Describes three themes that have informed research on cognitive development in sub-Sahara Africa over the past 10 years: (1) extending the range of generalizability of Western theories; (2) interpreting the uniqueness of the African situation; and (3) deriving implications for social policy. (Author/AS)

Discusses the development of visual thinking in students. Also presents a strategy that incorporates visualization exercises within the framework of traditional mathematics. The technique appears successful for students studying geometry, fractions, and problem solving. Visualization abilities increase understanding and therefore give students…

Examines the cognitive processes associated with speech and writing. (HOD)

Investigated the role of television as a medium for communicating environmental information to the general public by determining the influence of a Cousteau documentary on viewer knowledge and attitudes and to assess changes in those characteristics over time. Survey form used is included in an appendix. (ML)

Investigated whether instructing children in the component skills underlying Piagetian transitivity tasks would increase their performance on both transitivity-related tasks and on reasoning tasks not directly related to transitivity. Results indicate that incorporating the quantification of certain abstract symbols, training can influence…

Research regarding cognitive strategies instruction is reviewed and implications for its use with mildly handicapped learners considered. Approaches to enhance performance in memory and attention; academic learning (mathematics, written language, and reading comprehension); and studying content material are described. (CL)

This study compared the validity of chronological age, a standardized algebra prognosis test, standardized verbal and quantitative scales derived from an achievement test battery, and an objective measure of formal or concrete stages of Piagetian cognitive development for predicting final examination scores and course grades in high school…

Using play-material scales, SES, age, and sex as predictor variables, this study employed regression against the subvariables of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities of verbal, perceptual-performance, quantitative, memory, and motor abilities. Findings suggest that SES is predictive of verbal, quantitative, memory, and motor, while age is…

Research on cognitive development of low-birthweight infants is reviewed. The study of high-risk populatons should include measures of psychological development. Detailed assessment of the children's daily life and behavior patterns can provide clues for causal linkages to account for the association between social economic status and cognitive…

Do stage-related patterns of early cognitive development reported for normally developing children also characterize at-risk and handicapped children when mental age organization of data is used? Mental age predicted Piagetian-based cognitive levels one to three but did not predict highest-level symbolic functioning in 95 handicapped children.…

Concludes that environmental effects on IQ are relatively modest within the normal range of environments, but circumstances are very substantial. Cognitive development is influenced by direct effect on cognition and indirect effects through alterations in self-concept, aspirations, attitudes to learning and styles of interaction with other people.…

Middle-level teachers can avoid passive seatwork and encourage students to think using a "guided thinking" approach, designed to help adolescents develop more sophisticated thinking and reasoning skills. Essential elements of guided thinking are described, along with an implementation strategy and the principal's role in fostering…

Investigates the development of communicative competence during preschool age by analyzing certain types of communicative acts and sequences of communicative acts in adult-child and child-child communication. Assumes there are certain phases in which a child is especially prepared for the acquisition of certain types of communicative acts. (SED)

This project sought to establish an affective concept exemplar variable called "exemplar intensity," a characteristic that would challenge the notion of equivalence by its impact on cognitive gain. The hypothesis that the high-intensity exemplars would increase cognitive achievement above learners receiving low-intensity exemplars was…

Studies the ways in which citizens rationalize their obedience or disobedience to the law. There is a clear correspondence between cognitive structure, or moral reasoning, and political-legal predispositions. Political involvement is the catalyst which converts moral development into political maturity. (Author/CS)