Generic teleological mechanisms (GTMs) are a class of strategic concepts especially useful in adaptive design. GTMs are abstract functional and causal patterns that lead to adaptation strategies for innovative design. Adopts a task-directed approach to learning, and describes a model-based method for learning GTMs from design methods. (Author/DKM)

Examines the role of basic cognitive-processing efficiency as the source of developmental variance in cognitive performance. Two experimental tasks, memory and visual scanning, were used to investigate age effects on the search-processing parameter. Subjects were 9-, 11-, 13-, and 15-year-old children. (CM)

An investigation of adult reasoning processes revealed that the more relevant the cognitive task was to the developmental task of the learner, the better the performance was likely to be. (JD)

Students were classified as formal or concrete-operational using a battery of Piagetian tasks, a biology content examination, and a nonscience content examination. Based on the results it was concluded that Piagetian tasks are relatively content-free and can serve as realistic indicators of concrete and formal thinking abilities. (MLH)

Argues that Susan Sugarman's article in this issue contains some valid criticism of assumptions in developmental psychology, but that some of her conclusions regarding other assumptions need to be questioned. Suggests that many problems raised by Sugarman would disappear if developmental psychologists concentrated on children's early achievements…

Relational complexity (RC) theory conceptualizes an individual's processing capacity and a task's complexity along a common ordinal metric. The authors describe the development of the Latin Square Task (LST) that assesses the influence of RC on reasoning. The LST minimizes the role of knowledge and storage capacity and thus refines the…

Employed regression analysis to determine the association between multiplicative classification and inductive reasoning. Subjects were 103 fourth grade children. (SDH)

This theoretical paper reevaluates the Piagetian tradition in the study of propositional reasoning. Piaget's assertion that children's logic, prior to the stage of formal operations, is structurally adequate for dealing with objects and their properties, but is inadequate for fully competent propositional reasoning, is challenged on three grounds:…

There is considerable disagreement concerning the age of onset and universality of attainment of Piaget's stage of formal operations. This study examines developmental differences in response to brief prompts in the use of a formal operational approach to the solution of two tasks. The subjects were 10 males and 10 females from each of Grades 5,…

Young children's thinking is subject to constraints which interfere with instruction, and a developmental approach may be useful in minimizing the detrimental effects of these constraints. The approach is particularly beneficial to handicapped children, those who require remedial work, and adults with inadequate working memory for the specific…

The instructional computer program LOGO enables children to construct their own programs. This article presents an evaluation of LOGO and use of computers in education. The author discusses reasons why computer science belongs in high school rather than elementary school. (DF)

The paper notes A. Hore and W. Tryon's support of the developmental position that persons with and without mental retardation of similar mental age show similar cognitive patterns, but suggests that mental age is psychometrically invalid and Piagetian tasks are inappropriate to evaluate this position. An information processing approach is…

Argues that there are significant ways in which neither Piaget nor his successors in developmental psychology have adequately described the child's mind and how it changes. Proposes alternative guidelines for research that aims more directly at identifying essential constituent features of the child's mental reality. (PCB)

Focuses on the developmental and performance capacities of middle grade students, ages 9 through 13. Eight tasks are described as unique to this age range. Implications for counselors are given. (BL)