This study compared the influence of two play environments on young children's make-believe object transformation behaviors. One environment contained traditional realistic play props; the other contained nonrealistic objects. Subjects were 32 Caucasian children, 17 boys and 15 girls, between 40 and 73 months of age, from working- or middle-class…

To identify the characteristics of early intervention programs most predictive of growth in participants' competencies, a comparison was made of the effects of three different Iowa Head Start programs on teachers, mothers, and children. Three agencies with home-based, three with center-based, and three with combination programs from rural areas…

The purpose of this study was to determine how children at different ages understand the concept of temperature, examining particularly the logicomathematical aspects of the concept. In doing so, three developmental approaches were compared: (1) Piaget's structuralist approach; (2) Siegler's rule assessment approach; and (3) Anderson and…

Examined were effects of advance organizer (AO) instruction on acquisition of conservation concepts in 3- and 4-year-olds. Participants were 28 children who were equally divided into experimental and control groups, pretested, and found to be nonconservers. A sequence of two AO lessons and related learning activities was presented to the…

Although much has been written about the ineffectiveness of schools in imparting cognitive skills, there is little reliable knowledge by which to judge such claims. While the typical school effectiveness study focuses on variation in educational outcomes between organizational units, there have been few studies which compared "school"…

This discussion first analyzes major claims of a cognitive-developmentalist perspective on the use of microcomputers in early childhood education. Five topics are specifically addressed: microcomputers and intellectual structures, microcomputers as cultural events, microcomputers and strategy repetoires, instruction and the self-construction of…

Since adults are socializing agents integral to home and school settings, they should have accurate views of children's feelings. Adults' (N=96) predictions were compared to the predictions kindergarten children (N=32) made about the children's affective responses to eight different categories of experiences. The children's predictions, reported…

THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO INVESTIGATE THE INFLUENCE UPON A CHILD'S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FATHER'S PRESENCE IN (FP) OR ABSENCE FROM (FA) THE FAMILY IN A ONE-, TWO-, OR THREE-CHILD FAMILY. THE EFFECT OF THE SEX AND ORDINAL POSITION OF A SIBLING UPON COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT WAS ALSO CONSIDERED. DATA FOR THIS ANALYSIS WERE OBTAINED FROM…

One hundred and thirty-eight undergraudate college males were administered individual and group measures of perceptual field-independence. Most of these subjects were also administered two measures of intelligence and a battery of tests of creativity. Comparisons were made of the creative test performance of three groups of 15 subjects each,…

This volume, the second of three, summarizes the sponsor evaluation activities conducted during 1972-73. Included are a report on the analysis of sponsor-collected outcome data from the ten Follow Through projects, a report on the findings and formative use of the Classroom Implementation Matrix, case study reports presenting supplementary data…

The purpose of this study was to obtain information about children's knowledge of and attitudes toward problems of environmental pollution. It sought to determine whether or not fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children in selected elementary schools, one in the United States and one in Mexico, differed in their knowledge of and their attitudes…

The purposes of this study were: (1) to determine whether there is a developmental sequence in the child's acquisition of certain metalinguistic abilities; and (2) to determine whether the child's acquisition of these metalinguistic abilities is related to Piagetian operations. The measure of metalinguistic ability on which this study focused was…

Examines the relationship between formal operational reasoning and two language variables--subordinate clauses and tentative statements. Supports Piaget's position of independence between linguistic and cognitive development, showing how subordinate clause use and tentative statement use are not related significantly to performances on reasoning…

Analyzes the structure of young children's social comparison exchanges in two preschool settings, focusing on the precursory and sequent phases of social comparison exchanges manifested by young children during play in preschool. (HOD)