The Philosophy for Children Program was introduced to a class of deaf fifth graders as an instructional approach for reasoning skills. The program is intended to develop analytic skills required for intellectual functioning (including concept development, generalization, inference making, question formulation, and analogies). The program's major…

Using five metamemory question types and the Counting Span Test (CST), this research investigated the effects of metamemory task demands, and the relationship of the amount of information one can hold in working memory to metamemory question performance. One hundred twenty kindergarten, first, third, and fifth grade children served as subjects.…

This paper considers the psychological aspects of children's drawings. The utility of the Draw a Person Test (DAPT) for different types of pscyhological research is discussed, and the non-intellectual and cultural factors of the DAPT are described. Suggestions on the administration, scoring, and interpretation of drawings are given. The next two…

A research project designed to determine what is important to a freshman college student in writing and learning to write is described in this paper. The first section of the paper provides background information for the project, which involved collaboration between the researcher and a student. The second section describes data gathering…

Written for curriculum developers and vocational education instructors, this publication provides an understanding of cognitive concepts and methods using an information processing paradigm and shows how to apply this knowledge in development of curriculum and instructional plans. Chapter 1 reviews needs and characteristics of vocational education…

The effects of age, task, and egocentric responding on visual-spatial perspective taking were studied among 41 preschool children between 3.0 and 5.9 years of age. Children were individually administered three perspective-taking measures: the upside-down/right-side-up task, a block task, and a picture box task, all previously described in the…

A study investigated the relationship between cognitive style and coherence in discourse. The primary hypothesis was that coherence would vary bimodally by cognitive style classification. Forty-four freshman composition students from three west coast colleges completed the Culture Fair Intelligence Test, the Group Embedded Figures Test, and the…

One year after sixth grade students participated in an instructional intervention experiment aimed at teaching reflective planning skills in writing, a followup study focused on evidence of reflectivity in attitudes and metacognitive knowledge concerning writing. This study was conducted with 16 experimental and 13 control students. Data were…

Undergraduates (n=99) differing in spatial ability were tested on problems involving the mental rotation of familiar alphanumeric stimuli and unfamiliar stimuli drawn from the Primary Mental Abilities Space Test. Individual differences in spatial ability were associated with speed rather than accuracy of mental rotation processes. Ability…

This research addresses the actual goals and intentions from which students plan and organize their work in a course of study. Representations can either facilitate or hinder learning and problem solutions. Several salient aspects of adult students' representational systems and how they influenced university study were examined in two studies. The…

A study was conducted to examine computer programming as a problem solving activity. Thirteen fifth grade children were selected by their teacher from an above average class to use Apple IIe microcomputers. The investigator conducted sessions of 40-50 minutes with the children in groups of two or three. Four problems, incorporating the programming…

Two studies were conducted to clarify some problems in aptitude treatment interaction research, by concentrating on the macroprocesses in reading required by different instructional methods and the macroprocesses available to students. In the first experiment, three reading groups were used, the first receiving adjunct questions, the second also…

A basic problem of disadvantaged students is their inability to deal with information: to assist the teacher the Niagara Centre of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education has described a set of skills sequences that might be called Basic Thinking Skills. (JM)

A rating instrument for describing nine structural characteristics of written compositions is presented and explained. (JH)

Article discussed general education, the development of undergraduate education, and the factors that influence change in higher education. (RK)