The content of 228 college student's writing samples appears to be a main determiner of how many and what types of preposition errors will appear. These results indicate that preposition errors point to cognitive lags and complex, abstract writing tasks may be the appropriate treatment. (Author/PN)

Holds that as people get older they can employ certain techniques to offset some of the physiological limitations on their intellectual abilities. Provides tips for overcoming some sensory deficiencies, memory loss, motivational changes, mental fatigue, and changes in social environment of the old. (Author/AOS)

Replicating previous findings that the inability to "shift" conceptual attitude on the Weigl is consistent with indices associated with cortical dysfunction, the Weigl is shown to possibly serve as a nonverbal instrument to assess cortical dysfunction where inability to "shift" appears to tap a dysfunction in symbolic rather…

The developmental principles as they apply to teachers focus on variations among teachers according to developmental criteria. Orientations to teacher supervision are viewed, and clusters of supervisory behaviors are matched with stages of teacher development. (JN)

Sex differences in spatial visualization ability accounted for sex differences in mathematical ability for a group of college students. With spatial visualization statistically controlled, no significant sex differences in Quantitative Scholastic Aptitude Test scores were found. Males were more predictable than females due to higher spatial…

Reports results of a study investigating the ability of college students to solve problems using proportional reasoning. Also discusses implications for consideration of Piagetian cognitive level of students in planning college courses. (CS)

Presents data on reasoning abilities of science and non-science majors at one private, liberal arts university. Indicates that most students taking physics are formal operational or into transition to formal reasoning and that six concrete operational students dropped the course. (JN)

Novice listeners have difficulty perceiving form in music because they experience music episodically, not holistically; and because conditioned by popular music to respond emotionally, they see no reason for intellectual analysis. To achieve aesthetic literacy, students must be taught both analytic and aesthetic perception, utilizing both brain…

This study considers two problems related to cognitive development: "Is development hierarchical?" and "If so, what are the mechanisms involved in the process of development?" Analysis of the results of an experiment lead to differentiation of stages of development, and problem-solving strategies at each level are discussed.…

Third- and seventh-grade and college students were tested to assess developmental differences in improvement following contradiction training and to investigate whether improved performance transfers to other conditional reasoning tasks. Results showed age differences: college students improved and transferred performance, seventh graders…

Focuses on human information processes and problem solving. Although a large body of knowledge is prerequisite to acquiring skill, the authors state that knowledge must be indexed by patterns that guide the person in a fraction of a second to relevant parts of the knowledge store. (Author/SA)

Reports results of two experiments to test recognition decisions of increasing difficulty among preschool children. Increasing levels of difficulty were perceptual identity, common object-class, and either taxonomic category or complementary pair formation. (Author/DB)

Observation of practices in V. V. Davydov's laboratory school suggests that students proceed from concrete example to abstract generalization--rather than from abstract to concrete, as Davydov has claimed. (GDC)

Five Inhelder-Piaget formal operations tasks were analyzed to determine the extent that the formal operational skills they assess were ordered into a stable hierarchy generalizable across samples of subjects. Subjects were 34 collegiate gymnasts (19 males, 15 females), and 22 students (1 male, 21 females) from a university nursing program.…

Instructions involving high-level questions and answers either were or were not given to fifth and sixth graders in three learning environments: cooperative, competitive, or independent. Students who received the instructions showed greater gains in recognizing and generating high-level questions. (GDC)