Examined preschoolers' inductive inferences across biological and non-biological kinds. Found support for gradual-enrichment model of conceptual change. Four-year-olds had a limited, coherent, independent biological theory which may form the basis of mature understanding of biological kinds. Explored results in terms of multiple explanatory…

Examines research in folkbiology (commonsense understandings of plants and animals) to argue that several lines of comparative research are needed to understand the acquisition of folkbiology in particular and conceptual development in general. Asserts that comparisons are needed between children and adults within a given society, between adult…

Thirty-seven students who were blind or had low vision listed as many examples of 10 categories as they could and the prototype order of examples was scored. No differences between blind or low-vision students were found, but categories with which the students had a greater degree of direct sensory experience produced more examples and higher…

Examines one preschooler's conversation with author to determine what concepts educators consider "difficult" for this age group. Finds that concepts such as "infinity" and "negative numbers," typically avoided by primary educators, were brought into view in the task-based conversations. Argues that individual…

This study examined the relationship between characteristics of mothers' talk about future events and young children's ability to contribute to naturalistic conversations about future events. Results indicated that three maternal style factors were related to 2.5- and 4-year-olds' contributions: elaborative/advanced language, general and past…

While very young children's understanding of objects as symbols for other entities has been the focus of much investigation, very little is known concerning the emergence of comprehension for symbolic relations among actions modeled with toy replicas and their real counterparts. We used videotaped depictions of real actions in a preferential…

Recently, "Developmental Psychology" published 2 articles on the shape bias; both rejected the authors' previous proposals about the role of attentional learning in the development of a shape bias in object name learning. A. Cimpian and E. Markman (2005; see record EJ733667) did so by arguing that the shape bias does not exist but is an…

This symposium examines the science education research enterprise from multiple theoretical perspectives. The first paper, "Contextual Constructivism; The Impact of Culture on the Learning and Teaching of Science (William Cobern), focuses on broad issues of culture and how constructivism is affected by the context of culture. Culturally based…

Two studies examined preschoolers' understanding of germs as causes of illness. Previous research suggests that preschoolers know that certain behaviors lead to illness without understanding why or how. In the first study, 22 children between 4 and 5 years old were presented with 12 brief stories describing characters engaged in either dangerous…

In an effort to investigate the effects of a teaching strategy that helps students to identify concept conflicts through experimentation and guided investigation on students' conceptual changes and learning outcomes, 596 students (393 junior high school, 170 senior high school, and 33 college students) were administered two solution tests…

Uses the transposition paradigm to compare the influence of the adjectives "same" and "different" on the test choice of 5- and 9-year-old children. (Author/SDH)

Investigated four hypotheses formulated by Jensen with regard to his theory of the relationship between cognitive abilities and socioeconomic status. Preschool children identified in the upper SES level performed with more accuracy on both levels of tasks as defined by Jensen. (Author/SDH)

Two experiments were conducted to assess the nature and extent of children's knowledge about the density of objects. In the first experiment, 18 children 3- to 5-years-old were shown 8 objects which were placed in water 1 at a time. The children were later asked to judge whether the objects would sink or float when placed in water. Findings…

A study used structure mapping theory to examine the claim that children can understand metaphors based on shared object attributes before understanding those based on shared relational structure. The three kinds of metaphor used in the study varied in whether the shared information forming the basis for the interpretation was attributional,…

A study examined children's conceptions about nutrients and the dimensions underlying their classifications of foods into groups. Children (5 to 11 years old) classified 71 foods into groups by whatever criteria they wished. These classifications were recorded, as were the children's answers to questions about nutrients and their responses in…