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…

Provides a framework for understanding the value of water play for preschoolers and offers suggestions (materials and activities) for incorporating it into a program. (Author/ED)

This study investigated the development of perceptual, cognitive, and affective perspective taking in 167 kindergarten through sixth grade children. Task intercorrelations were low, nonsignificant, and inconsistent, supporting the view that perspective taking is a multidimensional social-cognitive construct. (JMB)

Reports two experiments which were designed to establish whether errors in infants' manual searches for objects are caused by changes in the location of an object or by the change in the relation between old and new hiding places. (JMB)

Second grade children were pretested for the ability to conserve, after which conservers were paired with nonconservers. Pairs were then instructed to resolve their opposing answers on the conservation tasks. (JMB)

Teachers should provide more real experiences for children rather than vicarious ones, in order to allow children's cognitive structuring processes to develop.

The role of linguistics and its importance in the areas of cognitive development, psychology and semantics is discussed. (DEP)

Suggests that students who reason with only concrete thinking patterns may become formal thinkers through the use of the following instructional pattern: (1) the introduction of an undifferentiated whole, (2) differentiation of the whole through concrete experiences, (3) invention of symbolic notation, (4) application of concepts which lead to…

The author identifies two operations, "dump" and "play", that take place in human communication and analyzes the communication efforts of young children (prior to age 8) in terms of the limitations in cognitive development that govern their communication. (Author/LS)

Individuals may be able to exert considerable control over their perceptual experience and environmental awareness by deliberately varying their "cognitive sets" - plans for selecting and processing information. This theme is explored and a research project, which included eleven experiments, on the effects of cognitive sets is reported. (BT)

A model for matching teaching strategies to student learning styles is intended to take seriously the issue of student needs. A variety of educational arrangements for implementation of matching are considered as well as some issues raised by such implementation. (Author/JH)

Some ways in which a young child becomes involved in exploratory activities, seeking to become acquainted with his world, and how these experiences involve science concepts are presented. Piaget's philosophy of learning is discussed with emphasis on the child's need for interaction for an open learning environment. (EB)

The ability of students in grades 1-12 to generate proofs of theorems in an unfamiliar, one axiom, abstract system was investigated. There were no significant differences in performance of two levels of secondary students; fourth- through sixth-grade students were also able to develop proofs, but needed more time. (SD)