Reasoning abilities of Cypriot 12th graders in five forms of formal logical thought were studied in relation to academic achievement and gender differences. Results support proposals that suggest that there are specialized abilities dealing with specific domains of reality. The five reasoning modes were significant predictors of achievement. (SLD)

The role of content in formal operations tasks was explored in research that systematically varied the content of tasks and children's performance by developmental level and socioeconomic status (SES). Subjects were 110 Icelandic 12-year-olds who had entered a longitudinal study when they were 7 years old. Two extreme ability groups of children…

A 1-year lag was found between the effect of an intervention intended to promote formal operational thinking in students initially 11 or 12 years of age and the appearance of substantial science achievement in the experimental groups. A one-year lag on cognitive development and an age/gender interaction were also reported. (Author/KR)

W. M. Gray's "How is Your Logic?" a Piagetian-based, group-administered written test of cognitive development, and B. Leadbeater's Livian Wars Task, a formal operations-based, written, social-cognition problem were given to 348 college undergraduate and graduate students to investigate the impact of chronological age and amount of formal…

Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to test first- and second-order factor models on cognitive abilities and their invariance across male and female samples. Subjects were a stratified random sample of 234 male and 225 female 15-year-old students in Singapore attending Secondary 3 (the equivalent of grade 9). Four first-order factors were found…

Researchers of writing ability have often applied the developmental schemes of William Perry, Lev Vygotsky, and Jean Piaget in describing basic writers. As a result, some researchers have concluded that basic writers think well below the formal-operations or true concept-formation stage of cognitive development. To investigate the theory that…

Studies 94 undergraduate students in introductory statistics and computer science courses. Applies Formal Operations Reasoning Test (FORT) and Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (LSI). Finds that substantial numbers of students have not achieved the formal operation level of cognitive maturity. Emphasizes need to examine students learning style and…

The purpose of this study was to examine for the middle grades how students' cognitive reasoning level contributes to the variability of their achievement test performance. While previous investigations have indicated that measures of reasoning development are associated with measures of achievement, few such studies have attempted to control for…