual's conceptual framework. Explains how external influences affect a child's interpretation of the environment. Urges that multidimensional experiences be offered to children and that students' perceptual levels, personal…

Reviews current research on children's concepts and categories that reflects a growing consensus that nonperceptual knowledge is central to concepts and determines category membership, whereas perceptual knowledge is peripheral in concepts and only a rough guide to category membership. Argues that there is no compelling basis in theory or in data…

Comments on the article by Jones and Smith in this issue. Responds to the theses that perceptual information is as much at the core of concepts as is nonperceptual information and that concepts are not represented as such but are computed on-line when needed. Presents a view of the relationship between perception and conceptual knowledge…

Comments on the article by Jones and Smith in this issue. Describes a program of research that demonstrates the important influence of perception on the structure of concepts. Proposes that both perceptual and nonperceptual information are important to conceptual structure throughout the continuum of knowledge acquisition and that perception is a…

Comments on the article by Jones and Smith in this issue. Outlines different perspectives from which the issue of conceptual development is approached, elaborating on the functions concepts serve and variations in those functions. Notes points of agreement with the perceptual knowledge view and offers comments on the research supporting the…

The major objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between the perceptual preferences of elementary school children and their performance on pictorial model-based tests of selected science concepts. Perceptual preferences for size and shape did not significantly influence performance. Preference for color did appear to be…

This commentary on the article by Jones and Smith in this issue examines whether coherent conceptual cores exist in long-term memory; abstract propositions constitute conceptual cores; concepts in long-term memory control behavior; and the primary purpose of developing and using concepts is to taxonomize the environment. (TJQ)

The seven papers that comprise this book were presented at the 1977 National Art Education Association Conference on Reading, the Arts, and the Creation of Meaning held to bring together people in the arts and the fields of reading, psychology, and philosophy to explore the relationships that exist between these fields of study. Topics discussed…

Describes two studies investigating the development of recursive thinking in 60 Dutch children five, seven, and nine years of age. The first study replicated earlier research employing a verbal production procedure. The second study used verbal comprehension procedures and concluded that development appears two years earlier than indicated by the…

This study examines the relationship between development of a child's ability to coordinate perspective and his ability to conceptualize spatial relations on a map. One hundred and four school children from inner city, urban fringe, and suburban schools, grades K-6, were administered a Test of Coordination of Perspectives and a Test of Map…

Examined perception of object unity in partial occlusion in 72 infants. Recorded how long subjects looked at a display of complete and incomplete rods. In test and control conditions, infants looked longer at broken rods than at complete rods, suggesting that infants' cognitive, visual, or attentional skills may be insufficient to support…

Two sections in this survey of research on conceptualization are devoted to "Recent Conceptual Studies in the Behaviourist Mould" and "Main Stream of Ontogenetic Studies of Conceptualization." Under Section I, topics investigated are behaviourist approaches to the conceptual process, conceptual problems, and developmental…