A model's influence on the creative behavior of 120 fifth-grade children was studied in four variations. Separate groups observed a model who was either high or low in the fluency or flexibility creativity dimensions. Multivariate procedures were used to assess treatment effects upon children's fluency and flexibility measures collected on…

This study examines the various abilities subsumed under the process of correlational thinking. Each major ability is translated into behavioral activities and procedures in six booklets. Each booklet corresponds to a specific major ability and is placed, with respect to the other booklets, in a highly structured sequence. The specific abilities…

The multiordinal use of terms requires the ability to distinguish essential relationships and attributes from incidental ones. Until the child reaches adolescence, his tendency to confuse incidental and affective factors with those crucial to word meaning hinders his use of terms at all levels of abstraction. Korzybski's theory of multiordinality…

Together with other publications in this series, this handbook addresses the issue of humanizing education. Specifically, discussion focuses on the role of critical thinking and reasoning in the educational process. Part one outlines reasons, requirements, and methods for teaching critical thinking and reasoning and connects critical thinking with…

The existence of a time lag discovered in the cross-cultural application of Piagetian tests may result from a socio-economic bias in Piaget's theory. Abstract, formal cognition may reflect a particular social structure, embodying the principles of exchange value, reification, and alienation which govern production and exchange in the…

Argues against the claim that Piaget's theory of formal thought is invalid when used in learning high school chemistry, and suggests a way to test its validity. (GA)

Discusses the importance of developing students' understanding of certain spatial aspects of important concepts. Piaget's contributions to the development of spatial conceptualization are included. Some examples for applying spatial techniques in earth sciences, physics, and chemistry are also presented. (HM)

The ADAPT program for freshmen emphasizes building an experiential base in introductory courses before moving to abstract formulations. The goal is to develop thinking processes that are integrated with the student's experiences. Students in the ADAPT program outperformed two comparison groups on a variety of thinking tasks. (Author)

Focuses on the utility of well-formulated theory in conducting research, and demonstrates that the problem of transfer of learning is still a tough and subtle one. (Editor/RK)

Children aged 6 through 9 made drawings of cubes and simple abstract designs, with or without looking at their hand. Copying errors and differences between the age groups were discussed in terms of visual realism (perspective drawing) compared with intellectual realism (structural essentials copied without a unified perspective view). (CTM)

Children and undergraduate students were studied to expose "structure-neutral" interpretations of logical propositions involving universal affirmatives. Successes with true and false questions and with four different syllogistic forms having three content types were compared. Age-related differences in performance were discussed with…

College students learned artificial grammar under two conditions: paired associate learning (PA), and observation of exemplars (OBS). OBS induced abstract representation of the rules of grammar. PA produced very different learning--subjects knew some whole items but detected little structure. Grammar was learned largely by analogy rather than…

Measures of abstract reasoning ability, degree of bidialectism, and reading performance were administered to Black, inner-city third and fifth graders. Abstract reasoning ability significantly affected reading performance while expressive proficiency in Standard English and Black English did not significantly affect scores. The importance of…

Examines conditions for the acquisition of the proportionality concept and attempts to improve the ability of remedial college students in an urban university to solve proportions. Specifically, the study was designed: (1) to observe the acquisition of the proportionality concept through training on the operations of group-structured tasks, and…

Reports on the administration of a biology cognitive preference test to 177 science-oriented high school students. Subjects were asked to rank responses or "extension statements" to items according to their preference. It was found that the high-ability students as a group had a very high preference for questioning and low preference for recall.…