A scientific definition of the meaning of human creative thought is pursued. (JD)

This paper raises serious questions about the reliability of the learning pyramid as a guide to retention among students. The pyramid suggests that certain teaching methods are connected with a corresponding hierarchy of student retention. No specific credible research was uncovered to support the pyramid, which is loosely associated with the…

SystemC is a system-level design and simulation language based on C++. We've been using SystemC for computer organization and design projects for the past several years. Because SystemC is embedded in C++ it contains the powerful abstraction mechanisms of C++ not found in traditional hardware description languages, such as support for…

This study investigated associations between mother-infant interactions and children's subsequent understanding of mind and emotion. Mothers' tendency to comment on their infants' internal world and their general sensitivity to their infants' internal states were measured through coded play interactions at 10 months. The latter measurement…

We investigated humor as a context for learning about abstraction and disbelief. More specifically, we investigated how parents support humor understanding during book sharing with their toddlers. In Study 1, a corpus analysis revealed that in books aimed at 1- to 2-year-olds, humor is found more often than other forms of doing the wrong thing…

The manual on problem solving was culled from a set of newspaper articles in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Each brief article typically suggests problem solving strategies and offers sample problems on which to test one's skill. Articles are organized into the categories of input, process, and output. The input section offers ideas about analysis,…

Article explores some of the key notions of the construct "concept" from the psychological and educational literature in order to demonstrate the need for standardization of definition and a more unified front in future investigations involving this important element in the study of cognition. (Author)

The article reviews six conceptions of genius and offers a seventh. Three types of genius (analytic, synthetic, and integrated) are defined. Common to all three is the sustained ability to use analysis and synthesis (i.e., to be both linear and creative in approaching complex problems). (Author/DB)

A training program in analogical reasoning skills stresses processes of encoding, inferring, mapping, and applying. Initial sessions focus on applications to concrete analogy problems while subsequent sessions present more abstract linguistic analogies and consider applications to other school subjects. (CL)

Reasoning and imagining are seen as very different acts of mind. Imagination connotes the counterfactual and the unruly; reasoning connotes a realistic and rule-bound activity. Good reasoning depends crucially on the vigorous exercise of imagination. Good informal reasoning is as difficult, and as dependent on imagination, as mathematical…

We have built a world for ourselves that relies almost exclusively on mental processes. (Author)

Study indicates that for children, but not for adolescents, the number of concepts produced was inversely related to the level of abstractness of the stimuli. (Author/MG)

Reviews and discusses Piaget's recent work on abstract reasoning. Piaget's distinction between empirical and reflective abstraction is presented; his hypotheses are considered to be metaphorical. (Author/DB)

Researchers and educators of the deaf often suggest that deaf children have a particular problem in understanding metaphorical uses of natural language. The paper reports two experiments whose results are incompatible with this view. (Author)

Describes a study which ascertained what influences (if any) general semantics training might have on one's "allness orientation," or the belief that one is in possession of all the facts, with dogmatic insistence on their concrete reality. (HOD)