Notes that research on aging mind has moved from simple growth versus decline view to conception of joint consideration of potential and limits. Sees this development illustrated by research on two categories of cognitive functioning: the cognitive mechanics (comparable to fluid intelligence) and cognitive pragmatics (comparable to crystallized…

Examined preschoolers' ability to distinguish innocent and negligent mistakes from lies. Found that, when asked to identify a mistake or lie about a food's contact with contaminants and identify a bystander's reaction, children distinguished mistakes from lies; they could also discriminate between lies and both negligent mistakes that generate…

Two experiments examine whether "lemma" (pronouns in German) access automatically entails activation of the corresponding word form or whether a word form is activated only when the noun is produced, but not when replaced by pronouns. Results suggest that when a pronoun is produced, both the lemma and the phonological form of the…

Attempted replication of Gibbs and Moise (1997) experiments regarding the recognition of a distinction between what is said and what is implicated. Results showed that, under certain conditions, subject selected implicatures when asked to select the paraphrase best reflecting what a speaker has said. Suggests that results can be explained with the…

Two studies examined developmental patterns in understanding physical and social transitivity in 6- to 11-year olds. Findings revealed no significant correlations between social judgments and judgments concerning length. Results suggested that children possess two distinct strategies for making transitive judgments that correspond to the logical…

In three shape-constancy experiments, 4- and 7-year olds viewed a circular disc oriented at a slant. All subjects exaggerated circularity of the disc when they knew the object was a circle. Findings suggest that knowledge of reality contaminates judgments of appearance in circle task and this is the same bias that features in realist errors in…

Three experiments examined 3- to 4-year olds' judgments about physical representations which no longer matched their references. Results showed that children tended to misidentify the name of a sticker in a written list to match a change to its referent. Children's incorrect judgments indicated that realist errors to external representations…

In two experiments, 4- to 6-year-olds made judgments about the knowledge of a protagonist who had only partial information about an object they had full knowledge of. Found surprising discrepancy in performance in the two tasks, which appear superficially to require handling of same properties of the representational mind, indicating that current…

Summarizes William Perry's intellectual scheme and places it in the context of the 1990's. Perry's scheme of cognitive development, though more than thirty years old, is still being used by practitioners today to enhance practice in and out of the classroom. It laid a foundation for new research to extend, challenge, and build onto the scheme.…

Provides a theoretical account of children's success on theory of mind (ToM) tasks and the discrepancies found across different ToM tasks, and examines the role of indexical and symbolic referencing. Found that 4- to 6-year-olds succeeded more on tasks with a high ratio of indexical to symbolic references than on tasks with a high ratio of…

Responds to Noam's (PS 524 984) and Cicchetti's (PS 524 985) articles in this issue. Suggests that researchers should turn to the coactions of the internal and the external constraints on development that codetermine performance. States the position that cognitive developmental theory, when sensitized to intra- and interindividual differences,…

Tested children at 3 to 4 years of age, and again 13 months later, on false-belief tasks and on four tests of executive function, or processes underlying goal-directed behavior. Results suggest that young children's understanding of mind is grounded in their growing competence in strategic planning and mental flexibility. (Author/BC)

Six- to 14-year olds added "winning" beads to an urn of "losing" beads in order to generate equal probabilities of choosing a winning bead from each of two urns. Found that 13-year olds integrated the two dimensions (winning and losing beads), the youngest children relied on one dimension, and 9- to 10-year olds partly combined…

Replies to commentaries by Mandler (1988) and Rochat and Striano (1988), focusing on Mandler's comments. Maintains that their disagreements are the result of deep meta-theoretical differences regarding a representational theory of mind rather than misrepresentations of fact. Discusses how their meta-theoretical differences result in several basic…

Maintains that the strengths of Cole's work include its historical perspective for the new discipline of cultural psychology and its integration of concepts from a variety of traditions. Argues that the book's problematic areas include its neglect of socioemotional variables and its assumption of culture as a caring medium for human development.…