Second- and fourth-grade children viewed a cylindrical object in nine positions and identified the 90- , 180- , or 270-degree positions from a set of photographs. Perspectives in which the object differed from the child's view in both left-right and near-far dimensions were more difficult than perspectives that only transformed one dimension.…

Most representations of academic disciplines have been created when experts depict or report what they know; however, there are potential problems that can arise when practitioners rely on expert self-report. One way to avoid potential problems associated with expert self-report is to employ cognitive task analysis methods. The Pathfinder Scaling…

This report describes how schools can draw on multiple voices to create a comprehensive portrait of important events in a school's history. In this "mapping" process, participants create a map that portrays the collective history of the school, facilitating an increased awareness of past actions and their connection to current conditions.…

Examined factors associated with individual variation in false belief understanding in three- to five-year olds. Found that family size was strongly associated with false belief understanding in children who were less competent linguistically, suggesting that the presence of siblings can compensate for slower language development in developing…

The deficiencies and distortions revealed in studies of public understanding of science, intuitive physics, nutritional myths and misunderstandings, and mental mapping of geographical space are defects in information transfer from the physical and intellectual realms to the subjective realms of individuals (Popper's three "Worlds").…

Reports on a study of metacognitive strategy training for reading in English as a Second Language. The study indicated that such training was effective in enhancing second language reading, although the measured effectiveness of training was influenced by the way reading was measured and differences in students' learning styles. (62 references)…

Describes a computer-based methodology for representing mental models as maps, extracting these maps from written and spoken texts, and analyzing and comparing concepts and structures of information within maps. Illustrates the model using data on students and teacher in an undergraduate writing class. Contains about 80 references. (Author/SV)

Presents concepts from von Wodtke's book, "Mind over Media," to suggest ways to teach thinking skills important for the electronic information age. Topics covered include how to use media interactively, navigating information environments, developing cognitive maps of media space, visualization, creative thinking, and collaboration. (KRN)

The role of analogical mapping in the formation of conceptual misrepresentations was studied by analyzing target-domain inferences generated by 193 third graders learning from an analogy. Explicit knowledge of the instructional goal decreased the number of conflicting inferences. Implications for learning are discussed. (SLD)

Suggests that the prewriting phase of the writing process is the most important and that a promising approach to the prewriting phase for students with learning difficulties is called Web-making (also called cognitive mapping, idea mapping, patterned note taking, construct procedure, graphic overview, networking, flowcharting, and semantic…

Describes an exercise in lexical analysis, involving verbs of sound in English and Spanish. The aim of the exercise is to enable students to discover underlying patterns of meaning that are representative of lexical-conceptual structure. (Author/VL)

Examined the role of the psychological process of comparison in young children's ability to extend a novel adjective to other objects sharing a salient property whether objects are of the same or different basic-level categories. Found that comparison operates in conjunction with naming to support extension of novel adjectives to properties of…

Prior research suggests that when very simple event sequences are used, 4.5-month-olds demonstrate the ability to individuate objects based on the continuity or disruption of their speed of motion (Wilcox & Schweinle, 2003). However, infants demonstrate their ability to individuate objects in an event-monitoring task (i.e., infants must keep track…

Mind Mapping can be called the Swiss Army Knife for the brain, a total visual thinking tool or a multi-handed thought catcher. Invented by Tony Buzan in the early 1970s and used by millions around the world, it is a method that can be a part of a techniques repertoire when teaching information literacy, planning, presenting, thinking, and so…

Similarity underlies fundamental cognitive capabilities such as memory, categorization, decision making, problem solving, and reasoning. Although recent approaches to similarity appreciate the structure of mental representations, they differ in the processes posited to operate over these representations. We present an experiment that…