Relational complexity has been found to be an effective metric for cognitive tasks. The hypothesis that the greater difficulty and later age of attainment of hierarchical classification as compared to category induction are attributable to differences in structural complexity was tested. Hierarchical classification entails a ternary relation…

Item-level statistics from ability and achievement tests have been underutilized as sources of data for building models of cognitive development. How item data can be used to build a cognitive-developmental map of proportional reasoning is demonstrated. The product of the analysis is a cognitive hierarchy with levels corresponding to categories of…

This study examined children's conceptions of authority in sexually abusive situations. It aimed to determine: (1) whether children's perceptions of adult authority in sexually abusive situations differed from their perceptions of adult authority in benign situations; (2) whether children's conceptions of authority changed as a result of…

In two experiments, the ability of children younger than 20 months to engage in delayed ordered recall was investigated. In the first experiment, 13- and 16-month-old children were presented with 2-step event sequences and tested for recall, first, immediately following the event and second, after a one-week delay. Sequences were novel-causal,…

Two studies tested the observation that infants learn to use a "whole object assumption" between the ages of 8 and 15 months, meaning that they expect a word to apply to the whole object to which it refers. The first study investigated the possibility that infants of 8 to 10 months may attend differently, and more selectively, to events…

Interrelationships of intellectual ability, task commitment, and creativity were examined for gifted fifth through seventh graders. Ss were administered the Crockett Role Category Inventory, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. As expected, no significant correlations among test results were noted. However,…

The effectiveness of a cognitive coaching condition on the social acceptance of 26 handicapped children in regular first through fourth grade classes was examined. Children were randomly placed in one of three conditions: cognitive coaching (in which students were taught techniques of getting along with peers); individual instruction (control); or…

Kindergarten children were administered tests of inductive reasoning and field dependence and a series of perceptual egocentrism tasks. Results confirm a positive relation between field dependence and perceptual egocentrism; they also question the validity of the field-dependence construct in early childhood. (GO)

This study assessed the influence of age and ability on linear syllogistic reasoning in early adolescence by presenting bright and average 11- and 13-year-olds with 64, 3-term series problems. Results showed a dramatic effect on performance due to ability. Age effect was only marginally significant. (JMB)

This study was designed to determine the age relationships for each type of perceptual strategy used by nonconserving children during tests of conservation of quantity. The results indicate that the type of perceptual strategy reflected in children's answers varied with their age. (JMB)

Children's cognitive and perceptual development is explained in Piagetian stage theory.

Mind-research "psychenauts" are exploring the last great frontier - the mystery of man's inner life. (Editor)