A study involving 31 adults with Down syndrome investigated their ability to reason. Results found they did not differ from typically developing children, matched on expressive and verbal ability, in transitivity and non-verbal analogical thinking; however, they did differ in categorical reasoning, classical verbal analogies, and short-term…

Examines the task of locating information in textbook chapters (text search). Finds differences between more efficient and less efficient searchers in how they distribute their time across various aspects of the task. Discovers that as task complexity increases, efficient searchers allocate relatively more search time to initial stages of text…

Studies the importance of both debate discussion and general political discussion in predicting political cognition. Finds that political conversations with others leads to much learning, controlling for effects of education, gender, political interest and media use. (MG)

Extends a previous study examining the relationship between reading comprehension and thinking skills by using an "on-line" reporting procedure in which undergraduate subjects reported on their reading during the process of reading. Reports that the extent of a reader's background knowledge affects the order of processing as well as the kinds of…

Describes a study that investigated the information-seeking behavior of users searching a card catalog and a comparable online catalog. The purpose was to explore whether a theory of human remembering, retrieval by reformulation, might be useful in explaining search behavior in bibliographic databases. (61 references) (CLB)

A putative causal relationship of cognitions to affects in different phases of teachers' stress cycles was studied for 414 elementary school teachers in Finland. Results provide only negligible support for the causal predominance of cognitions in disturbed affects; the opposite seemed to prevail. Implications for teacher satisfaction are…

The validity of a dynamic assessment interview approach to the measurement of metacomponential (executive level) cognitive processing in 48 children aged 8 to 9 years was studied. The interview instrument apparently measured both content knowledge and metacomponential processing. Implications for study of young children's cognition are discussed.…

Suggestions are offered for improving English-as-a-Foreign-Language literary competence through intervention at the procedural level. The suggestions are based on the data that the reading of a literary text can be seen as a form of information processing, and on a consideration of the thought processes involved in the understanding of a literary…

Effects of author-generated and learner-generated elaborations on subjects' abilities to recall, classify, and apply conceptual knowledge were compared for 94 college undergraduates studying a passage on psychological concepts. Author-generated elaborations and specific elaboration activities produced superior effects in comparison with…

Explores the use of journals as teaching tools. Finds modifications are necessary to accommodate the differences between the psychology professor's goals and the composition teacher's goals. Recommends using dialectical reasoning entries and lists some practical methods to encourage students to think critically. (NL)

Describes a heuristic conceit, "the writer's stance," to help students overwhelmed by the complexity and possibilities of a writing task regain control of the process. Stresses the need for writers to select vantage points and frames of analysis for their academic writings. (SR)

Examines effects of age on play in which 36 low-socioeconomic Black children aged three and five coordinated their attention to objects and peers. The five-year-olds did not differ from the three-year-olds in amount of dual focus play or proportion of object play. (RJC)

Discusses differential and information processing theories of intelligence and the problems of measuring intelligence. Considers the influence of sociocultural factors on the test performance of individuals and the procedures which have been suggested to reduce bias. (RJC)

Examines the usefulness of the Salience Imbalance Theory of metaphor processing to aid in understanding how children comprehend metaphors in written text. Supports the prediction that the measure of salience of features is affected by the topic order and vehicle (asymmetry), but also reports children's responses not explained by the theory. (KEH)

The study of differences between 12 subjects with learning disabilities and 12 without, across 3 grade levels (intermediate, junior high, and senior high) and 2 story grammar tasks, found no developmental differences between disabled and nondisabled groups but did find significant differences in the amount and type of information recalled. (DB)