A support system for outdoor learning using exploratory observation was developed. The system uses radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and two-dimensional (2D) symbology tags to locate positions on a horticultural farm and its surrounding forests. Students were able to get a location-dependent description and an educational hint for…

Thirty hearing impaired students (11-14 years old) participated in a study to measure classification principles using demonstration or display of labels containing relevant words or iconic signs. Three methods of teaching classificatory principles were employed: demonstration, verbal labels, or iconic labels. Analysis of mistakes made by Ss…

TO DETERMINE WHAT EFFECT INTRALIST SIMILARITY AND STIMULUS ISOLATION WOULD HAVE ON THE VON RESTORFF EFFECT, ISOLATED STIMULUS TERMS WERE PRESENTED IN RED AND NONISOLATED STIMULUS TERMS WERE PRESENTED IN BLACK. SUBJECTS WERE 60 FIRST GRADERS. THE PAIRED-ASSOCIATE ANTICIPATION PROCEDURE WAS USED. ACQUISITION TRIALS AND TRANSFER TESTS WERE GIVEN FOR…

Studies of the effects of imagery instructions and other imagery induction on prose learning are included in this progress report. Five experiments were conducted to establish a developmental trend for ability to use imagery-related mediation in whole passage learning. Observations indicate that six year olds are inhibited in paraphrase recall of…

Three studies were conducted to assess the abstraction processes involved in the development of the ability to associate numerals with sets of the appropriate size (numeration). Experiment 1 examined the sequence of the ability to discriminate relative numerical magnitude, numerical equivalence, Arabic numerals, absolute size of a set, and…

The Symbolic Play Test was given to 31 socially impaired and 29 sociable elementary grade children retarded in language comprehension, of similar intelligence (profoundly retarded to normal). Play test age and spontaneous pretend play were similar in sociable Ss but, in the socially impaired, spontaneous pretend play was lower than play test age…

Examines Kolers and Smythe's 1984 paper on the computational approach to cognition. Considers: (1) five specific criticisms of the computational approach, (2) their analysis of the conceptual basis of symbolization, and (3) their proposed alternative approach. Summarizes their position and discusses its shortcomings. (SED)

Discusses Kolers and Smythe's 1984 paper on the computational approach to cognition. Suggests some factors that support the continued emphasis on the analytic approach of the psychological representation of knowledge, but also acknowledges that they have provided a useful set of distinctions and at least one vocabulary for describing them. (SED)

The beginnings of representational play were examined in 16 visually impaired children (18-38 months). Nine children demonstrated some symbolic acts at a mean age significantly earlier than the literature suggests. Presence of symbolic acts was significantly related to use of the word "no," two-word combinations, and general sensorimotor skills.…

Examination of hypothesis-testing and nonlinguistic symbolic abilities of 10 language impaired and 10 language normal children revealed that language impaired Ss performed significantly more poorly than controls on haptic recognition tasks and on a portion of the discrimination learning task. No differences were found between the groups' concept…

Five three-year-old children with disabilities were taught to identify rebus symbols. Children were given praise and instructive feedback. All children learned to identify all symbols. They acquired second and third sets of stimuli faster than they acquired the first set. (LB)