Observational reinforcement was studied in 5- to 13-month-old infants in a contingency learning task where brief light-sound stimulation followed touches on a canister. The task was preceded by differing preexperiences for each of four study groups. Overall, results demonstrated that vicarious reinforcement in the preexperiences probably did not…

A test battery was designed to test the Baddeley and Hitch model of working memory. The battery was administered to 87 children aged 6 and 7 years. Correlations between subtest scores indicated high construct validity for the central executive and phonological loop measures, although not for the visuospatial measures. (Contains 100 references and…

Based on research on the effect of preinstructional knowledge on students' learning of chemical phenomena, this study explores individual learning processes in an introductory chemistry course. Focuses on four common conceptions about two basic chemistry concepts: changes of substances and the particle model of matter. (Author/SAH)

Discusses the orientation of learners, which takes into account their environment and how they take control over their studies. Describes a study of Australian university distance education students that examined factors which influence distance students' orientations, and discusses results that show student independence and study environment were…

Reports language acquisition experiments with simple recurrent networks solving phoneme prediction in continuous phonemic data, which suggests the network output could function as a source for syllable boundary detection. The phoneme prediction network simulates the necessary "bootstrap" to discover syllabic segmentation in unsegmented…

Discussion of productive learning in the workplace focuses on the capture and reuse of tacit knowledge. Highlights include two approaches for the reuse of tacit knowledge; instructional strategies and technologies to support knowledge capture and reuse; increasing the productivity of mentoring; knowledge transfer and knowledge creation; and…

Considers what psychology has to offer education and, more specifically, what developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, and the affiliated cognitive sciences have to offer to the preservice and continuing education of K-12 teachers. (EV)

Describes the Spectrum Project in a Lebanese kindergarten, the goal of which was to determine whether, through assessment of activities, a profile of children's abilities, strengths, and weaknesses could be identified, and to investigate the relationship between the different intelligences. Implications and recommendations for future research are…

Reports a phenomenographic interview study of 13 British engineering students which identified five conceptions of learning, including: (1) learning as memorizing definitions, equations, and procedures; (2) learning as applying equations and procedures; (3) learning as making sense of physical concepts and procedures; (4) learning as seeing…

Discusses critical issues in information technology relevant to changes in education. Highlights include the need for new models for teaching and learning; integrating technology into the curriculum; student controlled learning; ethical use of technology; skills needed by students; and teacher needs. (LRW)

Describes a methodology that may offer an operationalized model that allows empirical analysis of paired associate versus symbolic learning. Presents an operational definition of the phenomenon in question and why it might be useful to model the phenomenon. Illustrates distinct advantages offered within this approach to scholars interested in…

The present study explores the issue of the use of phonetic specificity in the process of learning new words at 20 months of age. The procedure used follows Nazzi and Gopnik [Nazzi, T., & Gopnik, A. (2001). Linguistic and cognitive abilities in infancy: When does language become a tool for categorization? "Cognition," 80, B11-B20].…

The purpose of this paper was to investigate students' views on models and modelling in science as well as the role that models play in learning, using a theoretical framework of models in learning. Students' views on models in science were investigated using a pencil-and-paper questionnaire given to 275 students from Grade 8 (13 years old) to…

This article explores the strengths and weaknesses of Lave and Wenger's concept of "legitimate peripheral participation" as a means of understanding workplace learning. It draws on recent ESRC-funded research by the authors in contemporary workplace settings in the UK (manufacturing industry and secondary schools) to establish the extent…

"Age" is an important social category used to define individuals and groups within our society and, often, to structure access to power, prestige and status. However, within educational research, age has been relatively neglected when compared with other social categories such as gender, class and ethnicity. In an attempt to begin to…