The label "cognitive" has been used to designate five substantially different approaches to the study of learning disabilities: information processing, metacognition, genetic epistemology, cognitive behavior modification, and the specific abilities model. (Author)

Identifies six field-specific and generic skills necessary for instructional developers, i.e., interpersonal communication, receiving and assimilating large amounts of new information, creative problem solving, applying behavioral sciences to instruction, seeking and locating new information, and specific instructional development skills. The…

Compares data on recall of stories by Liberian nonschooled children, nonliterate adults, nonschooled literate adults and schooled literate adults to similar data on American children and adults. Results indicate a universality of certain kinds of schematic organization and their control of memorial processes. (CM)

Describes two studies of which one analyzes syntactic complexity in writing samples by secondary and postsecondary students, while the other correlates the syntactic dimensions revealed by the former with measures of cognitive style. Correlations indicate an association between complexity and analytic cognitive style. (MES)

A new technique for determining children's subjective organization of speech is described. The technique required subjects to memorize a target sentence, and then to respond with the second next word when the sentence was interrupted by the sound of a tone. (MP)

Age at marriage, marital duration, religiosity and income have an effect on thinking about divorce independent of their effect on marital dissatisfaction. Wife's employment and the presence of preschool children are likely to lead to thoughts about divorce. (Author)

When task-related variables are carefully controlled, the referential communication paradigm provides a useful assessment tool for focusing on characteristics of the speaker in a communicative setting. It serves as a useful instructional tool by providing negative listener feedback for inadequate descriptions. (Author)

Results indicated recall and category clustering were highest following a manipulation to produce semantic encoding of items and lowest when children focused on items' physical features. Reading disabled boys failed to organize or study as effectively as normals. The reading disabled had difficulty in spontaneously generating effective study…

Responses of approximately 250 Israeli students who evaluated college instruction were analyzed with respect to lower-level (LLC) and higher-level cognitive processes (HLC). LLC and HLC were found to be complementary, rather than competitive; and both contributed to students' ratings of teaching and of course interest. (Author/GDC)

Planning for the distant future should be an integral part of current decision making. (JD)

The thought processes involved in students' answers to different kinds of teachers' questions were investigated using data obtained from a previous study. It was found that the chances are about even that there will be a correspondence between the cognitive level of the question and of the response. (Author/GDC)

First, third, and eighth graders performed four different orienting activities to different words. Under an incidental learning paradigm, the children's recognition was tested after the orienting activity. Age differences in recognition were absent, and the effect of the orienting activity responses on recognition supported depth of processing…

Decision-making processes were investigated in a laboratory analogue of clinical diagnosis and through computer simulations of decision making. The data indicated that nonprobabilistic theories can provide plausible and complete accounts of decision behavior and can improve quantitative accuracy of predictions that are based on traditional…

The relationship between primary process integration (PPI) and achievement was investigated. Fifty-one second graders received the Rorschach, which was scored by Holt's Primary Process Scoring System. Achievement criteria were academic grade average and reading test scores. The hypothesis that PPI is positively related to achievement was…