This study was designed to determine whether children's judgments of another's emotional state are based on egocentric or perspectivistic reasoning processes. A total of 91 children, between the ages of 3 and 10, at three grade levels, were shown a series of photographs containing conflicting situational and expressive cues to the pictured child's…

This experiment tested Piaget's hypothesis that peer interaction plays a crucial role in the reduction of childhood egocentrism. A sample of 46 second graders from a middle-class suburban public school were given a sociometric measure of popularity. Four tasks which assessed spatial, communicative, and role-taking egocentrism were then performed…

In this study Piaget's method of the clinical interview was used to examine children's understanding of rotation about apoint at three age levels (6, 7, and 8). In two half-hour sessions, subjects (N = 108) were given four tasks: (1) an adaptation of Piaget's locus and circular motion experiment, and tasks concerned with (2) the circle as a locus…

When sound takes on meaning for the first time in the life of a child, a giant and prototypic step in the development of his symbolic capacities has taken place. This step is worthy of careful scientific scrutiny. This paper seeks first to describe the steps by which the author's child discovered the existence of meaning in sound, and second, to…

The purpose of this symposium was to identify and to discuss factors which should influence the design and implementation of elementary school science programs. Five papers were presented at the symposium. The paper presented by D. G. Phillips stressed the implications of Piaget's work for developing science programs: (1) placing certain…

This document presents Part I of a two-part study which sought to ascertain the relationship of grade level, achievement level, sex, and method of presentation to the various bases by which children classify geometric concepts. Two tasks, administered consecutively to 96 subjects in grades five, eight and eleven, consisted of the sequential…

This document, Part II of a two-part study, is the summary chapter of a report which sought to ascertain the relationship of grade level, achievement level, sex, and method of presentation to the various bases by which children classify geometric concepts. Two tasks, administered consecutively to 96 subjects in grades five, eight, and eleven,…

The author attempts to analyze and synthesize the literature on the development of conservation (Piaget) in children in order to aid its use as a routine assessment instrument of an important aspect of cognitive development. The nature of conservation, a review of the literature, task variables, and training variables are discussed. The author…

In reviewing the research of experimental psychology, genetic psychology, and psychopathology, the author finds the data show: (1) the extreme importance of the period between the third and sixth year when the Oedipus situation of the child is resolved and when he takes the first step in the use of reason; (2) the importantce of the latency period…

Four Mexican-American groups were administered the Attitude Behavior Scale-Mental Retardation (ABS-MR). These included: (1) 50 Special Education and Rehabilitation Workers; (2) 50 parents of mentally retarded children; (3) 50 regular school teachers; and (4) 82 parents of the nonretarded. The purposes were: (1) to investigate their attitudes…

For this followup study an attempt was made to retest all 136 children evaluated in the Austin, Texas Day Care Program nine months earlier but only 95 children were available. Subjects were Negro and Mexican-American. The original study indicated that significantly higher scores were earned on tests of intellectual performance as a function of…

Tested was the hypothesis that science instruction based on task analysis will lead to the acquisition of the ability to perform certain Piaget volume tasks which have been characterized as requiring formal operations for their solutions. A Test on Formal Operations and a Learning Hierarchies Test were given to fourth- and sixth-grade students in…

To investigate how a child organizes new objects and how categories function for a chid, twelve 6- and twelve 8-year-olds were individually given several sorting tasks involving 21 three-dimensional nonsense objects. The child was exposed to all the objects; three objects were pointed out and withdrawn; and then the child was asked to describe…

Value judgments play a role in evaluation by determining the anticipated behavioral outcomes, what is measured, techniques for measurement, and decision making. Value judgments are usually faced only at the decision-making stage. Methods to analyze values will hopefully be given more emphasis in future evaluation enterprises. Studies using…

Two experiments investigate the effects of mode of presentation and number of categories on 4-year-olds' proportion estimates. Experiment I compares simultaneous and successive presentations of proportion problems using two categories of elements. The subjects were 40 children chosen randomly and tested individually. Four problems were presented…