The structure of Russians' life course has never been studied in depth; the only exception is demographic studies regarding marital status and age at childbirth. Principles that define life trajectories should also be examined. The "adult" concept is one of a number of important concepts in the general structure of life planning. This…

Intraindividual variability is a key component in explaining children's development and learning. Studying this type of variability on the micro-timescale can help us understand real-time constructive processes and the subsequent long-term development. The aim of this article is to study the process of children's understanding of…

This article reviews a particular computational modeling approach to the study of psychological development--that of constructive neural networks. This approach is applied to a variety of developmental domains and issues, including Piagetian tasks, shift learning, language acquisition, number comparison, habituation of visual attention, concept…

Examines the role of basic cognitive-processing efficiency as the source of developmental variance in cognitive performance. Two experimental tasks, memory and visual scanning, were used to investigate age effects on the search-processing parameter. Subjects were 9-, 11-, 13-, and 15-year-old children. (CM)

Three longitudinal studies examined means-ends behavior of 6- to 8-month olds. Found that intentional means-end behavior increased between 6 and 7 months, with 7-month olds' performance influenced by the presence of a toy on the cloth. Performance was the same when cloth was attached to or separate from the toy. By 8 months, infants adjusted…

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…

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)

Many researchers have addressed the professional development of teachers and the importance of the field experience component in the process of teaching effectiveness (Kowalchuk, 1999). A phased development model or paradigm used to address teachers' professional development and stages of effectiveness have been noted. Conceptual models of Field…

The rule assessment approach was used to examine five-, eight-, eleven-, and twenty-year-olds' concepts of time, speed, and distance. (CM)

Children who come to school without numerical game-playing experience have trouble with math relationships in direct-instruction situations. This article explores the varied roles of active thinking, social interaction, previous knowledge, and child-initiated choice in children's development of math concepts. Self-esteem cannot be built by doing…

Fifty children, ranging in age from 4 to 10, were individually administered a series of tasks involving different combinations of 2 items selected from a discrete set of items. Analyses of their performances revealed a series of six, increasingly sophisticated, solution strategies ranging from random number selection of items to a systematic…

The conceptual views of homeostasis held by students (n=300) in seventh grade life science, tenth grade biology, and college zoology were examined. A biographical questionnaire, the results from two Piagetian-like developmental tasks, and a concept evaluation statement of homeostasis were collected from each student. Understanding of the concept…

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)

Twenty-four children (ages 6-9) with mild mental retardation received individualized instruction with either emphasis on Piagetian concepts or emphasis on verbal and number concepts. Although both groups made significant gains over a year, the children receiving the Piagetian emphasis usually gained more and progressed at almost the rate of…

Presents a study to examine the effects of a verbal teaching strategy versus a strategy providing instruction using activities and manipulatives in four seventh grade earth science classes with students of varying cognitive abilities (n=83). Results indicate that students with more cognitive structures perform better and that using manipulatives…