Research indicates that gender influences how children learn. Those findings do not necessarily mean that boys learn one way and girls another. Still, there are significant differences with respect to gender and how our brains develop. Researchers have found that no single area of development influences those gender differences: rather, a…

Defines metacognition, discusses its importance in reading, and provides suggestions for its development. (FL)

Two experiments were conducted which investigated the developmental patterns of children's rehearsal and organization of material to be memorized. (JMB)

Learning disabled (LD) and non-LD boys (grades two and six) were given a false recognition task. Study and test items were manipulated to form visual, acoustic, and semantic distractors. Results suggest that LD students do not spontaneously use the effortful semantic processing strategy of elaborative rehearsal. (Author/CL)

The development of the ability to use taxonomic, phonemic and sense impression categories as dimensions of encoding was investigated using third and fifth graders and college students. (ED)

To investigate task performance and the use of private speech and to examine the effects of a cognitive training approach, 30 learning disabled (LD) and 30 nonLD Ss (7 to 8 years old) were given a 17 piece wooden puzzle rigged so that it could not be completed correctly. Six variables were measured: (1) proportion of private speech that was task…

A study of elementary school children revealed their awareness of skimming techniques and their ability to skim when explicitly instructed to do so. Spontaneous skimming was most clearly observed in 8th grade students, which indicated that the development of the use of skimming is an increasing integration of various pieces of knowledge. (JD)

The article views assessing spelling as a cognitive and developmental process. Five developmental levels that may precede readiness for formal spelling instruction are described and illustrated. A word list and directions for assessing children's developmental levels are followed by prescriptive guidelines for cognitive and developmental…

Evaluates two competing explanations for the phenomenon of cognitive triage, or the fact that easy-to-retrieve memories do not come to mind before hard-to-retrieve memories during recall. Reports experimental results that support an optimization model of recall rather than an effortful-processing model. (PAM)

This study presents evidence to substantiate the hypothesis that an important relationship exists between prior knowledge and resulting cognitive structure subsequent to instruction; and thus that relevant existing cognitive structure is an important variable affecting learning. The subjects were 126 first-grade students. Relevant existing…

This guide is written for environmental educators who are interested in learning more about how and why young children think and act, and how they can use this information to design developmentally appropriate programs and activities. The sections of this guide become progressively more practical and specific from understanding the basics of how…

This paper describes the rule-assessment approach to cognitive development. The basic question that motivated the rule-assessment approach is how people's existing knowledge influences their ability to learn. Research using the rule-assessment approach is summarized in terms of eight conclusions, each illustrated with empirical examples.…

Examines the cognitive supports that underlie achievement in science using a cultural historical framework and the activity setting (AS) construct with five features: personnel, motivation, scripts, task demands, and beliefs. Reports four emergent phenomena--science activities, the building of learning, meaning in lessons, and the conflict over…

Stresses the importance of learner involvement, and adult patience and understanding, for a child's success in learning and consequently in living. (EB)

This study investigated the effects of stimulus presentation rate on primacy-recency effects in children. A modification of the Digit Span task used in the Binet and Wechsler intelligence scales provided the basic memory task administered to 56 male school children in grades kindergarten, second, fourth, and sixth. The specific design required…