During socialization, individuals begin to understand increasingly broader and more abstract units of personal and social reality. Subjects (N=97) ranging in age from 13 to late middle age completed a linguistic task in which they could impose higher order conceptions on lower order descriptions by identifying different level similarities within…

The questions of whether undergraduate students use different processes in evaluating their own learning in a course, and whether such differences are related to differences in personality development or cognitive development were studied. It was predicted that students possessing well developed abstract conceptual structures would show a more…

Thirty-six children between four and seven years of age were asked a series of questions to determine their degree of insight (meta-cognitive awareness) regarding the way four common variables influence the ease with which a person can perform the three cognitive tasks of remembering, communicating, and attending. The four variables were the…

Two studies explored the possibility of inducing conservation understanding in intellectually normal preschoolers and mildly mentally retarded children of comparable mental age. Retarded children, MA 3-10 to 5-0, received Verbal Rule instruction. Three- and 4-year-old children were given Verbal Rule training in a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design…

This study examined the development of the rational number concept as a ratio. Preliminary to the description of the study is an introduction discussing constructivism and equilibration. The study itself tests whether equilibration theory holds, and if so, what is the nature of its "phases" and whether these are found at each of the "periods" of…

SEQUENCE IN LEARNING IS USEFUL ONLY AS IT CONTRIBUTES TO THE CONTINUITY OF A CHILD'S OVERALL DEVELOPMENT. CHILDREN MAY NOT GO THROUGH THE SAME SEQUENCE TO ARRIVE AT A SIMILAR POINT OF UNDERSTANDING. EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IS INDICATED BY A CHILD'S GROWTH IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGIC CONCEPTS, IN WAYS OF PROCESSING INFORMATION, AND IN WAYS OF…

This book deals with cognitive development from the perspective of the author's theory of conceptual learning and development (CLD) and from a Piagetian perspective. Chapter I provides an overview of CLD theory and also identifies and discusses the Piagetian constructs of stage, groupement structures, and equilibration. Chapter II focuses on the…

A framework for research in problem solving is provided by categorizing and defining variables describing problem tasks. A model is presented in an article by Kulm for the classification of task variables into broad categories. The model attempts to draw realtionships between these categories of task variables and the stages of problem solving…

Forty-eight nursery school and kindergarten children participated in a study of concept learning. The study focused on children's use of intensional and extensional information in the acquisition of basic and superordinate categories. The intension of a concept is its definition or set of defining attributes; its extension is the set of all…

The role of language in conservation tasks and the development of the concept of conservation of quantity in young children are investigated in this study. A total of 50 children, aged 3.0 to 4.7 years, were divided into three groups according to age with a large number clustered around age 4.0 years. Children were randomly assigned to one of two…

It is hypothesized that free, spontaneous interaction cannot be easily attained in language courses which are rigid and mechanical. For this reason, the author urges the development of instructional materials which facilitate a smooth and natural transition from "skill-getting" to "skill-using." Discussion of Jerome Bruner's theory of language…

Theory and research regarding four levels of concept attainment and three uses of concepts as specified by the conceptual learning and development (CLD) model are described. The strategy and objectives of a longitudinal assessment of children's conceptual learning and development are presented. Perspective is provided regarding the role of the…

Reported is an experiment undertaken to determine the extent to which analytic and global cognitive styles differed in developing or utilizing a selection type strategy in concept identification. Using the Hidden Figures Test (HFT) in five sections of an introductory psychology class, two groups of students, one analytical and one global, were…

The purpose of this study is to examine the notion of a general structure in child development as seen through consistency in level of the child's response from task to task. It is hypothesized, first, that a child will show an internal orientation if he is in the final stage of development (object relevance); and second, that he will show an…

This study examines the relationship between development of a child's ability to coordinate perspective and his ability to conceptualize spatial relations on a map. One hundred and four school children from inner city, urban fringe, and suburban schools, grades K-6, were administered a Test of Coordination of Perspectives and a Test of Map…