The spatial analogical responding of preschool children, first graders, and college students was compared on two tasks in which body parts were mapped onto drawings of trees and mountains. Results showed that young children performed as well as or better than adults. (JMB)

Second graders, sixth graders, and college students served in two experiments designed to assess (1) the selection and use of landmarks during route learning and (2) the coordination of successive environmental experiences into an overall configuration. (Author/RH)

According to Humean framework, relations are judged to be causal to extent that they are characterized by regularity, continuity, and covariation among college students and college-bound 11- and 14-year-olds. Presents subjects with information about one of the following indices: potential causal factor covaried with effect and potential causal…

On tasks involving assessement of the heights of colored sticks, kindergarten, third-grade, and adult subjects were successful on inferences involving only equalities or only inequalities across various conditions and procedures. A dramatic developmental increase in performance was found on inferences based on the combination of equality and…

Investigates the influence of logical skills (inclusion and seriation) on the degree and kind of semantic integration performed on remembered material among 47 third- and fourth-grade boys and girls and college students. (JMB)

In a study of the use of baserates and the representativeness heuristic, children and college students made judgments about scenarios that varied by domain and information provided. The use of baserates and heuristic, and the consistency between subjects' choices and rationales, increased with age. Use of individuating information developed early.…

The hypothesized central role of cognitive development in resolving moral dilemmas was examined in sixth grade and college-age females. Results indicated that sophisticated cognitive operations are a prerequisite to advanced moral judgments. (ST)

First, second, third, sixth, and ninth graders and college students were presented with 4 different tasks of surface-volume dissociation in order to see whether or not the conservation of one of these properties would wrongly induce a belief in the conservation of the other. (Author/JMB)

Examined children's, adolescents', and college students' judgments of children's and adults' rights to freedom of speech and religion in societal, school, and family contexts. Found that endorsements of these freedoms were increasingly affected by social context and agent with age. College students were less likely than others to affirm children's…

Children in grades 1, 3, and 5 and college students were given a variety of judgment tasks contrasting the comparison of quantity with the comparison of proportions to determine whether the understanding of proportions develops before formal operations. Results indicated that the comprehension of abstract relations requires formal operations.…

Examined the development of proportional reasoning by means of a temperature mixture task. Results show the importance of distinguishing between intuitive knowledge and formal computational knowledge of proportional concepts. Provides a new perspective on the relation of intuitive and computational knowledge during development. (GLR)

Examines the communication strategies adopted by people of differing ages attempting to perform a referential communication task and to determine their ability to adapt their strategies to various task conditions. (HOD)

Examines developmental differences among children and adults in causal reasoning concerning story characters who were offered various inducements to behave helpfully. Results indicate that external consequences enhanced attributions of internal motivation for kindergartners and reduced such attributions for older subjects. (Author/DB)