Concludes that the significant difference found between responses made to displayed drawings and those made to models suggests that, independently of the complexity of stimulus, encoding will not influence responses if the very economical process of simple coding can be used. (Author/AM)

This study used a series of analogy problems to test children's associative and conceptual abilities and showed that children with stronger associative abilities do not rely excessively on associative strategies. (MM)

Results support the general conclusion that the disposition to respond in either a reflective or impulsive fashion influences the problem-solving efficiency and strategy behavior of elementary school children. The relative impact of cognitive style on problem solving varied with developmental level and the type of problem solved. (Author/BJG)

THIS STUDY INVESTIGATED THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDREN'S HUMOR RESPONSE AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT. BY USING CHILDREN OF DIFFERENT GRADE LEVELS AS SUBJECTS, IT WAS ASSUMED THAT THE STUDY WOULD INCLUDE SEVERAL LEVELS OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT. TWENTY-FIVE CARTOONS WERE SHOWN TO 64 TEST CHILDREN. THE TEST CHILDREN WERE CHOSEN FROM GRADES TWO,…

The Matching Familiar Figures Test assesses the dimension of reflection-impulsivity in children. This study compares responses of a single sample to the established norms and adds intelligence quotient (IQ) for classification purposes. Analysis indicates that IQ significantly correlates with both latency and errors. (Author/CM)

A new model is proposed for explaining children's performance on Pascual-Leone's test of M-space. The new model is used to generate theoretical performance curves for children at four different age levels and seven different levels of stimulus complexity, and it is a viable alternative. Differences between the models are reviewed. (Author/RD)

Compared the performance of learning disabled and normal-achieving third- and fourth-grade children on Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test to determine group differences along the impulsivity-reflection dimension. Overall results suggest that learning disabled children are not more impulsive but rather use poor strategic behavior in processing…

A total of 72 kindergarteners received eight conservation of number trials which varied in the degree of perceptual support for one-to-one correspondence (four levels) and type of stimuli (toy animals or corks). A between-subjects variable was the method of presentation (standard conservation presentation, a partially fixed array, or a fixed…

An experiment was conducted on 13 normal and 13 retarded readers, matched for age, IQ, and vocabulary. Recent findings suggested that reading retardates had difficulty in the cross-modal transfer of information from the auditory to the visual modality (e.g., converting auditory taps into visual dot patterns). Prior research by the present authors…

According to the cognitive-congruency principle, humor appreciation peaks when the cognitive demands of the stimulus are congruent with the cognitive level of the child. This study tested the principle with jokes based on concepts associated with concrete operational thinking, conservation of mass and weight. This method provides a satisfactory…

Second- and fourth-grade children learned two 25-item, paired-associate mixed lists under three experimental conditions: instructed imagery, imposed imagery, and control. Four specific transfer paradigms and a reference paradigm were represented in the lists. The specific transfer paradigms were constructed such that a first list stimulus term (a…

Guided by the cognitive-contextual theory of J. H. Grych and F. D. Fincham (1990), which emphasizes the importance of children's perceptions of conflict as well as conflict characteristics and contextual factors, this study investigated children's appraisals of various types of simulated marital conflict. Seventy Latino children, aged 7 to 12…

A 1978 study (Torgesen, Bowen and Ivey) of the structure and modality variables of the Visual-Aural Digit Span (VADS) test was replicated to determine: (1) if the effects generalized across age; (2) if differences between simultaneous and sequential visually presented items were due to mode of presentation or the amount of study time; (3) the…

The assumption that question-answer sequences consist of two moves was examined using data from recordings of second-grade classrooms in Austin, Texas. Interactions initiated by children's spontaneous questions in informal, small group settings were evaluated. Twenty-nine dialogue samples are presented and analyzed. Four issues in the study of…

This is the final report on a three year project designed to investigate the development of problem-solving strategies in elementary school children. In this project the personality of the child as it is reflected in problem solving style is examined. The hybothesis that reflective children are more competent problem solvers than impulsive…