In this study, the authors investigate the ways in which young students demonstrate their critical mathematical thinking (CMT). Students aged 5-6 who are beginning their first formal year of education participated in the study. Data is presented from individual clinical interviews undertaken with 16 students. These interviews were analysed using…

Piaget's theory of stage structure is synonymous with discussions involving cognitive development. As with any theoretical model, researchers inevitably and rightly seek to affirm and/or contest the elements of the model presented. In this comparative study, students' performance across three hands-on engineering tasks for two distinct student…

Critical thinking when engaged in science problem solving around even simple tasks such as the Piagetian volume conservation task is a complex endeavor. Tasks such as the conservation task often require the interaction of multiple cognitive systems. Parity judgment, retrieval, and lateral thinking are three examples of such systems interacting…

In this article, I examine changes in the field of cognitive development and in my own thinking over the past 40 years. The review focuses on three periods. In the first, Piaget's theory was dominant, and my research and that of many others was aimed at understanding the many fascinating changes in children's thinking that Piaget documented and at…

We examine the contributions of dynamic systems theory to the field of cognitive development, focusing on modeling using dynamic neural fields. After introducing central concepts of dynamic field theory (DFT), we probe empirical predictions and findings around two examples--the DFT of infant perseverative reaching that explains Piaget's A-not-B…

This article reviews a particular computational modeling approach to the study of psychological development--that of constructive neural networks. This approach is applied to a variety of developmental domains and issues, including Piagetian tasks, shift learning, language acquisition, number comparison, habituation of visual attention, concept…

Animism (erroneously believing inanimate objects are alive) is present in older adults (McDonald & Stuart-Hamilton, 2000). However, it is unclear if animism arises in later life or middle age. The current study tested 34 middle-aged adults (mean age 48 years) on Piaget's animism task and found a significant level of animism. Strength of…

In Urmia city, many children learn and speak their first language (either Azari or Kurdish) at home and study all of their courses in Farsi throughout their education. This bilingual quality of education needs to be researched to attain high quality educational practices. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of bilingualism on…

Piagetian tasks have more to do with the child's ability to inhibit interference than they do with the ability to grasp their underlying logic. Here we used a chronometric paradigm with 11-year-olds, who succeed in Piaget's conservation-of-weight task, to test the role of cognitive inhibition in a priming version of this classical task. The…

To reflect on the mathematics achievement of children engaging "Algebra and Analogies for Kids," the teacher researcher will explore the following inquiry: What happens when kids display analogical thinking in an algebra project? Specifically, the proposed study will examine the reasoning of five children in portfolios of best works and selected…

Two studies tested college students on the Piagetian water-level task and several crossbar tasks. Performance on a disembedded crossbar task was better than that on the water-level task, regardless of whether the symmetrical nature of the crossbar was emphasized. Men performed better than women. (BC)

Purpose: The authors investigated mental representations of Piagetian conservation tasks in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing peers. Children with SLI have normal nonverbal intelligence; however, they exhibit difficulties in Piagetian conservation tasks. The authors tested the hypothesis that conservation…

Suggests some difficulties and challenges in understanding and teaching Piaget's new theory. Outlines some differences between Piaget's new and standard theories, such as the diminished status of the emergent skills that mark the onset of concrete operational thinking and the perception of achievements in concrete operations as empirical…

Four- to 11-year-olds made duration, distance, and speed judgments on Piagetian tasks where cars ran on parallel tracks. Among younger children, duration and distance judgments had approximately the same difficulty. Among older children, distance judgments were easier than duration judgments, and symmetry of effects of temporal and spatial…

Five studies examined adults' responses to weight conservation questions which were constructed to give subjects a choice of two incorrect answers. The results showed that adults (1) acquiesced to the misleading implications of the questions; and (2) exhibited greater nonconservation in response to questions about the body than about external…