How do changes in life expectancy and longevity affect life-span development? This paper argues that historical increases in life expectancy primarily have an impact on the later and less on the earlier parts of the life span. Increased life expectancy is both a challenge and an opportunity for positive development. A perspective is outlined…

The author reflects on Piaget's 1972 article, "Intellectual evolution from adolescence to adulthood," addressed to questions regarding what he alleged to be the final, most advanced level of cognition in his developmental stage theory--formal operations, as described in his 1958 volume coauthored with Inhelder, "The growth of logical thinking from…

The theory of developmental sequences is extended by introducing the concepts of prerequisite and precursor. It is argued that (1) attention to prerequisites and precursors is necessary for answering questions of sequence existence, membership, and order and that (2) because these concepts are theory dependent, appropriate developmental research…

It is suggested that four developmental terms (period, phase, stage, level) can be distinguished as different combinations of four criterial elements, and they should be differentiated according to whether or not they refer to (1) a part of a progression, (2) a recurrent state or event, (3) quantitative change, and (4) qualitative change.…

Instead of limiting himself to postulating two discontinuous types of thought, autistic and logical, Piaget studied transitional forms, thereby placing autistic and logical thought on a developmental continuum. Nevertheless, the discovery of transitional forms did not lessen the opposition between the two extremes of autistic and logical thought.…

Describes three unique characteristics of adult thought: (1) an understanding of the relativistic nature of knowledge, (2) an acceptance of contradiction as a part of reality, and (3) an integrative approach to thinking. Analysis of the philosophical foundations of these characteristics is followed by critical examination of current studies of…

Outlines a life-span model which extends Piaget's theory of cognitive development to adulthood. (SS)

Attempts to clarify the meaning of differentiation in the Piagetian concept of object permanence. (BD)

Develops a model of "knowing" and discusses the implications of this model for an understanding of the nature of developmental stages. (BD)

Notes that the pragmatist approach to the study of mind is represented in psychology by Piaget's action orientation. Believes, however, that American empiricists regularly misinterpreted Piaget's approach. Generally supports Barrouillet and Poirier's advocacy of Piaget's orientation, but presents some disagreements with Barrouillet and Poirier as…

Explores implications of two cognitive development perspectives for characterizing ontogeny of causal reasoning. Reviews literature on causal reasoning in the preschool years and concludes that the hypothesis of an invariant causal scheme is only partially correct. (Author/SO)

Dimensional continuity was examined in adolescents in grades 7, 9, and 11. Demonstrated changes in dimensional configurations raise challenging issues for longitudinal study practices that assume uniform interpretability of the same scales at differing developmental stages. (ST)

Provides an alternative conception of postconventional moral development which fits existing data on late adolescent and adult moral judgment better than Kohlberg's higher stage descriptions. Data is from a longitudinal study of 26 undergraduates at Harvard. (Author/SS)

Critically discusses the premise of Piagetian theory that cognition is based developmentally on sensorimotor coordination, exemplified in circular reactions. (Author/SS)

Evaluates the differing perspectives of Kohlberg and Turiel on moral reasoning. Both perspectives use stage displacement models to depict moral development and assume that as ontogenesis proceeds, the role played by earleir acquired moral stages becomes increasingly insignificant in comparison with the role played by more advanced stages. The…