Synectics is a method of creative problem solving through the use of metaphor and apparent irrelevancy developed by William J. J. Gordon. The process involves rational knowledge of the problem to be solved, irrational improvisations that lead to fertile associations creating new approaches to the problem, and euphoric state that is essential in…

An attempt to help college students who felt that they understood the subject matter but couldn't pass the tests was made. For purposes of this study, test-wiseness (TW) is defined as a cognitive factor, one which is measurable and subject to change either through specific test experience or training in a test-taking strategy. The specific purpose…

One hundred and sixty-two subjects of three age levels were tested to examine the relationship between crystallized and fluid abilities and three problem solving tasks varying in the abstractness/concreteness of their stimuli and emphasis on past experience. These dimensions have been used by Davis to distinguish between Type "O" and Type "C"…

A survey of the literature concerning the mental processes used in reading reveals a proliferation of molecular theories which explain only a small (and frequently neurological) component of the reading act. Enough information exists, however, to sketch an integrated, molar model of the reading process, which stresses the interrelationships…

Poetic writing involves thinking processes which are partially, and perhaps totally, different from the thinking processes involved in transactional writing and which are useful in learning across the entire range of organized knowledge, including the typical subjects in the school curriculum. This paper defines expressive, transactional, and…

Effects of an advance organizer lesson (containing high-order science concepts relating to the law of capillary attraction, and an elementary problem-solving strategy for determining causal relations) were evaluated for a sample of 80 urban 6- and 10-year-old children. Significant sequential transfer effects were established from the lesson.…

The two studies outlined in this report gauged college undergraduates' ability to learn and to recall the content of certain passages when provided with "directed perspectives" or context clues. In the first study, 63 subjects were divided into three groups, were asked to read two stories, and were assigned a perspective (home buyer,…

The women's movement has made the issue of language usage an important part of its ideology and an even more important part of its rhetoric. Generally, the position assumed is that English is biased in favor of the male in terms of both syntax and semantics. Much of the work which women have published on this issue reflects a close adherence to…

The Matching Family Figures Test (MFF) is examined in order to show that a wide variety of rational speed-accuracy trade-offs ranging from impulsive to reflective are quite plausible. Ten children (mean age, eight years) took part in the experiment. Five had previously been classified on the basis of the MFF as impulsive, five as reflective. On…

Investigated were the effects of two types of stimuli, preferred and non-preferred, on the free recall and clustering of 16 moderately and severely retarded children (mean IQ = 39.12, mean CA = 10.84 years) who were enrolled in public schools. An empirical determination was made as to whether to classify a particular conceptual category of stimuli…

A study involving 25 deaf students mainstreamed in a community college was conducted to investigate differences in cognitive styles between deaf and hearing students. Both normal hearing and deaf students responded to a cognitive style inventory which consisted of 216 descriptive statements with which each student assessed himself in terms of…

This paper attempts to show a one-to-one relationship between the various activities involved in dramatic interpretation and specific language arts skills: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The skills listed in this model reflect both the cognitive and the affective domains and include concentration, perception, factual recall,…

In this study, two rival accounts of the mental operations used to solve Piaget's three-mountain perspective task are tested. One hypothesis is that if children use some form of mental rotation through anticipatory imagery, scores should improve as the angle of separation between the child and the other viewer is decreased. A second hypothesis is…

This study of problem solving and conceptual tempo had two objectives: (1) to begin to clarify the underlying deficiencies which contribute to the less efficient information processing of impulsive children (as compared with reflective children) during problem solving; and (2) to demonstrate the utility of using a task analysis as a…

This study was based on the following assumptions: (1) functioning of the brain's left hemisphere, because of its logical, verbal mode, facilitates conservation reasoning; (2) functioning of the brain's right hemisphere, because of its nonverbal, spatial mode, inhibits conservation reasoning; (3) visual input from the left eye will reach the left…