Intellectual engagement (IE) refers to enjoyment of intellectual activities and is proposed as causal for knowledge acquisition. The role of IE for cognitive development was examined utilizing 2-year longitudinal data from 112 ninth graders (average baseline age: 14.7 years). Higher baseline IE predicted higher baseline crystallized ability but…

Evidence from twin studies points to substantial environmental influences on intelligence, but the specifics of this influence are unclear. This study examined one developmental process that potentially causes intelligence differences: learning to read. In 1,890 twin pairs tested at 7, 9, 10, 12, and 16 years, a cross-lagged…

Forgetting, as defined by Piaget as Stage IV error, was studied in infants. Results partially support Piaget's hypothesis. (ST)

Ordinality of three subtests of a sensory-motor series was evaluated in a longitudinal study of infants. Results indicated that scalability can be affected by the responses of infants at different developmental ages. (ST)

Children in grades 1, 3, and 5 were asked to decide whether selected contradictory sentences were true or false. The age at which children were first able to evaluate the false sentences correctly corresponded to the relative speed with which adults evaluated the sentences in a timed vertification task. (Author/JMB)

A retrospective check of 100, white 4-year-olds (with IQ's of 140 or more) showed no precocity at age 8 months, as measured by the Bayley Scales of Mental and Motor Development. (ST)

Administration of a placement task to 66 preschool and grade school children revealed that the concept of higher/lower was understood earlier than above/below, which in turn was understood earlier than rising/falling. Within each pair of terms, the one referring to upness was comprehended earlier. (Author/JMB)

Three-, four- and five-year-old children were presented an array of metamemory tasks designed to test their understanding of variables which affect the difficulty of memory performance. (JMB)

Author concludes that a Piagetian based paper-and-pencil technique can be successfully used for older subjects rather than the conversation-interview technique used for elementary school children. (MB)

A review of the research on the effects of day care shows that high-quality, center-based day care: (1) has neither salutary nor deleterious effects on children's intellectual development; (2) is not disruptive of children's emotional bond with their mothers; and (3) increases children's interaction, both positive and negative, with their peers.…

Infants from low socioeconomic status families were randomly assigned to either an instructional day care program designed to prevent socioculturally caused mental retardation or to a nonintervention control group. The effects of these environments were then compared for fetally malnourished infants in terms of later intellectual functioning and…

Presents a study of a theoretical confluence model which predicts the effects of birth order, child spacing and family size on intellectual development. The fit of this model was tested on samples of families with biological and adopted children. (JMB)

The dependence of immediate, short-term and long-term reproductive memory on operative understanding was studied in elementary school students. Results are interpreted in terms of Piaget's theory. (ST)