Presents initial data from 725 college and university students on the construct validity of the Learning Environmental Preferences (LEP) instrument. Findings suggest that the LEP accurately measures the cognitive portion of the Perry scheme of intellectual development. (Author/TE)

A sex-related difference, favoring boys, was found on initial performance of two samples (one British, one American) of 10- and 11-year-old children on tasks involving volume and density. After classroom instruction that included opportunities for interaction with appropriate materials, both sexes performed at higher levels but differences…

Reports a study of the correlation between intellectual development and students' understanding of scientific concepts and science processes. Results are reported concerning the reliability and validity of Piagetian or Piagetian-like tasks as measures of students' level of formal reasoning. (Author/SA)

This study attempts to raise and answer the question as to whether lateral specialization of the brain could explain some of the differences in persons at different stages of intellectual development from birth to adulthood according to Piaget's theory of individual development via sequential, qualitatively different stages.…

This study examined the stability and across time changes on mean scores on eight educational outcomes including cognitive and non-cognitive areas as measured by the Pennsylvania Grade 5 Educational Quality Assessment Inventory. Data, collected on children tested as fifth graders in 1969 and retested in 1971 and 1973, are presented separately for…

Examined quantitative evidence of an intellectual growth spurt during early adolescence by combining modern psychometric modeling, computerized testing with the Raven progressive matrices, and longitudinal socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. Found that gender difference was not significant. Notes the impact of this evidence on educational…

The Perry scheme of intellectual and ethical development has become widely used in a range of academic disciplines and such areas as career training and faculty consultation. However, current measurement techniques for the scheme, whether interview format or paper and pencil measures, do not adequately address issues related to assessing cognitive…

Whether "psychometric" and "Piagetian" kinds of intelligence are similar is a question of whether they have similar courses of development with age. When using factor analysis to address this issue, age effects must be eliminated in order to assess relations among measured constructs. Reanalyses of previous results were…

Two studies examined modifiability in intellectual functioning in older adults. The fluid-crystallized theory provided a theory base for the research. (Fluid intelligence follows a normative decline through adulthood, while crystallized intelligence remains stable or even increases.) In the first study thirty subjects (average age 69.2)…

Describes a set of Science Reasoning Tasks which are valid and reliable for assessing the ability of children to use concrete and formal reasoning strategies and can be used by science teachers without professional training in Piagetian studies. Thirty pupils can be tested on each task in about 50 minutes. (Author/DS)

Reports on misconceptions held by intermediate grade students concerning chemistry textbook concepts, on the relation of reasoning ability to those misconceptions, and on the extent that textbooks encourage misconceptions. Concludes that the level of understanding displayed for the selected concepts, in combination with the nature of students'…

Developmental patterns in one mode of formal reasoning (probabilistic reasoning) were examined in this research study, specifically: (1) to determine if developmental patterns of probabilistic reasoning could be confirmed using a large, diverse sample of subjects, and if they could be similar despite variations in the complexity of the reasoning…

Stochastic difference equations of the Box-Jenkins form provide an adequate family of models on which to base the stochastic theory of human growth processes, but conventional time series identification methods do not apply to available data sets. A method to identify structure and parameters of stochastic difference equation models of human…

Two paper and pencil group tests were assessed for their ability to classify subjects as concrete or formal operational. The two group tests, Sheehan's (1970) version of Longeot's three subtests and set of three puzzles, were administered to 607 students from ninth- and tenth-grade science and mathematics classes. A subsample of 69 students was…

This study investigated the relative freshman-year cognitive impacts of five two-year and six four-year colleges and universities drawn from all sections of the United States. The overall sample was 2,685 freshmen students participating in a national longitudinal study and of these the final sample contained 811 students, 280 attending five…