Three levels of mathematical concepts and three theoretically corresponding levels of cognitive development were posited. Children's test results were consistent with predictions for each age group, leading to the conclusion that, for concept attainment at each level, a minimum information-processing capacity is a necessary, but not sufficient,…

Reviews some major developments of particular relevance to teaching, specifically, Information Processing System (IPS), and developmental psychology. Discusses the quality of both, educational research and science teaching, and gives recommendations for improvement. (GA)

Creative thinking and problem solving processes were studied in 233 gifted elementary students. (Author/DLS)

Democratic Socialization is viewed from a cognitive developmental perspective in which hypothetico-deductive thinking and exposure to democratic models are seen as necessary, but not sufficient to development of democrative values. A taxonomy of democratic development is offered. (MS)

A total of 12 second- and fifth-graders' semantic decision times for pictures and words were analyzed relative to the predictions derived from unitary- and dual-memory models. (MS)

An investigation was made of the structure of riddles, riddle content, and the function of riddling among children ages 5 to 14. Interaction data and 1195 items were taped and hand-recorded during riddle sessions with 101 children from kindergarten, second, fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth grades. (MS)

The first part of this report consists of more than 12 studies of various psychological tests results which previous cross-cultural research had shown to vary with educational experience. The second part consists of a demographic survey designed to specify the selective factors operating to determine the amount of education obtained by Yucatan…

Three studies used illustrated stories to examine preschoolers' understanding of emotional changes when memories of past events were cued by objects in the current environment. Found substantial development between 4 and 6 years in understanding the influence of mental activity on emotions. The strength and consistency of this knowledge was…

Examines the meaning of reaction time (RT) and the possibility that it may predict other cognitive and motor skills in the first year of life. Considers two competing models that specify the information-processing components underlying RT performance. Describes the neural data needed to definitively choose between the models and considers…

Focuses on three main issues emerging from studies of conceptual development: (1) young children's naive theories of the world; (2) how innate constraints in conceptual development work; and (3) how innate and sociocultural constraints are integrated. Maintains that early development of core domains of thought (naive psychology, physics, and…

Examined bias in reasoning in adults and in children, ages five through nine years, by presenting story or videotape true/false messages. Found that adults made judgments contaminated by their own background knowledge abut the believability of the message more frequently than did children. (ET)

Measured cognitive processing time, imagery skill, and spatial memory span of 128 children and adults, ages 8 to 20 years. Found that performance on spatial memory span tasks was largely predicted by imagery skill, which in turn was strongly linked to processing time; age was much less of a predictor in both cases. (EAJ)

Examined the developing relationships between false belief understanding and an awareness of the individualized nature of personal taste as well as a maturing grasp of the interpretive character of the knowing process. Results indicated that the concept of interpretation appears to involve a more complex and significantly later arriving…

Two studies investigated the effect of language input on theory of mind by comparing the performance of deaf native-signing children (ages 4 to 8) raised by deaf signing parents and deaf late-signing children raised by hearing parents on "thought picture" measures of theory of mind. Findings indicated that deaf late signers showed…

Maintains that, although Leontiev's sociocultural orientation and its activity emphasis were inherited from Vygotsky's theory, the two men's theoretical motives and goals differed. Vygotsky's focus on symbolic mediation transforming psychological processes and Leontiev's on activities leading to internalization of action in mental processes were…