The Minnesota Percepto-Diagnostic Test-Revised (MPDT-R) and the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills were administered to 40 Navajo, 40 Papago, 40 Hopi, and 40 Caucasian children. All of the children were in regular classrooms, but the results of a one-way analysis of variance indicated significant differences among the four groups on the MPDT-R…

This study evaluated eye-blink conditioning in 11 persons with autism (ages 11 to 22). Compared to matched controls, persons with autism learned the task faster but performed short-latency, high-amplitude conditioned responses. Results suggest this population has the ability to rapidly associate paired stimuli but may have impairments in…

Comparison of 224 Pennsylvania secondary agricultural education students with a national sample showed that (1) the Pennsylvania students' cognitive skills were less developed; (2) their preferred responses to information were auditory and emotive; (3) small group and hands-on were preferred environments; and (4) they were less likely to prefer…

Adaptive control of thought-rational (ACT-R; J. R. Anderson & C. Lebiere, 1998) has evolved into a theory that consists of multiple modules but also explains how these modules are integrated to produce coherent cognition. The perceptual-motor modules, the goal module, and the declarative memory module are presented as examples of specialized…

Recent work on perceptual learning shows that listeners' phonemic representations dynamically adjust to reflect the speech they hear (Norris, McQueen, & Cutler, 2003). We investigate how the perceptual system makes such adjustments, and what (if anything) causes the representations to return to their pre-perceptual learning settings. Listeners are…

The author notes that teachers who continually require students to sit still and stop talking apparently prefer to teach a grove of trees rather than a classroom full of students. School environments should be designed to enhance the development of student brains -- and student brains are about movement, not motionless stagnation. 21st century…

According to Jaan Valsiner, development takes place within culturally structured environments jointly organized by the activities of children and the people around them. When overlap between promoted activity and the child's zone of proximal development exists, the structure of action that results from the interplay of the two is internalized by…

Data gathered by a national survey of preschool playground equipment provided comprehensive information on all aspects of the play environment for young children. This collection presents the perspectives of writers on the function of playgrounds and the nature of children's play. In adition to the introduction by Sue C. Wortham and Joe L. Frost,…

Sports-related tool use abilities in children were investigated within a neo-Piagetian framework of development. The object was to establish whether development in the motor domain proceeds in a "stage-like" fashion. A model was developed which suggested how general and precise structural changes might manifest themselves in the sub-domain of tool…

Behaviorism cannot adequately explain language processing. A synthesis of the psycholinguistic and information processing approaches of cognitive psychology, however, can provide the basis for a speculative analysis of reading, if this synthesis is tempered by a perceptual learning theory of uncertainty reduction. Theorists of information…

Written by parents and intended for fellow parents of severely/multiply handicapped children, the booklet describes a series of awareness activities to enhance children's sensory experiences. Each section includes a brief rationale, background information, and a list of suggested activities for developing the senses of touch, taste, smell,…

The manual is designed to provide the physical education teacher or the kindergarten teacher with an orderly sequence of experiences for promoting growth in body awareness, dynamic balance, muscular strength, spatial awareness, and temporal awareness in the 5- and 6-year-old learning disabled child. The 33 weeks of lesson plans are designed for…

This report is a collection of five papers emphasizing the significance of the young child's motor development. Each paper addresses at least one of four objectives: (1) to help develop clearer insights concerning the significance of physical activity in the early years of childhood; (2) to examine the existing body of knowledge from research and…

Examines the need for physical education for preschool children, and suggests ways in which physical educators could become involved. (PB)