Data from three studies with elementary and junior high school students are presented in support of the contention that facility in concrete operations is necessary and sufficient for competence in the simple syllogistic forms, while formal operations are required when dealing with conditional statements in certain more complex contexts.…

Two studies with first- and fifth-grade children in two learning tasks showed that preoperational children did not necessarily learn responses followed by a stimulus object previously instrumental in obtaining a reward, while postoperational subjects did. (Author/JMB)

This essay affirms that people are not, like insects, genetically compelled to live and work collectively. Above all, language separates us from the rest of the animal world, allowing us to depart from reflex activity to consider the ambiguous and unknown and formulate new ideas. (Text is in Spanish.) (CHK)

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that coding used for recall is a dynamic process that changes in accordance with operational structures. Fifty male and female university students participated in two task sessions: (1) Formal operations and recall and (2) recall one month later. Significant correlations supported the basic…

Examines the hypothesis that poor readers will have much greater difficulty in recalling abstract words than will normal readers but will closely approximate normal readers in recalling concrete words. The hypothesis was confirmed at the second-grade level but not at the sixth-grade level. (Author/CB)

Presents a conceptual framework for the development of decision support systems which outlines abstractions involved in the decision-making process and describes various functions and components of the system. The computer architecture is described and an example of an application is provided. (31 references) (Author/CLB)

Examines the differences between concrete and abstract concepts and their implications for instructional design and teaching. How specific concepts are stored in and retrieved from memory is described, analogies are discussed as an instructional tool in abstract concept learning, and a possible instructional strategy for teaching abstract concepts…

Examines a high school literature censorship case, and challenges the assumption that values can be "absorbed" through emotional engagement with a "transparent" text. Concludes with guidelines for avoiding indoctrination by viewing literature as the construction of fictional worlds whose values are decoded by calculated acts of…

The predictive validity of the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) was examined with a sample of 212 sixth-grade students and 214 seventh-grade students. Correlation coefficients between the SPM and the California Achievement Tests of Reading, Language, and Mathematics ranged from .34 to .60. (Author/LMO)

The effects of problem size on judgments of commutativity by 51 moderately and mildly retarded students were investigated. Results indicated that many retarded students who are given computational practice recognize the general principle that addend order does not affect the sum. (Author/DB)

Second and third graders and fifth and sixth graders were tested in a very large, unfamiliar environment to determine the relation of their knowledge of an abstract reference frame to performance on a spatial inference task. (HOD)

Using Raven Progressive Matrices Test items, this study developed an empirical measure of subjects' ability to create new problems. The relationship between this ability and problem solving skills was examined. A very low correlation was found between inventing and solving problems. Problem creation was more difficult than problem solving. (BS)

This defense of the authors' previous report states that there is a large sex difference in mathematical reasoning ability among intellectually talented preadolescents. The authors concluded differential course taking could not account for observed sex differences among intellectually gifted students, although this may affect average ability…

Eighty-seven fifth graders in Israel were randomly assigned to four different filmmaking courses, covering photography only, scenario design and photography, editing and photography, or all three activities. Filmmaking had a significant effect on the cultivation of eight mental skills. The editing activity cultivated four logical inference skills.…

Relates a literature class's analysis of a work. Notes student discovery that meaning in a fantasy work resided in a matrix of the author's structuring of the text, the reader's re-creation of that structure internally, and the subsequent development of agreed upon meaning within the group. (MM)