A pretest-training-posttest design assessed whether training to improve spatial skills also improved mathematics performance in elementary-aged children. First grade students (mean age = 7 years, n = 134) and sixth grade students (mean age = 12 years, n = 124) completed training in 1 of 2 spatial skills--spatial visualization or form…

Children experience good and bad days in their performance. Although this phenomenon is well-known to teachers, parents, and students it has not been investigated empirically. We examined whether children's working memory performance varies systematically from day to day and to which extent fluctuations at faster timescales (i.e., occasions,…

Complex problem solving (CPS) as a cross-curricular competence has recently attracted more attention in educational psychology as indicated by its implementation in international educational large-scale assessments such as the Programme for International Student Assessment. However, research on the development of CPS is scarce, and the few…

Chicano mothers were observed teaching their own five-year-old children. Field-independent mothers used inquiry and praise; field-dependent mothers used modeling. Trends suggest that the teaching strategies to which the child is exposed may influence which cognitive style the child develops. (Author/CP)

Six hundred boys divided by age (6-8), race (black and white) and social class (middle and lower) were given tests for memory, intelligence, learning, and transfer. Findings indicated social class differences on learning and intelligence tests, with racial differences on intelligence, digit span, and paired-associate learning. (Author/MV)

Using a simple structure factor analysis of test data of 144 fourth grade children in Norway, second order factors interpreted to represent Broad Visualization, Speediness, Fluid, and Crystallized intelligence intercorrelated substantially, the correlation between Fluid and Crystallized intelligence being the highest. (Author/BW)

Children's metacognitive awareness of variables (such as person, task, goals, and strategy) that influence reading was assessed with an interview. Second graders were aware of some reading dimensions but were less sensitive to semantic structure than sixth graders. Relations among instruction, metacognitive development, and reading proficiency are…

Kindergarten children were administered a paired-associate learning task at the beginning and end of the school-year, under either regular (control) or self-generated visual imagery instructions. Age predicted performance in the imagery but not in the control condition. Results supported the developmental imagery hypothesis. (Author/RD)

Using a microcomputer "dart" game, this study of 61 primary school students investigated how children of different ages used counting to make numerical estimates. Results showed developmental differences in accuracy of estimation, fluency in counting and sophistication of self-reported strategy use. (BS)

Major purpose of this experiment was to test a notion suggested by Gagne that operations, as described by Piaget, are more dependent on learning than on development. It was concluded that the results supported Gagne's cumulative learning model rather than the notion that operations are primarily dependent upon maturation. (Authors/CB)

Contrary to assumptions about aversive effects of competition on achievement motivation, in this study young people saw academic contests as fair. When participants completed structural interviews on fair ways to organize science contests and on differentiation of skill and luck, age-related trends in their conceptions of procedural justice were…

Six-and eight-year olds were exposed to a modeling sequence for cluster rule learning under high, medium, and low degrees of structure. Age differences in vicarious learning emerged only in the medium structure condition, while immediately imitating a model failed to influence learning for either age group. (Author/CP)

A standardized open-ended interview was used to study how children, four to eight years of age, judge their own and their classmates' abilities. Self-ratings declined with grade, but peer ratings did not. Evaluation differences are discussed in terms of cognitive development and changes in the educational environment. (BS)

The confluence model of cognitive development was tested on 7,060 children. Family size, sibling order within family sizes, and hypothesized age-dependent effects were tested. Findings indicated an inverse relationship between family size and the cognitive measures; age-dependent effects and other confluence variables were found to be…

This paper proposes a method to measure and understand prereader listening comprehension skills. The listening span test taxes storage and processing functions of working memory. Used in two experiments with 44 preschoolers, this test had greater predictive and theoretical value than both the traditional word span measure and the age variable.…