This study examined how well adults can make inferences about children's cognitive abilities. Subjects (n=60) were four groups of adults: female parents, female nonparents, male parents, and male nonparents. They were shown the typical method of administering 13 Piagetian tasks, ranging from object permanence to the formal-operational pendulum…

This study investigated (1) the order of acquisition of related temporal and spatial terms, (2) the application of temporal and spatial terms and (3) the relationship between the application of temporal and spatial terms and performance on cognitive measures of temporal and spatial ordering. Children 3 to 5 years of age were tested on four…

This study is part of a longitudinal research project which investigated the cognitive and social development of rural children (ages 3-5, 6-8, and 9-11 years) in eight states of the U.S.A. This paper, however, reports only the cognitive development of 3- to 5-year-old subjects in rural Nebraska from 1976-1978. The longitudinal sample plus control…

The argument that the personality structures obtained from retrospective ratings reflect semantic similarity structures has been as provocative as a red cape in the bull ring. High congruence between those two kinds of structures seems well established. What is less clear is how and why those structures differ from that for immediate judgments of…

Fifty first- and second-grade children's understanding of logico-mathematical relations were assessed using selected Piagetian tasks to test four hypotheses. The children's abilities to conserve numbers were compared to the means of mathematics concept scores and total mathematics scores of the 1972 Stanford Achievement Test, Form A. The…

TO DETERMINE HOW TRAINING WOULD AFFECT CHILDREN FROM DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DEVELOPMENT, FIVE DISADVANTAGED AND FIVE ADVANTAGED PRESCHOOLERS WERE GIVEN SPECIFIC PROBLEM SOLVING TRAINING TO PREPARE TO SOLVE A CRITERION PROBLEM. THIS STUDY WAS AN ATTEMPT TO DISPROVE PIAGET'S THEORY THAT CHILDREN MUST HAVE REACHED A CERTAIN STAGE OF CONCRETE-OPERATIONAL…

Six tests were constructed, four on a pictorial level and two on a symbolic level, to measure the performance of fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade children, in three different ability groups, on problems concerning ratios or fractions. Two variables were of interest in the four tests on a pictorial level: (a) "equal" ratio situations vs.…

Because disadvantaged children have usually experienced sensory-cognitive deprivation or distortion, it is necessary to discover ways to offset this deficit. A program is being conducted to learn to what degree the introduction of systematic programing, while motivation techniques are retained, can reorient essentially noncognitive learning styles…

In earlier research the writer was constrained by the variables which were continuously appearing in both experimental class teaching experiences and various psychological experiments to distinguish four levels of cognitive sophistication in so far as mathematical material was concerned between the ages of 7 years and 17 years. In current research…

Investigated, within a Piagetian framework, was the degree of abstract preferences exhibited by five different grade levels of science students as they completed eighteen problem solving tasks. Three hundred twenty-nine randomly selected students from five grade levels, ranging from eighth grade to college seniors, were given the Shipley Test of…

In order to investigate diffusion effects within families involved in an intervention program, 80 disadvantaged children were divided into four groups, three of which were made up of younger siblings of preschool children in the intervention program. In two of these three groups, the mother was also involved in the program. The fourth group was…

Expanded abstracts and critical analyses are given for each of 14 research articles. Studies on instructional strategies or methods are reported in five reviews; three report studies concerned with concept attainment; three review studies in measurement of cognitive abilities; one study is on the effect of a laboratory for college freshman math…

Four hundred students, ranging from 5 to 15 years of age, were administered a series of tests of concept learning and development as a test of the Conceptual Learning and Development (CLD) model. Various levels of attainment of the concept of "equilateral triangle" were measured. The CLD model predicts that a decreasing number of students at a…

Nursery school children (N=64) received seven tests of conservation of number which varied in the type and number of perceptual supports for conservation. Most of the tests with these supports facilitated performance in comparison to the standard conservation test. Conservation appeared earlier than usual. There were significant effects of…

This paper analytically reviews the literature on cognitive development, particularly as it relates to the acquisition of language. Of primary concern are the basic cognitive processes of perceptual groupings, concepts and relations, and memory. Discussed are the acquisition of language, some aspects of the nature of language and language…