Background: Pragmatic language impairment has recently been the subject of a number of studies that attempted to illuminate classification and diagnostic issues, and identify the profile of children with pragmatic language difficulties. Although much progress has been made, the nature of pragmatic difficulties remains unclear. Aims: To contrast…

This article examines how eight advanced ESL learners attend to and utilize the nonverbal information found in a video text. Using verbal report methodology in which test-takers verbalized aloud their thought processes while taking a video listening test, the results suggested that the test-takers varied in how they attended to and utilized the…

Eighty-two children (ages 4.4 to 6.5 years) were administered a Backward Digit Span test to measure M-space and four conservation tasks (number, substance, continuous quantity, and weight). Based upon a neo-Piagetian theory of intellectual development proposed by Pascual-Leone (1969), two hypotheses were tested: (1) A significant relation should…

Three levels from the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) standardization sample were randomly selected and their subtest score intercorrelations were subjected to factor analysis. The analyses yielded minor inconsistencies which suggest the instrument does not primarily measure simultaneous and sequential processing and achievement as…

Explored the relationship between high school students' (N=37) performances on the Tomlinson-Keasey and Campbell paper-and-pencil test of formal operations and a set of traditional, individually administered, Piagetian developmental tasks. Correlations between the traditional, formal operations tasks and paper-and-pencil tests were low. (Author/DS)

Some evidence supports the hypothesis that formal operational reasoning ability (at least that measured by Piagetian tasks) is a unified process. The purpose of this research was to determine: (1) if conservation tasks, such as conservation of number, liquid amount, weight and volume, are unifactor; and (2) if conservation tasks form a scale of…

An attempt to train concrete operational fifth-grade students (N=32) and seventh-grade students (N=32) to perform at the formal operational level on tasks demanding the control of variables are reported. The training was conducted in four individual sessions of approximately 30 minutes each. The training sessions were designed to represent a…