Reported are research findings that (1) illustrate the importance of primary spatial orientation for children's and adults' use of symbolic spatial skills and (2) indicate the importance of the distinction between primary and secondary spatial orientation. At least two major ways exist in which humans gather and use spatial information. The…

This paper reviews research on symbolic play gaps between children with and without language impairment (LI), arguing that these gaps should not be interpreted as demonstrative of marked deficits in general representational or specific symbolic play competence of children with LI. Frequent encroachment of language into testing procedures is cited…

Forty 3-year-olds learned either 12 standard Blissymbols (SBS) or their enhanced forms (EBS). Results demonstrated that the subjects learned EBS faster than SBS, remembered more EBS than SBS, did not differ in the communicative use of SBS and EBS, and were affected more negatively when presented with the untrained SBS than EBS. (Author/JDD)

Discusses the findings of a recent study concerning the ability of an infant to see an object as a symbol. Reports that infants between 36 and 39 months old significantly outperformed informed infants between 30 and 32 months old on a symbolic task. (TW)

Reports on a study in which the symbolic relation between a scale model and the larger space that it represents was displayed by two groups of young children. Three-year-old children outperformed 2.5-year-olds in finding an object in a room after seeing an analogous object hidden in a model. (TW)

Focuses on use of computer-drawn faces to explore visualization in learning and for presenting multivariate data. Prior and new research are reviewed and future applications are discussed. "Autocorrelation-face," a graphics representation created from mathematical analysis of voice input, and its potential as a learning aid for the deaf are…

Discusses the importance of maps in geographical and environmental education. Reports on a study done with elementary school age children using aerial photographs. Indicates that children at age four can name some of the symbols on an aerial map, and by age six could recognize a majority of the symbols. (TW)

Explores the relations among combinatorial capacities in language, symbolic play, blockbuilding, and nonsemantic action sequences within a sample of 18- to 24-month-old children, as well as assessing the developmental level of a selected subset of concepts. (HOD)

Describes two studies in which young children were shown pictures that represented sound with postures and contexts, with conventions, and with combinations of information. Shows that the different types of pictorial representation of sound were not equivalent in their ability to evoke a correct interpretation. (HOD)

A structured system of visual features is seen to parallel the propositional hierarchy of operations usually associated with the parsing of algebraic expressions. Women more than men were found to depend on these visual cues. Possible causes and consequences are discussed. Subjects were secondary and college students. (Author/DC)

This study examined the discriminability of lexigrams versus printed words with eight adults with severe mental retardation. A match-to-sample teaching paradigm was used. Subjects discriminated lexigrams better than printed letters and were more successful at matching lexigrams to referent objects than matching printed words to referent objects.…

A simulation is described in terms of its three major aspects: the scenario, the underlying model, and the instructional overlay. The major focus of this paper is the instructional overlay as the component that serves to optimize learning and motivation. Functions of simulations are identified as the acquisition of content, the application of the…

Most children who are congenitally deafblind are severely delayed in their communication development and many will not achieve symbolic understanding and expression. This article discusses developmental markers cited in the research literature as predictive of or facilitative of the development of symbolism. These markers include the growth toward…

Reviews approaches to machine learning (development of techniques to automate acquisition of new information, skills, and ways of organizing existing information) in symbolic domains. Four categorical tasks addressed in machine learning literature are examined: learning from examples, learning search heuristics, learning by observation, and…

Despite considerable work concerning relationships between cognition and language in the second year of life, these relationships remain obscure. Clarification depends on resolution in at least three major areas. First, studies should be expanded beyond the scope of cognitive prerequisite models that have been difficult to conceptualize and that…