Used multiple baseline design with four 6-year-old Latino children to train in class inclusion through counting, feedback, and verbal reinforcers, and in English language skills (of benefit in their own right), over 5 months. Found that post-intervention gains in the two domains were significant and were stable over at least 4.5 months. (KB)

Studied the ability of 8- and 11-year olds, and college-age subjects, to allocate attention rapidly. Older subjects were better able to reallocate attention. The developmental change in the reallocation of attention appears to be continuous and quantitative. Improvement is linked to the ability to use active attentional strategies. (Author/GH)

Two experiments used a formal model of developmental discontinuity derived from catastrophe theory to test whether the transition from Rule I to Rule II on the balance scale task proceeds discontinuously from ages 6 to 10, focusing on five catastrophe flags. Found that bimodality, inaccessible region, hysteresis, and sudden jump were clearly…

An experimental task with accompanying apparatus was developed for use in the study of developmental and cultural differences in the cooperative-competitive behavior of children in a small Mexican town and in California. Two groups of 20 Mexican children (aged 7-8 and 10-11), from an elementary school in a town in Baja, California, Mexico, were…

Attachment representations and self-confidence were assessed at age 7 on the basis of children's responses to a separation story and independent observations, although cognitive functioning was measured at ages 7-17 years based on a battery of Piagetian tasks assessing concrete and formal reasoning. Children with a secure attachment representation…

This study investigated the linguistic components of Piaget's class-inclusion task. First, hierarchical classification is examined from both Piagetian and linguistic theory points of view. Then, two general characteristics of child thinking that relate to the different interpretations of the responses to classification questions are discussed: (1)…

Three samples of 8- to 16-year olds were assessed three times at yearly intervals on eight water-level items. Within-child change over age was viewed as stochastic process of the child changing or remaining in one of three latent strategy states. Although there was improvement in task performance over age, the general finding was that strategy…

Discusses hierarchical complexity of tasks as a way of conceptualizing information in terms of the power required to complete a task, and its implications for developmental psychology and information science. Provides an analytic solution to the definition of developmental stages and allows for the possibility within the science of scaling the…

Examined validity of use of human figure drawing to evaluate cognitive development status using Piagetian tasks with 7- to 11-year-olds. Found that scores for children's drawings of a man and a woman correlated significantly with mental imaging, conservation of mass, and conservation of length, suggesting the possibility of finding patterns to…

A total of 270 children from 3 ethnic groups were tested for understanding of concepts of heating and cooling. A strong horizontal decalage effect was seen, with children of all ethnic groups using more sophisticated explanations at earlier ages for heating than cooling. Implications for developmental theory are discussed. (SLD)

The current status of conceptions of learning in children is reviewed and some areas of neglect are considered in this paper. The main premise is that although considerable strides have been made in the understanding of the learning process, essential developmental formulations of growth and change have been poorly articulated. It is suggested…

This study examined the transition from concrete to formal operations in very bright children in an effort to determine whether high ability in concrete operations would carry over into formal operational ability, and also to investigate precocity in regard to formal operations. Subjects were 38 white middle-class children ranging in age from…

In order to verify claims made by Genevan researchers that linguistic production but not comprehension capabilities distinguish seriators from nonseriators, three tasks were administered to children between the ages of four and eight. Subjects were asked to arrange in order objects varying in size, to describe how the objects differed from each…

This paper examines the possibility of accelerating the development of intelligence when applying stringent Piagetian standards to evaluate the effects of short- and long-term intervention or instruction programs. The paper reviews previous Genevan and American research that shows that development can be accelerated by means of only a few…

Describes and discusses the rule-assessment approach, a new research strategy for studying developmental sequences in children's acquisition of knowledge. Four experiments were conducted to illustrate the utility of this approach across a variety of concepts and a wide range of ages (three-year-olds to college students). (Author/CM)