Children 6 and 11 years of age were given a recall task in which the perceptual salience of the information and the type of conceptual evaluation required for solution (analysis or synthesis) were varied. (Author/JMB)

This study examined the hypothesis that differences in performance of impulsive and reflective children on the "20 questions" test are due to individual differences in preferred perceptual processing strategy rather than in cognitive maturity of problem-solving strategy. (Author/JMB)

Relates the problem-solving behavior of second, fourth, and sixth graders to conceptual tempo. Correlations with indices of strategic and efficient performance on a pattern-matching task confirmed that reflectives are more strategic than impulsives. A task-analysis identified the sources of inefficiency for each child and related these sources to…

Assesses ability of subjects aged 3 to 6 and 10 to 12 to solve a problem by analogy. Subjects had to discover ways to transfer balls to a bowl; stories read first to some subjects included an analogous problem and its solution. Older children's use of analogies was similar to that of adults; younger children exhibited different limitations.…

Two studies investigated two groups of young children at the ages of four and eight years, respectively. Subjects were required to solve a simple problem task by performing a response opposite to that demonstrated by an adult. Girls' performance was significantly worse than boys', regardless of the sex of the model. (Author/CI)

Move sequence analysis revealed that, when presented with problems having subgoals difficult to order, 40 preschoolers between 45 and 70 months of age (1) tended to avoid backup; (2) were sensitive to incremental progress toward a goal; and (3) searched moves ahead for a goal. None of several indices of performance were reliably correlated with…

Examines the relation between children's (1) probability learning performance and a measure of their memory for items presented in a sequence and (2) probability learning and performance on a test of abstractive integration. Participating were 80 six- and seven-year-old boys and girls from both low and middle socioeconomic classes. (Author/RH)

The frequency and distribution of social problem-solving strategies, goals, targets, and outcomes were coded during preschoolers' free play. Flexibility and persistence in problem-solving sequences were examined, and the relative importance of strategies, goals, targets, and the identity of the problem solver in predicting social problem-solving…

Findings demonstrated that the Guilford-Mednick conceptualization of original thinking is applicable to preschool as well as to older children. (Author/RH)

A set of covariation problems was structured so that the solution pattern across problems would indicate the judgment rule used by each subject. A developmental trend across subjects in fourth, seventh, and tenth grades and in college demonstrated rule shifts toward use of increasingly accurate rules. (Author/RH)

In terms of Kagan's theory of the problem-solving process, this study explores the relationship between reflection-impulsivity, hypothesis generation and testing, and evaluation of the quality of one's own solutions among children approximately 8 to 12 years old. (JMB)

Responses to eight seriation tasks presented to 88 male kindergarten children and first-, second-, and third-grade students produced significant mean differences in explanations and strategies but no mean differences in judgment. A new experimental procedure, which allows explanations and strategies to be assessed, is advocated. (RH)

Six- to 9-year olds predicted the movement of a balance beam. Results indicated that children who received feedback improved their performance more than those who did not receive feedback; the presence of a partner was beneficial only when children did not receive feedback; and children whose partner exhibited higher-level reasoning benefitted…