egberta@byuvax.UUCP (12/03/87)
on cognitive skills and abilities such as planning, organizing, critical thinking, etc. For example, one of the arguments for teaching children (and adults) programming languages is that it improves their problem- solving skills. There are those that say writing will increase or enhance higher cognitive abilities and thus encourage the task of writing on those grounds. I am aware of much of the literature which shows that various organizational and planning abilities are prerequisites for good writing, but I have been less successful in finding studies which show improvements (or decrements) in cognitive abilities as a result of writing. Is there anyone out there who can point me to current research in the psychology of writing that addresses these issues? I would appreciate pointers to on-going research(ers) as well as references. Please e-mail responses to me and I will summarize to the net. (If there is enough interest to start a discussion on this topic, let's start it in sci.psychology. There has been some recent interest in discussing educational issues in this group.) Thanks in advance, Arch Egbert egberta@byuvax.bitnet Brigham Young University