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This study was an investigation of the role of perceptual and functional features in the development of naturally-occurring and artifactual categories. Twenty-five college students, 16 fourth grade students, and 18 second-grade students participated in a sentence verification task. Each subject was presented sentences containing typical and atypical exemplars from naturally-occurring and artifactual categories paired with perceptual and functional features. The subjects were to indicate whether each sentence was true or false. A four-way mixed design ANOVA was performed on response times and error rates. A general developmental trend in category acquisition was indicated by the data. Children first learn typical naturallyoccurring category items. As they grow older, naturally-occurring categories are learned most thoroughly because of their clear-cut membership. Artifactual categories, which are less limited in membership, take longer for children to process. There was no evidence in the data to suggest that the differences between the two category types was due to a perceptual feature basis for naturally-occurring categories.

The purpose of the study was to investigate factors influencing the selection of minority and majority school-aged children for gifted and talented programs. Factors explored included abstract thinking ability, achievement test scores, and parental social status (i.e., education, income, occupation) as academic and nonacademic variables that potentially influence the selection and/or placement process. Provided is performance data on 22 black and 23 white gifted children and 21 black and 24 white high achieving children (N=90) relative to their similar as well as unique traits on measures of abstract thinking ability, IQ, and achievement tests.FindingsH1. There are significant differences in abstract thinking ability among placement groups that vary with race.H2. It was found that students from higher social status backgrounds tended to be placed in programs for the gifted more often than were students from lower social status backgrounds.H3. Teachers tended to select (from a hypothetical group) children from higher income families rather than children from lower income families for placement in the gifted program. This finding was also true for children whose profiles indicated parent occupation (e.g., teacher, judge).Conclusions1. The selection of gifted students is influenced by race and social status of the parents.2. Parent education, occupation, and income are social class variables that influence children both in and out of school.3. Abstract thinking ability is not an academic variable that influences the selection of children for gifted program placement in the school corporation selected for this study.4. Numerous other variables (e.g., hi/lo socioeconomic background, values and beliefs, directed/mediated learning experiences, language and historical background) influence a child's capacity to learn and should be always considered.5. Testing instruments are not available in the school system used in this study to accurately assess the skills of minority children. / Department of Special Education

The purpose of the study was to determine if preference level of a class from which a student was removed would affect performance on an abbreviated psycho-educational test battery. It also examined the effect of a student's cognitive style on performance on the test battery.Subjects were 76 seventh-grade students. On the base of a double median spilt of time and error sores from the MFFT, 37 of these students had been identified as reflective and 39 as impulsive. The students were randomly assigned to be removed from either their favorite or least favorite class. The students were then removed from the assigned class and individually administered an abbreviated psycho-educational test battery by a certified psychometrist/psychol.ogist.The three null hypotheses were tested using a multivariate analysis of variance with univariate F-ratios to further investigate significant differences. The .01 level of significance was used.There was no significant difference found between performances of those students removed from preferred classes and those students removed from non-preferred classes. Reflective students, however, performed better on a linear com-posite of achievement, ability, and visual-motor tests. When this relationship was examined further, reflective students were found -to do better on the math and reading achievement and visual-motor tests, but not on the subtests measuring verbal intelligence.The results of this study suggested that school psychologists, teachers, and others who interpret the results of achievement tests need to be cautious. Errors on these kinds of tests have been frequently interpreted in the past to be indicative of low ability. Rather, errors may be explained by a student's tendency to respond hastily, and thus inaccurately.

The two purposes of this study were to examine the relationship between the field-independent/field-dependent cognitive style, self-esteem, and attitude toward school in slow-learning third grade children and to determine if teacher knowledge of the personality characteristics and educational implications of this cognitive style would influence the self-esteem and attitude toward school of these children. The study was conducted within schools receiving supplemental instructional resources under Title I of Public Law 89-10 (Special Educational Needs of Educationally Deprived Children).Twelve teachers and those of their students whose scores on the Otis-Lennon Mental Abilities Test were between 70 and 90 were included in the study. The teachers' level of field-independence/field-dependence was determined by the use of the Embedded Figures Test and the Block Design Subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. The children's level of field-independence/field-dependence was determined by the use of the Children's Embedded Figures Test and the Block Design Subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Revised (WISC-R). The Self-Appraisal Inventory (Primary Level) and the School Sentiment Index(Primary Level) were used to determine the children's self-esteem and attitude toward school. These two instruments were given before and after a 12-week treatment program.The relationship between field-independence/field-dependence and self-esteem was investigated by computing the children's average Z score for the Children's Embedded Figures Test and the WISC-R Block Design Subtest and then correlating these average scores with the scores obtained on the Self-Appraisal Inventory (Primary Level). The relationship between field-independence/field-dependence and attitude toward school was also investigated by correlating the children's average Z scores for the measures of field-independence/field-dependence with the scores they obtained on the School Sentiment Index (Primary Level).The influence of teacher knowledge of the personality characteristics and educational implications of field-independence/field-dependence on self-esteem and attitude school was investigated with a research design which controlled for experimental arrangements and positive teacher expectancy. Four intact groups (three classrooms per group) were used. To control for experimental arrangements, teachers in two of the groups received information concerning the field-independent/field-dependent cognitive style and were given the cognitive style of the slowlearning children in their classes who were participating in the study. Teachers in the other two groups were used as controls and received irrelevant information about the neurological impress method of remedial reading instruction. All of the teachers were asked to apply the information they had received in their teaching. To control for the effects of positive teacher expectancy, the information provided to teachers in one of the two relevant treatment groups was presented in a way designed to create a positive expectancy. The information provided to the teachers in the remaining relevant and irrelevant groups was present in a way designed to create a neutral expectancy. Data was analyzed using a three-factor analysis of variance with repeated measures on one factor. The two non-repeated factors were teacher knowledge and teacher expectancy. The pre and post treatment scores obtained on the Self-Appraisal Inventory (Primary Level) and the School Sentiment Index (Primary Level) served as the repeated measures.This study did not detect any correlation between the level of field-independence/field-dependence and self-esteem or between the level of field-independence/field-dependence and attitude toward school in slow-learning 3rd grade children. Nor did it demonstrate that teacher knowledge of the personality characteristics and educational implications of field-independence/field-dependence have any influence on the self-esteem and attitude toward school of these children.

The developmental trajectory of basic numerical skills and sequential processing was systematically investigated among a sample of 5 to 11-year-old typically developing boys. Performance was defined in terms of reaction times and error rates during novel computerized tasks that measured sequential and numerical concepts related to cardinality and ordinal knowledge. Analyses revealed that fast and accurate performance was attributable to children at older ages. At younger ages, task manipulations exclusively related to ordinal relationships demonstrated a significant influence over error rates. Furthermore, nonverbal intelligence predicted a significant amount of the variance related to an understanding of the ordinal properties of numbers. The findings support developmental theory regarding age-related changes in early mathematical performance and extend pedagogical research concerning the cognitive capacities that contribute to approximate numerical knowledge.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: Philip Zelazo.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Education, 1993? / Diskette contains transcripts of interviews. Includes bibliographical references.