Compared children's concept of illness with that of adults. Results suggested that both causes and symptoms of affected adults' categorization of illness, with neither type of feature being definitive. Children's ascriptions of illness generally matched adults' but were highly correlated with judgments of illness. Children also viewed illness as a…

Five experiments investigated whether children, ages three to eight, think of pretending as a mental state. Results indicated that most children under six see pretending as primarily physical. Eight-year-olds claimed that execution of pretense did not involve the mind, although the planning aspect of pretense did. (MOK)

Examined degree to which analytic and holistic modes of processing play a role in children's and adults' categorization of faces. Found a developmental trend from analytic to holistic processing and an effect of face inversion with increasing age. Seven-year-olds processed faces comparably to nonfacial visual stimuli, whereas a growing proportion…

This study examines the development of children's understanding of temporal cycles and the relationship between cyclic concepts and cognitive development. A sample of 62 children, ranging in age from 4 to 10 years, were administered Piagetian tests of classification and seriation and a variety of specially designed cyclic tasks. (Author/JMB)

In a schematic concept formation task, second and fifth graders were required to sort 60 computer-generated, 8-sided polygons into two classes. The results indicated that age differences in schematic concept formation are due more to the efficiency of information use than to differences in strategy or the selection of information to be used. (ST)

Purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a hierarchically arranged instructional program in multiple classification, which refers to the ability to define a class by two or more attributes simultaneously. (Authors/MB)

Results are discussed in terms of the development and activation of cognitive structures. (Authors)

In a series of experiments, young children were asked to compare the quantities of classes of objects under two conditions: (1) when one of the classes of objects is a subordinate of the other (the traditional class-inclusion problem), and (2) when the terms refer to exclusive sets but different levels of generality. (Author/RH)

Results as a whole did not support the hypothesis that poor readers show deficits in selective attention relative to age-matched normal readers. (RH)

Two studies examined whether infants' category discrimination in an object-examination task was based solely on an ad hoc analysis of perceptual similarities among the experimental stimuli. Findings indicated that 10- to 11-month- olds' responses varied systematically only with the presence of a category change, but not with the degree of…

Four experiments tested the hypothesis that the importance of linguistic labels for young children's conceptual organization stems from a privileged processing status of auditory input over visual input. Findings indicated that when auditory and visual stimuli were presented separately, 4-year-olds were likely to process both kinds of stimuli,…

Three studies explored whether children's tendency to extend object names on the basis of sameness of shape (shape bias) is specific to naming. Findings indicated that 2- and 3-year-olds showed shape bias both when asked to extend a novel name and when asked to select an object of the same kind as a target object; 3-year-olds also showed shape…

Examined qualitative developmental change in the use of category organization between ages 8 and 10 and the supportive functions of task environment and category knowledge in this development. Results support the hypothesis that most 10 year olds are capable of strategically activating category knowledge in appropriate task environments when items…