Following a summary and critique of the research on the use of computers in education to develop higher-order thinking skills, this paper advances eight hypotheses regarding the failure of research to confirm expected positive effects, and makes two major claims. The hypotheses are as follows: (1) a cognitive chain of consequences of programming…

With or without the support of research, clinicians must make judgments concerning relations between different areas of psychological functioning. Recently, studies have been made of possible relations between different areas of mental activity, including logical and emotional conception and social, emotional, and perceptual functioning. Nannis…

The outcomes of collaboration provide an incomplete and potentially misleading picture of cognitive change, one that is clarified by examining the collaborative processes themselves. Results from a study illustrate the dangers of focusing solely on the consequences of collaboration and emphasize why the analysis of collaborative processes is…

To assess young children's understanding of false belief, investigators often show them a familiar container, then demonstrate that it holds an object different from the one the children expected. The children are then asked what they originally thought the container held, and what another container will hold. Three-year-old children typically…

Repeated but unadvised attempts have been made by music educators to relate the Piagetian concept of concrete operational thought to children's understanding of music. The attempts have been focused on the apparent link between the child's detection of invariance in musical patterns and the concept of conservation. These attempts are unadvised…

The problems with using Piagetian theory to explore language-thought relationships are two-fold. First there are methodological problems, including the lack of experimental controls and the lack of uniform criteria by which cognitive operations are identified. A second difficulty is the questionable practice of interpreting child language…

Lev Vygotsky maintained that historical and cultural aspects of development started from the point at which humans could first be distinguished from apes. It is critical to consider the dialectical relationship between the individual and the cultural environment in which the child actively masters cultural behavior. Interaction with others…

Age and cognitive developmental level were used as independent variables in order to assess their relative effects on the number and kinds of self-referent constructs used by children and adolescents. Fifty-four 8-year-olds, sixty-four 12-year-olds, and forty-six 16-year-olds were recruited from their respective third, seventh, and eleventh grades…

Piaget's early contribution to theorizing about play is discussed critically with reference to three major interrelated problems. These are: (1) that despite their equipotentiality in Piaget's theory of intelligence, imitation and play are not conceptualized as making an equal contribution to cognition, play taking a subordinate role; (2) that…

This paper takes the position that theories about individual differences in childhood and theories about cognitive development both would be enhanced if the two lines of research were integrated. The heuristic value of this position is illustrated in the context of analogical reasoning tasks. A general model of analogy solution and potential…

This paper discusses the utility of a general systems theory paradigm for psychology. The paradigm can be used for conceptualizing such complex phenomena as change over time in living systems, person-society interactions, and the epistemology of multiply determined changes. Consideration is also given to applications of the approach to…

Data from 86 Early Childhood Education (ECE) projects in Oregon were analyzed using methods prescribed by the Value Added model for ECE evaluation. The extent to which appropriate model implementation procedures were followed is unknown. Thus, the results represent an empirical account of the model's estimates of project impact, rather than a…

The purpose of this study was to determine the types of research methods used to study cognitive processing development in gifted learners, from 1975-1986. Of 870 research publications identified on giftedness, 522 publications (60 percent) dealt with cognitive processing development. Research designs used most frequently were causal-comparative,…

Studies of children's deceptive behavior have scientific merit and can be carried out in an ethically defensible manner. Many arguments against studies requiring children to deceive others in an experimental context are relatively easy to refute. It is true, though, that the debriefing phase of deception studies presents ethical problems,…

Given what is known about cognitive development, how well prepared are 4-year-old children to succeed in school? This paper addresses the question by describing three areas in cognitive development, highlighting major themes in the research, and suggesting implications for teaching practice and social policy. Classical and contemporary views of…