Discusses the use of visual media as symbol systems that gather, package, and convey knowledge. Media's different and often unique symbol systems are looked at as potentially serving as cultivators of mental abilities. Forty-nine references are provided. (Author/CHC)

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)

Through the use of learned symbols, two chimpanzees accurately specified 11 foods by name to one another when the food item's identity was known by only one and requested specific food of one another by name. Requests resulted in cooperative and reciprocal symbolically mediated food exchange. (Author/MA)

Analyzes the codification involved in learning geographical maps and the extent to which this codification is affected by characteristics of the task (map information content and varied instructions) and subject (experience level and cognitive development). Reports results from three groups of adolescents and two groups of psychology and geography…