Data from a study of learning conducted with 26 seventh and eighth graders are used to show the highly heterogeneous and contingent nature of students' responses to lever problems. A framework is proposed to explain variations in cognitive performance across situations and to critique some of the assumptions underlying assessments. (SLD)

A comparison of 33 Australian adolescents with Down syndrome who did not receive early intervention services and 41 adolescents with Down syndrome who had received early intervention services found no significant difference between the two cohorts in cognitive functioning. Socioeconomic status, mothers' education, and gender were predictors of…

Investigated whether information and memory processing associated with emotional topics would create distinct processing behaviors in English-as-a-Second-Language students. Participants reviewed several topics, described their levels of emotional impact, and wrote about them. Emotional topics motivated students to emphasize the lower,…

Investigated a kindergarten teacher's practice in order to understand her knowledge of her children's mathematical thinking, her method of knowledge acquisition, and the uses she made of that knowledge in making instructional decisions. Discusses the role of Cognitively Guided Instruction workshops in shaping the teacher's mathematical teaching.…

Comments on cognitive universals related to preparedness and surprise and outlines Bernard Lonergan's account of the universal, transcultural experience of human knowing. Discusses the bodily action and repetition involved in ways of knowing and preparing to know. States that embodied knowing should be developed in cognitive studies related to…

Examines the types of student learning outcomes that are useful in assessment for the purposes of accreditation. After identifying learning goals in the cognitive, behavioral, and affective domains, departments and programs should consider formative and summative assessment, the advantages of qualitative and quantitative data, and whether to…

Two studies examined abstract conditional reasoning. Findings indicated an increase in use of formal justifications with grade, and that abstract reasoning was facilitated by realistic context. Findings supported the idea that such reasoning may represent a qualitative change in reasoning abilities and that its development relies on appropriate…

This article describes the Cognitive Strategy in Writing program (originally intended for elementary-age students), and adaptation and application of the social constructivist approach with seven junior high and high school students with learning disabilities. Pretest-posttest assessment indicated dramatic improvements in overall quality and…

Examined effectiveness of a structured cognitive stress reduction program for unemployed managers (n=42) involved in an outplacement program. Using a control group design, managers who were assigned to cognitively based stress reduction program found reemployment significantly sooner and showed reductions in levels of state anxiety and anger that…

Four social-cognitive processes (encoding, cue interpretation, strategy generation, and evaluation of consequences) were investigated with 55 upper elementary children with mild mental retardation. Analysis of responses to videotaped vignettes of social conflict situations indicated children more accurately interpreted hostile than benign…

Examines the role of executive function, or the ability to maintain the appropriate problem-solving set for attainment of a future goal, in academic success. Describes causes of executive function deficits, common manifestations, methods for assessing the problem, and strategies for remediating related problems. (26 citations) (MAB)

The verbal overshadowing paradigm was used with 167 undergraduates to determine whether performance across all items on Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices was dependent on the same cognitive processes. Results clearly indicated that a subset of items was dependent on visuospatial processes, while another subset required verbal-analytic…

Studied the effect of homelessness on cognitive and academic functioning of children 6 to 11 years old in comparison to a control group of housed children in the same classroom. Found no differences in cognitive functioning between homeless and housed children, but did find that homeless children performed significantly more poorly than housed…

Investigated suppression of activation and retrieval paths to information stored in long-term memory. Subjects were 94 children in grades 1, 3, and 5. Found that the ability to intentionally inhibit the maintenance and recall of irrelevant information improves over the elementary years, and children are less able than adults to withhold production…

Recommends the use of the Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE) project which gives thinking skills lessons to students ages 11-13 to increase their general thinking ability. (DDR)