Focuses on the role of context on the processing of inflected nouns in Finnish. Identification of partitive plurals with the homonymic suffix -jA was studied by presenting the target nouns in a sentence context and by recording durations of readers' eye fixations and self-paced reading times for these targets. Results are discussed. (Author/VWL)

The Zhu model for analyzing computer mediated communications was further developed by an Athabasca University (Alberta) distance education research team based on ease of use, reliability, validity, theoretical support, and cross-discipline utility. Five classification categories of the new model are vertical questioning, horizontal questioning,…

Analyzes a teaching episode to determine how a conflict is perceived and overcome by students as a result of verbal interaction between the teacher and the students. Discusses the particulate nature of matter with students aged 15-16 after observing a glass of water containing a rock and an ice cube. (Contains 25 references.) (Author/YDS)

The thinking process does not always start with problem situations that produce cognitive conflict, and the confrontation of students' misconceptions is not always successful as a teaching approach. Contends that curiosity and mystery appear to excite human thinking and could therefore be considered to be the starting point in science teaching and…

Describes a framework for computer-aided concept mapping that provides the means to easily trace the learning process. Presents the construction of a concept map as a script which consists of elementary operations. This approach can be applied in presentation tools, in evaluating the learning process, and in computer-aided learning. (Author/AEF)

Thirty children with mild mental retardation were compared with 30 children of the same age and 26 children matched for verbal age without mental retardation on a forward digit span task. The highly significant group difference was reduced to nonsignificance when a measure of central executive functioning was covaried out. (Author/CR)

To examine cultural differences in planning processes, two instruments, one of which was a computer simulation, were used with 38 Brazilian and 38 German university students. Results are discussed from a functional perspective that interprets cognitive processes within their ecocultural context. (SLD)

Reviews evidence of the effectiveness of a scheme resulting from CASE (cognitive acceleration through science education) research. Focuses on the effectiveness of the scheme in raising standards in science. Contains 16 references. (DDR)

Analyzes students' visual renderings of concepts related to the term "hypermedia" to determine whether groups, membership of which was based on a mixture of learning styles or a mixture of hypermedia knowledge, constructed concept maps that differed in terms of several factors. Learning style seemed to explain the types of interactions more than…

Research on students' causal reasoning was used to design a sequence for teaching electricity. Students' responses suggest that several students, when they construct microscopic mechanisms to explain electrical phenomena, may envision transient states and employ a specific type of causal chain--the iterative one--in addition to simple and linear…

Concept mapping provides a means for teachers and students to represent their understanding of an area of knowledge. Information from two primary schools suggests that it can be used as a means of evaluating a school's elementary technology program. Information about attitudes/perceptions of technology was constructed into a concept map format.…

Discusses knowledge, organization, and the organization and representation of knowledge. Addresses the relevance of international auxiliary languages as problems of development and use of special sign systems. Argues that--for computer realization of intellectual processes by modeling, not imitation--the psychological mechanisms of human memory…

Examines knowledge about the structure of memory in order to understand the process of writing melodies. Focuses on a study of 25 students who were asked to write two melodies using a computer. Presents the results and offers an example of the function of memory in writing melodies. (CMK)

Three young adults with moderate to severe mental retardation were taught conversation skills using task analysis and cognitive strategies training procedures. Results show that the participants generalized the conversation skills learned under the cognitive strategies condition and that the cognitive strategies training allowed more normalized…

Describes a study conducted at an 8000-student Catholic university to determine whether critical thinking (CT) skills increase after four years of undergraduate education. Examines seven categories of CT: (1) truth-seeking; (2) open-mindedness; (3) analyticity; (4) systematicity; (5) CT self-confidence; (6) inquisitiveness; and (7) maturity of…