The construct of metacognition appears in an ever increasing number and range of contexts in educational, developmental, and cognitive psychology. Can it retain its status as a useful construct in the face of such diverse application? Or is it merely an umbrella term for diverse mental phenomena that are loosely if at all connected? Here I argue…

In this theoretical essay, the author addresses the existence of divergent evidence, portraying both competence and lack of competence in a fundamental realm of higher order thinking--causal and scientific reasoning--and explores the educational implications. Evidence indicates that these higher order reasoning skills are not ones that can be…

Results showed that only 32 percent of adult female shoppers in a supermarket were able to use a proportional reasoning strategy to determine which of two sizes of a common item (size ratio 2:3) was the better buy. Performance declined when the ratio was more complex. (JMB)

The development of children's comprehension of cause and effect relationships was studied in 68 kindergarten, first grade, and second grade children. (BRT)

Data from three studies with elementary and junior high school students are presented in support of the contention that facility in concrete operations is necessary and sufficient for competence in the simple syllogistic forms, while formal operations are required when dealing with conditional statements in certain more complex contexts.…

Presentation of a "natural experiment" problem situation to fourth, sixth, and eighth graders and college students revealed that not until adolescence could subjects isolate alternative or additive causes in a multivariable situation. (JMB)