This paper is the third of a series of three which attempt to integrate categories of description aimed at characterizing the experience of learning in terms of the logical relationships that exist between them. The description of the qualitatively different ways in which various aspects of reality are experienced and conceptualized, and the…

Through personal experience, an adult educator came to the conclusion that adults come to a course labeled "Teaching Adults" primarily to learn about themselves, their own self-development, and their own process of learning. Only secondarily do they come to learn the ways and means of communicating knowledge and ideas to others. In the first…

It is argued that learning from different sources greatly depends on the differential way in which these sources are perceived, for these perceptions determine to an important extent the mental effort expended in the learning process. Two ideas are discussed: (1) amount of mental effort investment (AIME), defined as the number of nonautomatic…

A review is provided of recent literature on learning styles and teaching styles, and the relationship between the two. First, a discussion of learning styles is presented, focusing on the cognitive, affective, and physiological aspects of the learning process and situation. Next, the paper addresses the issue of the development of individual…

Piaget has suggested formal operations, as measured by his tasks, may be related specifically to physics-type problem solving and that other hypothetico-deductive thinking processes develop in adults in other specializations. The present follow-up study examined the relationship between formal versus concrete operational thinking as measured by…

A mnemonic device is any technique or system to improve or aid the memory by use of formulas. Memory aids enjoyed great popularity in ancient times, but with the advent of literacy, the need for memorization was lessened and mnemonics were not taught regularly. However, recent research in cognitive psychology suggests that mnemonics, taught and…

Procedural semantics models have diminished the distinction between data structures and procedures in computer simulations of human intelligence. This development has theoretical consequences for models of cognition. One type of procedural semantics model, called schema theory, is presented, and a variety of cognitive processes are explained in…

Instructional supervision is intertwined with the debate on how humans learn and on what knowledge is of greatest import. Those who believe that knowledge is acquired as an individual chooses to follow his or her own inclinations tend to favor nondirective supervision. Those who believe that learning is the result of reciprocity and…

There are several reasons why the Open University (Great Britain) should define the teaching objectives of their text editors and designers--and how they can best be achieved--including the wide range of student abilities and the allocation of resources. A model of the functions of textbook design and editing would help provide a basis for an…

Third and fourth grade students were administered a learning strategy screening in an attempt to determine: (1) their ability to describe individual learning strategies used to remember presented words, (2) the classifiability of student learning strategy descriptions as primarily visual or verbal, (3) the feasibility of using multiple student…

Visual Literacy is a field that encompasses a variety of theoretical constructs and practical considerations relating to communicating with visual signs. The theoretical constructs that influence visual communication primarily fall into two closely interrelated categories: those that relate to the individuals involved in the communication process,…

The study reported here extends the investigation begun by Piaget of content effects to laboratory and naturalistic tasks. If the accuracy and completeness of the subjects' expected variables is related to content, then performance on laboratory and naturalistic tasks should differ systematically. The subjects' expected variables were measured by…

Differences in semantic recall between students hypothesized as having either a high or a low analytic style were investigated. Styles were determined by the amount of bilateral alpha activity measured from the cerebral cortex of the brain during eyes-open baseline recordings. The results indicated that when expository text was tightly structured,…

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the influence of qualitative cognitive differences (cognitive style) as a mediator between environmental circumstances (including ethnicity) and achievement measures. The concept of cognitive style is examined, particularly as it relates to school achievement differences between different sub-population…

The effects of student personality type on ratings of instructors are examined. Research studies are reviewed and categorized into three groups: field independent/dependent cognitive style of subject; general personality style as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator; and perceived needs states of students. A new measure, the Johnson…