Compared laboratory and naturalistic content influences on formal reasoning tasks of 90 13-, 15-, and 17-year-olds, focusing on tasks requiring ability to control variables. Results indicate that 8 to 20 percent of performance variance was associated with task content. Content effects were also shown to reflect expectations about task variables.…

To shed light on whether reason or attitudes, the intellect or the emotions, should be the primary focus of educational efforts, the writings of Jean Paul Sartre on human motivation are digested. Educators should foster the conscious and deliberate acceptance of the human condition of freedom. (PP)

College students (N=52) were given unfamiliar or novel problems (written and interview responses) to determine how they characterize living things, criteria they use to distinguish between living/dead/nonliving, and to determine if their idea of life included the interrelationship between organisms and biosphere. Results and implications are…

An experimental investigation of a single patient with an acquired dyslexia in which there was a significant impairment in his ability to read concrete words compared with abstract words is reported. The Brown and Ure word-lists used in the study are appended. (Author/SJL)

This investigation focused on the stage of formal operational reasoning in the acquisition of astronomy concepts, and on efficacy of different instructional experiences for facilitating cognitive change in college students. Included are selected results and directions for future research. (SK)

Presents the background, methods, and findings of a study contrasting the levels of cognitive development of community college and university students. Reveals that 48% of both student groups tested were incapable of performing at the formal-operational level (as described in Piaget's Cognitive Development Model). Discusses implications for…

Construct organization was inferred from subjects' responses to a specially modified implication grid. Both developmental predictions and the validity of grid measures received excellent support from the analysis of children's theories of their peers as a function of their own age, sex and verbal intelligence. (Author)

Some potential difficulties involved in using "real-life situations" in teaching problem solving are illustrated with a racing car problem. The importance of developing mental images and the ability to abstract in the solution process is indicated. (MP)

In the field of science, the meaning of insight can be understood by looking at theories which deal with universal laws that have fundamental significance for the totality of matter, independently of conditions of time and space. (JN)

This paper examines the mental processes involved in inferring perspective changes resulting from the rotation of a spatial array or from the rotation of the viewer of that array. Under certain conditions, viewer-rotation problems become easy and array-rotation problems become difficult. Apparently, an array is fixed vis-a-vis the spatial context.…

The author demonstrates how schools reflect our cultural tradition by giving low status to forms of consciousness and intelligence related to the arts. He discusses forms of representation and modes of conceptualization, arguing for the adoption of a broader view of cognition, that values the full range of student aptitudes. (SJL)

An examination of the effects of different types of review questions on the transfer skills of seventh grade math students indicates that relatively difficult review questions can effectively facilitate the retention of these skills. (JD)

The lack of a philosophical teaching approach in social studies is partly due to the lack of exposure students have had to philosophy in preparatory programs and partly due to a lack of preparation for teachers in college. (JN)

The information-processing approach and results of research on spatial ability are analyzed. Performance consists of a sequence of distinct mental operations that seem general across subjects, and can be individually measured. New interpretations for some classical concepts in psychological testing and procedures for abilities are suggested.…