Three experiments investigated children's typical errors in judging the truth of universally quantified conditional sentences containing "P and not-Q." The error survived on sentences referring to particular things. For second- and fifth-graders, the error survived for nonuniversally quantified conditionals, and for second-graders, the…

Presents a technique for introducing analysis of variance (ANOVA) at the concrete level of operational thought, enabling students in introductory statistics courses to understand the complex correlations and interactions between variables. Helps students develop an intuitive understanding of the concepts of between- and within-groups variance and…

The experience of the West Virginia University School of Pharmacy with a course in non-prescription drugs that emphasizes problem-solving through pattern recognition illustrates that when thinking skills are taught, students value, remember, and can use more of the concepts they study. (MSE)

Comparison of the self perceptions of 146 gifted children in grades five through seven in Western Australia with those of nongifted children found that gifted students perceived themselves as more competent than nongifted peers in the cognitive and general self-worth areas but not in the physical and social areas. (Author/DB)

In a study of event knowledge, 13 2-year-olds were observed interacting with their mothers over a 5-month period. Results indicated that children's increasing event knowledge facilitated their language development (e.g., lexical type use, action verb use) and their lexical token use. (Contains 33 references.) (Author/LB)

This retrospective case study investigates the experiences of a highly gifted young artist and two mentors who guided his high school development. Examination of the mentors' influences on the artist's cognitive and affective development found that the mentorship validated the boy's style of thinking, sharpened metacognitive abilities, helped with…

Studied children's grasp of make-believe transformations they had seen enacted. Children indicated the pretend outcome by choosing a picture depicting no change or a picture depicting the pretend change. Older children chose correctly, even with the addition of a picture of an irrelevant transformation, but younger children did not. Autistic…

Examined whether children differentiate or confuse the domains of folk biology and folk psychology. Children and adult subjects were asked whether the animals depicted in pictures possessed certain biological and psychological properties. Results indicated that by kindergarten, notions of folk psychology and folk biology are sufficiently…

Discusses deliberate psychological education as influenced by George Miller, Ralph Mosher, and Norm Sprinthall, and renewed calls for educational reform focusing on moral education. (JBJ)

Reviews Thomas A. Sebeok's "Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics." This book teaches the reader to use terms like "sign,""icon,""index," and "symbol" with greater precision and effect. Sebeok's work spans more than three decades and strongly contributes to a number of related disciplines, especially…

Provides a basis from which to critically examine contemporary identity research, by offering a definition of identity, a constructive criticism of the subject approach, and an empirical approach to studying sense of identity. The empirical approach is based on conceptually sound ideas and leads to important questions about identity modes and the…

Tested 6- and 8-year olds' ability to construct irony in story-completion tasks. Found that story stems based on familiar events, for which structured, detailed representations are available, facilitated irony more than did less-familiar activities, supporting irony as a metarepresentational skill. Young children's irony manipulated cognitively…

Examined how children's and adults' initial conceptions of objects and space influence predictions about the physical world, but lead the naive person to misconstrue a dynamic event. Found that participants proficiently anticipated where an oscillating screen would contact a hidden object, but underestimated the distance until contact.…

Analyzes students' attempts to answer examination questions involving stoichiometry and chemical equilibrium and reports that the majority of the students do not fully understand either concept. Concludes that the main difficulty with these topics is that they are highly abstract and first taught to students before they have reached the stage of…

Describes Developmental Counseling and Therapy (DCT) as model of helping based on Piagetian and constructivist concepts. Notes that client functioning is understood in terms of four levels of cognitive developmental functioning which parallel levels of cognitive development described by Piaget. Describes starting with client's predominant…