Executive function mechanisms underpinning language-related effects on theory of mind understanding were examined in a sample of 165 preschoolers. Verbal labels were manipulated to identify relevant perspectives on an explicit false belief task. In Experiment 1 with 4-year-olds (N = 74), false belief reasoning was superior in the fully and…

Support for the operation of internal factors in cognitive development was provided by an obtained increase from first to second posttest scores. Two conservations were considered to be involved--conservation of the whole and of the part. (Author)

Two experiments examined 4- to 5-year-olds' acquisition of family-resemblance categories for fictitious animals. Results showed that children who performed theory-guided learning were more successful at making feature/category associations than children who performed similarity-guided learning and categorized attributes significantly better than…

Three experiments assessed 252 preschoolers' understanding of attributes and dimensions. A conceptual measure and a linguistic measure were employed. Results indicated that the acquisition of some attribute and dimension labels appears to follow closely the trend in conceptual development. (Author/CI)

By varying task requirements within a common procedural framework, four experiments established conditions under which children exhibit different understandings of life. Overall, results suggested that even four- and five-year-olds know that people and other animals are alive and that almost all "inanimate objects" are not. (Author/RH)

Results support the hypothesis that, with 6-year old children, the production of analytic responses on the Conceptual Style Test is a function of the instructions used. (Author/CB)

Data suggest that the effectiveness of verbalization in concept identification depends on the aspect of the task which is verbalized. (Author)

Three experiments examined how 4- to 10-year-olds' domain knowledge and observation of exemplars interact during concept acquisition and how exposure to novel exemplars causes knowledge revision. In all experiments, prior knowledge and exemplar observation independently influenced children's categorization judgments. Use of prior knowledge was…

This study examined a category-induction'' manipulation which focused the attention of 40 preschoolers on categories through discussion and through spatial arrangement of items. This manipulation induced children's use of category questions. (ST)

Level of cognitive development was not significantly related to humor appreciation for either novelty or incongruity humor in 30 boys at each of three age levels: 5, 7, and 9. (WY)

Compensation as assessed by any one test or criterion used is more difficult than conservation. And, the understanding of the compensation principle, as manifested in verbal statements, continues to develop well after the age at which liquid conservation may be taken for granted. (Authors)

A combination of readiness and body-part training was the most effective in producing number conservation with external objects. (Authors)

In the follow-up study, most of the initial gains in IQ resulting from program participation were retained. (Authors/MB)

Performance demonstrated that the conceptual style and cognitive tempo of the model changed the styles and tempos of the Ss and that these effects generalized to independent tasks. (Author)