Examined children's reasoning regarding the relation between mental representations and reality. Found that children perform better when reasoning about imagination in relation to reality than when reasoning about the relation between belief and reality. Results suggest that understanding that mental representations can differ from reality emerges…

Sixty young children were tested for their understanding that a person who is mentally focused on one thing devotes little or no simultaneous attention to another, totally irrelevant thing. Though most 6- and 8-year olds demonstrated an understanding that task-oriented thought and attention were selectively focused, most of the 4-year olds showed…

This paper explores how the science of interpretation (hermeneutics) may offer an approach to describing the nature of how one develops understanding during mathematical activity. The discussion centers on personal interpretation and its interactive relationship between mathematics and mathematical activity without focusing upon the distinction…

Discusses key elements of the cognitive-developmental perspective and the need to integrate it as an important component of the wellness model. Notes that each speaks to the personal empowerment of every person to live a rewarding and responsible life and that each also emphasizes the ongoing promotion of growth rather than secondary prevention or…

Highlights the findings of the study by Pollitt et al. in this monograph that nutritional supplementation has long-term consequences for cognitive development and that the relationship of nutrition to cognitive performance does not fit a main-effects model. Also reviews methodological and conceptual issues unresolved by the study; and discusses…

Responds to commentary on the Pollitt et al. study reported in this monograph. Posits that nutritional insults are sensitive to intervention. Discusses research methodology; methodological issues related to sex differences; the buffering influence of high SES and dietary supplementation against the adverse effects of poor diet and low SES,…

Research results from children's story writing suggest a strong male predominance and strong gender stereotypic thinking in young children. Discusses what it will take for young girls and boys to attain a more equitable view of gender. (Author/JOW)

Revealed that 6-month-old infants are unable to access either an original memory or a reactivated memory after lengthy intervals. Despite the fact that their memory processing is more rapid during encoding and retrieval than that of infants half their age, their facility for accessing an original or reactivated memory is weaker than that of such…

The ability of 31- to 36-month-old children to act in accordance with rules was assessed in 2 slightly different experiments using sorting tasks and knowledge tasks. Taken together, the results of both experiments imply a relatively rapid, age-related change culminating in the ability to systematically execute rules that require access to extant…

Studied 49 3 and 4 year olds in an examination of the effect of type of reward agent on children's discounting. Findings indicated that the combination of a negative valence and a particular social role accounted for the discounting of intrinsic interest. This suggests that social knowledge guides the application of the discounting schema. (SH)

Examines the epistemological bases of general education, arguing that current curricular models generate a static, absolutist vision of knowledge. Advocates a curriculum based on the processes of knowing and of learning skills and concepts--across all domains and disciplines--rather than on the knowledge base itself. (DMM)

The results of four studies involving three to seven year olds revealed that, by age three, some children (1) appreciated conservation of matter despite visual disappearance and the existence of invisible particles; and (2) made use of the particle concept to explain how a particle can continue to exist and maintain its properties despite visual…

In one experiment, most four to eight year olds overattributed knowledge to a preverbal baby who heard an informative message. In a second experiment, six and eight year olds acknowledged differences in babies' and adults' interpretations of a message that was not obviously informative. (BC)

Scottish further education lecturers trained 51 students in thinking skills using the Vygotsky-Leontiev-Luria activity theory. After 13 weeks, experimentals' test scores were better than those of 41 controls, but numbers were less than significant, possibly because of students' and teachers' negative beliefs and assumptions about their ability and…

In one task, preschoolers pretended to use common objects. Three- and four-year olds used gestures in which body parts represented the objects. Five-year olds used gestures that involved imaginary objects. In a second task, preschoolers were asked to imitate gestures modeled by the experimenter. Three-year olds could not imitate imaginary object…