Discusses Lawrence A. Hirschfeld's (1995) experiments, which Hirschfeld claims demonstrate that preschoolers use a biologically grounded theory in reasoning about race. Argues that the methods used cannot address the issue and therefore, the results do not support Hirschfeld's claims. Maintains that the experiments fail to demonstrate that 4- and…

Responds to John J. Kim's critique of his studies of preschoolers' understanding of race. Maintains that his and others' investigations demonstrate that preschoolers differentiate the pattern of causal reasoning governing transmission and maintenance of racial characteristics from that governing transmission and maintenance of perceptually similar…

Traced emergence of elaborated framework of belief-desire reasoning. Preschoolers and adults were asked to explain why a story protagonist searched for a desired object in an incorrect location. Results suggest that, during late preschool years, conception of cognitive activities as contributing to knowledge and belief becomes integrated into…

Comments that fuzzy-trace theory is broadly comprehensive and contains compelling experimental manipulations; debates assumptions of the theory. Describes aspects of the historical and theoretical context of the theory and its usefulness in organizing false memory phenomena. Suggests some limitations concerning the representation of child…

Describes the origins of fuzzy-trace theory, including Piagetian, interference, information-processing, and judgment and decision-making influences. Discusses similarities and differences between fuzzy-trace theory and other approaches to memory falsification. Considers the theory's predictions regarding age differences in memory falsification and…

This study examined above-grade-level abstract reasoning abilities of 150 students (grades 2-6). Understanding of abstract concepts varied by age for only four of eight subscales or concepts: probability, proportion, momentum, and frames of reference. Performance varied widely within age level for the understanding of volume, correlation,…

This study compares scores on the Alternate Uses Test of 19 Australian children (ages 4 to 12) with severe visual impairments, and 19 controls. Comparison of mean scores revealed no significant differences between groups, however, the range of scores reflected in the standard deviations were higher for those with visual impairments. (CR)

Examines the concept of number sense in mathematics learning, compares this concept to that of phonological awareness in reading, and urges application of existing research to improving mathematics instruction for students with mathematical disabilities. Reviews research on building automaticity with basic facts, adjusting instruction to address…

Reviews selected pioneering findings in the child-developmental and adulthood-aging literature and evaluates them within the framework of Nelson (Thomas O.) and Narens' (Louis) (1990) theory of metamemory. Makes suggestions for conceptually-based analytical research to help specify the mechanisms that underlie developmental differences in…

Explores the historical roots of universalistic thinking about children's nature, their needs, and what constitutes healthy development. Considers the opportunities for a new psychology of childhood to be reconstructed in ways that pay more attention to the cultural dimensions, as well as to the socio-cultural process, of the subject. (Author)

Examined the effects of phonological-skill training on consonantal-phoneme deletion and word-reading performance in early and middle adolescent Chinese readers who were literate in English. Found significant improvements in both activities for younger but not older participants, with follow-up analyses suggesting that language-proficiency…

Investigates, by conducting individual clinical interviews of 97 children ages 3 to 6, the criteria preschool children use to distinguish members of a class of shapes from other figures, emphasizing identification and descriptions of shapes and reasons for these identifications. Concludes that young children initially form schemas on the basis of…

Outlines a Vygotskian perspective on moral development. Summarizes Lev Vygotsky's ideas about the "zone of proximal development" and extends them into the domain of moral education, focusing on an extract from the film, "Boyz 'n the Hood." Shows how the zone of proximal development facilitates moral development differently from…

Examines issues in the differential diagnosis of autism in preschool children with significant cognitive impairment, including the use of traditional diagnostic guidelines for preschoolers with developmental delays, developmental changes in behavioral characteristics, involvement of cognitive factors in symptom expression, overlap between autism…

A longitudinal study examined the role of a mapping system in 2-year olds' learning of color and size words. Results indicated that the children acquired color maps in a characteristic order and showed a different acquisition pattern for size words. Results suggest that learning word associations may promote color-word acquisition; learning color…