A study was done to determine the relationship between the cognitive profiles of children and the cognitive profiles of their mothers. Results indicate that the child's cognitive behavior at age six and under is similar to the mother's. However, as the child attends school and maternal influence lessens, the child's cognitive profile begins to…

Studying the validity of the Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning (DIAL), 53 kindergartners took the DIAL before school entrance and then had their Slosson Intelligence Test scores and Metropolitan Readiness Tests monitored for the school year. Preschool screening programs and their relation to the DIAL are discussed. (CE)

Social-matching problems were verbally presented to children either with or without concrete models. In each condition, information was provided which was sufficient, superfluous, or irrelevant. Problems containing only irrelevant information were the most difficult, although models enhanced the performance of younger children but depressed the…

Many science curriculum development projects have the goal of increasing students' ability to employ scientific or formal reasoning strategies. Argues that longitudinal data of students who acquired formal reasoning strategies as a consequence of specific instruction are needed to provide evidence that these skills will help in other academic…

Discusses the use of the clinical interview in assessing cognitive structure and in investigating conceptual change. They caution much more work is needed to increase the applicability and validity of the clinical interview method and point out that there is a lack of systematization in the analysis of interview transcripts. (Author/PB)

Students (N=178) judged the adequacy of reasons presented in stage prototypic responses to moral dilemmas to provide a profile of the frequency and strength with which students rejected early stage reasons. Data indicated definite age trends in rejecting lower-stage reasoning. Higher-stage items produced no significant age differences. (RC)

Presents a study of the early vocabulary of young children, considering variables such as contextual flexibility, content, and composition of the lexicon in comprehension and production. Reports evidence for a relative independence between these two domains, and for an early version of the referential style observed at later stages of development.…

Discusses two related problems generated by Piaget's psychology of decentered knowing. Subjectivity, consciousness, and self-consciousness are ruled out; the dynamic transformation of society through history is reduced to triviality. (Author/DB)

Notes that little research has been undertaken into the effects of anthropomorphism on children's reading and presents questions concerning the use of this device in beginning reading materials. (FL)

The aims of this study were (1) to test the dyadic superiority hypothesis by comparing dyadic performance on a logical reasoning task with the performance of children working alone, and (2) to determine whether the incorrect child's compliance with the correct child was a major factor in the dyadic production of correct answers. (Author/DB)

Based on the inference that a teaching strategy that facilitates students' cognitive development toward Piagetian formal operational thought patterns will also increase scholastic performance in introductory genetics, a self-study guide was developed, implemented and tested to facilitate a student's ability to apply formal operational thought…

Examined two hypotheses that might account for episodic-recall differences in preschool children: (1) young children's differential tendencies to attend to and interact with presented stimuli account for verbal free-recall differences, and (2) improvements in episodic-recall memory are knowledge-dependent among preschool children. (Author/DB)

Children and adults were asked to place something "in front of" or "behind" a featured or nonfeatured object. Most subjects responded to the object's inherent features. A significant number of adults used the observer orientation cue. Children had more difficulty with the nonfeatured object but also used the observer…

Some possible uses of math lab materials and activities that are natural and appropriate to the development of process skills are explored through a discussion of a geoboard activity. (MP)

The results of this study highlight the cognitive intellectual aspect of the speed of behavior. These findings supplement Hunt's studies of the relationships between speed of cognitive processing and performance of young adults on conventional tests, and emphasize the importance of cognitive speed for subsequent intellectual development. (Author)