Among 128 girls attending a private day school in Australia, it was found that changes in semantic aspects of language which occur at the formal operational stage appear to be related to whether a child is classified at the formal operational level on a pendulum problem. (RH)

Explores the underlying knowledge that children have about the relationship between the structure of requests and the relative status of speakers and listeners. Shows that the three age groups (preschoolers, 5-year-olds, and 10-year-olds) could systematically differentiate the requests by means of syntactic directness or semantics. (HOD)