The purpose of this study was to determine whether familiarity was a significant factor in increased cognitive synthesis scores and to conduct a comparison of the training methods employed on the basis of the test score patterns. Previous studies had revealed that symbolic representation was important, but they had not clarified the ways in which…

A functional (as opposed to structural) theory of intellectual development is presented and used to generate specific performance models for Piagetian tasks involving the control of variables (cf. Inhelder and Piaget, 1958). On the basis of these models, it is concluded that intelligent, field independent 7- and 8-year-olds should be able to…

A pretest-posttest research design was used to measure changes in three criterion variables of 150 students enrolled in an undergraduate textile class using programmed instructional materials. Findings have implications for the design of organized learning sequences to help individuals process information more efficiently for complex…

A total of 186 kindergarteners were pretested on number conservation and two cognitive style measures representing Kagan's impulsivity-reflectivity dimension and Santostefano's leveling-sharpening dimension. From this sample 72 nonconservers were assigned to one of three conservation training conditions: reversibility training, discrimination…

Sixty-six goals, mostly involving symbolic representation and cognitive processes, were evaluated to indicate those aspects of the summative research on Sesame Street that were bases for generalizing about research into the development of preschoolers. Unintended and intended outcomes were investigated as well as the program's effectiveness for…

The relationship between placement of adjunct questions in instructional material and incidental and intentional learning was investigated. A total of 150 undergraduate students assigned to five experimental groups studied ten paragraphs with questions interspersed at different locations in the text. Performance on incidental items was…