Argues that the capacity for consciousness of self and others arises from developing representational and perceptual activities, especially during play. Examines young children's development of symbolic play, from sensorimotor exploration to representational play through five stages involving gestures of recognition, self-pretend and pretend play,…

Questionnaires assessed preschool teachers' concepts of cognitive development, educational goals for children's cognitive development, and curriculum activities used to foster children's cognitive development. Teachers' goals and activities were more consistent with environmental learning theory than with cognitive development theory or…

Verbal and musical stimuli were presented to infants in a study of the relations of evoked potential left-right amplitude asymmetries to gender and hand preference. There was a relation between asymmetry and hand preference, and for girls, between asymmetry and stimulus condition. Results suggest a gender difference in cerebral hemisphere…

Presents an annotated bibliography on religious development that covers the areas of psychology and religion, measurement of religiousness, religious development during the life cycle, religious experiences, conversion, religion and morality, and images of God. (Author/BB)

Results of three experiments indicate that the developmental increase in memory span cannot be explained by differences in identification time or by the hypothesis that articulation time is the sole or major cause for the increase. It is argued that the development of memory span with age depends on a combination of factors. (BC)

Discussed are categorization schema, with elaborations about attendant epistemological obstacles, concerning the twin notions of understanding and comprehension, per se, as well as the processes affecting their attainment. Included is an example of such a schema involving the concept of the limit of a numerical sequence. (JJK)

This study assessed social perspective taking in 57 children classified as educable mentally retarded divided into 3 age groups from 8-16 years. Significant differences in social perspective taking were obtained between the three groups in understanding individuals and between the older and two younger groups in understanding friendship.…

Children either saw, were told about, or felt the contents of a toy tunnel. They were asked what was in the tunnel and how they knew the contents. Three year olds had difficulty identifying the sources of their knowledge. Questions that involved inference proved to be especially difficult for them. (BC)

This research review identifies similarities in skill acquisition across the domains of reading and math disabilities, specifically addressing the sequence of skill development and the theoretical question of whether the disabilities reflect delays or deficits in cognitive development. The paper discusses the nature of differences between learners…

Examines the doctrine of "constructivism" as presented by Ernst von Glasersfeld. Part 1 attempts to elicit a clearer statement of the concepts, positions and arguments for constructivism. Part 2 discusses the problem of intersubjectivity in constructivism. Part 3 ventures an explanation of at least some on the weaknesses in the doctrine.…

Discusses Piaget's and Garcia's work that examines the common features underlying individual and historical development. Presents criticism to Piaget's position and examines the possibility of overcoming the main problems of Piaget's approach within a Piagetian framework. Looks at the consequences of the relationship between individual and…

Uses Laudan's model of scientific change to obtain corresponding features on conceptual change in science learning. Discusses some practical consequences for science education. (MDH)

Discusses Lawrence A. Hirschfeld's (1995) experiments, which Hirschfeld claims demonstrate that preschoolers use a biologically grounded theory in reasoning about race. Argues that the methods used cannot address the issue and therefore, the results do not support Hirschfeld's claims. Maintains that the experiments fail to demonstrate that 4- and…

Responds to John J. Kim's critique of his studies of preschoolers' understanding of race. Maintains that his and others' investigations demonstrate that preschoolers differentiate the pattern of causal reasoning governing transmission and maintenance of racial characteristics from that governing transmission and maintenance of perceptually similar…

Traced emergence of elaborated framework of belief-desire reasoning. Preschoolers and adults were asked to explain why a story protagonist searched for a desired object in an incorrect location. Results suggest that, during late preschool years, conception of cognitive activities as contributing to knowledge and belief becomes integrated into…