This report relates current attentional research and theory to the development of skilled performance, with emphasis on how performance changes with practice. Dual process attention theory is reviewed, and the distinction between automatic and controlled processing is examined. The changing interactions between automatic and controlled processing…

The purpose of this study was to determine how retarded readers differed from normal readers in the various ways laterality is manifested. An additional purpose was to investigate the development of laterality as seen across several age levels. Subjects were 80 white male 9-, 10-, 11-, and 12-year-olds from regular classrooms in suburban…

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the relationship between cognitive style and reading readiness in kindergarten children categorized as potential successes or failures in reading. The cognitive styles that were assessed consisted of field-independence-dependence and impulsivity-reflectivity. The subjects were 60 male and 60 female…

An attempt to locate, review, classify, and abstract a more extensive set of measurement instruments and tests relevant to education and care programs for children from birth to age eight was made. Publishers' catalogs, test review, journals and other measurement documents have been examined to obtain a list. After extensive examination of…

Sex differences in cognitive skills, grouped into motor, spatial and linguistic areas, are assessed in relation to current theories of cerebral lateralization. Few convincing sex differences exist, either overall, or in interactions with functional localization. Qualifying criteria include age, birth order, culture, sex of experimenter and sex…

Researchers studied the effect of interpolating extraneous information on students' ability to process cognitive information concerning their prior performances on the McCloy block test. The extraneous information was given in the interval between their last test and their next attempt to perform it. Results are discussed. (Author/PP)

Four instructional designs to teach pelvic examinations to second-year medical students were compared: traditional sequence, and practice in premotor, postmotor, and combined premotor and postmotor skill development. Mental practice produced better performance on the abilities to list the examination sequence and record findings. (Author/MSE)

Measurements derived from reaction time, movement time, and an index of neural adaptability derived from averaged evoked potentials are significantly related to each other as well as to g factor scores extracted from a battery of 15 psychometric tests in a sample of 54 severely retarded adults. (Author/RD)

A motor task that requires fine control of upper limb movements and a cognitive task that requires executive processing--first performing them separately and then concurrently--was performed by 18 young and 18 older adults. The motor task required participants to tap alternatively on two targets, the sizes of which varied systematically. The…

This study examined the electrophysiological differences between baseline EEG frequencies and EEG frequencies obtained during a psychomotor response to musical stimuli. Subjects were 9 children, with mean age of 5.2 years old. Electrophysiological differences between two different musical conditions were also compared. EEG was recorded during 3…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether differences in the level of visual complexity in motion visuals have an effect on cognitive learning of students in different grade levels. The instructional content was a 14-minute video lesson concerning the motion of objects in the universe. A 3 (levels of visual complexity) x 2 (grade…

Although there are marked individual differences in the effect of aging on learning and performing motor skills, there is agreement that humans process information less efficiently with advanced age. Significant decrements have been found specifically with motor tasks that are characterized as externally-paced, rapid, complex, and requiring rapid…

Discussed are Piaget's methods, his relation to other theories, and an overview of his theory. Described are the six stages of his sensorimotor period with a summary of imitation and play, and the concrete operations period with the subperiods of changes from sensorimotor in preoperation, differences from the adult in preoperation, and the…

Proposes a categorization scheme based on instructional design theory and empirical findings for employing various types of graphic/visual displays under specified conditions. (Author/CHC)