Finds that journalistic story frames (such as human interest, conflict, or personal consequences) significantly affected the topical focus and evaluative implications of thoughts generated by readers. Shows that evaluations and opinions offered by participants indicated that news frames also subtly could affect audience decision making about…

A cognitive-science revolution, reminiscent of Dewey's Progressive Education Movement, will profoundly affect future educational policy and practice. A comprehensive brain theory will emerge out of Darwin's discoveries about natural selection as a scientific explanation for biodiversity, Einstein's theoretical reconceptualization of…

Describes a new integrated bio-psycho-social model of etiology for mental retardation. Discusses the problems with current models and the ability of the "universe line" model to integrate data from different research areas, especially cognitive and psychopathologic indicators. Addresses implications of this theoretical approach. (Author/CR)

Examines strategies used by adult learners in an open-ended hypermedia information system. Findings indicated: (1) a variety of strategies are used by learners; (2) self-reported knowledge appears to affect the strategies used; and (3) perceptions of disorientation and perceived self-efficacy influence strategies used. (Author/AEF)

Uses clinical case studies showing autistic children's fascination with and understanding of machines, family studies focusing on occupations of fathers and grandfathers of children with autism or Asperger Syndrome, and experimental evidence using picture-sequencing methods to identify physical or intentional causality to show that children with…

Discussion of constructivist learning environments focuses on the concept of grounded design, a process that involves linking the practices of learning systems design with related theory and research. Topics include directed versus situated learning environments, situated cognition and anchored instruction, social constructivism and problem…

Examines how modern technology is redefining competences, particularly those required by aircrews in state-of-the-art cockpits and how rule-based descriptions may not always be as practical as cognitive schemas and frames or case-based reasoning. Concludes that a wider systems perspective must include a balance between intuitive and analytic…

Reports on data obtained in Australia on practicing teachers' thinking as they interacted with a professional development interactive multimedia courseware package. Two types of thinking are discussed: (1) cognitive mediating processes related to content; and (2) evaluative thoughts about the instructional design of the courseware, from which a…

This article compares research findings on heightened cognitive flexibility in academically gifted children and similar flexibility in social intelligence. It proposes that social-cognitive flexibility (the ability to adapt prior social knowledge to formulate solutions to new interpersonal situations) is an important component of social…

Two studies were conducted, one using 80 university students and the other 140 fifth through seventh graders, to examine the relationship between problem-solving strategies (leaping and flexibility) and measures of insight and scholastic aptitude. Relationships among insight, leaping, and quantitative scholastic aptitude were found. A…

Studies cognitive pragmatics in order to bridge the gap between the universality and culture-specificity of politeness by means of the idea of the "frame" or "specific knowledge" combined with the theory of relevance by Sperber and Wilson. The article concludes that a general theory of politeness as a particular subsystem in a…

This article discusses an approach that uses Socratic questioning to instill grammar awareness in advanced, academically bound second-language learners. Natural versus formal teaching and learning of language forms is reviewed, the theoretical framework is discussed, and the pedagogical concepts on which the theoretical framework is based is…

Thought processes involved in counting and comparing small amounts of money were studied among 34 children and adolescents with Down's syndrome or mental retardation of unknown etiology and 15 normally developing first graders. Few intergroup differences were found in children with mental retardation. As complexity of counting tasks increased,…

Social information processing skills of 13 children (ages 5-12 years) with mild mental retardation (MR), 13 chronological age-matched children, and 13 mental age-matched children were studied. The MR group was less accurate in interpretation of accidental cues and more hostile in their responses to ambiguous cues, even after partialing out…

Explores cognitive operations such as coordination, integration, and structuring as manifested in a spatial context. Relates spatial thinking to enumeration strategies. Interviews with 45 third graders and 78 fifth graders suggest that students initially see arrays of cubes as uncoordinated sets of faces, later as space-filling structures. (FDR)