TWO STUDIES ON LEARNING SET FORMATION IN CONTINUOUS, DISCOURSE-PROGRAMED MATERIAL WERE CONDUCTED. ONE STUDY WAS CONDUCTED WITH 315 COLLEGE STUDENTS, THE OTHER WITH 141 SIXTH-GRADE STUDENTS. THE MAJOR INDEPENDENT VARIABLE WAS THE NUMBER OF PROGRAMED UNITS ADMINISTERED. THE DEPENDENT VARIABLES WERE PRE- AND POST-ACHIEVEMENT TEST SCORES AND ERROR…

A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS WAS DESIGNED TO STUDY THE VALUE OF TEACHING CHILDREN SUCH A COMPLEX PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGY AS TO USE KNOWLEDGE OF RESULTS AFTER A PERFORMANCE TRIAL TO REJECT MORE THAN ONE HYPOTHESIS AT A TIME (MULTIPLE HYPOTHESIS STRATEGY). APPROXIMATELY 150 THIRD-GRADE CHILDREN WERE DIVIDED INTO 3 GROUPS--THOSE TAUGHT THE MULTIPLE…

This study investigated the relationships between Piagetian logical reasoning abilities with an information processing capacity, and first-grade children's performance on verbal addition and subtraction problems. An analysis of simple arithmetic problems indicated that several reasoning abilities identified by Piaget are needed to achieve…

This paper concentrates on cognitive psychological research on school subjects using as illustration work in reading, mathematics, and aptitude for learning. In general, the work in reading research can be characterized in terms of three themes: (1) comprehension as the construction of knowledge; (2) the structure of text; and (3) reading as the…

A model of identity formation, based on the cognitive developmental stages of social perspective-taking, was tested to determine if identity is achievable through cognitive strategies of considering the self in relation to friends, family, peers, and society. Two separate studies, one involving college students (N=28) and one involving high school…

This first in a series of seven related teaching guides that together outline a public school district's English language arts curriculum for kindergarten through grade six focuses on a course of study for kindergarten. The guide explains the district's overall philosophy and teaching goals and the philosophy behind the development of the…

This report on the influence of emotional factors on cognitive processes and their importance to the design of man-machine systems intended to function under conditions of threat reviews the literature on stress and human performance, coping strategies, emotion theory, and individual differences in response to stress. A framework for relating…

The term, "schema," used largely as a descriptive convenience rather than a theoretical guidepost in social psychology is examined through an analysis of its development, function, and structure. This paper articulates a model of schema development in adults by defining a schema as a representation of some stimulus domain and a set of…

Fantasy may be effective in reducing anxiety in many healthy children and in children living with the long-term stress of chronic illness. Chronically ill (N=26) and healthy (N=26) children, ages five through nine, were randomly assigned to either fantasy facilitation or attention control conditions. Treatment conditions were carried out in the…

Research on the structures and processes involved in simple mental arithmetic is reviewed. Results suggest that mental arithmetic is a memory retrieval phenomenon, which develops with the experiences of elementary school and can be understood in general as retrieval from organized network representations. Simple mental addition with basic facts…

Presented are abstracts of 18 research reports. Topics covered include: (1) The effect of a numeration learning hierarchy on mathematics attitudes in kindergarten children; (2) Children's acquisition and production of mathematical rules; (3) Preschoolers' abilities to recognize counting errors; (4) Young children's solution processes for verbal…

The paper reports results of a study to determine the impact of values decision-making activities on the content retention and attitudes of high school social studies students. The study used the Casteel-Stahl approach to values education. This approach maintains that students must engage in four phases of thinking during values/moral classroom…

Although interest has increased in applying cognitive behavior therapies to conjoint treatment of marital problems, the role of cognitive processes in marital maladjustment and in couples' orientations toward marital therapy has not been sufficiently investigated. The association between couples' levels of marital distress and their goals for…

Providing information about the interrelationships among learning, teaching, and the act of reading, this book serves as a guide for gaining an understanding of the psychological bases of the reading process. The 11 chapters discuss the following topics: (1) language and intellectual development during the formative years; (2) the aspects of child…

Recent studies have suggested that depressives process personal information in a biased and negative self-referential manner. Normative ratings on a variety of "depressed" and "nondepressed" adjectives were obtained to investigate the exact nature of information processing in depressives. Subjects rated adjectives on depressive content, imagery,…