This study used a machine learning framework in conjunction with a large battery of measures from 9,718 school-age children (ages 9-11) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development[superscript SM] (ABCD) Study to identify factors associated with fluid cognitive functioning (FCF), or the capacity to learn, solve problems, and adapt to novel…

A total of 82 fourth and fifth graders participated in a 15-week intervention program during which they confronted problems requiring formal operational thought. Subjects showed advancement toward formal operations on the pendulum and chemicals problems (Inhelder and Piaget) and on a third problem on immediate and 4-month posttests. (Author/JH)

A study of the development of elementary school children's appreciation of riddles was conducted within the framework of the incongruity and resolution theory of humor. (ST)

Move sequence analysis revealed that, when presented with problems having subgoals difficult to order, 40 preschoolers between 45 and 70 months of age (1) tended to avoid backup; (2) were sensitive to incremental progress toward a goal; and (3) searched moves ahead for a goal. None of several indices of performance were reliably correlated with…

A set of covariation problems was structured so that the solution pattern across problems would indicate the judgment rule used by each subject. A developmental trend across subjects in fourth, seventh, and tenth grades and in college demonstrated rule shifts toward use of increasingly accurate rules. (Author/RH)

Explores the role of premature cognitive closure in the development of inferential reasoning among 62 children aged 7, 9, and 12 years through two studies. Results indicate that despite a strong tendency to close on single alternatives, most children correctly assigned nonzero probabilities to each of the possible alternatives. (RJC)

This study tested three hypothesized mechanisms through which explanations might facilitate problem-solving strategy generalization in kindergarteners through second graders. Results suggested that explanations facilitated generalization through the creation of novel goal structures that enabled children to persist in use of the new strategy…

This study attempts to follow the development of an "awareness" of the importance of consistency in a logical system with three elements and one operation. Subjects were 127 male and female students, 9-, 11-, 14-, and 16-years-old. (Author/SDH)

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…

Examines the ability of six- and eight-year-old children to hide and recover 20 marbles in a large room containing 100 possible sites. Shows that children tend to concentrate activities in sections of the room and are sensitive to clusters of proximal sites. (HOD)

Used descriptive analysis and a forced choice task to investigate childrens' and adults' production, interpretation, and judgment of notation. Results showed that young children may not impose the same symbol-meaning structure at decoding that was proposed at encoding. Only after this ability develops does a preference for one form-one function…

Outerdirectedness has been defined by first author and his colleagues as a style of problem solving characterized by reliance on concrete situational cues rather than by active attempts to deduce abstract relationships. (Authors/MB)

Proposes that conceptual change is constrained by the child's conceptual structures and the structures inherent in problem-solving tasks. Uses a microgenetic case study and group data to examine how interaction between strategies children bring to a task and the detailed task structure redirect children's attention and create the possibility of…

To investigate the development of function concepts and their relation to mathematical and logical abilities typically acquired during the age period of five to seven years, children were tested on nonnumerical function tasks, numerical tasks, and aspects of logical reasoning. (PCB)

Reflective and impulsive children were instructed to hasten or delay their responses on a test of hypothesis-seeking and constraint seeking conceptual strategies. Latency of response data on pretesting, training, and immediate posttests showed that the attempts to hasten or delay responses were successful in changing response latencies. (ST)