A study conducted in Northern Ireland discovered differences in cognitive processing between average adult readers and adult literacy students. (MKM)

Described is a model for planning and conducting an investigation designed to teach science process skills. Use of this model illustrates the generalizability of process skills and facilitates their inclusion in novel curriculum areas and beyond the classroom. (DS)

Discussed are science activities appropriate for middle school students. Considerations include the degree of abstractness of the concepts and the need for increased class time for explaining, discussing, and integrating students' activity experiences. (DS)

Three experiments (which used adults and 14-year-old children) studied the congruence between textual input at encoding and output in the form of memory reproductions. Results verified a very close correspondence between encoding and retrieval regarding hierarchically structural operations on the information in simple stories. (AN)

This paper reviews current models of problem solving to identify results relevant to teachers or instructional developers. Four areas are covered: information processing models, approaches stressing human abilities and factors, creative problem solving models, and other aspects of problem solving. Part of a theme issue on intelligence. (Author/SJL)

The ability of children between the ages of two years and four years, eight months, to produce locative pre- or postpositions was investigated in English, Italian, Serbocroatian, and Turkish to discover universals of conceptual and communicative development. (Author/AM)

Discusses an approach to teaching English as a second language that includes teaching logical thinking and then analysis of magazine and radio advertisements. (CFM)

Examines the innate faculties that underlie linguistic competence, especially syntactic competence, and proposes a theory of these faculties which accounts for the complexities of language and the evolution of human language. (AM)

Piaget's ideas are discussed: that the basic thrust of education is determined by the intellectual development of the child, that the child's intelligence develops in definite stages, and that the goal of the developmental process is to reason in logical terms. (MLW)

The paper divides achievement in chemistry into five independent factors: cognitive, affective, problem solving, routine manipulative skills, and observational modes. The study explores the relationship between student performance in these areas and their responses to a Cognitive Preference Test in chemistry. (RE)

Discusses a method used at DePaul University of Chicago, Illinois, in a relativity course for students who are not science majors, emphasizing logical reasoning rather than memory of facts. (HM)

The information-processing approach and results of research on spatial ability are analyzed. Performance consists of a sequence of distinct mental operations that seem general across subjects, and can be individually measured. New interpretations for some classical concepts in psychological testing and procedures for abilities are suggested.…

The speed at which sentences with various kinds of violations could be rejected was studied. Compatible with the sequential model was the finding that noun-verb and adjective-noun double violations did not result in shorter reaction times than noun-verb single violations, although double violations were judged less acceptable. (Author/RD)

Examines some problems involved in compulsory second language instruction on the secondary level, and suggests some approaches to second language instruction that stress cognitive development and awareness of language. (AM)

Five major trends in the study of intellectual abilities are identified. These suggest that in the future several kinds of tests will be used to measure several kinds of basic processes of intelligence. There will be a corresponding decrease in concern to measure a single attribute of general intelligence. (Author/RD)